7 innovations to guarantee cut-through with your event presentation in 2017

As event planners, marketers and brand champions, we understand content is King. But the trick to really engaging your audience is how the content is presented – as they say it’s not what you say but how you say it that counts. When everyone is sticking to the tried and true approach of death by PowerPoint, how does your presentation stand out?

Integrating new technology into your presentation can seem daunting, expensive, and risky. However, brands and presenters who push the boundaries to create new experiences are those which deliver more memorable messages and positive experiences, and ultimately give your attendees a reason to keep coming back.

Here’s our top 7 ways brands are using the latest event technology to guarantee cut-through when presenting their content.  

1. Reveal content with Gesture Control Technology

   Imagine being able to control and interact with your content simply using gestures. Gesture Control and Motion Sensor technology are the latest innovations to hit the event technology circuit – and it’s got us very excited. Gesture control works by pre-mapping your movements with motion tracking technology to sync your movements with the presentation content. This event technology provide endless possibilities for live interaction, entertainment and education by letting the presenter orchestrate projections, animations, video and sound.

   Stunning ‘Reveals’ Using Gesture Control

   Tasked with delivering a new, never-seen-before experience, Encore Event Technologies recently used gesture control and motion sensor technology in a conference for a major paint company. The company President demonstrated the success of a project by waving a paint brush over the ‘before’ photos to reveal the ‘after’ photos. The theatrics of pretending to paint the buildings to reveal the new artworks in real-time conveyed the message with dramatic effect. It’s easy to imagine the potential for engagement and cut-through when comparing this to simply clicking ‘Next Slide’ in PowerPoint.

   

2. Interactive technology for presentations bursting with many types of content

   When you have a lot of content in a multitude of formats, a standard PowerPoint presentation won’t suffice. More and more brands are turning to interactive presentations where all of your content can be stored and accessed seamlessly within the one presentation. The latest innovations in interactive presentation software, like Inteli-Touch, mean everything from 3D product demonstrations, embedded videos, websites, registration forms and more can be housed in one convenient place. This allows presenters to take audiences on a visual journey and communicate an amazing experience like never before. Integrating interactive technology into your presentation is an efficient way to increase engagement, interest and deliver a more informative and streamlined presentation.

   How a residential company could use interactive software for their sales conference

   Inteli-Touch allows the presenters to provide a sophisticated, seamless and content-rich presentation with the touch of a button. For example, a residential building company could utilise Inteli-Touch, our interactive presentation software, to great effect for a conference. The technology enables several presenters, each with a variety of content formats to deliver a combined presentation with everything accessible from one presentation to deliver a seamless experience. Everything from playing the company showreel, displaying animated graphics and stats, through to exploring 3D drawings of new home designs and clickable imagery to showing sales figures. It even allows presenters to embed websites into the presentation to show to the franchisees.

3. Touch Screen Technology

   Touch Screen technology isn’t new – in fact it’s been around since the 1970s. We’ve found one of the biggest deterrents for integrating technology into events is the risk of people not knowing how to use it. The beauty of using Touch Screen technology to present your content is you can bet the majority, if not all, of your attendees will know how to interact with it considering 44% of the world’s population use it on a daily basis – does that noisy little device in your pocket ring any bells?!

   Touch screen content provides an exciting alternative to PowerPoint slides displayed on a projector screen. Touch screens help us operate any device faster, let you display multiple content types, requires no skill or previous experience to use and let the attendee navigate to find which information they want to know.

   Touch Screens used to promote local tourism

   The 2017 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race is an opportune time to promote local tourism. Encore Event Technologies worked with local tourism bodies by positioning several Touch Kiosks – large touch screens similar to the way-finding devices found in shopping centres – around the race finishing area and invited spectators to interact with and learn from the content shared. Participants accessed a variety of fun and informative content such as:

   • Information about the race
   • Live boat progress tracker
   • Village map
   • Information on local tourist attractions
   • Quizzes about boats and local tourism
   • Option to capture a Hobart race branded selfie and email to yourself
   • Links to sponsors

   It was a simple, yet highly engaging approach to present the content far beyond anything a printed brochure could do.

   In addition to presenting content – touch screen technology lets you embed websites or forms to capture information about your attendees. At the world’s largest liquefied natural gas conference – exhibitors used Touch Kiosk to secure bookings for next year. They displayed the conference layout on screen and allowed attendees to book and registered their details for next year. Aside from the bookings, the data captured provided valuable information about their attendees to bolster business and marketing operations.

4. Virtual Reality is the future of presentations

   Since its invention back in 1994, virtual reality technology is getting more sophisticated and accessible by the day with the pace of demand to match. Virtual reality is the future – this technology creates an entirely life-like digital experience that is immersive and provides an opportunity for unique interaction and gamification on a new level of engagement. If you are looking for an exciting way to inform and entertain your attendees at a conference, exhibition, gala or seminar – a VR experience can do just that. So how are brands using virtual reality technology to present their content?

   Brands are using VR to help consumers interact with products virtually, visit travel destinations or environments they’ve never been to, and experience concerts or sporting events first-hand, all whilst never leaving your event. The exciting thing is, we’ve only just scratched the surface of VR’s potential with new applications and improvements entering the market every day. If your brand wants to be perceived as an innovative leader – this is the technology for you.

5. Present your content on any object or surface with projection mapping

   Projection technology now lets you present your content beyond regular 16:9 screens, onto any object or surface – even water. The object or space to project upon can be virtually anything – from complex industrial landscapes, such as buildings, to smaller indoor objects, walls and stages. The applications for projection mapping vary from immersive product launches using 3D projection mapping, to creating personalised table settings for VIP gala dinners using 2D projection, to underwater scenes and wildlife – the stage became a moving part of the presentation.

   Projection mapping can even be used to digitally style or transform your stage look to match the presentation content. A large real estate company used projection mapping to bring their stage set to life for their annual conference. When presenting on various locations and cities, we projected both animated and static content onto the stage designs to reflect iconic imagery associated with the location they were talking about. From buzzing skylines, to tennis balls, underwater scenes and wildlife – the stage became a moving part of the presentation.

   Dom Perignon uses Projection Mapping for personalised table settings

   Project mapping is a great way to propel your gala dinner or function to the next level – your table can be your projection canvas. For a Dom Perignon VIP event we streamed custom video animations right in front of guests’ eyes to deliver a brand message in a beautiful and mesmerising way. Then to make the experience unique to each guest, we projected their name where physical name cards would have once sat. We’ve even included business logos for the VIP guests, which was great for breaking the ice at networking events! There’s so much you can do with a table; the only limit is your imagination.

6. Shape your presentation

   You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to develop new ways of presenting content – just realign it.
   Projection mapping technology has made it possible to project onto any surface, object or shape. This allows brands to get creative with their set design. A lot of leading brands are making cut-through by incorporating shapes into their set design – from impressive curved screens reaching up to 30m wide, custom designs representing iconic landmarks, to interesting configurations using rectangular digital banners. Hexagonal panels are the newest shape trending in the event world. It’s a simple yet highly effective solution for presenting content in a new way. The size and shape of the panels, lets you project your content onto individual panels, or project your content across several or all your connected hexagons.

   Hex Panels used at MCG launch event

   To announce Encore Event Technologies partnership with the Melbourne Cricket Ground, we hosted a special showcase to highlight the venue’s capabilities under this new relationship. As we wanted to present several pieces of content simultaneously, we created our set design using a combination of hex panels and standard 16:9 screens. This allowed us to projection map content from our Event Poll and Event Feed platforms onto specific hex panels, with the main presentation content displayed on the standard 16:9 screens. The effect was an immersive and highly engaging environment that continuously presented attendees with new and interesting content.

7. Get more from your audience participation

   One of the most important elements of a presentation is the Q&A session. They’re not only important for driving audience participation; they’re a vital source of information about your attendees. Event planners can gain insight as to what attendees actually want to know, valuable improvement feedback, and they provide the perfect forum for speakers to interact with guests and build rapport. Therefore, it’s crucial to consider how you’ll maximise your Q&A session to drive participation and transfer information with attendees. Brands who are tapping into innovative ways to spice up Q&A sessions are reaping the benefits.

   How Event Poll facilitated 75 questions for Masterclass Q&A

   Encore Event Technologies delivered a Masterclass for event professionals and the Q&A session was an absolute highlight! With over 150 attendees we knew the old-fashioned roving microphone wouldn’t suffice. Instead, we opted to use Event Poll – an online event polling platform which lets audiences ask and respond to questions in real-time with answers displayed on screen.
   We received 75 questions from attendees; far too many to respond to in a single session. Rather than let attendees leave disappointed, Event Poll let us capture their questions to respond to in our follow-up presentation emailed to all attendees. It gave us great insight into the products and services that interested them and gave them information about the items that most interested them.

   Sometimes embracing our inner child is all it takes to create a new, engaging experience. You might have started to notice soft cubes being thrown around during Q&A sessions. This is the latest craze sweeping through corporate events and we’re all for it.

   

   Everyone loves a compelling, accessible way to participate – encouraging engagement and the sharing of ideas, whilst elevating the mood and excitement of the whole room. Inspire your audience to speak out and they will continue to be inspired long after the event is over.

   
   SpeakUp is a technical innovation designed to inject energy into Q&A sessions, breaking down barriers and inspiring audiences to get involved in a lively and fun discussion. It’s a soft, cube-shaped wireless microphone you can throw to audiences and them to one another. It might sound gimmicky but the audio quality is astounding. The cordless microphone is muted when the cube is thrown to avoid any feedback or noise, and turns on again when held upright and still.

Find out new ways and technologies to make a memorable presentation at your event

High-performing presentations using these technologies allow the audience to fully engage and interact with the content, creating a dynamic and memorable experience to increase impact, education and recall of information.
Try incorporating any of these technologies to take your presentation to the next level and ensure its remembered way after the event. With over 30 years in the industry, Encore Event Technologies is a leading event services company, renowned for delivering world-class corporate events.