Queuing event attendees fill your lobby waiting their turn to peer into a small camera on a 5-foot stand.
While your attendees chat and joke with each other, this little camera uses facial recognition to sign them into your event and switch on badge access. This is one way in which MICE industry technology could revolutionise your business.
In how many years will you be here? Three? Five?
Meetings and events are already seeing a technological revolution. Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, is changing our everyday experiences and hospitality is the next frontier.
Keeping an eye on these trends can mean a huge difference between winning MICE business and being overlooked in favour of more high-tech venues.
The future of MICE industry technology is facial recognition
- Facial recognition is no longer a pipe dream.
- It’s being used to unlock many of our smartphones and is utilised in most airports. In fact, the Tokyo Olympic Games will be the first major event to use facial recognition exclusively for staff and athlete areas.
- It pays to think like a futurist when tech is involved. Innovations like facial recognition pave the way for better experiences, and this includes MICE events.
- Not only does it make them more engaging, but it also simplifies the event organisation process and gives both the hotel and event planner a better way to collaborate.
- Meeting planners and attendees expect the same level of technology in their event experiences.
- To take a step ahead, imagine a facial recognition technology that could read facial expressions in conference rooms and give organisers a better understanding of how their attendees are feeling.
- They could then react to this data and adjust the temperature and lighting of the room to increase comfort.
- It may seem a bit too “big brother” for your liking, but innovations such as these could reduce the number of complaints and unhappy delegates, it would also put your hotel ahead of the competition.
- But how can this help you win planners? Easy: the role of an event planner was ranked the fifth most stressful job behind military personnel, firefighters, pilots and police officers. If you can lessen-the-load of their daily duties, you will win points.
Exercising voice control
- Do you offer smart speakers in your hotel rooms yet? Through 2023, analysts expect the sales of smart speakers to continue their double-digit growth.
- From hotel navigation to ordering room service, voice-control is expected to become a staple in the hospitality industry. Attendees will soon expect to have the same voice-controlled experience they have in their homes.
- Real-time translation services are another way in which voice control could benefit the MICE industry. If attendees could hear translations of a real-time conference through an event app, more barriers will disappear.
- Language issues will become a thing of the past and MICE industry technology will facilitate your business growth.
- What’s more, this technology isn’t as far away as you might imagine.
- Voice control and translation have come a long way in the last five years.
- Hotels wishing to expand their MICE business globally need to look into all options and methods for attracting event planners and attendees from all over the world.
- Focus on creating memorable, helpful experiences that will have people talking a long time after they leave. Encourage word-of-mouth and repeat business with jaw-dropping tech, and you’ll be the belle of the MICE ball.
Bring people together
- Creating stronger relationships can be as simple as adopting fantastic new MICE industry technology.
- Think about networking.
- “Interest-matching” is a new way to match event attendees based on interests, job titles and other information about themselves.
- Powered by AI, the tech allows attendees to opt-in, then share information about themselves. This data can then be used to match them with like-minded individuals.
- This data can then be used by event planners and hoteliers to understand their attendees better.
- Imagine an attendee scans a table full of people with his smartphone camera and sees several people sitting there who share his interests. The then scans another and sees that its filled with competitors. Which table do you think he will visit?
- That might seem more “Big Brother” than reading facial expressions, but the fact is people are uncomfortable talking to strangers.
- An app showing a person’s job title or interests gives attendees something to talk about and makes it slightly less awkward to connect with new people.
- Networking is one of the main reasons people attend events and good networking experiences mean good feedback and a better chance the event will return to your hotel.
- Staying on top of future trends and incorporating them into your hotel ensures you’re staying competitive and delivering what planners are searching.
Learn how MICE booking automation can help event planners and hoteliers strategically prepare for new business with our on-demand webinar: Managing Groups Better in Times of Uncertainty or Limited Resources
