In Case You Missed It:
The 56th edition of the annual CES trade show showcased new tech inventions, eye-catching activations, and flashy experiences from brands like Pinterest, Reddit, Google, Walmart, and more. The BizBash team was on the ground; check out our roundup of the most cutting-edge tech and innovative exhibit designs we spotted.
Spotlight On...
Full-service experiential collective CNC Agency (formerly Coffee ’n Clothes) has launched its latest business division, CNC Innovation Lab. The new service works with clients to create physical-first experiences that integrate emerging technology like AI, virtual and mixed reality, augmented reality, gaming, and wearables. Through the lab, CNC aims to create immersive environments that utilize things like AI-generated graphics, advanced projection mapping, digital beacons that can personalize the guest journey, creative engineering like robotic installations and fiber-optic displays, and more.
“As we dive into the AI frontier, our differentiation lies not merely in being AI-first, but in our commitment to being idea-first within the landscape of experiential marketing,” explained CNC founder Ryan Glick. “In an era where traditional events are evolving, our fusion of technology and creativity opens new possibilities for brands. We stand as creative experts in experiential, ensuring that AI supports and enhances our physical-first creative ideas.”
More Event Technology We're Excited About This Month
To improve wayfinding at large shows
Event technology platform Swapcard and interactive floor plan provider ExpoFP have unveiled a new strategic partnership. The collaboration integrates event tech software with digital floor plans and wayfinding—meaning that all information about exhibitors is automatically updated and attendees consistently have access to the latest floor plans, thereby eliminating the need to contact the support team every time there are changes to the floor plan or exhibitor information. The system can also help increase revenue via page promotions, strategically placed advertisements, sponsored sessions, and push notifications.
"Event organizers understand the importance of making wise financial decisions, given the challenges of the post-pandemic landscape and the constraints of reduced marketing budgets," said ExpoFP CEO Ross Sudentas. "That's why we encourage all event organizers to use sponsorship options. ExpoFP is more than just interactive maps; our platform offers features, including post-event analytics on most popular exhibitors and plotted routes that help organizers to make data-driven decisions."
To predict event attendance
Event marketing tech company Splash has introduced Attendance Insights, an AI tool that has been trained by hundreds of thousands of events hosted on the platform over the past five years. Through machine learning, the tool makes accurate attendance predictions and strategic recommendations based on the past performance of a customer’s events, as well as the performance of comparable events from other customers. Data points such as event type and format, page views, email engagement, guest list size, and number of days away from the event also contribute to Attendance Insights results.
“Over the past year, marketers were introduced to dozens of generative AI tools that have helped enhance everything from event agendas to content creation to promotional efforts. But none of these tools help event professionals actually get revenue in the room,” said Splash CMO Kate Hammitt. “Splash is changing that with Attendance Insights, the event industry’s first-ever predictive AI tool. It allows event marketers to easily understand the data behind their programs, and how to leverage that data to accelerate their organization’s event-led growth.”
To book sustainable stays
BeCause—a tech startup that aims to transform how the global hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data—has announced an expanded partnership with online marketplace and booking platform hubli. This partnership will allow hubli to add an ever-growing list of over 25,000 eco-labeled hotels to its platform, giving clients better visibility of a hotel's environmental footprint and allowing them to book options that comply with their environmental, social, and governance policies.
With the BeCause sustainability API, hubli will be able to collect sustainability data from over 60 Travalyst-recognized certifications and automatically map it to hotels in its platform in real time, providing valuable data such as energy and water consumption and other attributes. "We empower global enterprises to make it faster and easier for their teams to meet in the most cost-effective and sustainable way possible," said hubli founder and CEO Ciaran Delaney. "We are excited to work with BeCause to automate and scale our sustainable hotel content around the world,"
To speed up session descriptions
Event software company PheedLoop has introduced new AI-powered integrations that streamline the session description process for event planners. AI Generate can help planners craft compelling and informative descriptions; planners simply enter a few prompts, and the AI algorithm will transform them into a session description tailored to the specific event. AI Summarize, meanwhile, can condense verbose or hard-to-understand content, pulling out the key points without losing essential details.
In the future, PheedLoop plans to add more AI capabilities to its dashboard, including ways to create and summarize announcement descriptions, exhibitor descriptions, speaker descriptions, and more. “As PheedLoop's AI journey unfolds, we're excited about the possibilities that lie ahead,” said the team in a recent blog post. “The fusion of human creativity with AI-driven efficiency is set to redefine the landscape of event planning. With every update, PheedLoop aims to empower event planners, making their tasks more manageable, enjoyable, and, ultimately, more successful.”
The Latest Updates, Funding, and Merger News
Performance improvement solutions company One10 LLC has acquired First Lorandus Global Inc., an Ontario-based leader in virtual, hybrid, and face-to-face events and incentive travel. The 16-year-old Canadian firm will now be called Lorandus, A One10 Company. The investment will allow for the expansion of the One10 brand and its proprietary incentive and recognition technology, while supporting Lorandus’ desire to expand the suite of products offered to its customer base.
HeadBox, a U.K.-based B2B digital events platform, has hired Karen Hutchings as board director to support its continued growth and help the business prepare to expand into new geographical markets. Hutchings was formerly the global head of travel, meetings, and events at EY.
Valor Hospitality Partners has partnered with tech company DailyPay to offer its U.S. employees, referred to as "hotelitarians," the benefit of on-demand pay. This collaboration allows employees to access their earnings in real time, helping them manage finances more effectively by paying bills, saving, and investing according to their own schedules.
Globespan Travel Management has selected Vindow, a marketplace for buyers and sellers of contracted hotel accommodations, to manage all of its transient and group hotel sourcing. Vindow’s user-friendly interface and machine learning features enable travel managers to extract insights into traveler sentiments and anticipated trends, making it easier for travel managers to pick the best destinations and/or properties—and making it simpler to negotiate and manage large-scale corporate transient programs.
Simantel, a marketing agency serving B2B brands, has announced a partnership with Captello, a leading provider of lead capture and event engagement solutions. Through this partnership, Simantel will add to its capabilities by providing an event lead capture solution to brands using events to gain the attention of new customers.
