Meetings Focus caught up with Jordan Schwartz, founder of the Pathable meeting management app, to get his take on this year’s tech trends; from the decline of Facebook to the emergence of targeted social networks and the growing importance of online security. Here are his predictions:
- The continuation of everything social, especially in the meetings market as more planners deploy private, branded social networks that allow attendees to meet and engage before, during and after an event: “Big networks like Facebook are seeing a dropoff in younger users. They’re moving to Instagram and SnapChat where you can easily control who you send content to. This new, targeted model is good for Pathable, since our users can create individualized profiles for different groups they belong to.”
- Widespread adoption of interactive presentations, allowing speakers to share slides online in real time, run polls and surveys to get immediate feedback and answer attendee inquiries: “Attendees are becoming participants.”
- Wearable technology. Schwartz attended the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and reports that wearable gadgets, like Fitbits, Google Glass and the to-be-released Apple iWatch were the hot items on the tradeshow floor; “As costs drop, the ubiquity of these items will increase. For conferences, we might see bracelets with RFID scanners that automatically sign you in to sessions or send booth info to your email.”
- But along with these changes comes increased attention and value placed on privacy.