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Spotlight On
Snapchat: It's not just for teens anymore. As part of parent company Snap Inc’s new multiyear partnership with Live Nation, the messaging app—known for hosting pictures and messages for a brief period of time before they vanish—was recently used at Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas to offer key information to attendees.
Fast Company reported the news prior to the May 20-22 festival: "Through several new lenses, Snap will help you navigate to the right stage, check set lists, and even beeline directly to your friends through the crowd. And, of course, the app will provide some of Snap’s fantastical AR lenses too. Playing off EDC’s own iconography, there will be three-story bioluminescent mushrooms that sprout from the ground where you tap, and a dragon-sized owl that will fly through the sky for your snaps. ... Alongside the map, Snap will also be launching a feature in beta called FriendFind AR. In a nutshell, it’s a compass that will point you not to a stage, but directly to a friend on Snap who’s in the area." Click here to read Fast Company's full story.
Event Technology We're Excited About This Month
To make business travel more accessible
Wheel the World, a booking company for travelers with disabilities, has debuted its Accessibility Mapping System (AMS), a tech solution that crowdsources and aggregates accessible travel experiences, destinations, and accommodations. Wheel the World “mappers” use the AMS to record real-time information on more than 200 data points, such as wheelchair accessibility, inclusive staff training, transportation logistics, braille signage availability, ramp access, adaptive equipment requirements, bed height, room measurements, and more. (Hotels and attractions can also submit their own accessibility information.) In turn, users can search for destinations based on their unique travel aspirations and accessibility needs. Currently, Wheel the World has compiled almost 1,000 up-to-date accessibility listings across 27 countries.
To explore the metaverse
Event management platform Eventcombo has launched Eventiverse, a new experience that fuses virtual event technology with the metaverse. Through the new offering, organizations can create their own venues and configure events within the metaverse, while integrating an NFT marketplace to correlate digital and IRL experiences—allowing brands to interact with people in real life and in the new digital realm. Eventcombo has also begun offering NFT ticketing options to its existing partners. To help educate customers on this cutting-edge technology, Eventcombo also recently launched a white paper called Metaverse and NFTs: The Intriguing Metamorphosis of the Event Industry, which analyzes the events industry’s approach to digital spaces.
To easily quantify the success of your event
Last month, video engagement platform Livestorm launched its new Video Engagement Scoring (VES) option, which allows event and meeting hosts to evaluate the success of their online events based on a clear scoring system. Livestorm developed scoring metrics that allow organizers to better understand if a meeting was truly a success by looking at key factors like how many people attended, how long they stayed, how many of the polls launched impacted engagement, and how many overall messages, poll votes, and questions were sent. Each factor is assigned a score from 1 to 100. A virtual event is generally considered a success with a score of 70 or higher.
To ensure quick and secure event registration
Digital check-in app Safe Site Check In has debuted a number of new features geared specifically toward event organizers. New options include branded QR codes, which have advanced security features to prevent outsiders from intercepting check-ins or creating fake codes; digital options for liability waivers and other materials; event-wide private-messaging alert options; staff profiles that list skills, certifications, safety training, and licenses; and more. “Event organizers have realized the benefits of digital check-in go far beyond COVID-19 health screenings. Always knowing who is or was on-site is critical for safety and compliance, as well as being able to immediately reach everybody at an event,” said David Ward, CEO of Safe Site Check In.
For a new, user-friendly virtual platform option
Officially launched at IMEX Frankfurt last week, Crowdsol is a new tech offering from a group of experienced event professionals. The platform includes several time-saving tools such as pre-configured event processes and templates for different types of gatherings. It also offers multiple solutions for a wide range of events—meaning there’s no need to build complex event technology stacks using different software providers. According to the founders, the vision was to help event planners bring together global communities, create valuable experiences at an affordable cost, and avoid the high logistics expenses of conventional events such as time, budgets, and ways to create engaging events for global attendees without making an impact on the planet.
The Latest Promotion, Funding, and Merger News
Remote interpretation provider Interprefy has launched new AI-driven live captioning technology for multilingual meetings, webinars, and conferences. The new offering provides scalable and automated live translation services powered by Automated Speech Recognition (ASR) and Machine Translation (MT); it can transcribe and translate live speech to provide users with closed captions in real-time.
Hybrid meetings and events platform Glisser has announced a $4.9 million follow-on investment round lead by UK venture capital firms Downing Ventures and Gresham House. The investment will help expand the development of the company’s "Glisser Elements" Software Development Kit (SDK), which allows its customers to integrate low-code video streaming, slide-sharing, and audience interaction components into their own websites.
Howie Mandel—comedian, television personality, and the owner of Just for Laughs in Montreal—has been named an advisor for Proto Inc., formerly known as Portl, which invented the world’s first 4K, volumetric, self-contained holoportation machine in 2019. The attention-grabbing hologram machines have since appeared at events for dozens of Fortune 500 companies and high-profile gatherings like the Super Bowl.
Since acquiring Boomset last year, Hopin has debuted a number of new features. The latest updates include a variety of useful new features for in-person gatherings, including branded self-serve kiosks, on-demand badge printing, real-time attendance tracking to see what sessions are resonating with attendees, new lead retrieval functionality, and more. Learn more in the company’s latest blog post.
Entertainment producer ASM Global has announced a partnership with local commerce platform DoorDash to deploy mobile, technology-forward dining solutions to venues nationwide. DoorDash will now serve as ASM Global’s “On-Demand Delivery Platform” partner and will launch its services at ASM Global’s various North American arenas, stadiums, theaters, convention centers, and more in the coming months. The partnership will officially launch at the Toyota Arena in Ontario, Calif. on June 11.
With additional reporting by Raynor Manley.
