Latest / The Backdrop Podcast / Episode 8 - Adam Parry, Founder of Event Tech Live

Transcript

Episode 8 - Adam Parry, Founder of Event Tech Live · The Backdrop Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to the backdrop.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Today I'm delighted to be joined by one of the most influential voices in the global event technology industry, Adam Perry.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Adam is the co-founder of Event Tech Live, the world's leading exhibition and conference dedicated to event technology, now in its 13th year, and recognized as the place where the industry's leading organizers, buyers, suppliers, and innovators come together to shape the future of live events.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: Each year, Event Tech Live attracts thousands of event professionals and showcases the latest advances in AI, event management platforms, audience engagement, marketing technology, and experiential innovation, making it one of the industry's most important annual gatherings.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Alongside Event Tech Live, Adam is also the co-founder of the Event Technology Awards and was once editor of Event Industry News, one of the sector's most widely read media platforms.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: With more than two decades of experience spanning events and media, he has become a trusted authority on innovation, technology, and sustainability, helping event professionals navigate an industry that continues to evolve at an extraordinary pace.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: Whether advising organizers and technology companies on strategy and growth, moderating international conferences, or championing the ideas shaping tomorrow's events, Adam has played a significant role in connecting people, business, and technologies that continue to transform the live event industry.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's an honor to be on the backdrop.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm really glad that you could find the time to be with us.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that this is probably an episode that is a little more um you know important to what we discuss, which is the events industry, but event technology is really the backbone, and that's the stuff that changes uh so fast, so rapidly.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: When you create it, and I think we're in the 13th season now for the 13th uh edition of of Event Tech Live, when you're you know traveling around and you're you're you're really sort of catering to those real event professionals that really dig, you know, digital infrastructure, AI adoption, smart venues, and all of that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: When this is going around the world and all of these different editions everywhere, what venue or what country, what city, what's something that stands out to you as a place that really gets it, that really is moving fast when it comes to event technology?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really good question.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I've had the pleasure and and honor of going to so many really interesting venues around the world, some that adopt and embrace technology, some that prefer the more traditional or analog approach to things.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, if I cast my mind back to around 13 years ago, I was um invited in my previous one of my previous roles as editor of Event Industry News to fly out to Taiwan um with the local government there.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And they wanted me to come out and experience one of their most brand new exhibition and conferencing venues out in Taiwan.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was probably outside of the UK the first time that I'd visited uh an opening of a venue.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And what struck me there was just how much focus they'd put on future-proofing that venue from a digital infrastructure perspective from connectivity, infrastructure, what was available to organizers on site, but not only just at that moment in time, but like what was the um infrastructure, what was the capability and the needs going to be within the next five to 10 years, what was coming down the road.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think they were well positioned, you know, Asia and um venues and the events industry in that in that part of the world, in that region that are very tech adapted and and very for future forward thinking.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, that was that was one 13 years ago before I launched Event Tech Live that I was like, wow, technology is gonna take such a uh a primary and pole position in how we deliver events and the experiences that we put on for our attendees.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: So is there any anything that stands out of any of the events that you've run where you felt that the visitors really, really get it?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, you know, that that you found what let's say, in your mind, probably would would seem like the most successful one.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Are you are you able to pick one out or is that going to put you in a hot spot?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know it's a really it's again, it's another really great question.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: And in my opinion, actually, the events that are doing technology the best often provide the most seamless and hidden experience when it comes to technology.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's not actually in front of people, it's not in in people's minds.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: It just blends into the overall experience, whether that's you know, the speed at which they can check in at registration and get into the venue, whether it's how they access information as they're kind of looking through the venue and finding their way to the next exhibition stand on the next seminar theatre and things like that.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think now, you know, there are some great events that are embracing technology to make things more accessible.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, I've been to some fantastic ones here recently in the Middle East that probably do that fantastically.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: We I went to uh make it in the emirates, I think, if I'm yeah, I'm not correct, if I'm not making mistaken.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that filtered down not just as the organizer and the show and the attendees, but the exhibitors really embracing innovation and technology to engage with the people that were at the show.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: So that's probably the most recent one that that springs to mind.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you've got a you've got a great foundation because I think you're you're based in in the UAE kind of meeting.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I am so there's probably no better place to really put forward the the most progressive technology than the UAE because they love adopting.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, everything from private sector, public sector, and all the event companies here are always racing for the latest, uh, the latest uh kit.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, I've been coming to the Middle East now for the best part of 15 years through friends and and and close networks and stuff like that.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's always been a region of the world that's I think been really inspirational just on so many different levels, and the events industry as well, right?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's ingrained so much into the ethos of um the city and the country and the region is events and hospitality um work so well with the with the ecosystem of bringing business and trade here and visitors and hospitals and hosting people and hosting great events and things like that.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it was one of the reasons I wanted to move here.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, worked for nearly two decades in the UK and been to so many events in the UK, so many events in Europe, and so many events in North America.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been really, really lucky.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, there was something different about this region.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: There was something so so rapidly evolving, and I think so how the government is so involved and local authority are so involved in the events industry was really inspiring.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I I felt, and I said this when I moved here, this this feels to me like it's gonna become the epicenter of events and hospitality over the next 10 to 15 years.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it feels like it's not, it feels like it's almost not even voluntary to adopt new technology.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost compulsory that way, without actually being written compulsory, but it's actually, it feels like if you don't, if you're not on the same level as the next group, then you're gonna get lost in the shuffle.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because you can you can come off as being a bit archaic and a bit antiquated as a group.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: But from all you know, the event tech lives that that you produced um, you know, in a in a decade and a half, and all the time you've been around this, because you've you've not just created event tech live as a platform, um, as a marketplace almost for like the highest uh level of of technocrat within events, but you created sort of a broader ecosystem that you know because you come from there, there's the uh the background with with the magazine and of course the awards, and you've made it your life.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: So you see things probably a lot of people wouldn't see, and you because of your events background, you're not just a pedestrian, you're not just creating uh an event because you want to create an event, you see a gap, but you create it because of your, you know, your I guess passion for that niche within events that really can prop up of event.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: So having said that, those people that you meet at these events, the new companies, um, the founders that are creating all of these new new solutions and innovations, do they do they signal in you some sort of do you do you see any sort of uh trait or characteristics, something that says, you know, these guys have got something going on?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's two traits that I find as signals really early on when I meet any new company or new organization come into the industry with technology or or solutions that they think will will fit the market.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And there's the those two traits are as a as a founder or as a team, they're inherently, you can just tell they're inherently people people and they integrate themselves into the industry, they're present, they absorb events, they really want to get to understand how events work, or they're coming to the market with a solution having had 10, 15, 20 years of experience and pain themselves of problems and challenges that they now realize AI can solve or technology can solve, and they want to create that and put that back into the market so people that are in similar roles to they were previously, or their colleagues on network can take advantage of that.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I can think of some great, great examples of that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Where technology often fails within the market is where one or two of those are are lacking, and they may be from a technology background, and that's not to say that they can't produce fantastic technology, but they don't understand how events work.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they they try and fit um square pegs into round holes, not knowing the the cyclical nature of events, how you know so much changes in the last minute from an operations perspective on events on events and things like that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: So those are the two traits.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: They're either super passionate about people and communities and meeting face to face and things like that, or they have that that you know that worn experience in the in the sex or well, we you know, we we're not uh as a I don't like saying podcast, as a show, we uh or a platform, you know, we're not we're not being paid by sponsors, we don't have partners, we're not monetized, we're we're doing this because of our love for for the industry.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I don't mind mentioning companies or plugging companies and that sort of thing.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: But but I wanna, because this is gonna lead into what I want to ask you.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, when you're walking through the exhibition floor, it could be a nine square meter shell scheme or it could be some dramatic laser light show, drone show pavilion, you know, uh that's you know 200 square meters.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't that doesn't mean that what they have is gonna be wow, you know, it could be some small company that has something that have failed forward for years and they've really got something, but they're making it work however they can, and they want to get to Event Tech Live because they want to get their eyes and they want to get maybe potential partners or potential investors' eyes on what they have.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: But when you're walking through that exhibition floor um or speaking to anyone, what what you know, what are you seeing?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: What stops you in your tracks and says, these guys have got something, this is a really cool technology.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give a sort of um, you know, what makes you stop and go, wow?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And secondly, can you give us an example of some companies that that you've seen that were like, wow, this these guys are amazing?
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, um, full transparency, I advise a lot of companies as well.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I get to see behind the scenes before they even come to market, like what they're trying to produce and stuff.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me wrong, on a show floor, some of the things that you said, they they are going to stop your in-door tracks.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: The the huge LED moving screens, the the rigged uh environments, the things that are interactive and people can play and touch.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the companies that I think have have really hit a sweet spot recently is a company called RealFlow.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the first touch point of so many attendees at an event, whether that's a returning attendee or a new potential attendee or even a new potential exhibitor, is an event website, right?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the event website hasn't really changed a great deal.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: There's a an about us page, a sponsors page, an exhibitors page, a page.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: A little more interactive, but that's it.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: And Realflow have really come to market with humanizing what an event is.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because at the end of the end of the day, what's at the center of any event is is a group of individuals or a or an entrepreneur or something like that that is super passionate about the market that they're in.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: They're supporting, they're trying to drive innovation forward themselves.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And Realflow have quite simply brought a super easy and interactive way for the people and the teams behind those events to engage with those attendees and actually get them to the point and the information that they want really, really quickly.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: We use them on our website and we've seen uh great results in reduction of bounce rates and more satisfaction, a reduction actually in people emailing us saying, I can't find this, I can't find that exactly.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that's a great problem to solve in the industry because so often events can be so faceless to new people who have never experienced that before.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think to put the the founders or the teams front and center behind those events really helps to humanize what an event is and and attract people to come and attend.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so we, you know, we we went into to one of these companies and I um that was that was part of the question, but I want to ask you what kind of technology, what kind of technology have have you seen at these exhibitions, like uh a sort of a type of technology or or a function or an innovation or or something new that you as an events guy thinking with your events brain, wow, they finally did it.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: This was needed.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is I'm so happy this has happened.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: So with the exception of the company you mentioned, what other uh like you don't have to name a company, but just who who has started off small and made it really, really big because they've they've really nailed it.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, the companies that are growing really um massively at the moment are those that are leveraging AI to uh live translate whatever a speaker on stage is saying into multiple languages and then also doing closed captions.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: Fairly accurately, I guess.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: Fairly accurately these days, yeah, absolutely.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: The accuracy is is is super high.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think still in some particular industries, like maybe like finance or pharma, you know, you still want uh somebody with experience in the market to be live translating some of those things because of the nuance of terminologies and things like that.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, we're we're a we're a global world with hundreds of languages, and if we want to attract a global audience, we have to understand that English is not everybody's first language.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um we fall into that trap of thinking that that's the easiest way.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then there's also people that need um accessibility accommodations, they they may be slightly hard of hearing or they might be deaf, they might need other things, which means close captioning can help support them, be able to understand and ensure that they've got clarity on the content.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that also opens the door to bringing speakers in from other countries, again, where English is not their first language.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: They can now speak in French, Italian, and everybody in the room can understand it.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we are in the business of information exchange and knowledge exchange.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, in order to do that, I think that really opens and is opening the doors up to a more global inclusive sector.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: And it makes sense because, you know, with with you, you from the UK and myself from Canada, we know that we're becoming more multicultural by the day.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of in, you know, um, in addition, there are a lot of nations, a lot of countries that are now getting a lot of, you know, FTI and they're they're really growing in terms of their industry.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: So they they're now having a presence at a lot of international events where they normally wouldn't.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: So Vietnam, for example, um is a massively growing market.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh, in and they don't really have much of sort of an events industry.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: But they're there at many, many of the shows, international Malaysia, all you know, Thailand for Asia, but also Africa.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: There's there's so much, there's so much growth in in in uh in many in many countries that didn't really have a presence at events that now we really I mean translation is such a huge thing.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: I use translation a lot with a lot of the um diplomatic or or or or institutional events that I've run in the past.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: And they're just such a priceless.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: We we had just uh as an aside, there was there was an event that uh I I've been working on for many years that was a an event for foreign affairs ministers.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: And the founder of this, who's in his 80s, he says the most important person at this event is not uh a head of state or a head of government or a minister.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: The most important person is a translator.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I was, yeah, you know what?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're absolutely right, because the messaging is so important.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: And if you get it wrong, so that's it's incredible that they have this technology now that unfortunately for many translators are gonna, you know, cause a little bit of a ripple in their in their uh uh service.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: But it's really it's amazing that amongst many other things.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to ask as an aside, what other and I'm worried about asking this, but what other sort of services or products do you think could be now?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: And this is sort of an off-the-cuff question, or might be in danger because of the technology.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, do you is there anything that comes to mind that I mean, translation is one?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is there anything else that you feel will never be a problem because it'll always be human, or other ones that might be shifting over to uh to technology or AI or a challenging question, Michael, because we don't want to scare anybody and uh predictions are inherently uh more wrong than they are right.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think I can only speak from my own experience about how I'm seeing uh the ecosystem of who's involved in event creation production shifting.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, from my own experience where I would rely heavily on, let's say, graphic designers to help me translate my ideas into something visual and then go through a process of iteration to get it to the final product that I want for my event or for my brand or whatever.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a very one-on-one basis, back and forth, back and forth.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes take, you know, a substantial amount of time because they've got to go off and interpret what I've asked for and then bring it back, and then I'm like, no, that not quite that over there, this over here.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: One of the revelations for me has been recently is Cloud Design Systems.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, being able to give Cloud as an AI uh solution my brand assets, my brand guidelines, my logos, and all these types of things, and then produce rapidly prototypes of websites and flyers and documents and branding and signage and all these types of things.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, do I is that at the level of what a designer would do at the the top end and print ready?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely not.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not not yet.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, not yet.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it does mean that me as a as a founder or as a small team, we can do 90% of what we need to in a fraction of the time already, and then pass that to designer to say, hey, take this, upscale it to print ready, polish it, and push it out.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's gonna shift, right?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a lot of agencies and a lot of companies that their bread and butter is that design element.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah when agencies and in teams and companies start to adopt these things, that's gonna shift how much of that professional-led design we need.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one of the things that I'm I'm seeing.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that even goes as far as to I was talking to one individual who's just about to now announce and deploy an um an open solution.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's it's open to anybody.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: There is no commercial element to it that is now gonna allow brands and agencies to 3D render and visualize and then uh run simulations on experiences at events.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and again, that's gonna shift the market of who's involved in that content creation and things like that.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I know that it it does provide um today's technology does provide the opportunity for smaller groups to fight against the big guys to some degree at least move the needle slightly where they wouldn't have a chance before because of budgeting, because it does cost a lot.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Designers cost a lot.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Good designers cost a lot.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, creating a logo where the logo actually means something and the logo actually has a story woven into it, not just, you know, here's a a B and an A together and let's, you know, it does, it does have a story behind it.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: So it I think that we're we're lucky in that way that we have that for smaller groups.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think to just to add to that, just to just to uh you know finish that perspective off, it's gonna open the doors.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: And as you said, it's gonna make things more accessible to more people, which should have the positive effect of more people wanting to invest in events because the cost of them comes slightly down, the risk, the speed in which people can deploy events, whether that's a small internal or an external sales kickoff or a customer event or anything like that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, what's still gonna happen is the knowledge, the skill, the experience of those people are still gonna be needed because otherwise we're gonna have everything look the same.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody wants to look the same as everybody else.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: So the creative aspect, the skill, the knowledge, the experience is still gonna be that special mix that's gonna still allow us to use those tools to do all of that prototyping and designing.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: But it's it's the human element that's still.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's such a common sentiment when when we interview people, think there's such a common sentiment.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: We could probably run that verbatim with that that that part of every episode about how you know it's it's not ready, it's not there yet to to to take over uh from the human element.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um so if you were not now event tech live massively successful, it's it is the pivot point for all event technology people, it's very, very niche, and uh that's important um because it does really speak to I I want to say event nerds, but the people that really know what they're talking about, and of course, any organization that is involved in events in any way that wants to better themselves.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: But if you weren't doing this, if this was not your path that you've carved out, what would you be doing?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: What's your other what other passion would you be pursuing if it weren't this?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think I've always been a content creator at heart.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think events are an output of that.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've hosted podcasts, I speak at so many events.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I would like to think that I could carve a career out in the industry of knowledge transfer and inspiration, whatever that might be.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think so many people um look to have experience and knowledge imparted on them so they can apply that to their businesses or themselves and things like that.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's such an important part of the events industry or the world that we're in right now, even through social media or YouTube or whatever.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I would like to see myself in one of those generally content creator thought leadership perspectives.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you were to to nail me right now, uh an idea that I've I've been dwelling on for the past, what feels like five or six years is is interviewing keynote speakers at events and really understanding why they speak about what they speak and why it's important to them and why they think that it's important to others and and why it's their passion and things like that.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's such an interesting concept to interview those other people that are inspiring people.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I think I'd be a I think I'd just fall into that content creator, thought leader kind of role.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: But that's also something you could do at Event Tech Live.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: Or yeah, I mean, as a side gig, maybe.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because it it's great.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I think when you're interviewing people and they're coming off stage, you can, you know, because keynote speakers clearly are selected because they have a passion and they have the knowledge, and because they they sort of um, you know, they're they're the ones that that create the I don't want to say, you know, create the template within their their industry.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but that that's a that's a good way to go.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Start with Event Tech Live.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah but it but you kind of do that anyway, right?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm very careful not to take stage at my own show, but one of the things that we have invested in over the last couple of years, and I see this now blowing off.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's it's ubiquitous even at the shows that I go to here in the Middle East, is we invested in a podcast stage.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: Not only so we could have those more intimate conversations, uh, more personal conversations with the speakers and the audience and the attendees themselves, but also to provide a platform for others who also host podcasts who also want that more intimate format to come and utilize that infrastructure and have those discussions.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think my passion would be spending the rest of my life eradicating the word podcast.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Why isn't it?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Finding something else.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what I mean, tech cast.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, like just uh yeah, we just didn't have a lot of things.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: You have to blame Apple for that.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: What is the sort of uh, you know, I want to find out what what you feel is the the biggest shift uh that organizers uh actually expect from event technology.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: So these informas and uh and and uh DMGs and DXB Lives and all these guys that are investing in event technology.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, what is their what's their expectation?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean that's a really interesting question because there's there's two answers to that.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: And it really depends on what type of company you are and on what drives the reason that you're actually delivering and producing events.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I say this not in a in a negative or bad way, but when you are a company of the scale of Informa and Clary and DXB, you're driven by shareholders, which means you're driven by margins and profit and scale.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and again, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um but that means that the technology use is about data that helps them drive that bottom line.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: So very much from a revenue opportunity, from how can we make more margin?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: How can we deliver better experience?
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because that ultimately does mean better ROI for exhibitors and sponsors, so therefore they spend more money or they're more loyal to you as a customer.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, where are the opportunities for growth?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Where are the opportunities for geo cloning events and scaling and launching new things?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: And also more in more so um analysing the data of other potential acquisition targets such in in MA to understand whether that actually fits really nicely within their business model and whether they can take it to that next level and scale it even further.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's how these large companies grow most of the time, is through acquiring other businesses.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, when you talk to the other side where the emphasis is more on creating human connection first and foremost, then it's what are the touch points, what is what are the physics at play in and around an event so we can understand how people interact and what's important to them and what demographic and profile of meaning do they fall into when they're looking to come to an event?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are they are they a networker?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Are they a salesperson?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Are they looking for education and inspiration?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Are they a combination of all of those?
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: And what type of experience and message are we crafting and creating for them?
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: So they, as an individual or as a small community attending our event, get the maximum amount of value out of it.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that tends to lean more into the what I would call the corporate brand enterprise side.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, companies like HubSpot and Amazon, when they're doing their events and their experiences, that's the meaningful stuff to them because the pipeline takes care of itself, right?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: As long as they can create um a sense of uh meaning and belonging with those people that are attending those events, they spend money with them.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how so it depends on on which side of the the the cookie you are.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's true, but but you're you're creating the platform.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're you're you're not uh you're not holding their hands, but you're creating the the you know the the ecosystem where they can thrive within you're you're putting all of the right components in place so they can meet each other and they can chat and they can find out because like you said, there there are different um different roles within the events industry that need different things.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: There are different companies that don't need one solution, but that but another company might need that solution.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna vary from company to company, it's gonna vary from person to person.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, and I think that just in general, they want to find the the technology that's creating the most value uh for them.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's true.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: And really, actually, what EventTech Live comes down to is it is funded to companies and and that are sponsoring and have these technologies to overcome these problems and challenges.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: But the biggest problem and challenge when it comes to technology in any sector is change management.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's how do we go from nothing to something and then to scale that so it's more effective?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Technology evolves and moves and changes quite rapidly.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the biggest challenge actually comes from how do we stay on top of a moving goal?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: How do we empower our team?
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: How do we educate our team?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do we learn from others about how they're used leveraging technology and the benefits and the products?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what Event Tech Live is.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: We we are, as a one of the smaller niche events in the sector, we actually have percentage-wise some of the largest education programs in the market.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: So we have four stages of content across two days.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: We have other elements like brain dates and one-to-one meetings and all these kinds of things.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the that's at the center of Event Tech Live.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually how can we empower and share that knowledge and educate people so that they can do a, they can make better use of technology.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: But it's a wide spectrum, it's very robust.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_02: You're creating because you're saying you might be one of the most smaller niches, but it's the one moving the fastest.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the one that's affecting the event the fast the most as well.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, uh stand design and things like this, and and you know, these are things that are gonna change sort of, you know, the very, very, very slightly.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: But what you're doing is uh is is really you know supporting the events industry through the rapid changes that they're going through.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to thank you very much, Adam.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think we had a really, really great chat.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's really interesting, you know, um because it's such, like I've said, uh probably woven into every question, that it's such an important feature within events is is the technology because we can't avoid it anymore.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um But thank you again for joining us.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: And before you go, I want to know what's going on with Event Tech Live.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what what are the next what's the next where the where is it the next dates?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: What are you expecting?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_02: Come on, uh just give us the whole the whole boilerplate.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: So EventTech Live takes place in November um at Excel in London um across the 11th and 12th.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: We're expecting about 3,000 buyers from about 40 different countries with circa 100 to 120 companies that are kind of leading the charge when it comes to technology and innovation in the market.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: A number of those brand new to the market.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a huge focus this year on obviously AI and AI adoption.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: So this year we we have our main stage, which is the big, broad highlight reel of kind of conversations going off in the market.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we have a dedicated AI and innovation stage.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: We have a dedicated um experiential and engagement stage, which is about how we create experience and use his technology.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then actually, brand new for this year in a space that we're moving into gradually is a dedicated stage in Martech and growth.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, again, supporting event marketers and entrepreneurs and business owners that want to really leverage technology to move the needle when it comes to growth of events and their revenue and their marketing and um audience acquisition and things like that.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a signal to where we're going to a co-locate um coming uh in 2027 that will be blended into Event Tech Live and really complement it and bring a new audience into the market as well.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have a do you have a strong regional representation coming to London?
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um absolutely.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um for whatever reason, the UK and London um for so many years was kind of like this hub of event technology.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: So many founders were based there, so many companies and individuals.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing, really strong, rapidly growing companies across North America with some fantastic ones homegrown here in the Middle East.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the that's the thing about event technology, actually.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_01: In some ways, you have this ecosystem of global scale and global companies that can deliver their technology anywhere, but to some degree, technology is still very much localized, and people want to deal with people that can deliver that technology locally.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I wish you the best of luck with it.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't like to say I probably don't have to wish you any luck with it because you're in your 13th edition and it's just flying.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really, really happy that you found the time to join us, and uh, we hope to have you back again soon.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for having me.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: Taking care.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Adam.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: The backdrop was recorded live at One Central in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: It was hosted by Michael McClennan and produced and edited by Dan Powell.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.