Don't Stop Believing: The Shocking Future of Event Tech!

>> All right. >> Hello everyone. As the band Journey famously belted out in my walkout song, Don't Stop Believing. And that's going to be my ask of you for the next 45 minutes and beyond as we take a look at the future of event technology, the next act. My name is Brian Loig. I'm executive vice president at Cvent. It's my honor to speak to you today on this topic. But in order to look into the future, let's first take a look to the past in a section I'm calling remember when. Do you remember when collecting leads at a booth looked like this? Many of us are chuckling because we still see this from time to time, don't we? Or what about when a badge had a name that was too formal? We'd see Nicole crossed out with a handwritten Nikki. Or when conversations on the trade show floor happened more serendipitously before there was matchmaking and pres-scheduled appointments, right? Or what about when there was a last second uh schedule change, right? Guy in a bullhorn. Remember event apps back in the 70s? Yeah, me neither. The event app was a large printed event guide, right? What about when we used to track uh attendance with a manual clicker? Some of you might even have something like that still to this day. And of course, we all remember having AI powered assistants back in the 70s, too. Well, those assistants were human interns. And if powered by AI, perhaps it would be Alan Iverson and Amy Irving.

All right. Well, the way things were in the 70s are long gone. And events of today look nothing like what we just saw. So if there's been this much change in the last 50 years, just imagine the fast pace of change that we might see in the next 50 years. And frankly, we don't need to wait 50 years to see massive innovation come into the world and specifically into the world of events. We will see huge progress even in the next five to 15 years. And that's predominantly what I'm going to focus on today, the more immediate future of event tech. And I've broken it up into six categories. We're going to start with attendee tech. Then I'm going to get into session and speaker tech, exhibitor tech, transportation, green tech, and then I'm going to close it out with cool things happening with venues. So, let's go ahead and start with

attendee tech, the smart tech that headlines the attendee experience. We're going to ease into this. I'm going to show you a lot of videos. They're going to come fast and furious. You're going to see maybe 40 videos. Boom, boom, boom. So, I'm going to go with something really easy to start, right? What if a tech travel hoodie becomes the standard? Making your attendees more tech enabled and savvy during your conference. And perhaps it would lead to an audience dressed even more casually than they already are today. >> Hate carrying bulky backpacks or bags while traveling? The Nomade hoodie has 28 pockets and 58 [snorts] features, letting you carry essentials securely and accessibly. Waterproof, breathable, and comfortable. It works like a wearable travel bag disguised as clothing. Hidden compartment, store phones, passports, power banks, and other essentials safely. >> Okay, imagine your attendees carrying one device to a conference that can do it all for them, like taking notes in a traditional way or leveraging a bigger screen later when they need to take a Zoom call during a break. Check this out. >> So, we have a keyboard which comes off and this is now a touch screen digital keyboard. And if you want, you can swipe. That's now basically a Windows. I'm going to swipe back. But it gets better because I can open this up. Go to the back. Take this out like that. Put this here. And now I have basically a computer. I mean, this is crazy. Come on. You just put this back that back back and if I want to just use it like a normal laptop. >> All right, that's totally believable. So, I'm going to ease into this. We will see stuff like that. Many of you will be carrying devices that are far more powerful than your laptops or iPads today. This now we're going to get a little crazier. Imagine a bendable phone wrapped around an attendees wrist. Their agenda, their badge, maps, session alerts, networking prompts, live translation, all in one glancable device. While this may lead you to believe that attendee would be more distracted, I think it's the opposite. And they could actually be more present with access to information so quickly. Scope it out. Motorola has created a smartphone with a fully flexible OLED display that you can literally bend and reshape however you want. Wrap it around your wrist like a futuristic smartwatch bracelet, fold it into a stand for hands-free video calls, or keep it flat like a normal phone. The practical applications are genuinely useful, not just gimmicky. >> We all know about AR glasses, but to

date, they've barely been adopted. Does anyone in the room have AR glasses on right now? no hands, right? In part because they've historically looked ridiculous, but also because they can only do so much. Well, that's all changing. And AR glasses are going to become a standard at conferences. >> Well, these are the first full holographic augmented reality glasses, I think, that exist in the world. Glasses, not a headset, but glasses that can put full holograms into the world. with a wide field of view. If you look at like the grand arc of computing over time, you've you've gone from like mainframes to um computers that basically like live on, you know, your desk or on a tower to phones that you have in your hand that you basically like, you know, can take with you everywhere that you want. But it's it's pretty unnatural, right? It takes you away from the world around you. And um I think that the trend in computing is it gets more ubiquitous. it gets more natural um and it just gets more social, right? So, you want to be able to interact with people in the world around you. And I I think that this is probably going to be the next major platform after phones. Yeah, I love that last line from Zuckerberg there where he's saying you want to be able to interact with the world around you. That's when you know tech has nailed it. When it can foster deeper engagement versus detract from it, that's what we need in the world of events. Having said that, do you need to buy a meta pair of glasses to enjoy augmented reality? What if you could make any pair of glasses smart? This next concept may be the trigger for this to really start taking off. >> So, this is Magetique, a company that can make any pair of glasses smart glasses. >> Right here, this is the entire It tracks your eyesight. Right now, he's currently watching a basketball game. Just by looking at a specific player, it's able to tell you the player's name, the stats, all the information that you want to find out about it. >> The way it works, you said it's compatible with any number of different companies, >> any smart device, >> This is just so you can have the home so you can understand more, so you could search up whatever that you want to learn about it within the comforts of just your eyeear. >> Now, that still looks pretty silly, but imagine when that gets even smaller. So, it's going to happen. Here is a brand new take on smart glasses that can really change up an attendees experience. Imagine AI glasses that focus on what glasses actually do best, helping you see. These AI powered glasses auto adjust and calibrate the lenses for clear vision. Check it out. >> Doubt that your glasses can answer calls, translate conversations, and auto adjust your prescription? Watch this. Introducing Smart Vision. It's not just a handsome titanium TR90 frame. It is a piece of technology that autoc calibrates your lenses in real time. Imagine putting on your glasses and the AI instantly adjusting the focus for close-up reading or for the horizon, correcting your vision without you lifting a finger. Blurry vision sorted in seconds. >> Accessibility is important. Many folks

probably avoid your conference maybe because traversing the show floor is too difficult for them until now. >> You can get a strut. This thing is intense. It has LAR and avoids hitting people, even though I tried multiple times on the show floor. Plus, it's been updated to know the difference between feet and thresholds, so you can go over bumps, but not smash your friend's toes. What I'm about to show you requires an open mind, literally and figuratively. Imagine attendee asking a question at the end of a session without speaking or typing or getting details about an element of an event without typing in a physical prompt or taking a note on something that they heard or loved without typing it down or hitting a button. This could yield to seamless, accessible, and personalized event experiences of the future. Just going to see if that awesome. awesome. >> So, if the last concept was too far-fetched, perhaps you could buy the following smart mic concept as a new way for attendees to take notes. For planners, it can mean faster content capture for recaps, testimonials, social clips, postevent highlights. And this all hints to a future where the badge is maybe not just identification but a media networking and personalization device as well. The Cammonic Blink MiB2 is a revolutionary twoperson clip-on smart wireless microphone system that transfers highquality audio to 3.5 mm and USBC cameras, cell phones, laptops, recorders, mixers, and other devices. It is portable and not only produces superior sound but also acts as a platform for producers to express their own personality. Okay, this next concept of live transcriptions and AI summaries is here now through many vendors but will it become more pervasive? Like today Cvent provides AI summaries of speeches and Cvent will bring AI summaries to conversations that are happening at the booth. But I also expect to see attendees leveraging their own tech to capture conversations anywhere and everywhere at events. Now, this freaks a bunch of people out, but there's also a lot of value in being able to get summaries of your entire day, especially when you've elected to spend three, four days out of your office out in the field at a conference. Check it out. Introducing Plaude Note Pro, the world's most advanced AI noteaker. With smart dual mode recording and multimodal input, it captures what you hear, say, see, and even think [music] in every conversation, all in one seamless flow. Choose from over 2,000 professional templates. Multi-dimensional summaries help you extract what matters and boost productivity. Ask, plot, and turn conversations into insights instantly. This is more than just note takingaking. >> Of course, a lot of people are already doing this, but the question is, how pervasive will it become? All right, let's go ahead and take a look at a next

section, session and speaker tech, where every session hits the right note. Hopefully, you're following the Nashville that I'm doing here. So, I've covered holograms in this presentation in the past, but this next idea that I'm going to share strikes me as a little bit different. What I'm about to show you is the concept of 3D images and hologram like content from a generic screen. What a potential way to upgrade any and every keynote or breakout session. Owl 3D shift. Most monitors show you exactly what's on the screen. Flat, predictable, nothing surprising. But this next display tries to turn any normal desktop into something that feels closer to a hologram without needing glasses or a VR headset. A built-in camera tracks your movement in real time. So, the effect stays locked even when you lean closer or move sideways, making the content look like it's floating inside the screen. The panel runs at 4K resolution in 2D with around 2K per eye in 3D mode, reaching high brightness and wide color coverage. Speakers on webinars are generally seated, and that's pretty boring. This is seldom the case at in-person events, right? Unless it's like an interview or a panel. Why is this? cuz a speaker needs to stay stationary in front of a camera, whereas on stage I can move around. Well, not anymore. >> Gadget number 10, Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 7 Auto Twist. Here's the problem this laptop solves. You're on a video call. You stand up, your face disappears from frame. You have to physically move the laptop. That's it. That's the whole problem. The Auto Twist has a motorized hinge and AI face tracking. As you move, the screen follows automatically without touching anything. Knock on the lid, it opens. Tell it to switch modes, it reconfigures itself. [snorts] [snorts] >> Today, to get into a conference using

Cvent, we leverage what you could do a QR code, you could use Apple Wallet, you could type in a name and email combo, and we could even use the face through an integration we have with Wicket. Those are pretty good options. But if there's something, is there something even better and more frictionless, more secure, and more sanitary? Check out Amazon 1. Amazon One. Amazon's ready to capture your innocent palm print and store it in their vast database. This is Amazon 1, and it is a free identity service that lets you pay, enter a concert, and identify yourself. You're in control of how you use your palm. You have to intentionally scan your palm and no two palms are alike. You can't accidentally get confused with someone else's palm and it's contactless. You never have to worry about touching anything that hundreds of other sweaty palmed folks have laid their grubby mitts on. All right, so we've all seen that, but we haven't seen it yet at conferences. Videos shown in presentations by many speakers are often pretty lame. Obviously, not today, not this presentation, but um promotional videos before an event can draw registrations, and those are boring, too. And I'm not sure why, because there's a greater library than ever of dramatic aerial video footage generated by dr dr dr dr drones, right? And because this is becoming so ubiquitous, content creators and speakers could, if they wanted, generate their own drone footage for their next speech that could look something like this with their own device. right, let's pivot to exhibitor tech where you get a backstage pass to exhibitor ROI. Power at events, it's

always a problem for attendees. We are struggling to keep our phone juiced up. But what about electrical drops that we have to put at 50 doorways at a 100 booths? It presents a big set of challenges. Well, what if power could be supplied remotely? Here we're going to see an example of an electronic lock getting powered remotely. But imagine if this were to take off and we could power everything remotely. >> They're updating their highly rated Veno Pro to charge wirelessly. It uses this device to charge the door lock. Just plug it into the wall and it beams infrared light up to 4 meters. This keeps the lock topped up on battery so it will never run out. They had it pretty far away and it was still able to charge it. Amazing booth setup. For anyone that's set up a booth before, it's a it could be a real if I'm being blunt. It's a time burden. It's a shipping cost burden. What if one day a booth were able to just pop up? So, this next thing I'm going to show you is not really technology, per se, but still pretty cool. >> This company built a smart portable retail cabinet business. These foldable cabinets open in seconds and create an instant selling setup anywhere. Perfect for pop-up shops, street sales, and temporary events. A simple idea turning mobility into a scalable retail opportunity. >> What I'm about to show you next is sort of primitive, but imagine a world in which signage and information doesn't need screens, right? rather information is hovering above real world spaces around the world including say a trade show floor where it could be really helpful for me to see as an attendee I could ingest information in a busy space about the booth that's in front of me. >> If you grew up dreaming of those holograms from Star Wars, the Holeneo wants to put one right on your desk. But it isn't just a cool toy. It acts as a futuristic headsup display for your actual work. And instead of a flat screen, it uses a special optical plate to make images so you can keep your stock tickers, weather, a pomodoro timer, or chat GPT answers hovering right in front of you. You can control it with hand gestures, waving to dismiss notifications, or spinning your finger to adjust the volume. >> So, check out this AI sculpture concept that I think could become commonplace at a booth. It would be a reliable, always on booth staff that could provide insights and answer questions in a super cool form factor. Check it out. >> No screens, no headset, just a living sculpture. It's called Hollow Sculpture and it's being called the world's first living AI sculpture. Built by Turbulence Lab and designer Hamza Kerbos, it merges art, sound, and artificial intelligence inside one physical object. You speak and it answers. Your tone changes and its visuals shift like a heartbeat of light. It doesn't just look alive, it feels alive. Three AI personalities live inside it, each with its own mood, voice, and rhythm. This isn't a hologram, it's a 4D anamorphic illusion. This next concept I'm going to show you is anti-exhibitor. Actually, it's anti-brand advertising in general. What if AI or AR AR glasses include a no ad mode so that you're not subjected to any ads anywhere? Right? We block spam emails. We use our DVR to fast forward through commercials. So, this is not all that far-fetched for there to be a way for people to do the same thing in the real world.

All right, our next section is transport. how to get from hockey tonk to the main stage. Actually, in this case, it appears the tour bus is going in the wrong direction from Nashville, and it looks like it's on a highway or on a road that's cutting across the highway. So, sometimes AI does not always nail it. All right, let's talk about autonomous driving. In the center, we've got Whimo. I was in San Francisco a couple weeks back. I saw hundreds over a couple days. On the right, we've got a similar concept called Zuks. It's by Amazon. it could hold a few more people. And uh on the left we've got uh uh robo taxi, Tesla, and this is going to be rolled out soon. And this is all before we even contemplate what Uber is going to do here. So the point is in the notsodistant future, your event attendees are all going to be taking a driverless taxi from the airport to your venue. Now, these autonomous vehicles um solve many problems, but they don't solve for traffic, right? enter in the electric vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft, also called an EV toll. This one here is called Air1 and you could actually buy it for 150K. This is the Air1, a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. Everything is foldable here, the arms, the wings, two motors per corner. You have a ballistic parachute for in case of complete loss of power. Climbing in is as easy as climbing into your sports car. You just pop in, close the canopy, and take off. Taking off takes somewhere in around 8 to 10 seconds. You're in the sky. Uh, very easy to use. Uh, multimedia screens all around you. Very spacious, two people, luggage at the back. Very, very cool aircraft as you can see. Now, far more likely than all of us steering ourselves in the sky, although that may happen, but far more likely is a taxi service leveraging the same tech. And this is already happening in China. In the notsodistant future, this is going to be everywhere. >> Autoflight air taxi is a big step forward in electric air travel. Built in Shanghai, this EV aircraft called Prosperity can carry up to five people and blends vertical takeoff with smooth wing flight for clean zero emission journeys. It can travel around 200 km at speeds close to 200 km per hour, making city-tocity trips fast and efficient. Designed for passengers, deliveries, and emergency use, it shows how air taxis are quickly becoming a real everyday way to travel. >> All right, check out this very innovative idea that combines the speed of a train with the mobility of a bus all in one vehicle. In 2021, they created the latest innovation called the dual mode vehicle or DMV. A bus-shaped public transportation vehicle that can run on highways with its rubber wheels and on tracks with steel wheels that can be lowered like a train. Designed to improve connectivity in remote areas, this technology is less expensive than building new rail lines. And its advantage lies in its flexibility, combining the speed of a train with the mobility of a bus. All right, our next section is green

tech where sustainability takes center stage. The world of events requires a lot of power to run. There are sustainable power sources, right, that are becoming more and more prevalent like solar, like wind. But here's something not yet common place, but sounds reliable in my opinion as a new energy source. And it's called core power ocean. Core Power Ocean is turning the constant motion of ocean waves into clean renewable energy in a smart and efficient way. Inspired by the natural pumping action of the human heart, this technology captures more power from regular waves while automatically adjusting itself to stay safe during storms. Recently tested in Portugal, its C4 device has already been connected to the power grid, proving that wave energy can work in the real world. >> How many of you all like avocados? Okay, good number. You'll be pleased to learn that one day they may also serve a sustainable purpose when your attendees are using utensils made from the pits. Last year, Americans consumed more than 6 billion avocados and that produces a lot of inedible waste. Now, a company has developed a process to transform avocado pits into plastic. Bioplastics like these could help reduce pollution because they break down faster and use less fossil fuels. The process starts with avocado seeds that have been washed at the supplying factory. As the seed is going through the machine, it's turned into a bioplastic resin that's ready to withstand a lot of heat. What comes out the other end is a malleable sheet that can be molded and cut into different shapes. I could have put this next concept that I'm about to share in the transport section or here in the green tech section. I chose to put it here because we're looking at an EV that runs on solar and can replenish a charge without plugging in. If vehicles like this Aera solar EV become commonplace, it's going to vanquish range anxiety once and for all. Aera solar EV is changing the game with its solar powered ultraerodynamic design. It features built-in solar panels producing around 700 watts, which can add up to about 40 m of driving range per day just from sunlight. Thanks to its sleek, low drag shape, it can reach up to 400 m on a single charge. It's not just efficient, it's quick, too, hitting a top speed of around 101 mph and going from 0 to 60 mph in under 6 seconds. >> This next concept I'm going to show showcases a use in sort of a residential scenario. So the commercial version of this if it was to come out would look very different. But the concept is this. What if surfaces of building exteriors were solar like all of them and thereby power the entire hotel or the entire convention center? Bottom line, solar will become more and more ubiquitous and can power our events. What if your fence could pay your electricity bill? Sun Booster Vertical turns ordinary doublewire mesh fences into bfacial solar power plants. Instead of mounting panels on rooftops or taking up yard space, this system threads thin, flexible photovoltaic strips directly through existing fence panels, transforming privacy barriers into energy generators. Each strip is just 1.8 mm thick, IP67 weatherproof, and built with 22.8% efficient monoristalline bfacial cells. That means it captures sunlight from both sides, direct light in the morning and evening, and reflected light from the ground throughout the day. >> And now our last section, venues, where great events find their perfect stage. So, let's get into it. One day, hotels

and convention centers are going to be equipped with AI and robotics to swiftly automate food prep for thousands. What if your next chef wasn't human, didn't get tired, and followed recipes with robotic precision? Lifo cooking robot AI in your kitchen. Lifo isn't just a fancy food processor. It's positioned as a fully automated cooking robot powered by an AI platform called Robo Magister. The idea, you load the ingredients, select a recipe, and the robot handles measuring, stirring, heating, and timing with minimal intervention. Venues often look look the same. Let's face it. Most hotels and convention centers, you know, like the one we're in, although it is amazing, they offer similar experiences. Organizers are striving to offer something memorable. Last year, I showed events happening in outer space. And perhaps that was a step too far. But what if we went in the other direction? Not up, but down. robots like this matra robot I'm about to show you. It's they're going to become common place. I mean this we all know is going to happen in lobbies of hotels and certainly on event floors. This is Matra D. Matra is part of our autonomous mobile robot lineup. Matra and Titan serve the purpose of delivering objects as small as plates and as large as car engines. So they keep the business running, going back and forth across buildings all day, navigating safely around objects, watching out for cars, things like that. And their job really is to keep the business running so that the humans can focus on more important tasks. >> Yeah. And we're all starting to see this, but not really at conferences all that much yet. Pods and quiet spaces on a show floor have become commonplace, like we have some here at CB Connect if you haven't seen them. But what about an AI sensory lab? Check out this new take on getting away from it all during a loud and hectic conference. First, they had this wild setup called the AI sensory lab. Walking into this room was like stepping into a house from the future. one where the AI is built right into everything. You just tell it a place or a mood you want to feel like a beach resort or a cozy cabin and the whole room just starts adjusting to match what you chosen. This includes the temperature, humidity, lighting, even the airflow changes to recreate the vibe that you chose. Imagine all glass surfaces at a venue being easily retrofit to become digital walls. The possibilities with this one I think are really super cool. >> Under glass it becomes a display. A film is a display screen. The effect is quite cool. The first step is alignment. The second step is to scrape the screen. A soft film is [music] a display screen. It can be connected to mobile phones and computers. What if venues, homes, roads, they were all connected in what is called a woven city? This video I'm about to show, it's going to look and sound outlandish and impossible, but it's happening. New cities of tomorrow are going to look nothing like the cities we live in today. Perhaps new interconnected complexes of venue space, hotels, food, and retail are going to spring up for the express purpose of holding large and efficient events. Check this out. Toyota's building a secret city at the base of Mount Fuji. But it's not just any city. It's a living, breathing smart city with companionship robots, drones to escort you home at night, and flying cars so you can skip traffic. But the craziest part is the road system. One for autonomous vehicles, one for personal mobility like ebikes and scooters, and one walkable pathway for humans. And these three road types are interwoven throughout the city, which is why they are calling it the woven city. But this is only one phase of a bigger picture, cuz there's also an underground AI logistics network, where autonomous robots deliver goods, manage waste, and keep the surface as uncluttered as possible. So instead of Amazon pulling up to the front of your house, underground robots deliver goods through tunnels that connect to your home through pressurized tubes. Because Toyota's dream is to build a fully interconnected city and use this prototype as a way to test new technology at scale. But the Woven City is no longer just an idea because it broke ground in 2021 and is set to officially launch in fall of 2025. >> All right, let's do a quick poll. So, if

everyone could pull out your phone, open up this session, tap into the poll. All right. So, here are six concepts that I shared. You know, obviously I shared a lot more than six, but these are six that I personally like a lot because they're extremely evolutionary or because I think the impact on the world of events could be pretty massive. So, now you get to choose. So, you tap on the poll and basically which of these concepts are you most excited for? AR glasses with holograms like in the view where thinking which was crazy turns into text or command. The palm based check-in that we saw from Amazon one becoming a part of everyday conferences. The drone taxi service which I think has a real shot. How about the one where glass became digital walls with that retrofit kind of like LED screen or the woven city that we just saw at the end where food deliveries are all connected in one city built for that purpose. So hopefully you all found it. Let's see what we got. So that's interesting. Not much love for AR glasses. I'm surprised. And we're seeing a tight race between glass on the digital walls and the woven city. I'll give you all one more second to respond. See if we have a clear winner. And it looks like it is e the glass that becomes the digital walls, right? I mean, that could completely transform a space. And it seems like it should be a low cost and low uh implementation if if you really think about it. All right.

I'm excited to see all of us, especially with that answer, embrace technology of the future. But let's take a quick history lesson. I want to review five cautionary tales in which companies didn't make proper decisions about technology. So let's start with Blockbuster. We all know what happened here, right? They were founded in 1985. They grew to the peak of 9,000 stores worldwide. In 97, a young upandcomer came onto the scene with a whole different approach. In 2000, Netflix offered to actually sell itself to Blockbuster for $50 million. Blockbusters leadership literally laughed them out of the room. Then in 2004, 2005, at the time, Blockbuster was dominating video rentals. They dismissed online streaming and subscription models. But in response to pressures, they adjusted their model to include what was called total access, a mail-in and store hybrid model. And they dropped unpopular late fees. But bottom line, it didn't work. Netflix leaned in to streaming fully and Blockbuster was sticking with the stores. Enter in 2010, they filed for bankruptcy. Netflix is now worth $300 billion. So what's the lesson? New models can disrupt even big businesses at scale. So we need to think about that as we organize and manage events, conferences. All right. Next, Kodak. Not surprising. They invented the future, then ignored it. They invented the first digital camera in 1975. It looked like this. The problem, they buried it. The execs feared that the digital photography line would kill their wildly profitable film business. So, they chose to protect the old model rather than lead the new one. Meanwhile, competitors and eventually all of our smartphones embraced digital. By the time Kodak tried to pivot, it was too late. They filed for bankruptcy in 2012. What's the lesson? If you don't disrupt yourself, someone else will. We all know Sears. They had strong brand trust and national distribution. They were a massive online, excuse me, not online, they were a mail order catalog. They were basically early e-commerce and they were perfectly positioned to dominate online retail. But they underinvested in digital. They focused on cutting costs instead of innovating. They let Amazon take the space they pioneered and ultimately they filed for bankruptcy in 2018. Lesson: Having the ingredients for innovation means nothing if you don't act on it. Noia in the early 2000s they controlled over 40% of the global phone market. But when the iPhone and Android arrived, we all know what happened. I I survived concrete without A DAMN CASE. MY BATTERY LASTED A WHOLE WEEK. CONGRATS. You could text and play snake. >> At least I didn't shatter from a sneeze. You need armor just to survive a pocket. And yet I ran their entire life. Grandpa Nokia saw smartphones coming. They didn't just pivot fast enough. They clung to their outdated Symbian OS. And that couldn't work on touchcreens. So they failed to build a modern app ecosystem, too. Their phone business was sold to Microsoft in 2014. The lesson market leaders can collapse quickly if they underestimate a platform shift which was you know touching the screen. All right, let's pivot to the events industry. We all know what happened in March 2020. What do all of these events have in common? They were all cancelled. These are big-time events that got cancelled due to the pandemic. And you're thinking, "Yeah, whatever, Brian. All events got cancelled." No. No. A ton pivoted to virtual and those did not and it set them back. What's our lesson? Be nimble and tech forward even in times of adversity. So, what have we learned? That the

future doesn't wait and neither should we. We need to embrace technology, embrace innovation, embrace the future, and never lose sight of the power of bringing people together. And as we see in this image, maybe even embrace each other. The future is going to move quickly, faster than any of us could probably predict. But I believe something even more powerful is going to happen alongside it. As technology makes events smarter, our creativity will make them more meaningful. I'm convinced that events won't just support brands and communities, they're going to become one of the most powerful forces for building them. So, let's together show the world what events can do. And with that, we have 7 minutes

left. I'm shocked that I got through all of that with 7 minutes left. So, some of you may have been using the Q&A section of the app, but if you haven't and have a question, by all means, go ahead and pop it in there right now and we'll see what we got. So, we already have one. If we were attending Cvent Connect in 2030, what would surprise us most about how events are planned and experienced compared to today? Hm. I think we obviously look, we need to drink our own champagne. we uh are doing an event for event and conference and marketers and organizers. It's uh it's important that we lean tech forward. We try um many of the things are partners and folks that build technology. So we should deploy tech in a smart and enabled way and of course there are things that we should build. So we do believe that's a combination at Cvent. We're going to build things. We're obviously making heavy heavy investments in AI. I bet we'll do something around wayfinding. I bet we'll do some things to leverage AR uh augmented reality. I'm hoping. I think that we're going to do some things around um smarter recommendations to who to meet with sessions to go to. We're doing some of that now. It's going to get even more informed and smarter and more powerful with time and more data because data is everything in offering a personalized experience. And I think um we're going to continue to offer tools that help organizers get events built. So like when we build the Cvent Connect tech ecosystem for 2030, our team of planners aren't going to have to spend the same amount of time in putting it together. What emerging technology do you think will have a bigger impact than AI on the meetings industry over the next 5 years? Um nothing. That will be number one. You'll notice today I didn't go super super heavy on AI because every other session that you're at here at Cant Connect and probably anywhere you go is about AI. So I wanted to focus on a lot of kind of cool and different ideas to really expand our thinking. But without question, AI is going to be the driver of change in our industry and how we all work day-to-day and maybe even more importantly, how our attendees experience the event and how they can really get the most out of that two or three or four day conference by leveraging AI to tailor that experience and personalize it for them. How can we prioritize which emerging event texts to pilot first across attendee, speaker, exhibitor, venue, transport, and sustainability? Good question. I don't think there's a an easy answer for this because every organization is different and you should not implement technology just for the sake of implementing technology. You have to choose what makes sense for your business or brand or association or nonprofit or whatever you're doing. What makes sense for you and your audience. If you, you know, jack up your event with a ton of tech just because you feel like it's the right thing to do, but it's not adding value, it could actually detract from the experience. So, I think it's important to choose smartly amongst your teams what you think will actually have an impact and what will drive uh the experience for both you and the attendees. What mistakes should we avoid when introducing new event tech so we don't move too slowly? Well, I think I think part of it is um understanding your attendees. So, how do we get insights from them? We ask them is shocking to me how many people do not collect feedback data. In the future, maybe we'll be able to do it by looking at your face. We'll be able to tell how many people are liking this session versus like finish up Brian, right? So, we can get feedback with AI, but what about feedback just by a survey? And so many people I speak to go, I can't get survey data. No one fills it out. That's on your speakers and that's on your technology, right? I could, and I'm not going to do this to you all right now, be like, "Okay, it's time for everyone to take a survey. Can everyone take their phone out?" And like literally watch you all. Yeah, sir. Could you grab your phone? I really would love for you to give feedback. Like you have to encourage feedback because it is so valuable. And that to me is everything on where do you make investments in your programming, in your collaboration and networking that you offer. Because think about it, people go to events for two reasons. They want content, education, and they want the networking, the collaboration, the experience. Which one's more important for your audience? You probably know. But when you drill in and go a layer deeper and you understand what they're really trying to get out of your event, and then when you think about what are you trying to get as an end result, what's the outcome and the performance that you're looking at from your events, that helps guide the technology that's going to make sense to help you take your events to the next level. Well, you guys have been a great audience. Thank you so much. You have a lot you can do here at CE Connect. You join me for this last 45 minutes. It means a lot to me. Enjoy the rest of the show.