Facial Recognition, Wearables and Other Game-Changing Event Tech

It’s a thrilling time to be an event planner. Consumer technology is accelerating at breakneck speeds, and some of the most exciting innovations are making their way into the events space. And while some pieces of tech show promise for making events better tomorrow, others can already begin improving the quality (and excitement levels) of your events right now.

Let’s take a look at some of the technology trends that are changing the way events are run.

Facial recognition

Just a decade ago, the prospect of a computer accurately recognising a human face sounded like the stuff of fantasy. Fast-forward to 2019 and a majority of mobile phones now unlock by recognising its owners’ faces – and from multiple angles too.

But that’s lower-end facial recognition technology. These days, security cameras can scan crowds of faces, spotting and identifying VIPs, as well as blacklisted security threats. Choose a facial recognition system with mid-level features and you can set them up at registration booths to quickly and accurately identify participants, enabling you to:

Speed up your registration process
Improve security
Reduce manual processes
Eliminate the need for tickets (although electronic tickets are still recommended as a reliable backup)

Facial recognition doesn’t have to be limited to the registration booth either. You can incorporate facial recognition into other parts of your event, such as entry into VIP areas, breakout rooms, and granting selected users access to specific areas of your event – creating a more tailored event experience for every participant (while adding another layer of security).

Wearables

While we continue to wait for smart glasses to make their debut into consumer and event spaces, one wearable has taken the market by storm – smartwatches.

Today, these devices are used to do everything from reading and reply messages, control our music, pay for purchases and even save our lives in the event of a fall. If there’s only one thing smartwatches don’t seem to be interested in doing, it’s improving our ability to tell the time. (Although even that’s been improved as Apple’s latest smartwatch comes with an always-on display.)

In your event, smartwatches can act as smartcards or electronic passes. No more digging through emails to search for an email with a QR code on it – with a tap of the wrist, a participant’s smartwatch will tell you exactly who they are, and which category of seats (or which event hall/room) they belong in. And as with facial recognition technology, smartwatches (and other future tech) can be used for identifying participants at every other area of your event ground as well.

Virtual Reality

VR has been teasing us for a few years now. This piece of future tech seems to always be on the cusp of becoming mainstream… but has always just fallen short of mainstream adoption. This year, the launch of the truly wireless Oculus Quest has brought VR much closer to this dream than ever before – capturing over 50% of the market share for VR headsets, despite only be available in the second half of 2019.

What does this mean for event planners? Finally, wireless VR headsets greatly expand possibilities for event planners – who can now plan room-scale event demonstrations and interactive activities. Also, with more VR headsets in the hands of consumers, we’re one step closer to the day when attending events live, via a VR headset, becomes as normal as attending an event webcast or live stream.