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Interactive Tech for Events
Touchscreens can display the most up-to-date information from practically any source. But whenever you commit something to paper, there’s one big difference: you’re stuck with it. For events organisers, this risk is in the forefront of their mind whenever it’s time to print up brochures. Inevitably, things change; people cancel, change plans, or miss their train on the day, rendering printed brochures instantly inaccurate.
There’s also the printing cost, and the waste generated at the end of the event. If half your brochures have to be amended, you might also have an admin cost of printing inserts or having documents printed twice.
Just like the humble monitor, the printed brochure has had its day. Touchscreens solve all of these problems. They allow you to publish event information in real time, without the constraints of deadlines. Your digital team can create the software for the event, and another team can populate and change the content using a back-end CMS. It’s a less wasteful way to display an event brochure, and that’s just for starters.
Touchscreens at Events: Your Brochure Goes Interactive
Touchscreens offer another benefit: they offer interactivity. And when you’re promoting an event, this can be a big bonus. Don’t just tell people who’s speaking, or who’s got booths at your event. Provide their social media feed in real time. Let people watch short videos, or promotional content, donated by exhibitors. Provide short keynote recaps as teasers for events later on in the day.
Real time updates add to the utility, as well as the potential for engagement. Using a CMS, your team can constantly update the information on the display. Offer a curated content feed, real time schedule changes, or incorporate a live feed from touchscreen games and contests.
Sponsors will certainly appreciate the opportunity to add their own content into the mix. Rather than contributing a brand logo for print, they can provide ads, showreels, or curated feeds of their own. This transforms the event sponsor from a silent benefactor into a meaningful voice in the conversation.
Last but not lease, have you considered your event app? How does it fit in with your strategy; is it really offering people the engagement and interactivity they need? A reported 80% of events organisers like event apps, but just like brochures, they go stale if they are not designed with delegates in mind. You could sync up your event app and your touchscreen displays so that the content deployed to both stays in sync. Let your delegates contribute status updates or photos through the app, and display them on the touchscreen for attendees to flick through.
Touchscreens aren’t just for games and entertainment — although there’s certainly nothing wrong with either of those activities, particularly at business events where a little light entertainment sometimes goes a long way. But as a distribution platform for information, they also offer some compelling benefits: less waste, more content, real-time updates, and the ability to shape your brochure as the day unfolds.
With touchscreens running both Windows and Android, the possibilities for interactive event brochures are vast — and there’s still room for innovation.