#event camp

Photo courtesy of Event Camp Middle East

By Steve MacKenzie, etouches Chief Revenue Officer

Event Camp Middle East 2013 took place in Abu Dhabi this year, one of the most exotic and up-and-coming destination cities. Event Camp is an innovative forum within an event where visitors and buyers can experience, learn and interact with like-minded professionals live or online. This year's show was strategically held in conjunction with Gulf Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (GIBTM), an iconic event attracting event professionals from the Middle East and all over the world.

Josh Dry of Showgizmo and Paul Cook of PlanetPlanit spearheaded this edition of Event Camp. Kudos to both of them for making it happen! Both Josh and Paul are veteran Event Campers and are great at at putting together an impressive panel of speakers and engaging attendees. Since its inception in 2010, etouches has supported Event Camp and in many cases was the registration and website platform. We are very proud sponsors of this groundbreaking movement

Having Event Camp Middle East in conjunction with GIBTM was a great idea by Josh and team. Not only did this increase on-site attendance but also facilitated an increase in the virtual attendance. As always, the educational content was leading edge, focusing on fresh and innovative ways to manage events and utilize new event technology. The Event Camp movement is well known for providing cutting-edge content and this year did not disappoint. The Event Camp hybrid format included seminars focused on technological advances impacting the meetings industry. The sessions were broadcast from the show floor and were streamed online to destinations as far afield as the US and Australia.

Saville Audio Visual provided the live streaming of the event in HD. Gotta love technology! Making hybrid events an engaging and innovative experience for remote attendees, new technologies play a core role in the future of event experiences. As the fastest growing region for twitter users, 2.1 million recorded in June 2012, the Middle East is a strategic location to promote hybrid event concepts.

I was scheduled for a speaking slot at the end of the first day. It was a bit surreal. I presented from my Saint Louis, Missouri home with 12 inches of snow on the ground, while the local audience was sweltering in 100 degree plus heat! During my session “Event Marketing Conversion,” I discussed the future of event data convergence. Tying together data from systems such as email marketing, event management and CRM provides event organizers with really granular information about their customers versus viewing data via separate media. This is truly the way of the future—using your data to really know your clients. 

I'd like to ask your ideas and help/assistance on getting some solid pre-event traction on the My Dream App grand experiment at the upcoming EventCamp Twin Cities. Below you'll find a brief explanation of the format. 

Collecting pre-event contributions and votes on the Apps currently used most, will be critical to the success of this component of the program. 

Ideas on how to improve the App experience from 3 perspectives (Participant/Event Organiser/Speaker) will be collected on a special series on Google Moderator here: https://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=ad266

#ECTC11 - My Dream App

My Dream App is a grand experiment to see what happens when you combine your current mobile app usage with the expertise of some of the brightest minds in the event industry (event camp attendees) and get great ideas and feedback. 

It works like this:

1) Submit the name of the Apps you most use today on your mobile device? 

2) Share with us the name and basic functionality of the App (Why you like it)

3) More importantly share with us what you are missing to make this the Best App ever for your meeting and event. 

We will be looking at Apps in 3 categories.  1) Participant Apps 2) Event Organiser Apps 3) Facilitator or Speaker Apps

Submit multiple entries and vote on apps you are also actively using so we get a longlist of the most used apps by the Event Camp enthusiasts. 

Your input will be enriched with peer insights to craft a list of desireable Apps. 

In the mobile apps session we will look at some eccentric apps and dream up what future apps could do to make us more productive, attentive and insanely engaged. 

We think we'll have 3 innovative, killer apps by the end of this event, and it'll be up to you to help decide which ideas make the cut, and how they evolve throughout the event. Sit back and enjoy. This is going to an insanely great ride.

Are you in? 

Look forward to your input and contributions,