The world of physical events- key points in the landscape of business-changed dramatically with the onset of COVID-19 in late 2019. This true disruption continues into 2020 though event-industry stalwarts point to a likely return to briskness in 2021. Whenever the return to normalcy occurs- indeed if it occurs- the event landscape will change, perhaps even for the better.
This begs the question- what is an event? How big does an “engagement session” have to be to be deemed an event? Does an event require “booths” and all the paraphernalia associated with them? All of these are legitimate questions and in many ways are determined in the eye of the beholder.
This further begs the question – how effective are physical customer engagements? How does one really know if creating a physical presence will continue to impel engagement- from basic queries all the way to purchases.
When posed this way, the question takes on massive scale in its implications. From physical events and demo booths, from retail stores to urban districts, the engagement of people with each other- especially in a business or economic context- is still poorly understood.
Let’s take the most basic example as a starting point to illustrate this: The booth at an event.
Organizations world-wide spend over $300B on physical events; even in 2020, 85% of polled executives said physical events and engagements are “critical” to their businesses. Still, when surveyed, event marketers cannot offer rigorous positions on which booth KPIs are the most relevant and, indeed, what these KPIs offer in terms of ROI. Event companies certainly offer a variety of methods (like badge scanners) to make these assessments, but they end up being one-size-fits-all and can’t distinguish between light and heavy engagement.
What we need is a true solution for Engagement Analytics
Such a solution would allow the booth owner to truly understand the efficacy of the content shared, the degree to which prospective customers are engaged in useful conversations, the nature of the time spent at the booth, and other factors highly correlated with customer success. Such a solution would grow and offer enhanced intelligence over time, via Machine Learning, by distinguishing between useful engagement and “non-economic” engagement and by comparing assumptions about engagement with proven transactions.
Enter the Akvelon “Conference Booth Assistant”, a revolution in the area of Engagement Analytics. Using cameras, IoT devices, and Machine Learning, the CBA offers a plethora of analyzable and actionable data on customer presence and engagement at tradeshow booths. But there is more. Extending this concept into engagement at retail store check-out counters, people-flow around kiosks and installations, and human interaction with content and advertising of any form (in any location), the CBA opens new vistas into Engagement Marketing and Analytics.
As marketing activations, office, tradeshow, and retail configurations, and even urban planning are all being re-imagined, the power of these solutions cannot be overstated.
To learn more, please watch this video:
Special thank you to Max Kostin, Pavel Savelev, and Artur Khanin for their help in the development of Akvelon’s Conference Booth Assistant.
Contact us at info@akvelon.com to learn more about Akvelon’s CBA solution and its extensions into all spheres of business.
Constantine Korovkin is the COO and Co-Founder of Akvelon. He is passionate about excellence in execution, building successful high-tech businesses, project management, exceeding clients and customers expectations in every way.
