A trend I'm seeing in the event tech world

As you may or may not be aware, I launched a hybrid event platform called Bettercast at the end of 2020 and have been working hard to compete with all hundreds of competitors that are out in the market.

As a good startup entrepreneur, I have been busily researching, reading and getting as much information into my brain as I possibly can, and I keep seeing this comment come up from a lot of event manager surveys and then I see the result of this in the technology that is released.

Firstly, event managers overwhelming state that their biggest concern in events is that engagement of the views is low and that is the biggest struggle, engaging the guests. The second issue that is raised is that event managers are relying on the event tech suppliers to come up with gadgets and gizmos to try to engage their users more, and almost all of the players I see, are pandering to this desire.

Add more features so our users won't get bored because features are what people want... and I'm really taking some issue with this.

Maybe it's because I have built a number of products before, and I have fallen into the feature trap a few times, build new things and that, that is what will make the users want to stay, or sign up. Another widget where they can play a game while listening to a 50-year-old accountant talks about the Hawley Smoot tariff burden on the economy in the last 30 years....

Yeah, a fancy badge on their profile will keep the users listening. I have to say, no, that will not do anything like what you want.

It's like television show producers complain that the TV manufacturers need to add more buttons to the remote so viewers will have more things to play with while they watch.. its misguided and destined to fail.

Of course, I'm all for this as a strategy for all of the completion, please, PLEASE spend all of your money on developing features that do 0 to the viewer experience so when there is the inevitable fail, then maybe there is more space for my little thing!

So this gets me to the points I need to make in this rant.

The first is that your content is the only thing that is going to engage your viewers, not the chat function, not the fancy VR rooms not the badges and gamification, its the content you produce in the live stream, in the pre-recorded videos and the content that is provided by your exhibitors and sponsors.

Be creative with what and how you produce your event online, most platforms will have multi-track services, so use one track to send a roaming video team into the exhibition hall and interview and talk to the guests and exhibitors, do some things that are interesting.

You really need to be thinking that your event, is now going to have a full TV studio set up in the middle of it, and you're going to be broadcasting your event as production, not a zoom call.

The second is that everyone is seemingly forgetting the second most important client on the event platform, the AV team. They are the ones that are going to be producing and delivering your show, and if they aren't given the right tools to produce then no matter how good your content is, it's going to be a bad event.

How is their internet connection? have you actually spent enough time and energy getting them all the content they need to make the stream look good, something simple like your run sheet, did you remember to give them details and notes and the latest update?

In my limited research, the overwhelming majority of AV teams say no, the event managers aren't supporting the teams well, and the platforms are spending all their time making gizmos for a user to ignore and not enough time developing the platform to help the people, that is actually producing the event, deliver something excellent and interesting.

In conclusion.

Your content is what keeps people, what attracts people and what sustains the viewership, not junk toys and gamification on the platform.

At this point, I will do some spruiking of my platform because I believe that Bettercast is actively trying to address these issues and is building a platform that is sleek and simple, and EXCEEDINGLY easy for users to navigate and understand.

We are also building and launching tools for the AV team to use that will not only streamline the production a lot for them but also will help smaller teams deliver a production that would usually require more people and more equipment.

If you're an event manager, and you're still reading here, I urge you, please be creative with your event production, pretend that you're working in the TV industry and that now you're going to be broadcasting your event as you would see on TV. Get excited about what you can do and what you can show, and take that online.

You're only going to benefit.