Good morning all.

My name is Dev Sharma, I am the Vice President of Strategic Account Management worldwide at MCI. I would like to thank Double Dutch for inviting me and allowing me to share some insights with you on how technology is enabling our clients’ marketing and event aspirations.

To provide some context – a few things about MCI in a nutshell….

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That's why we've been bringing people together through innovative meetings, events, congresses and association management for over 28 years.

We believe that through face-to-face, hybrid and digital experiences, we can help companies and associations to strategically engage and activate their target audiences, building both their online and offline communities to strengthen their brands and boost their performance. We organize over 4,500 events per year…so we feel lucky to be creating so much magic.

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So the 1st topic I would like to address is what are some of the common event and marketing aspirations we see? And can technology help enable and increase engagement?

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Aspiration 1: Listen, shape and curate the meaningful conversations that happen around their brands, conversations with but also amongst the participants – pre,during and post event.

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Aspiration 2: Events are an investment, so the desire to extend the life-cycle and the associated investment of the events and conferences is a common aspiration.

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Aspiration 3: Strengthen their internal and external stakeholder communities andnetworks.

Would you say one of these applies to your view on what you are trying to achieve? This is the audience participation part…please feel free to use the i-nod function…

How many surveys have you read post-event where the conversations and the contacts made were very high on the list of what made your conference a remarkable success? Live events are special in that way. …but that doesn’t mean we should be averse to newer and better ways to engage …and technology and event apps are part of that.

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We have great opportunities ahead, but there are equally “challenges” in this area we can or will face if we look at some of the recent headlines…….

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According to Gartner Research, by 2020, 75% of businesses will be a digital business or will be preparing to become one. Yet Gartner reveals the number one reason companies fail is they have a hard time to imagine what such a digital transformation will mean for their business.

Published in last month’s meetpie.com, a study conducted by the Event Manager Blog with 3,000 event organisers suggested 2/3 of them don’t have an event app. Yet half of those who don’t - want one.

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So what do statements like this mean to us meetings and marketing professionals in the business of face-to-face engagement?

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How many of you remember this?

Not so long ago, when the word “virtual” came into our meetings world it caused concern that it would abolish or greatly reduce the need for live interaction. We see today that this concern was not warranted. Instead, technology enhances meetings, it enhances the way we can connect the participants in the room and outside the room. It enhances and prolongs the power of the conversations that took place at an event or meeting. It enables the community.

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It can be said that based on observation, adoption of apps in the meetings world still has a big upside as adoption is still low. In a study issued by the Event Marketing Institute just last month they say “by 2016, 88% of planners expect their attendees to consider mobile event apps as critical to their event experience.”

There is clearly unrest and transformation going on in this space and organizations can either choose to be leaders or laggards.

At MCI, approx. 1/3 of our events benefit from digital applications or enablements -from how content is digitized to online services, event apps or other event technologies. And this is growing every year.

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To quote one of our digital specialists, I liked what I heard when he said “we have seen apps take events to a new level and especially when the use of technology is 100% aligned with the raison d’etre , the mission or soul of the host company or association.”

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I would like to share two stories that I also feel reflect this philosophy. One story is about saving the planet; the other is about great hair…both very related.

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Story#1: United Nations Global Compact

Who are they?The UNGC is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies in the area of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption and this along 10 universally accepted principles. The UNGC is chaired by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

MCI is a signatory of the UN Global Compact and was the 1st agency in our industry to sign.

But the interesting story is the following: our Group Sustainability Director who is very passionate about all that is CSR and sustainability, participated in an event as our representative in the UNGC.

Do you remember those airline headphones…tube like air connections…..

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….these were being used for the interpretation…..

After the conference, our Sustainability Director went up to talk to the speaker andorganisers. They asked how he found the meeting and, coming from a meetings management background, he could not resist but to offer some humble feedback on the technology that was being used at the meeting.

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Fast forward a few years and we are now in New York and responsible for a UNGC gathering of 1,200 top executives and other stakeholder groups to discuss corporate sustainability.

This time we have added in some more recent technology and also an event app!

Now - this is not about the app, but rather what the app did and how it supported precisely what the UNGC stood for……

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It eliminated the need to print agendas, participants lists and other materials (and gave them the ability to make last minute changes and keep everyone updated). It integrated social media channels such as Twitter, which helped build broad awareness externally and increase the profile of the event itself and also allowed C-level executives and young professionals to engage and have a conversation.. a conversation about making this world a better place.

The UNGC has also strategic partnerships with different organisations, one of which promotes the use of sustainability reporting as a way for organisations to become more sustainable and contribute to sustainable development. They also had a 1,600 person meeting and were inspired by the UNGC event and also decided to use an event app. Being reporting “fans” they were very proud to go back to their stakeholders and markets with statements about how the app eliminated the need for a 75 page programme, saved 13 trees and 27,013 litres of water… and last but not least were able to show additional marketing value and return for their event sponsors. The technology had an important role to play in the enablement, the change and transformation this organization was aspiring to create in the world. One could say the moral of the story is = good for the planet, good for business.

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Key to this company’s business is the role the distributors of their products play. The distributors contribute close to 2/3 of their revenues, so this is a very key stakeholder group.

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This company engages with their distributors in a collaborative fashion and part of that includes an annual conference where their top distributors attend, where joint business strategies are crafted and shared amongst the participants. These distributors are not on exclusive contracts and thus wooed by other companies.

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So the event objectives were very clear: high engagement, building loyality and enabling their distributors’ business success were paramount.

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With such a crucial and high pressure situation, as planners we need to get it right the 1st time …there is no reset button.

We also can’t wait until after the event to make adjustments – the moment is past / lost. We need to be able to react in the moment for the moment.

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And Double Dutch helped us with that challenge. In this story the app was an excellent enabler to listen and observe the participants for both logistical and also strategic optimizations.

From the backend of the Content Management system (called the Event Performance Dashboard) our on-site logistics team was able to monitor the engagement and activities and continuously fine tune as the 3-day conference went on.

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What went well?

Engagement level was at 90% - which according to available benchmarks with other events was above average (which is usually 75-80%.)

92% of users used the app more than 10 times = the super user

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The app was launched 3 months before the conference started and it helped the participants practice and try out the app…which we saw on-site they used with great ease, but it to also helped generate the pre-event buzz that was sought.

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Given the persona of the distributors we knew that social content would help drive engagement and we saw clear evidence of this with the activity feed and posting of pictures…lots and lots of selfies…

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On the topic of the activity feed we also saw that this was the area in the app that was the most used to connect and engage between the host of the meeting and the distributors but also amongst the distributors themselves.

We had instant feedback if we were doing the “right things”.

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Together with the marketing team of the host company we will be using this data to improve on the next edition and we can already see today some quick wins namely:

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We could use polls during the pre-event when we see engagement levels dropping –for example asking something like “what are you looking forward to the most about the event?”

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Look at adding in gamification - where the winners would be treated to some special products….or time with a famous colorist

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Look at using i-beacons to personalize the attendees experience as they walk through the conference, particularly the demos of new innovations and products.

Given that this is a captive audience and highly engaged, considerations could be made for a “permanent/long term app” but with the commitment to providing relevant and timely content.

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Last but not least from a logistical point of view, we saw that the engagement level is very high and that we can curate the conversations, so looking at having a dedicated digital project manager is a key consideration for future editions –it’s more than a full time job.

I was personally at this event for about 24 hours, but I was able to follow and be part of the event remotely a few days before and could follow the buzz and the excitement via the app before I even got on-site…the best part was as I was leaving the hotel about to get into the taxi to the airport …I quickly looked at the activity feed and saw the following post from a major distributor:

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Doesn’t this say it all? We are happy we could help make magic happen!

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As a wrap-up, I wanted to offer some food for thought on where some of the next potential opportunities of mobile apps could be for us as meeting and marketing professionals, beyond pre-engagement, getting the buzz of the event going, logistical optimizations or participant experience on site….

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Multi-event analytics is all about looking at the post output data and how it is used for portfolio management / insights gained to address business challenges. What did we want the participants to feel, say, do differently after the event? And did this happen?

It’s about gaining a deeper understanding of the drivers to satisfaction and experiences in the pre-design and delivery of the events.

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Control Your Destiny: Use data insights to drive transformation / change – don’t leave it to a hunch and make smarter decisions.

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And lastly:Capitalizing on the power of the networks and curating the right connections. Let me give an example:

How many of you scuba dive? Raise your handHow many of you know a scuba diver?

A practical application in the world of pharmaceuticals is the KOL (Key Opinion Leaders) – these are physicians that can provide advocacy activity and key marketing feedback especially in the early stages of drug development. There have been many changes in the HC/ pharma world, one of which the KOL definition has become more broad and varied. Some of the more forward thinking and sophisticated pharmaceutical companies are now becoming far more astute in identifying and listening to the next layers of KOLs and Influencers and their networks…just like with the scuba diver example. This power of a network –we see this today in social media platforms such as FB or LinkedIn…the friends of my friends = many more friends. In our events we are in a prime spot to connect those networks both online and offline. MCI does many events. We are engagement specialists. As we produce over 4,500 events, we too have the opportunity to see, spot, and curate what works the best for activating and engaging audiences. With the wider adoption of apps and the power of app technology we can also use multi-event analytics for a company-wide view of event performance. As I said earlier, as planners we need to get it right the 1st time …there is no reset button.

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I can add that my own personal journey with event apps which started a few years ago was not that easy….as I thought I would have to be a technical genius to get it…but providers such as DD are making it easier and easier (especially for the digital dummies like I was) and I wish them continued success. Thank you.

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I hope I have been able to inspire you to look at what apps/technology can do for your business and wish you a great rest of the conference – thank you.

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