Augmented Reality (AR) is currently hot in marketing. But what impact does this technology actually have on the event industry? Is this just another cute gimmick or is there more to this electronic gadget? And what does it offer the progressive and creative event professional?
Seen any applications of Augmented Reality (AR) lately? With the aid of AR technology you can now create an engaging blend of real and virtual data - in real-time. To put it plainly: by focusing your smartphone camera on an image, your smartphone will show an overlay of additional information linked to that image. It puts a virtual layer over the real image as it were.
The technology is certainly not new. For several years now these kinds of applications have reared their head from time to time. QR code is one of them. And perhaps you recall the Ikea catalog of a few years ago where you could use your smartphone camera to scan a photograph of a piece of furniture and get extra info about the piece via your smartphone.
Is the world of events ready for this technology? There are certainly possibilities. Just think about the prospect of enriching the contents of a conference catalog, or applications around the concept of gamification. But the big breakthrough is yet to come. Granted, there's certainly always a wow factor attached to this type of animation, but the technology has not yet brought real added value. It still falls short of a practical and tangible application that will make life easier for the professional. An additional obstacle is that everyone would need to have an AR app installed on their smartphone.
Keep AR developments in mind and test them out at your events. Who knows, maybe AR will give your participants that extra level of experience that they have been waiting for.
With this 'Events & technology’ series we will inform you about the latest technologies that may have a significant impact on the way we organize events in the future. We will provide a brief overview of how these technologies work and what potential benefits they offer. It’s up to you to keep an eye on whether they can do something for your events or your target market.
