So you want AR or VR at your live event? Forget it; dive into these technologies instead!

For any of us who have dreamed big about putting together a perfect brand experience using AR or VR as part of our corporate event...and then actually went about trying to find that solution...we generally have been disappointed. The time and cost of a custom solution that perfectly fits what your brand is trying to accomplish always outweighs the return on that investment. No product out there today has made customized service affordable and relatively easy to roll-out...and with good reason: it’s very complicated, nuanced, and needs to hit your brand's objectives. So let’s instead focus on innovative technology that is readily available and that can position your event into the “worthy of sharing socially” and “something you’ll actually remember” categories:

1. Projected / Augmented Reality - this is commonly referred to as projection mapping, and while a true mapping scenario can run quite a lot, your event can have nearly the same benefits by just using selective front-projection. Some great products exist now for consumer use, and can be programmed and set up within a day to project onto any surface. There are limitations, however, and unless you have a very robust projector, you will need to plan on countering light pollution. This technology can make otherwise boring installations or walls suddenly seem fully branded and part of the overall event experience. They can even be reactive with a few other pieces of off the shelf technology, so your guests can interact actively or passively.
2. Prefabricated LED Shapes - modular design means efficient pricing, and there are great companies and products out there that let you build activations like Legos. A pulsating art or foyer activation as art is so much more engaging than waiting in line for a VR headset to get the chance to walk around a virtual store. Scale to more people and start see the benefits.
3. Touchscreen Interfaces - everybody already knows how to use them, why not put your dense data into an info-graphic or interactive chart. Make sure this custom display is in a heavy traffic area, and if you have a little more budget and have a conference website or app, it’s a really nice feature to incorporate into that for not all that much more investment.
4. RFID - a bit older tech, but cheaper than ever and actually powerful when used right and used sparingly. Trying to make this do too many things is a mistake...stick to simple and get easy wins in data tracking and analytics. A little more advanced can get parts of your event to activate when an attendee is near through geo-tracking and tagging.
5. LED Wristbands (Instead of Lanyards) - make your credential part of the interactivity, with the ability to quickly separate crowds by color as you see fit or encourage engagement by having them light up at different programming points. If having a name displayed on an ID is important, there are products that have the lanyards light up as well. The rule here is use these items as part of your program, not just as a random cherry on top. Incorporate it into the overall experience and get the halo effect of inter-connectivity of your messaging.