Why Events Apps Suck and the AI Jobs Barometer

These days many companies allocate 10% to 20% of their marketing budget to online shows. These and 40 other stats about virtual events can be found in The Tech Report .

AI Fest: Learn How the Best Minds in the Events Industry Are Using Artificial Intelligence

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PwC’s AI Jobs Barometer

At the AI for Good Summit in Geneva, I attended a luncheon sponsored by PwC where they introduced their AI Jobs Barometer . It’s one of the first studies to try to provide an overview of the impact of AI on the job market. They conducted the research by gathering job listings (in predominantly developed countries). Some highlights:

• AI jobs are growing more than 2X as fast as other jobs. (Sure, I say, but aren't they just hiring people to write them out of their jobs?)
• AI penetration in the workplace is highest in white-collar sectors. (No surprise there.)
• AI jobs see a 25% pay bump compared to other jobs. Singapore and Denmark were found to be the most AI-ready with the highest number of job listings.

Of course, the study was published in April and is already outdated, but it's instructive (colleges should be listening) to look at the jobs market and make sure there's an alignment between the skills needed and the skills being taught.?

Why Event Apps Suck

Has this happened to you? You’re off to a live event and you download the event app with high expectations, only to have them shattered. Why are event apps so maddening?

• They are divorced from your real-world apps and integrations. Event apps are often in their own world and have no integration with your calendar or contact list. While you’re at the event you can often message other attendees and receive push notifications but they don’t leave the event app and they’re lost at the event’s end.
• They try to do too much. Typically your event app will have a calendar, some networking, a list of speakers, and possibly an exhibitor map. The UI quickly grows ungainly, especially because you’re trying to navigate on a small screen.
• Internet Connectivity. Let’s face it, a conference center filled with people banging on the app delivers a terrible bandwidth experience.
• Poor adoption rate. Event planners report staggeringly low rates of downloads and engagement with the app.
• Security. You want to validate who’s signing into the app but not make it so onerous that the app will never get used.
• They often don’t handle registration and badging, which relegates them to an afterthought.
• It involves a trip to the app store of your choosing, hunting down the app, and downloading it.
• Sorting and filtering information. By day? By time? By location? By speaker? By exhibitor? By panel? App users expect to be able to easily slice and dice information.
• Developing an event app can chew away at your already-chewed event budget.

Can these problems be overcome? Should they? One simple solution is to forgo the event app and just use your website, making sure that it’s mobile-friendly. Another solution is Guidebook , an event app builder that recently teamed up with Splash , promising to improve the in-event app. Can they create a solution that works??

What’s your biggest beef about event apps?

Scuttlebutt

Green Is the Color of Nature and Money

Kathryn Frankston posted this picture of the Na.i.ture stage at this year’s Money 20/20 Europe

Events Platforms for Dummies

Dave is the virtual events guy. But he’s out sick. Can a rookie take his place? Event planners got a good chuckle when Bizzabo showcased Ventry, its stressed-out planner. Watch here .?

Getting There First, or Best??

An old boss used to tell me that it didn’t matter who was first to the party, it mattered who was best. As I write this, Apple is coming up from way behind on the AI race and analysts and pundits are wondering what Apple’s Secret AI Sauce will look like. At the Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino this week, the Apple faithful gathered to hear about Apple’s vision for AI.

Before the topic turned to AI, Apple users were treated to a slew of non-earth-shattering, but really useful innovations for Vision Pro, iOS, Apple Watch, and iPads. (Yes, it’s cool to answer your phone by nodding your AirPods and to see your photos in stereoscopic vision on the VisionPro.)?

But AI dominated the show. “Apple Intelligence” is its uber-term used to include all of Apple’s new AI smarts. And that includes everything from creating a personalized Genmoji, Apple’s AI-generated emoji, to a smarter Siri, which can answer questions about your schedule and your email.?

Most importantly, Apple announced its “bargain with the devil” as it unveiled its partnership with Open AI’s ChatGPT to power many of the new features. Notably, Apple will do a lot of its AI processing on your device (it needs to be the latest iPhone) and not in the cloud, which most believe will better protect your data from the insatiable hunger of ChatGPT for data.?

No Security Blankets Here

It’s so easy to just wave your magic mouse and grant permission for an app to take all sorts of liberties with your data and personal info. Google Workspace makes it trivial for us to add calendars, drawing programs, meeting makers, grammar checkers and social media to our workplaces, but at what cost? Spin.AI published a white paper documenting the top ten safest Chrome extension apps. They looked at both overall risk and risk to a business. While LinkedIn, Dropbox and Adobe scored well on the overall risk score, it’s interesting to see the business risks posed from using the information you’ve freely given away. And then there’s the “least safe” extensions list, which includes things like Ad blockers. It’s worth studying before you say “yes” to everything, and if you’re at the enterprise level it’s time to set down some rules about adding to your Chrome extensions.?

Vishing, Smishing and Quishing Get Added to the Lingo?

God bless the USPIS (United States Postal Inspection Service). They’ve identified a whole new language for scams on the Internet.?

• Vishing (voice phishing) is a phone call or voicemail you get from an unfamiliar number urging you to divulge sensitive personal information.?
• Smishing is a text message asking you to reveal personal information.
• Quishing is a scam QR code that tries to get you to give personal information.

?Time to catch up on your “ishings ”.?

Viva Associations? Out of necessity, associations are reinventing themselves. The A100 Podcast series looks at how various associations are earning their keep by offering year-long communities and a tech-first look at providing value to their members. I listened to the interview with long-time colleague Kinsey Fabrizio , President of the Consumer Technology Association , about how that venerable association keeps it fresh.?

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Join us on June 16th in Long Beach, California, when we visit the Elderverse at Augmented World Expo.

Don't miss our final summer meeting on July 13th, where we'll dive into the fascinating world of DeepFakes and explore the future of journalism. Then get ready to play one of the funniest games in the Virtual World with Steve Greenberg

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