HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT VOK DAMS.Consulting GmbH Corporate Live-Communication VOK DAMS Institute for Live-Marketing Platzhoffstraße 24 42115 Wuppertal Germany Phone: +49 202 38 907-402 Fax: +49 202 38 907-499 [email protected] WHITEPAPER www.vokdams-consulting.de HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT “The beST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT.” WILLY BRANDT (FORMER GERMAN CHANCELLor) 2 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT CONTENT _ABSTRACt 4 _ PART 1: WHY THINK OF TOMORROW? 5 _NEXT STOP: THE FUTURE! 6 _EVENT MARKETING BETWEEN Two GENERATIONS. 7 _ PART 2: EVENT CONCEPTS 3.0 12 _ LET THE GAMES BEGIN! GAMIFICATION 13 AND ALTERNATE REALITY _COLLABORATION 3.0: SMART NETwoRks 16 foR MORE INTERACTION AND TEAmwoRK. _ PART 3: ALL OPTIONS, NO MUSTS. 20 NEW TECHNologIES UNDER SCRUTINY. _NUMBER 5 IS ALIVE! – ROBOTICS AND VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS. 21 _BRAND EXPERIENCE PLUS: EVENT MARKETING AND 25 THE THIRD DIMENSION. _How DOES COMMUNICATION AFFECT PEOPLe – 27 AND WHY? FUTURE EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT IN COMMUNICATION. _ PART 4: “WHAT’s nexT?” – 32 THE TOP THEMES OF THE FUTURE IN A NUTSHELL. _CONTACt 35 3 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT ABSTRACT This Hybrid Events: Future Report How information and knowledge is wants to question and to explain in passed on at events will also change what way current developments and massively in future. Infotainment – trends influence and form the requi- merging information and entertain- rements of and demands on marke- ment – will be even more strongly ting events and how they will affect shaped by collaboration and team- event design in future. work. The concept of smart networks explains how participants and orga- The youth of today are the event nizers alike are able to benefit from participants of tomorrow. Already this change by building up intelligent today companies have to gradually information networks. adjust their event concepts and stra- tegies to this younger target group, On a technological level this Future the so-called digital natives, in order Report shows how virtual assistant to facilitate the imminent generational systems and, possibly a little later, change. humanoid robots can contribute to turning an event into an individual, Hybrid events, i.e. live-marketing plus personalized occasion for each MoSoLo (mobile applications, social participant in future. media, location-based services) are not a short-lived trend, but will decisi- Also, the application of 3D technolo- vely shape live-communication in gies allows for several exciting options future. Event organizers thus should for live-communication. This Future not shirk from introducing their parti- Report introduces modern projection cipants early on to new functions and technologies and describes how a possibilities. They should also directly virtual scope is transformed into a work towards the older target groups realistic environment by using visual, accepting these new options and haptic and acoustic elements. awaken their interest for them. Finally, we examine how the trend This Future Report looks at some topic measuring effectiveness in future event concepts in depth. It events will be substantially changed in shows how modern game tactics can future by utilizing social media moni- be applied to events and examines in toring, smart networks, smartphones detail how gamification influences the and tablet PCs. A forecast of the future communication process and how rounds off and summarizes this alternate reality games – in which the whitepaper. participants actively delve into a staged story over a long period of Enjoy reading! time – shape the event design of the future. 4 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT PaRT1: WHY THINK OF TOMORROW? » Companies can gain a lot more target group attention by utilizing game strategies and they also gain more time to playfully convey brand- and product-related content. 5 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT PaRT 1: WHY THINK OF TOMORROW? Next stop: the future! companies that specialized in soft- ware, Internet and communication Our world is in a transitional phase. technologies. The fact that the sup- The new communication formats porting program Research and and technologies of the web 2.0 have Development of the European Union not only changed the perception and envisages that a further 9 billion Euro usage of the Internet, but have also are going to be invested into sup- profoundly changed life in general. porting IT and communication tech- They have deeply impacted the way nologies goes to show the signifi- we communicate, our economic cance attributed to innovations in this activity and also the way products technological field.3) and services are advertised. As the Internet has established itself The digitally-connected Generation Y across the generations, more than is gradually replacing the last analog 20% of all (gross) advertising expen- generation of the over-30s, the new diture is spent on online advertising. “inhabitants” –the digital natives – The online growth rates here go into supersede the “digital immigrants”. double figures.4) Those who formerly were mere As far as those responsible for ma- recipients of messages have now nagement, marketing and sales are evolved into participating communi- concerned, new technologies such as cators; the formerly “quiet” consu- mobile apps and cloud services, mers have now turned into active, social networks and virtual consul- producing prosumers. tants or concierges are ideally suited to develop new markets and increa- The former mass media such as se sales.5) newspapers and television are now an endangered species, while former 1) German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, cf. http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Publikationen/technologie-und- fringe-technology has turned into innovationspolitik,property=pdf,bereich=bmwi2012,sprache=de,rwb=true.pdf mass media. So what is going to 2) Source: Annual Review 2011 of German Patent and Trademark Office DPMA cf. http:// happen next? www.dpma.de/docs/service/veroeffentlichungen/jahresberichte/jahresbericht2011_ nichtbarrierefrei.pdf More than 110.000 innovative com- 3) 3) German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, cf. http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Publikationen/technologie-und- panies regularly launch new pro- innovationspolitik,property=pdf,bereich=bmwi2012,sprache=de,rwb=true.pdf 1) ducts. In Germany alone, for ex- 4) OVK Online Report 01/2012 cf. ample 60.000 patents were http://bvdw.org/fileadmin/bvdw-shop/ovk_report2012_1.pdf 2) registered in 2011. In the past five 5) Vgl. „Service in Echtzeit“ – Neue Technologien ver- years, approximately 40 million Euro sprechen Erfolg“ unter http://www.marketing-boerse.de/News/details/1233- %84Service-in-Echtzeit%93-%96- went into the promotion of young Neue-Technologien-versprechen-Erfolg 6 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT PaRT 1: WHY THINK OF TOMORROW? This Future Report wants to ques- challenges regularly posed to tion and to explain what effects event marketing and also exami- these current developments and nes how the application of new trends have on the requirements technologies can and will have to and design of marketing events. contribute to live-communication What are the hybrid events going in future. to look like in the near future? The digital natives. Which trends will pass, which will surpass in the long-term? What The adolescents and young adults are truly innovative currents in born after 1980 are nowadays called live-communication? How does digital natives or Generation Y. event marketing have to adjust itself to people’s new needs and expectations? DIGITAL NATIVES AND DIGITAL IMMIGRAnts – Although this Future Report can- WHAT-iF SCENArios … not give any final answers to these questions, it can, nevertheless, on the one hand, critically analyze and assess technologies, trends and visions, and, on the other hand, examine requirements, critical voices and challenges. All these allow sketching future hyb- rid event strategies already today. Event marketing between two generations. Before the next chapter examines Sources: the conceptual and technological http://adsoftheworld.com/ media/print/maximidia_semi- future of live-communication, this nars_vintage_youtube?size=_ Future Report first looks into the original basic structure of needs of two http://adsoftheworld.com/ media/print/maximidia_semi- central event target groups: the nars_vintage_ digital natives and the digital skype immigrants. An analysis of their http://adsoftheworld.com/ respective interests and commu- media/print/maximidia_semi- nars_vintage_ nicative behavior exemplifies the facebook 7 HYBRID EVENTS: FUTURE REPORT PaRT 1: WHY THINK OF TOMORROW? They have largely grown up with ’TIS EARLY PRACTICE ONLY MAKES THE MASTEr… computers and the Internet and A MATTER OF COURSE FOR DIGITAL NATIVES. view life in a digitally-connected, interactive society as a matter of course. What characterizes the digital natives as a future event target group? For quite some time now digital natives increasingly turn away from traditional communication channels. Instead of informing themselves via print media, televi- sion or the radio, they get their information online and via mobile appliances such as smartphones or tablet PCs. The communicative and informa- and gatherers. Everything that tive behavior of the Generation Y instantly manages to attract their generally takes place within the attention, everything that is liked, digital space, which is why it is is perceived, taken in and (intel- increasingly difficult and someti- lectually) processed. Knowledge mes almost impossible to