WHAT WILL EVENTS BE LIKE IN FIVE YEARS

You can read the transcript below or listen to Episode 2 on the episode page, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 2 Transcript

JEREMY: Alright, so I'm here with Mark Shearon. This is a real treat for me, Mark. I remember, very well, that you wrote this article while looking five years into the future to say, “It's 2016 now, what are live events going to be like in five years and how is technology going to change this industry?” I'm no math major but 2016 plus five years puts us to right about now, 2021.

MARK: I think what I talked about in 2016 is that convenience, customization, and curation of experiences would be what we're really looking for. I think that's still true. The devices that we all carry around are becoming a part of our everyday lives. I think what's interesting is that the pandemic has, in some ways, accelerated that fact.

In terms of details of things that we talked about back then and that I predicted, I laid out a day or two in the life of an attendee going to a large conference and having the check-in process at a hotel completely on your device. You didn't need to go to the desk. You can just approach the hotel, it would recognize you were there, you would check-in, be told your room, and then use the phone to unlock your room. Back in 2016, that wasn't a thing but now it is, so that has definitely come true.

The location-based services and NFC-enabled stuff that I was talking about are all going to come to fruition as we get back to the live events. These are things like beacons, phones knowing where you are in proximity to exhibits, or the phones tracking that you checked in earlier in the day and saying, “Hey, the track is just down the corridor.” That is all going to come to fruition as we get back to live events. This and the event apps are going to be enabled with all of that location-based services and NFC stuff.

JEREMY: What I love about your thought process is that I feel like when phones first became so ubiquitous, people were afraid of them. I don't want people looking at their phones. I want people looking at the stage.

Particularly now, within a general session room, where do you want the attendees to have their phones? Where do you want their attention?

MARK: I think we all remember the times when the voice of God would have an announcement saying, “Okay, it's now your time to turn off your devices and concentrate on the speakers.” I think that's gone…way gone. Frankly, I embrace that. I think you can actually make the live experience better by the use of that.

Sometimes it’s known as the third or fourth screen; to actually use it as a prompt, Q&A, or as a device to show a particular detailed piece of video that maybe you can't see on a large screen.

People are not going to turn their phones off. People are not going to put them away, so why not embrace them and make them a part of the messaging strategy?

JEREMY: I think that's really smart. When you were talking about the predictions that you had originally made, you used these three words, “curation, customization, and convenience.”

Can you just take me through that a little bit?

MARK: I think convenience is just having all of the information for the particular live event that you're at in your device and served up to you at the time, so I think the seamless convenience of everything being in one place is really what I'm talking about.

Then, the curation piece is that the organizers of the event can actually drive content to your phone and therefore to you. That way they know you're more interested.

The customization piece is being able to take all of that and then customizing that for me. I think there is a difference between what the organizers want you to go to and what they're trying to drive you to compared to what you as an individual are interested in and want to spend your time with.

That's why I love the whole idea of this third screen and really embracing that. It's a massive, gorgeous computer right there in your pocket that can just make things better.

JEREMY: What I think is so great about that is it adds up to a level of personalization for the attendee. Maybe there are 3,000 people there, but you feel like you're getting an experience that is built specifically for you.

Another thing you talked about in that article that I thought was really interesting was the idea of feeling like you're at home even when you're on the road. The hotel room really just knows your preferences and is ready for you.

I think that's such an important thing to keep in mind in terms of the experience we're trying to create for our guests.

MARK: I think that's super, super important, right? That really was a point of the article with what we have experienced in our daily lives. We should be delivering as event creators. We should be delivering that same level of convenience and customization in our live events because we just get used to it. That's our normal, so why would we be any different when we're away at a conference?

JEREMY: That leads to the million-dollar question. Now it's 2021, as you look ahead to 2026 what is going to be happening in our daily lives and how do we use technology to replicate that in the live space?

MARK: I think that whole idea that we were just talking about is going to become more prevalent. In some ways, technology is forged ahead, particularly the online and the digital piece, but some of the other technologies are falling behind.

A lot of our ideas for staging, screens, and automation come from the concert industry. Of course, we haven't had any of that for over 14 months, so we haven't had the latest U2 tour or the latest Lady Gaga. In three or four years when they're already doing something else, that tenant knowledge used to trickle down to us, so it's going to be so interesting to see what the big entertainment houses and the big entertainment providers have come up with within this time.

When the big concerts come back, who knows what they'll be doing where we can then take account of and use the technology for our events a year or two later after the technology is paid for because of Taylor Swift’s tour. We can then take account of it and use it for our event.

I think the complete switch from live events to virtual events has been interesting, and I believe that we'll see some real benefits from that ability. When in life have you ever been able to go, “We used to do the super large Oracle event called Dreamforce or a Microsoft event in this city with 125,000 people, and we'd love to change everything but are already planning the next one?” There's no way to really change things because it's just this monster that just keeps going.

Well, that obviously is a start to some degree. I think that we'll see that they've used this last year to reinvent those events. Maybe instead of 125,000 people going to the actual event, which is really difficult to make it feel personal, only 25,000 people go, but then 250,000 people actually have this amazing experience digitally and online.

I think 4k is beginning to come much more prevalent, or 8K. There's no projection anymore, right? Unless it's for some sort of creative reason. You know I talked about LED screens in the article, and all of the screens that we use now are pretty much all LED screens. That has come true.

The mixture of mixed reality and extended reality are, again, using the third screen with your device or devices. I think holograms, within a few years, will allow for somebody on stage to introduce themselves by having this big name that they'll just gesture to on their left. Then, that person will appear as a hologram right next to them as appose to flying them in, which should be a holdover of all the virtual stuff that we've been doing in the last year.

JEREMY: What are the stakes here? If I'm an event planner that feels like technology is not my thing and would rather put my speakers on stage to not worry about all this, is that okay? Am I doing that at my peril?

MARK: I don't think everybody's going to be able to use all of these technologies that we're talking about here, but I do think that over time, you will be left behind. I think your audience will demand it. It will be part of their lives and they'll just expect it.

You will, ultimately, be left behind if you're not thinking of incorporating what you can afford into your live events.

JEREMY: To your point from before, I think it's even beyond physical technology. It is sort of a mindset. You become accustomed to your technology by knowing you and being able to predict what you're going to want.

When technology doesn't do what you want in a certain sphere of your life, it's very frustrating and very disappointing. Obviously, that's not the experience we want to be giving folks.

This is great, so I'd love to move on to the Lightning Round. Are you up for three questions that I can kind of throw at you?

MARK: Sure!

JEREMY: Okay, great. The first question we ask is who's your biggest get? This could be a guest speaker, an entertainer, or a subject matter expert…anyone who you would just absolutely love to see at one of your live events.

MARK: I think David Bowie. He never would have done it. I don't believe he ever did do anything like that, but I think David Bowie would have been an incredible guest because he invented things and then reinvented himself numerous times.

JEREMY: What about a hologram performance from David Bowie?

[MARK LAUGHS]

How would you feel about that?

MARK: I think you just got to be careful that it isn't done in a creepy way.

JEREMY: They've done it right? Tupac did it and I think there were a couple of others who have done it. I want to say Snoop Dog, but I'm not sure if that's right.

[MARK LAUGHS]

BETHANY: This is behind the scenes Bethany breaking in with a fact check. Snoop Dogg performed live with Tupac's hologram at Coachella. Other singers who have performed as holograms include Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, and even Buddy Holly.

JEREMY: It’d be pretty amazing if you could see him over time, not David Bowie from ‘86. It's David Bowie from over the course of his career as a performance.

MARK: It would be unbelievable.

JEREMY: If anyone out there is listening, who's got the rights to David Bowie’s hologram performances? It would be a really good idea.

Second question, what is one thing you wish presenters did more of or I suppose less of on stage?

MARK: Just to be their authentic selves. What I try to tell people as I'm talking to them is that you're up here because you have some sort of subject matter expertise, right? You know what you're talking about so just deliver it in the way that you would if you were with me in a bar and you were telling me about this new product you were launching. I think sometimes people get too sort of hung up in trying to be something they're not.

I think we'd all agree that the best speakers that we've ever seen are well-rehearsed and well-prepared, but the crowd can smell if somebody isn't being authentic.

JEREMY: I think your advice is right on because you start to think, why is that so hard for people? Why is it hard to be who you actually are naturally? When you're in front of 3,000 people, it is really hard. If you just think about talking to one person and not talking to 3,000 people, it makes such a difference.

Final question, what is something, could be a book, a movie, or a song, that was a big influence on you?

MARK: Bittersweet symphony by The Verve is a massive part of my history. My wife, Sharon, walked down the aisle to it. I'm also just fascinated with the whole story of that. It's a riff from a Rolling Stones song. The Rolling Stones actually sued The Verve and took the rights back, but then they've recently given the rights back to The Verve.

JEREMY: I was going to ask if that would be your walk-on song, but I guess it's really your wife's walk-on song. She literally walked down the aisle to it.

That comes back to that idea of the authentic self. I’m always asking presenters if they have a piece of music that they want to walk on to. It's so interesting how that simple choice can relax someone, get them in the right frame of mind, and how each piece is different. You hear somebody pick something that you would never pick, and the thing you would pick, they would never pick. It's so personal, and yet it makes such a big difference.

MARK: I think it's your point. It gives them something else to think about. They're not obsessing about going on stage. They're thinking about that.

JEREMY: Well, this has been great. Thank you so much, Mark. I'm really glad that we got to talk to you about this and you've been very generous with your time. I appreciate you coming and talking to us about the past future and future’s future of live events.

MARK: Absolutely my pleasure and thanks for having me.

JEREMY: That was so great getting to talk with Mark Shearon. For me, there were four top takeaways, and these are the four tops.

                   • Number four. People live on their phones, so those devices should become a part of your messaging strategy.

                   • Number three. Attendees are used to technology that understands and predicts their behavior. Event technology needs to do the same thing.

                   • Number two. Make your event as convenient, customized, and curated as possible.

                   • The number one top takeaway is that presenters are more authentic when they just seem to be talking to one person. Even something like a personalized                                  walk-on music can help them feel more comfortable.

Look, I could talk about this stuff all day. If you want to talk to us about today's topic or anything about live events, check out our episode notes for more information or just go to proscenium.com to drop us a line. Send us a guest suggestion or tell us why you would make a good guest. We would love to hear from you because at Proscenium, we help presenters do their best in front of their most important audiences. As we like to say, we help brands perform. I have a sneaking suspicion that we can help your brand perform.