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Platform-Agnostic Event Tech: How BW Events Tech Solves Complex Challenges · Event Industry News Podcast

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Hello everybody and welcome along to the Event Industry News Podcast with
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me, James Dixon, wishing you all a very good morning, afternoon, or evening whenever
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or wherever you tune into today's podcast from. I'm at the end
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of a marathon stint today of back-to-back Monday recordings. It's been great actually,
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loads of really cool guests, and once again on
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today's episode I get to reference people from different time zones,
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and I always say the sort of the good morning, afternoon, or evening, you know,
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I usually, I started saying that by accident years ago thinking thinking that,
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you know, never quite sure when people are gonna listen to the podcast, but as
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things have progressed, I've been fortunate enough to regularly have guests who've joined me from
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far-flung corners of the globe, and that intro becomes
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relevant to them as well, and none more so today. We're gonna be talking,
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I guess, event tech in a loose sense, but in a slightly sort of
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unique and niche way that I don't think we've
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addressed before on the podcast. We've had loads and loads of tech providers, tech platforms
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come on here and talk to us about what it is that they do,
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but today's event tech conversation may have a slightly different angle,
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and that will become obvious as we get into the conversation.
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I'm joined today by not one but two guests,
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Rae Malcham and Darcy Gabriel from BUW Events Tech.
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And well, first of all, welcome to the episode. Nice to see you both.
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Thank you. It's good to be here. And hopefully
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I've kind of, you know, framed it broadly speaking in the
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right way there, in that you know, what you do as a business at BW
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EventsTech is unique in the sense that many people
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may not have encountered a company that does what you do. Before we explain to
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them exactly what the company does, let's start with you, Rae, if I may.
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First of all, just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background and
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what your role is within BW EventsTech.
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Yes, hi everyone, I'm Rae Malcolm. I'm the
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COO here at BW Events. I've been with the company
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5, about almost 5 and a half years. But I've
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been in the event technology space for about 10 years. Before that, I worked on
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the client side, so managing event technology programs for
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Tableau and Cisco. I spent a short time for
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one of the platforms in the industry on the services side,
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and then now work at BW in the consulting side. So I've seen event
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tech from kind of every different seat and reference point, and it's really
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good to be here. Now I manage delivery, account management,
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and a lot of the internal scaling operations we do to support the growth we've
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had. Excellent. And Darcy, same to you. Tell us a bit about yourself.
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Yeah, thanks so much for having us. I'm Darcy Gabriel, the VP of
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Sales and Marketing at BW. And similar to Ray, I've been
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in the events industry my entire career. I started out as a content
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manager before I became an event marketer, before I switched over
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to the sales side, always in event technology, but in all different
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niches there. I joined BW about 4 years ago and
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never looked back. And having done those
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personal intros, I hope you don't mind, I've kind of set this up,
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but I want you to tell people exactly what BW Events
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Tech does that makes it a little bit different from people thinking, oh, it's another
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event tech company. Rae, let me pass the baton to you first of all to
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kick this one off. Perfect. So it's great that you set that up well,
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saying you've talked to a lot of providers on here before and learning
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what they do. And those are a lot of our partners. Where BW
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fits into kind of the market with event technology is we're
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really your platform agnostic partner. So we work really closely
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with clients to fill gaps in maybe resourcing,
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expertise, functionality. We augment
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experiences and we come in as experts
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in event technology, not just on one platform, but all platforms
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to help our clients sometimes manage day-to-day,
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implement, or take their event technology to the next level.
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So we work really closely with all the different platforms and partners that you've kind
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of probably talked to or referenced in the past. And we partner with
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them to make sure that their clients are getting the best value
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from the platforms that they're paying for. And then on the client side,
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we help make sure that they're using the right tools and best tools for
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them and their portfolio and needs. So we'll
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come in at a strategy and consulting spot to maybe help companies
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select a new tech stack or evaluate technologies
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for a need. We do all the management and implementation of
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event technology, and then we even come in on-site to
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manage their on-site deployment for check-in, badge printing, and that
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whole on-site experience. I, I can almost hear people like
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listening to that and seeing the clouds part
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and sunshine coming through and going, a company
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that actually comes in and doesn't have any allegiance or affiliation
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necessary to apply, they're there to help me. Because, you know,
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we are, you know, a dec— what I would say is broadly speaking, a decade
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or so really into event tech being not just
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a niche element of running events, but a critical part of it.
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But we are still in a situation where people are fearful
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of it. They're worried about it. They want to take on a new element
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or integrate something into their stack, but they're not sure how. How is it going
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to work? Do these guys integrate with those guys that I've used for years?
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All of these sort of obvious questions. And that's where you
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guys come in, Darcy, I guess. You know, that's, you know, it's about supporting
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those clients to find the best solutions for them or to
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find the best ways forward with the solutions that they've already got. That's exactly right.
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Like, we are that service overlay across all technology work streams
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across the entire event lifecycle. And how does that—
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how is that in the last few years particularly, how has that become easier
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or more complicated? Because when people were maybe
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just dipping their toe into the water and starting to develop, uh,
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and maybe you're starting from ground zero with a client,
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is it easier to work with a client who started from ground zero than it
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is to work with maybe a client that you come on board with nowadays who
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maybe have got used to a certain way of working that isn't the most efficient.
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Where do you sit with that, Rae? Yeah, it's funny, it's different.
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And I would say actually, I think for us probably gets easier because
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we, as we get more years of experience and more knowledge
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and data across working across all these programs and these clients,
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we're able to identify really great patterns and
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we're able to continue to build and improve upon things that we've
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done. And so it's so nice when client comes in, they're facing a problem,
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but we go, oh, that's exactly like what we
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did with this client or this project a year and a half ago.
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And then they can see that value really quickly. At the same time for us,
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it helps build a lot of validation that these problems
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that maybe clients are facing, they're not new problems
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in general. They maybe are new to them and that
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is so helpful that we come in and we've seen it before.
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And yes, you're always gonna have a little bit of that friction and saying,
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hey, we could do this better. But I think we have a lot of data
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to back that up now because we have so many case studies. We've been at
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this for, for a while. Like you said, we saw massive growth, you know,
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after the pandemic when event tech really
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became the forefront of a lot of conversations for
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producing events more so in the past.
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And as things change, because that is the only
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constant, we aren't afraid of it in any way.
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And it actually becomes easier because we're kind of used to that evolution.
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We see cycles, honestly, every few years you see stuff kind of
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come back again that was popular a couple years ago, but maybe it's
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done in a different way or they're using a new tool to do it.
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And so I think it's, it's actually been easier and more
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fun and exciting to continue to like hone in our craft
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in a way and create something that's like so uniquely VW for
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these clients regardless of the tools and technologies they're
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using. Yeah. Please, Darcy, go on, go ahead.
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Yeah, so to your point, James, on the complexity,
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what's really cool about all of our, you know, event technologies out there,
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all of our partners, is that the platforms are
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developing to the point that years ago we were dreaming of getting to.
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You know, a lot of those platforms out there are really robust But
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that's a double-edged sword because there's no way that a single event marketer
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can learn all of the tools and learn how to optimize every
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single component of all of these different work streams. So you have someone like
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BW with this niche expertise coming in to supplement that
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knowledge. Then what's also cool because we're so, so close with
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all of these tech platforms is not only are we experts in them, but we
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are partnering with them to inform their roadmap and help develop
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some of these new tools and features. So we're, really at that forefront of
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that innovation and then passing that on to our clients.
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And one thing that I've not said this a long time, but it's definitely
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something I've said before, is that if you take something as simple as Microsoft Word
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or Excel, right, or PowerPoint, any one of those sort
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of Microsoft platforms that everyone has used at some point in their life, how much
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of it do we actually use? When you launch a Word document,
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how, how many of the features that are actually built into that software
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do we use? Probably 5%, 10% at
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the most. People open a document, they select their font,
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they might do a bold heading, and then they type their document and they format
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it. Same with Excel, same with PowerPoint. And I've seen, and I've had
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firsthand experience of using quite a lot of different tech platforms in,
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you know, in the, in my day job outside of the podcast, and they're
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becoming more, more complex. The amount of sort of briefings I've sat in where they've
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said, oh, we've got all these new fancy tools. And we're like, that's great.
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But we're probably just going to still use the stuff that we've used before.
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I just wonder how much— how is that analogy
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reflective of what you deal with on a day-to-day basis? Well, in that analogy,
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we become Clippy. Yeah. That is true. That is
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true. But actually, I think what's really cool is we lean into that a
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lot because sometimes clients think that Maybe a tool they're using isn't
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meeting their needs and they're thinking that they're not able to solve
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a solution with that platform or that technology. And before
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we come in to say, oh, let's find you a new one, we're actually like,
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hey, let's see if we can solve your problem with your current tool,
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because likely and most often we can. And it is
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because it takes a lot of time and
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use and use cases to find
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that extra 80%, right, in a tool. And one person kind of
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doing maybe a consistent type of event that has no need to
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go kind of explore different aspects of the tool is gonna have
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that expertise. So it is a great analogy you say,
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like it takes a lot of time and just hours to,
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and problem solving and trial by error. 'Cause a lot of the
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times that we're innovating is because a client says, hey, could we
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do this? Or is it possible to do this? And our team goes, Let's see
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if we can, or like, let me pop under the hood, or like, let's see
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if we could leverage something we built for another client to do the
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thing that you're trying to do. And it's actually really cool. As Darcy
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mentioned, these platforms are getting to a point that we dreamed of 5 or
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10 years ago being able to do. Makes them more complex,
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but it, for us, it keeps opening up more opportunities for us to uplevel,
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customize, enhance, or use budget for
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other customizations because now a tool can do something in
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5 minutes that used to take our team 5 hours of customization.
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And so that's why, again, we're not ever intimidated by tools continuing
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to innovate because it just opens up more space
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and time and budget for us to take on more challenges and like uplevel
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things even more. So yeah, it's been really cool, but it's these,
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a lot of these tools we say like, I don't know, is it, what do
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they say with like skiing and snowboarding? Like one's easy to learn, hard to master,
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and one's like harder to learn, but then easier to master. Like I think
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some of these tools, like they're designed to have like a low, you know,
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easy to learn but hard to master, right? And so they want to get people
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in and figure out a way that that event marketer can have that
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instant value and like build an event on their own.
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But is it that, like you said, Microsoft Word, is it that 10%?
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And then how do they, how do they figure out that other 80 to 90%
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that the tool is capable of? And I wonder as well how many rash
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decisions have been made by organizers, Darcy, who've said, oh, this platform isn't
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really doing what I want to do, so we probably need a new platform.
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And How many people don't underestimate the time investment
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that has then a financial impact on their business
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in changing platforms? If you, if you can just invest a little bit
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of time through, you know, your services, for example, in actually finding out if the
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tool you're using can do what you want it to do, you're going to save
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yourself the time which represents money, you know, in not having
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to change to another platform. Which you actually do bring up
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a good point on the time segment. Which is the other thing that we really
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work with our clients on is building it, building out the event tech stack and
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building out for each individual event correctly the first time.
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Because we're, what we're doing is we're really understanding what is that end
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attendee experience? What is that end deliverable? And then we're building
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from starting from the end, right from the beginning so
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that you're not doing the, oh no, we just realized
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we've hit this roadblock. Because we didn't do it right the first time. And so
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we take the time to really think through how to, how to do all that.
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And then, of course, everything's on shorter planning cycles today than ever before.
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Yeah, and I've been there. I worked on an event in February
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this year, and they'd used a conference,
14:32
a speaker management tool to help manage all their speakers. And they had like 200
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speakers speaking over 4 days at this event, multiple stages.
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And the platform provider I've worked with on, on different
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events And they were— I was very lucky that they approached me
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and said, look, we need somebody who knows our platform to, to be at the
14:49
event to do a bit of on-site support. So it was my first sort of
14:52
foray into working at an event, and instead of doing it on the
14:56
production side, actually being there as support specifically for a platform.
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And literally on day 1 that I arrived, I realized
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that the client had built the entire thing and done
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something fundamentally wrong that took us a day to—
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an entire working day to undo it. And had
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they just been told at the very, very start,
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when you get to this stage, don't do this, do that.
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Yeah. If only they had the expert there.
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I saw a funny bumper sticker on like a home contracting truck that
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said, we fix what AI told you to do. And I was like, what an
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apt metaphor for the VW service layer.
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Absolutely. And, and, and the— what AI told you to do,
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I'm I used this on, on, on last week's episode, so forgive
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me, podcast followers, for repeating myself, but I saw, and I saw an AI-generated,
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uh, digital poster in a restaurant for a forthcoming event that they were hosting,
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and it was a country music themed event, and they'd used AI to,
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to, to generate it. And I knew that for 2 reasons.
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Number one, it looked like every other AI-generated music event poster
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that you see on social media now, which really annoys me.
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And secondly, there was a typo in it. It spelled the word
16:14
saddle incorrectly, and, and it was right there in
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the middle of it, and nobody had spotted it. And, you know,
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that's going to be my AI story and reference point
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now for the foreseeable future, um, is it's often wrong.
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You must check it because if you don't, it will make you look
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like a fool. And we can't accept lower quality work.
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This is something I'm very passionate about. We have to hold ourselves within the
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events industry to the same high standard that we always did. We cannot let
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the fast cycles and the ease of AI reduce the quality
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of the work output. Absolutely. If we can,
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we're kind of, you know, halfway through today's chat. I looked
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at some notes that you very kindly sort of sent through in advance. And the
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thing that I've circled here on my notes is tech tour stories.
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And I, I'm, I'm, I read it and I thought,
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I think I can picture what this is, but I really wanted you guys to
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kind of frame it for me if you would, Ray. Yeah. And just tell me
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what this tech tour was. Yeah.
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So it's, you know, what's funny is way back, uh, I'll give a little backstory
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on it too, which is fun. But, um, I met
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our founder Brandon Warnley. That's the BW in BW Events. We worked together
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at Cisco a long time ago, and when we did Cisco Live, which is
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a, you know, 30,000 1,000+
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event, um, we were asked a couple times to do what they called a tech
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tour, which was to give, uh, like a walking tour of
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all the different technology deployments at Cisco Live. And so
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some of it was some of like other event planners at Cisco, some partners.
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And so we started at registration, we walked through any, you know, unique challenges,
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um, who we were using, the vendors, and we kind of went into the expo
18:03
hall, and then we went some sessions, and then we highlighted things in the mobile
18:07
app. And every year, you know, we're trying to introduce a couple new innovative things
18:11
that we've done. And it was always so cool and so insightful to like not
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only, you know, recap the great work we've done, but invite
18:18
others into it as a shared experience because, you know,
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who likes to gatekeep information? We don't like to gatekeep.
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And so at BW, we saw a lot of value in
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doing that again, but right on this side, it's for the technology we've provided
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for a client. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, like some
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clients think they're facing unique challenges and they're not, but they work in silos
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and it's really rare that they get to connect with their peers.
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And so we've started a new tech tour series
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where we select a few events where there's a lot of maybe complex
18:53
technology happening at the program and
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we invite some clients or even just
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some colleagues in the industry to come and not
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only see the technology deployed in real time and
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get that demo experience in real life and ask questions,
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but they also get to connect with each other and talk about problems
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they're facing at the same time and see, you know, they're not alone.
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And sometimes they leave those, those days and those tours like with new ideas,
19:22
new insights. And it might not have even been from BW. It might just be,
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you know, like we like to connect people in the industry and bring them
19:29
together. And so the recent one I actually wasn't able to be at,
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Darcy was. Maybe Darcy, if you want to share some of the outcomes or kind
19:36
of unique stories from the tech tour that we did that were really cool.
19:39
It was really cool to see it live in action because the depth
19:44
of questions that people were able to, to ask and discuss
19:47
in the middle of the tech tour was so much deeper than you could ever
19:51
get from pretty much any other event context. So we kind of curated it
19:55
so that we had 7 different technology touchpoints. And at
19:59
each touchpoint, the attendees got to chat with the
20:03
client stakeholder and one of the BW stakeholders. And we
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got into some really niche topics, but was so
20:10
beneficial. And the overwhelming conversation after the tech tour was,
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oh my gosh, I didn't even know, I never even thought that you can do
20:18
it this way. You know, we were talking about the integration between the call
20:22
for sessions, the speaker management,
20:26
and the actual content management piece, which for this event
20:29
was actually like 3 different tools, so to speak, because there was
20:33
a lot of unique dependencies for this company. It's just the
20:37
way that they achieved it. And so, I mean, notes were being taken, ideas were
20:41
being shared. It was really, really just cool to see.
20:45
And the people that we invited on this tour, these are people who are hosting
20:47
10,000-person conferences. You know, these are people who are at
20:52
the top of the industry, but they're going to this event that's 35,000,
20:55
40,000 people, seeing it at a different scale and
20:59
just getting this really niche knowledge that you, you really can
21:03
only get when you're in the middle of the event. Yeah. And I guess for,
21:06
for you as a business as well, you know, hearing those conversations,
21:10
getting that feedback and just eavesdropping on, on the, on,
21:14
you know, the chat that's taking place, that's got to be valuable for your business
21:18
as well to understand what the pain points are of your clients.
21:22
Oh, absolutely. I mean, that's actually one of our favorite things is how we've
21:27
developed this little community amongst our clients where there gets
21:31
to be that knowledge share, but more roundtable discussion,
21:35
ideation, and innovation when we all get together
21:39
and get to chat. And there's 2 schools of thought, Ray,
21:42
on things like this. And I've heard both sides where somebody says, well,
21:45
we don't want to share too much information because we're worried then if people learn
21:49
how to do it without our support, you know, they're not going to need us
21:53
anymore. There's the other school of thought, which I'm much more inclined to agree with,
21:57
which is that if, if, if you can share that knowledge
22:01
and allow people to share knowledge and learn, what it does is it paints you
22:04
in an even better light as an expert, as people who know what
22:08
they're talking about and can be trusted with it. If you're a closed book and
22:11
you look like you've got secrets, you don't want to give them away, I think
22:14
personally that can have a negative effect. And I'm getting the sort of the feeling
22:16
that you guys are very much into that open knowledge sharing, that that's going
22:20
to reinforce the values that you have. Yeah, definitely. And it's
22:23
both. We, we have had clients leave saying we're
22:27
going to do this on our own now, or approach us with the idea that
22:31
like, help us do this year one and then we'll run with it. Like train,
22:34
train the person and then we'll do it. And I do
22:38
think, I mean, I don't have the data in front of me, but we've actually
22:41
had a lot of clients come back after a year off where they try and
22:45
go do it themselves. And then the thing is, right, they might've figured out how
22:48
to do that baseline, But then now they're asked to do something new or something
22:52
new is introduced and they come back
22:55
to us. And what we like is that our support is flexible.
22:59
Like sometimes a gap that we filled with a client is no
23:03
longer a gap that they need. And so we can kind of morph into a
23:07
new support structure, which we like and are happy to
23:11
do. Like I always say, if you have the people to do it internally,
23:13
like, absolutely amazing. Like if you have the team,
23:17
great. Like we're here to fill gaps, we're here to augment, we're here to customize.
23:21
We don't wanna be redundant or duplicate work that you already
23:24
have covered in your team. Like we're here to find
23:28
ways to either scale or support or grow.
23:32
On the side of sharing, yes, I think what we have found and
23:36
what's really unique, 'cause we work with some of the large recognizable brands,
23:41
every problem that they are facing is not unique.
23:45
Like most of the time, I mean, sometimes we've been on calls
23:48
where 3 calls in a week, the same, you know, you're like, something's trending
23:52
or like something's in the water. Like, okay, this is the 3rd time on
23:56
this call a client has like brought this up. And so
24:00
we love to share and then see that light bulb, like you say, go off.
24:04
If I can share a recent example. Yeah. You know,
24:08
we have a lot, like Cannes Lions is a huge festival
24:12
where a lot of these brands host multiple events
24:16
throughout a week. And so they'll use Splash
24:20
actually is like the most common tool used, I think, by a lot of
24:23
the companies. They create a unique registration for every
24:27
single event. So they might have like a VIP, you know, dinner and
24:31
then like an open rooftop or a, you know,
24:35
select group of like a happy hour and they register
24:39
people for these all separately. So if I'm an attendee, I've been invited to this
24:44
brand's you know, happy hour activation, a one-on-one meeting.
24:47
I might have 4 or 5 different confirmation emails in my email.
24:52
And so we worked with one client who really wanted to solve the check-in process
24:57
at the event when someone might be registered for 3 or 4 different things that
25:01
they have going on that week. We integrated all those
25:04
Splash events into one parent event and
25:08
distributed wallet passes that were tied to all of your registrations.
25:12
So Each attendee that was registered for any number of those
25:16
events by this one brand got a wallet pass that they could
25:19
add to their phone wallet, and that was tied to any number
25:23
of events they were registered for throughout the week. So that was just one QR
25:26
code they had to have on hand. They didn't have to go searching for different
25:30
confirmation codes or different confirmation emails throughout the week,
25:33
and it allowed for seamless entry at any point to any of their programming for
25:37
5 days. You know, Then I meet with another client that we're working
25:42
with in person at Cannes. She's like repeating the same problem to
25:46
me, like, oh yeah, we have this hub, we're trying to consolidate like, you know,
25:49
7 or 8 different events that we have into one and make it easier.
25:53
I pull up my phone and I was like, here's what we did, you know,
25:56
we have this Wallet Pass. She goes, I need this,
25:59
like, why haven't we done this before? And so it, it is, it's really cool
26:04
to get to say like, hey, your problem isn't— you're not alone in your problem,
26:07
like This is a, it's a great community. And I think one thing
26:10
we love is removing any competition. Like one
26:14
innovation makes everyone else a little bit better and a little bit better,
26:19
which we've really enjoyed getting to do like alongside our clients and
26:22
getting to like share the love is what we say. And what
26:26
you've just described there is it is, you know, in your specific
26:29
example is an event tech problem that you solved.
26:33
But what you've got there is the wider expectations from the public now.
26:37
Um, any type of event is if you're— if you've booked travel
26:42
somewhere and you've got to take 2 or 3 flights, so you've got to make
26:45
2 connections, you will have one boarding pass on your
26:49
phone and that pass will be relevant for all 3 flights. You're not carrying multiple
26:53
documentations for each connecting flight. It's about people's
26:57
expectations day to day now. If the big companies can do it with
27:01
travel and things like that, then when it comes to an event they will instantly
27:05
ask, why do I need 5 tickets for these 5 different things? You're all one
27:08
event. So it's the technology that
27:12
we use on a day-to-day consumer level now, I think, drives a lot of the
27:15
expectations in the event tech space. Yeah, Darcy was
27:19
saying she's very, very passionate about quality, and I feel like I'm
27:23
very passionate about looking at everyday
27:27
technology that we're used to and how should this support events? Like, why are we
27:31
reinventing things when we already have tools in the world that we're used
27:35
to using to solve problems, which is why I was fiercely passionate about bringing WalletPasses
27:39
to conferences because I said we're used to this. Like, this is a normal part
27:42
of our behavior. So I'm also, I'm really passionate about like,
27:45
we don't need to reinvent. Let's like use great technology that's out
27:49
there to make an experience more seamless or like
27:53
meet exactly like you said, meet the expectation of attendees,
27:56
which is getting higher and higher and higher. Like we
28:00
were talking about that a lot at Cannes. Like the expectation is so
28:04
high now. From attendees and users,
28:08
uh, it, you know, they keep raising the bar. And so like
28:11
keeping that in mind with Darcy's passion of like quality has to maintain
28:15
like the highest priority, um, where it's a great opportunity
28:19
if you're like excited about it. It can be intimidating if you want to cut
28:23
corners, um, because the expectations are only going to continue
28:27
to get higher. Yeah. And sometimes I've found as well,
28:30
and operationally, Darcy, I'd love to know, get your take on this. Um,
28:35
I was running a business conference, uh,
28:38
a couple of weeks ago, and I do 8 of these a year for a
28:40
client. And I'll not say which, which sort of industry
28:45
it's for, but it's, it's what I would call like an old-school style conference.
28:49
And I've been saying for ages that they're spending too much money on
28:53
print still, right? So they're printing delegate
28:57
brochures with all the information about the conference in there that are handed out at
29:00
registration. And they were trialing an event at a new in a new
29:04
location that they'd never run one of these events before. So it was likely going
29:07
to be all new. There were going to be no repeat delegates. And I said,
29:11
don't print the delegate brochure, put it on a QR code. And I've been trying
29:14
to get them to do this for ages. And they said, no, no, no,
29:17
our audience is really old school. They like the printed brochure. And I said,
29:20
yeah, but they've never been before. If you remove the choice and
29:25
just tell them that this is what they need to do, people do have
29:30
a herd mentality sometimes. And they said, oh yeah, but they might not be very
29:33
tech savvy. And that always annoys me and rattles me when people
29:37
say, oh, I'm not very tech savvy. Because if you can go on your holiday
29:40
and board a plane with your boarding pass on your phone, or if you can
29:43
get Netflix to work on your TV, I'm not, I'm not buying anybody
29:47
who says I'm not very technology savvy anymore. So the
29:51
outcome of this was that 2 weeks ago I turned up, they gave me
29:54
some printed brochures I, I didn't put them out of registration.
29:59
I left them in the box. I put— I made the operational decision on site
30:03
to only have the QR code. And as delegates arrived at registration,
30:06
I said, scan that QR code there and that will take you to today's delegate
30:10
brochure as a digit in a digital format. Not one person complained.
30:14
Wow. One person said, have you not got
30:17
a printed one? They all just got their phones out their pockets or out their
30:21
handbags, out the bags. They scanned the QR and they said, Thank you very much.
30:24
And away they went. And what did the event organizer think of this?
30:28
Well, I told them afterwards, I said, I didn't get— I said, uh, everybody scanned
30:32
the QR code. And they said, oh, that's, that's, that's much better than we expected.
30:35
And I said, yeah, caveat, I didn't put any of the printed brochures out.
30:39
I removed the choice from them. And I think so sometimes
30:43
with things like that, you have to be confident enough to say, look, trust us
30:46
on this, it will work. Remove the choice, don't second-guess your people.
30:50
Right. You know, sometimes you do have to listen to delegate feedback
30:54
and audience feedback, but sometimes I think, and this is probably more relevant to you
30:58
guys than any other tech provider given what you do, have confidence
31:02
in the advice that you can give the client. Right. Because I would also say
31:05
like, yes, you should know your audience and yes, you should cater to that audience.
31:09
But in this instance, it sounds like we were really operating on like,
31:12
well, this is just what we've always done instead of really forcing through like
31:16
Perhaps our audience has actually grown and changed along with us. Yeah,
31:20
absolutely. And the QR thing, I've had this debate before.
31:24
The pandemic brought QR codes to the masses. They were there before,
31:28
but as soon as restaurants started opening up, or as soon as—
31:32
in the UK, as soon as there was a hint that the pub would be
31:36
open but you had to sit outside and scan a QR to get a drink,
31:39
people were there. People were suddenly downloading apps on their phones and they
31:43
were learning within 30 seconds how to use a QR code so they could get
31:46
a pint. It's so funny because before the pandemic,
31:50
I mean, as working in event technology, like no one wanted QR codes
31:54
anymore. They said, oh, that feels so stale, outdated. We want RFID, we want
31:57
NFC chips. Like everything needs to be with that.
32:01
And then who knew the pandemic would be the comeback of
32:04
the century for the QR code and everyone realizing it's
32:08
actually so practical. So now, I mean,
32:12
we rarely, rarely have a client want or request
32:15
or want to like move budget aside specifically for like
32:19
NFC and RFID experiences because they've realized like people
32:23
are so accustomed to the QR code. It's not like assaulting to see a QR
32:27
code anymore. And you know, it's a, it's a, it is a financial saving and
32:32
it is a way, you know, to get the job done. And it's so popular
32:36
now. It's so funny like to watch that totally boomerang back into the
32:40
events industry. Sometimes now too much, like you can't have a QR code
32:44
like for everything, but, uh, it has been funny to see
32:48
it make such a big comeback. You're carrying something around that can
32:51
do all of this already. Why— I, I appreciate
32:55
there are still cases for it and for smart badges and
32:59
things like that, absolutely, without a doubt. But,
33:02
you know, in terms of hardware deployment, why not
33:07
take advantage of the fact that every single person on the pretty
33:11
much on earth now has access to something that can scan
33:16
a few black and white squares and access
33:19
anything that you want to put behind that link within a matter of seconds.
33:22
To that point, one of the innovations that we're seeing right now that I'm really
33:25
excited about is really leveling up these event mobile apps and making
33:29
them far more integrated into the total experience.
33:33
Like, I'm working with somebody right now whose their event takes place
33:37
you know, over a really large golf course, and they want the event mobile app
33:40
to pop up with specialty information depending on where you're standing
33:45
in that golf course, almost like a Pokémon Go kind of AR sort of experience.
33:49
But it's like they really want people to be in that app and like leveraging
33:54
the, the data and the information that's in there for this very cool,
33:57
like, holistic experience. It's great, isn't it, how we
34:01
can actually use those tools to to give people, you know,
34:04
some sort of hands-on experience or the real-life experience that they want, but using
34:08
a digital tool. There's a great sort of, you know,
34:11
paradox, if you can call it that, in there somewhere,
34:14
um, that we can use this digital technology and this virtual
34:18
technology to actually improve human experiences
34:22
and interactions. Um, I find
34:26
it fascinating. Tell me about, um, I've got
34:29
one eye on time and conscious of time and having 2 guests on today's episode.
34:34
But, and affording you both the luxury of a little bit more than normal.
34:38
But, you know, in terms of developments and trends,
34:41
you've mentioned the word trends a couple of times, Ray, about, you know, just speaking
34:45
to clients and sometimes there might be a week where there's certain trends. Is it
34:48
something that actually we're experiencing less of in the industry in terms of
34:52
trends? Are people a little bit more free-thinking now where they don't necessarily
34:56
just want to do something because they've seen their competitor doing it?
35:00
Did you find that there's a little bit more of a free-thinking approach, particularly since
35:04
the pandemic, amongst clients that you're working with? Yeah.
35:07
I mean, if I can be honest, no shade to our clients, of course.
35:10
All right. I think there's always this balance, like that desire,
35:15
like we really wanna be different. We wanna do things different.
35:19
And it, that takes time sometimes and it takes
35:24
a lot of buy-in and people are very
35:28
used to things a certain way, as Darcy mentioned earlier.
35:31
And so I think, and I do see it more for sure,
35:35
because especially with content being put
35:38
on LinkedIn all the time from events, like we're seeing all the cool different things
35:42
that people are doing. And I do think we've turned a bit of a chapter
35:45
the last year, especially with the movement and the creator economy and
35:49
brands leaning into like incorporating creators and content
35:53
creation into their event experience, doing things differently.
35:57
But there, there still is such a comfort in a
36:01
lot of the like traditional conference model,
36:05
especially when it comes to events and like in
36:09
the event technology. We love when a client really
36:13
wants to like push the boundaries and ask, you know, like what can we
36:16
do here? Or, you know, we're being challenged to— one of
36:20
my favorite is when clients say like, we work with a lot of tech companies,
36:23
we're being challenged to use our own technology in the event.
36:27
Experience? Like, how can we incorporate our own tech
36:32
into the tech, you know, into the experience?
36:35
And, and then it can be really cool challenge to do that.
36:39
And also the pushing the boundaries
36:42
and doing things creative and different. It's not always flashy.
36:47
Sometimes it's like very unnoticed, but it's like an enhancement
36:52
to the experience or it's reducing friction. Which I
36:56
always enjoy as well. Like the innovation doesn't always have to be
37:00
right in your face. Sometimes it's not noticed, which, you know,
37:03
is like sometimes the best event technology. It's like it just works.
37:07
And so you don't get comments on it, but that means it worked as it,
37:10
as it should. So I am seeing it more. I think the experiential,
37:15
like we're seeing more and more of that like brand activation,
37:18
experiential marketing intersecting with
37:21
conferences more and more, especially as maybe event and marketing
37:25
budgets are getting merged to kind of accomplish both.
37:29
And so it's fun to see both sides kind of benefit from that, like people
37:33
that are maybe more traditionally event activation experience
37:37
marketers that come from maybe more of the brand and advertising space, and then
37:41
conference and event planners kind of working across
37:45
both. So I think what that's— what we're creating, like more well-rounded experiences and
37:49
getting to see both kind of come to the table with their expertise to make
37:53
both sides better. That's interesting. Yeah. Go on,
37:57
Darcey, you had something to add. Yeah. The only thing I was gonna add was
38:01
even though I do feel like event marketers are very
38:05
much like looking at innovation and being these free thinkers,
38:08
I'm also finding that no one is planning events in a silo.
38:11
The community is so strong and there is so much like peer-to-peer validation,
38:16
peer-to-peer conversation and collaboration that's happening,
38:20
that there is this like very free-flowing idea share
38:24
that we're seeing. And it's actually kind of fun for me who
38:28
like talks to a bunch of different event marketers every single day where I'll
38:33
be like, oh my gosh, you are trying to solve a problem that my friend
38:36
over here is also trying to solve. Why don't I just get us together in
38:38
a call and really discuss it together? And then we can all ideate and
38:43
innovate at the same time. So I actually think I'm seeing more collaboration
38:47
than ever before. Wow. I mean, collaboration is great,
38:51
but one thing that sort of occurred to me, we've all
38:55
been to events where we've seen panel discussion, the latest trends for 2026,
38:59
or the predictive trends for 2026. And it occurred to me that every
39:03
event organizer wants their event to be unique. Every event organizer
39:08
wants their event to be different from their competitors' event
39:11
or from similar events in that industry or for that marketplace,
39:15
whether it's B2B or B2C. So in
39:18
some respects, why would they want to know what the trends are?
39:22
Because why would they want to follow what everybody else is doing? So the whole
39:25
sort of trends discussion is an interesting one to me in, in the event space
39:29
when you think about events really wanting to be unique and having
39:32
their own identity. Though I agree with that, I will say the
39:37
way that a trend gets applied in like a fintech space versus
39:41
a healthcare space versus like a, I don't know, like construction
39:45
tech space. Oh yeah. Those trends will get applied so differently that
39:49
on the surface you might not even think that they're the same thing at all,
39:52
even if the underlying attendee goal or attendee experience
39:55
is the same. So it's, I do think because everyone is really catered to
39:59
their unique audience, they get to apply it in just enough
40:03
of a unique way that It's the
40:07
feeling rather than the execution is the trend.
40:11
And that application, the unique application will be where you guys come in.
40:14
That's exactly it. And I think that's where we can see the
40:18
disconnect is when someone tries to apply the trend without thinking about how
40:22
it translates to their audience. And exactly like you can see,
40:26
sometimes it just doesn't. And that takes some finessing and
40:30
expertise to go, okay, like what they did, but how would that
40:34
work with our format or our guests or our attendees?
40:38
Because sometimes it doesn't
40:42
land. And like you said, the expectations are high. So it is
40:46
a consistently fun challenge to figure out how to bring some of the same
40:50
solutions in ways that cater to different technologies and
40:54
industries as a whole. Sorry, go on,
40:58
Darcy. I was just gonna say, I always challenge people to think of the why
41:00
behind something instead of the how or the what, and then really focusing in
41:05
on that, the why, and then building it out from there.
41:08
Absolutely. I was just gonna say thank you very much for your time both today.
41:11
We've been talking on the Event Industry News Podcast to BW EventsTech
41:15
and specifically to Rae Malcolm and Darcy Gabriel, who've been
41:20
generous enough, I would say, on this Monday morning and Monday afternoon
41:24
depending on where you are, Um, giving up your time today to have a bit
41:28
of a chat with us. And I always like to say that we want to
41:29
leave people on the podcast with, with more unanswered questions
41:32
than answered ones, so they go off and do their own thinking, their own research,
41:36
get in touch with my guests, see, you know, what they— that they can— what
41:40
conversations they can, they can pick up beyond this podcast. So if people want
41:44
to find out a bit more about you, uh, Darcy Rae, tell us where they
41:47
need to go. Find me on LinkedIn. I'm really active on LinkedIn.
41:51
I think I'm the only Darcy Gabriel, so I should be pretty easy to find.
41:56
Yep, and same here. And of course, our website's bweventstech.com.
42:01
We have a great form if you, you know, want to fill out a form.
42:04
But as Darcy said, uh, our, our team and both
42:07
of us are really active on LinkedIn, happy to respond to any DMs
42:12
and messages and let us know you guys heard the podcast. So, uh, many ways
42:16
to get in touch. Fabulous. And just to repeat that,
42:19
bweventstech.com. Tech.com. Remember the S in the middle.
42:23
I bet a lot of people miss the S out. I bet a lot of
42:26
people just put event tech. So really important, bw-events with an S tech.com
42:31
is the, is the website. Go and check those guys out, find out a little
42:34
bit more about the good work they are doing. And thanks again for your time
42:38
today and joining the podcast. Um, just a couple of wrap-ups from me before
42:42
we end, uh, end fully today. Um, as always, thank you
42:45
for, for tuning in. If you're listening to today's podcast on your audio
42:49
platform, please do make sure that you head over to eventindustrynews.com
42:54
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42:58
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43:01
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43:19
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43:26
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43:29
the next edition of the Event Industry News Podcast. Goodbye. Thank you.