Making the Intangible Tangible: Inside Eventagrate's AI-Powered Experiences

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Tony, Partnerships and Creative Director at Eventagrate Group, correct?
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Correct. Thank you very much for joining me on an episode of the Event Tech Talk show.
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For the audience that's listening, Tony and I have only just met each other.
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We were recently on a panel regarding AI at the Saudi event show,
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and I think we instantly hit it off and clicked, mate, didn't we? Totally.
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Yeah. Totally, mate. so talking a
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little bit about like your background and how
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you got into the events industry what did that journey look like what brought you
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into this into the space right for me look
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i've been in this region for like 17 plus
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years i actually started off in cgi and
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post-production i used to outsource cgi to
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la no to india from la and
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england so i worked on a load of movies like like
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300 star wars scanner darkly i'm not going to sit here and pretend that it was
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like oh i did these amazing visual effects no it was a load of rotoscoping with
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80 people sitting in a studio doing rotos Because 300,
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for example, the entire thing was on green screen, right? Yeah.
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So, but I'll tell you what, that helped me with...
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Knowing that i'm not a technical
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dude meaning i don't sit behind the machine and blah blah blah right i wish
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i did but it taught me what the the the strength of back-end work okay yeah
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yeah and that helped me helped me when it comes to me working experiential and and and what have you,
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know and now i work with tech and
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experiential and that's what i do so yeah i started
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off in post they asked me to be an executive producer of a film did that and
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then i was the head of experiential for his previous company and yeah and then
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like as luck has it no not just luck it's skill as well i i work for a venter
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great who really are at the.
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Like bleeding edge of tech and innovation
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yeah and then how do we use that to inspire
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individuals right that's what advertising is right yeah how do you evoke an
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emotion and that's it i'm totally gonna go and see if your name are on the credits
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on 300 mate yeah i'm gonna gonna see that i think i think that's how most people
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right transition into working in some division of the events.
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There's always something kind of adjacent to
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the event sector whether that's production film audio
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you know i was just interviewing andrew a
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guy from a company called conference rentals
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on a previous episode and it wasn't
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his plan to get into the event space i think like many people right but
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the skill sets that you pick up in other sectors then
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transition you and find their place and
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i think it's really hard the events industry to for anybody
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to really have this vision of like i'm going to work in
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the events industry yeah maybe people who want to be
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event managers for whatever crazy reason they want to do that
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but like all of the kind of the the the
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magic i would say behind the scenes you know the
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companies the creative the production all that kind of
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stuff these jobs aren't aren't visible are they
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it's not like a career path or anything like that so is
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your role as partner and creative director
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at event integrate what does a what does a typical day look like for you it's
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a love and partner i'm a partnership partnership sorry yeah you know i mean
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like i could ask for more money so it's a it's a case of nurturing sort of collaborations Okay. Yeah.
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And also enhancing creativity in anything we, anything we produce.
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Yeah. Okay. Right. So we've got a...
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What shall I call it a harim of creatives yeah
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do you know what I mean yeah and they are they are
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and that's the way they are I mean like we can
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bring something in and here's the thing right is how do you have someone
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who's got this technical headspace right and
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suddenly create something where
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the audience is a part of
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the storytelling not just an observer yeah right
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like a passive observer they're actually a part of the
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story itself right and that's what and that's
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what event integrate does so when it comes to creativity you know we share like
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brainstorming is amazing yeah because it's such a
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diversity of individuals there right like on
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the technical side on the creative side and
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it's about okay how do we do this
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and make it cool that's that's pretty much a
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mantra right it's like we do cool stuff that's
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what we do so you basically take all of those ideas
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from the team and kind of orchestrate them into something that then can be produced
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envisaged as an experience for a van brand an event whatever whatever that might
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be so So if I was to put this to you,
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then what, what problem is it that AventaGrate is solving for its customers?
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The problem. Okay. So industry wide, what is the problem? Right.
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It's people pick up on buzzwords and they think, oh yeah, I want AI.
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I want VR. I want AR.
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Right. With all the buzzwords in the world. Right.
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But these are all tools to solve a problem.
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Right. Yeah. They're not like, oh, yeah, add AI to, and trust me,
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I'll get clients to say, oh, yes, can we add AI to this? I went,
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why? What's your problem? Yeah.
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What's your problem that you want to solve? You're not.
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Negative what's your problem it's like what's the what's
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the objective yeah what's your objective and is this
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the tool that we use right and it's like we
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then so those problems are varied right
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what is the biggest sort of challenge is
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how do we make something that's not just
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a gimmick do you mean how you make it that is actually something tangible yeah
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because you're working what we do is we make the intangible tangible right i
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would like i know it's a bit of a buzz like a a sort of strap line but that's
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what it is yeah so how do you make this tech thing.
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Evoke an emotion right and that's what experiential is so what does events great
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drew is we elevate experiential creativity so whatever your problem is whatever
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your challenge is we sit there and And then we figure out what's the best way,
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maybe for a brand, maybe for a government entity,
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maybe for a sports event or whatever, you know.
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Do you think that's often where like brands or organizations that are putting
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an event on with us, you know, customer facing, internal, that kind of stuff.
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Do you think they focus too much on peacocking and being shiny and fancy rather
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than actually at the core of like how people go away from that event feeling?
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Right. At the beginning, it was that, right?
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Because I know whoever's listening will definitely have had an RFP or a brief
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or something that says, do something never seen before.
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Everyone says that, right? So that is the challenge there, right?
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So there is peacocking and showboating and what have you.
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But then when we actually put things in where we use machine learning,
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where we use the data, where we say.
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Out of a thousand people who turned up at the event, they felt they were a part of the event. Yeah.
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Okay. And that's, that's where we come in to say, this is where we make somebody
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instead of being, as I was saying, a passive viewer of just something on the screen.
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It's their story. So I have, it's not a mantra.
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It's something I always say is that if I tell you a story, you might listen,
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but if I make it yours, you'll believe it. And that's what we do. Yeah.
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That's a great saying yeah i think ultimately every event
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is about how we're making these people feel have
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we enabled them to have an
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experience which has maybe shifted their
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mindset on something or made them feel closer
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to something and what effect
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does that have on the business long term right is it maybe it's
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profit maybe it's growth maybe it's all of these other things i
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see it so often i see it when we do registration for our
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show you know at the moment guess what's top of the
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list that everybody's coming to look at ai right of
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course but that's because that's in the media and that's on the on the on the
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on the hype and all that kind of stuff so yeah i've i've looked at event integrate
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what they do and and the the spectrum of events and types of experiences and
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things and the way that you use technology is just you know,
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it's it's obscene it's just it's i think you've done everything have you done
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flight have you done floating led yet i don't know maybe not just yet i'm not going to say who.
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Honestly if i could i'd show you one of the concepts that we came up with so
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we did this we did the re-ed marathon okay yeah and we did all the experiential
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for that yeah and one of the ideas was a floating led right which gave you the
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run times that you were on Pearl Runners,
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Trust me. That sounds like a health and safety nightmare. That's why it didn't happen.
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So of all of these things, you're clearly at the bleeding edge of what's happening
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when it comes to technology. Obviously, that's giving you the ability to kind
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of integrate these experiences and things or these ideas, these technologies
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into these ideas for these clients.
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But is that just something that's evolved over time?
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And how do you keep a cap on it? So, you know, it's a bit of a nature-natured thing, right?
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So I'll give an example, like when we did our metaverse side of things and our, let's say,
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when COVID took place and there were people who wanted to do events and they
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were virtual and what have you,
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because of the vision and because of the reactive space that we have and we're
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on the bleeding edge, it actually ended up molding certain parts of our company. Do you know what I mean?
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Right. Hence the different offerings. Yeah, we have the, we're not,
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we're not one of these who turn around and say, oh, let's put a person on a
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piece of Lycra extended from the stage ceiling.
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It doesn't work that way anymore. We have to entertain the individual,
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right? So when it came to virtual events, how do we do it? Right?
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Like everybody talks about the metaverse.
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We were in this space ages ago. Yeah. Right.
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And it was something that we used because people couldn't go out and experience, right?
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And that being on the bleeding edge and the cutting edge helps us innovate and evolve.
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We have to evolve. Like, I'd evolve.
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Like, you know, for example, with AI, you know about the fuss about AI and there's a load of people.
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Oh, no, you're against humanity and what have you, mate.
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It's creative people who create stuff on AI. Do you know what I mean?
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Yeah. People don't realize that. Yeah. So yeah, that's how, as Events Great,
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we're constantly evolving. Yeah.
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And like, we come up with ideas about what's happening in the world,
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what's happening in the market, what's happening with the series of problems
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that we get offered, like problems that we get asked to solve.
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And that's what we do. I think that's such an interesting point you've made, Darren.
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It's something I've talked about before. and it's that you know ai and things
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like the metaverse replacing events as a physical experience.
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And i can't personally see it ever replace
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it being a replacement can it can it replace certain
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objectives and formats maybe learning maybe yeah
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if you're just there to you know tick the box and collect your
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cpd points and you just need the information and it's
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you know you're only there for the content you're not there
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for anything else then yeah those digital event
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experiences are very good because they're sustainable they're easy
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to access it's you know saves people lots of times and things
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like that but when it comes to you know
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is the metaverse as an example which has its own place in time going to totally
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replace people coming together physically no because that's just not human nature
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is it that's we want to connect on a on a on a face-to-face level yeah And it
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comes back to what I was saying about making the intangible tangible, right?
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So there's certain things like certain developments and haptics.
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Makes that virtual experience feel right. Do you know what I mean?
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We were asked to do something for a, I don't know, can I say this?
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Yeah, I want to say it. For a deaf audience, right?
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And we were talking about sign language models that we worked on about using
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AI, about subtitling certain things, like without having a signer, right?
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And there's even about experiencing an event as somebody who does have a challenge, yeah?
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So no it's is it going to replace things
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not straight away but there
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is going to be a what i what i feel is
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going to be huge convergence into the metaphysical space do you know what i
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mean right and and as we're saying like the use of haptics the use of how do
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we trigger certain things in an individual i mean i don't want to go into the whole Neuralink space.
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We've also looked at that, by the way. Because of Integrate, we do this.
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We look at things like, okay, I'm not going to stick a market chip in somebody's head. But...
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Brain computer interface is something we can work on
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right yeah and we have worked on so how do we make
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certain movements i guess there's other things rather than like
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plugging in a chip or plugging some into somebody into
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the matrix there's probably a lot of
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things like sound like smell the other senses right
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that we can maybe actually evoke the
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same level of experience without actually having to
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be having to be plugged in i guess that ring
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that brings me on nicely you've already mentioned that you kind of
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look out into the into the world and look at the technology and
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what's being done and what's being created and stuff like that how do
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you as a company decide whether you build something
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internally and there's probably never been a better time to
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build tools and technology and software internally now versus going
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out there and partnering or adapting
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an existing technology or platform for an experience like
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how do you make that definition how do you decide which way to go it
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all comes back to the problem right like if there's
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a problem that we can solve like if
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you have to white label something and then sit there and adapt it to make it
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work a certain way why not do you know i mean that that groundwork's been done
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so we we do that yeah but yeah sometimes like as a previous case i was telling
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you we have to come up with our own solution.
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I mean, luckily we have so many wonderful techs, like it's another level. Yeah.
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I mean, they're all like, you know, in their own little cocoon.
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Yep. Like, you know, it's not somebody you will put on a stage.
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They've all got their own specialisms.
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Yep. There we go. Very well said.
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And they come up with different avenues to solve a problem that we wouldn't
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have thought of, that wouldn't have been thought of in, let's say,
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I don't want to say the word normal,
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in, let's say, a regular thinking space. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Right? Right.
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But I think to that, you know, you've clearly got a team with a lot of diverse
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thinking, experience and background.
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And for me, great ideas are never just one person's kind of soul thoughts, right?
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Whether that's products like, or companies like Apple or whoever it is,
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the way that they come up with those great experiences, those great pieces of
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technology and stuff, it's 2% from one person, 3% from another,
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and then an iteration and refinement of that kind of stuff.
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So I guess for a company like Aventigrate, it's kind of key to have all of those
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people available to you.
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100%. Creativity doesn't mean you have to have a title of executive creative
00:17:03.617 --> 00:17:06.617
director or creative whatever, technologies, whatever. Yeah. Right?
00:17:07.537 --> 00:17:10.397
Everyone has an element of creativity, right?
00:17:10.597 --> 00:17:16.257
From the accountant to even the dude who makes coffee, who I kind of have an
00:17:16.257 --> 00:17:18.637
argument with because I don't like the coffee. Okay.
00:17:19.697 --> 00:17:22.557
But but you know he has a he
00:17:22.557 --> 00:17:25.537
has his own level of creativity and now i digress
00:17:25.537 --> 00:17:31.997
a bit but everyone's creative yeah and once you embrace that and you know that
00:17:31.997 --> 00:17:36.657
the company's vision is creativity and solving problems through tech and creativity
00:17:36.657 --> 00:17:42.317
if you embrace that and you don't say oh no no no his title's not creative director
00:17:42.317 --> 00:17:44.317
that is the biggest failing.
00:17:45.529 --> 00:17:51.929
Everybody has an idea, right? And if you can embrace the idea and help mold
00:17:51.929 --> 00:17:56.109
those ideas and have a unified vision, right?
00:17:56.289 --> 00:18:00.949
And a unified, let's say, approach to say, yeah, we're building cool ideas.
00:18:01.269 --> 00:18:08.649
Yeah, and then I think, not I think, I know that that's what makes a company
00:18:08.649 --> 00:18:11.649
great and really cuts us apart from everybody else.
00:18:12.509 --> 00:18:15.469
Something else I'd like to talk to you about, Tony, is kind
00:18:15.469 --> 00:18:18.589
of that whole piece around audience engagement which
00:18:18.589 --> 00:18:21.529
i know is at the heart of what event integrate does there's a
00:18:21.529 --> 00:18:25.269
couple of things here but the first one is this
00:18:25.269 --> 00:18:28.109
trend of that keeps coming out that i don't
00:18:28.109 --> 00:18:31.969
know if anybody's clearly defined of ai hyper personalization
00:18:31.969 --> 00:18:34.929
when somebody says that to you or a
00:18:34.929 --> 00:18:37.949
client says that to you or you're explaining that and what
00:18:37.949 --> 00:18:41.349
that could look like to maybe a brand
00:18:41.349 --> 00:18:44.409
or somebody that's creating experience what does ai
00:18:44.409 --> 00:18:47.669
hyper personalization mean to to
00:18:47.669 --> 00:18:50.769
you and event integrate so so it
00:18:50.769 --> 00:18:55.449
quite frankly like let me take it like as a as a broad thing not a broad thing
00:18:55.449 --> 00:19:02.149
as a higher level it's about how do we create a passive interaction into an
00:19:02.149 --> 00:19:07.909
active interaction right so hyper personalization once again is it's about the.
00:19:09.129 --> 00:19:12.329
The visitor, the viewer being a part of the story.
00:19:13.269 --> 00:19:19.549
And this is something that I harp on about a lot. Everybody talks about AI and.
00:19:20.899 --> 00:19:24.899
It's about the nuances. How do you hit those nuances, right?
00:19:25.139 --> 00:19:29.659
So if I do something that really triggers a thought within the individual,
00:19:30.239 --> 00:19:35.979
right, you've hit on a nuance, maybe culturally, maybe creatively,
00:19:36.459 --> 00:19:38.179
maybe an experience as a whole.
00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:42.899
That's what hyper-personalization is, not just the data, right?
00:19:42.899 --> 00:19:45.679
That yeah okay we could turn around and say yeah we've got this many
00:19:45.679 --> 00:19:48.579
people and their dwell time was this and they did this and
00:19:48.579 --> 00:19:54.339
therefore like like number wise this should be the amount of time that you should
00:19:54.339 --> 00:20:00.899
spend on a particular a particular bit of content or something right yeah that's
00:20:00.899 --> 00:20:08.299
cool that's a numbers thing right which is great yeah but when we're looking at a piece,
00:20:08.959 --> 00:20:16.659
an interactive, an installation that really helps somebody feel that they're
00:20:16.659 --> 00:20:19.379
a part of it. So what you have to remember now is that.
00:20:20.467 --> 00:20:26.987
Let's say it's a piece of art, yeah? Now, the art piece knows that you're looking at it.
00:20:27.447 --> 00:20:30.487
Do you see what I mean? Yeah. It's not just a case of, yeah,
00:20:30.487 --> 00:20:31.707
I'm looking at a piece of art.
00:20:31.927 --> 00:20:34.927
Now, the art can turn around and say, yeah, I know you're looking at me.
00:20:35.147 --> 00:20:40.307
And I know this is your facial expression. I know this is your feeling and this
00:20:40.307 --> 00:20:44.187
is what you like. And you've come to this event and there's certain things. Yeah.
00:20:44.447 --> 00:20:48.407
Right. And that's the difference. so that there for
00:20:48.407 --> 00:20:51.807
me hyper personalization for us is how do
00:20:51.807 --> 00:20:55.587
we truly make it a personalized experience
00:20:55.587 --> 00:20:58.327
yeah not just a oh i'm looking at
00:20:58.327 --> 00:21:01.167
a piece of content thank you very much yeah i think for
00:21:01.167 --> 00:21:04.287
me when i've thought about this
00:21:04.287 --> 00:21:07.987
what what does ai hyper hyper personalization really
00:21:07.987 --> 00:21:11.647
mean i liken it to an
00:21:11.647 --> 00:21:14.747
experience of somebody who goes to the same cafe
00:21:14.747 --> 00:21:19.127
or takes the family to the same restaurant and the
00:21:19.127 --> 00:21:22.607
familiarity that comes with that they instantly feel
00:21:22.607 --> 00:21:25.647
welcome and comfortable because they know what to
00:21:25.647 --> 00:21:28.927
expect they've probably already chosen in
00:21:28.927 --> 00:21:31.667
their head what they're having yeah but the staff and the
00:21:31.667 --> 00:21:35.527
waiters they welcome them with their names they
00:21:35.527 --> 00:21:40.267
almost go so the usual yeah exactly and i think we can actually probably get
00:21:40.267 --> 00:21:44.287
to that you know maybe it might be for some people a little creepy if you come
00:21:44.287 --> 00:21:47.407
to a random trade show and the guy behind the bar goes hey tony how are you
00:21:47.407 --> 00:21:51.807
doing how the kids yeah how the kids how's julian you're like what are you spying on me.
00:21:53.073 --> 00:21:57.473
That might be a stretch too far, but I think there's those little things that
00:21:57.473 --> 00:22:02.673
we can do as brands, you know, especially as probably as brands, right?
00:22:02.793 --> 00:22:07.333
When we've got customers who are loyal to us because they love what we're about,
00:22:07.473 --> 00:22:11.473
they love what we do, and we've been able to get all of these touch points and
00:22:11.473 --> 00:22:18.753
learn about those customers and make them feel like we know them as much as they know us, right?
00:22:18.893 --> 00:22:21.633
Rather than just being a name on a spreadsheet in a CRM somewhere and
00:22:21.633 --> 00:22:24.473
things and and something that you touched upon
00:22:24.473 --> 00:22:29.533
is not being overly intrusive yeah to create a like what the hell man it's the
00:22:29.533 --> 00:22:34.693
sort of uh big brother matrix like oh my god they're watching us about everything
00:22:34.693 --> 00:22:39.793
there's a and once again it comes on to those nuances and picking up on those
00:22:39.793 --> 00:22:42.573
nuances yeah yeah i always use that word.
00:22:43.882 --> 00:22:49.402
Like, I say a lot, right? And maybe it's a bit annoying, but it is,
00:22:49.822 --> 00:22:54.542
like, the nuances is what, you could talk about AI, but the difference is,
00:22:54.542 --> 00:22:58.582
is that human nuances, only we can, like.
00:22:59.482 --> 00:23:01.902
Articulate and decipher, right?
00:23:02.302 --> 00:23:05.222
At the moment, I mean, AI can on certain things.
00:23:05.322 --> 00:23:10.702
There's a few things that we do on facial recognition and emotional sort of
00:23:10.702 --> 00:23:14.082
monitoring and triggering and what have you. Yep. Yeah.
00:23:14.482 --> 00:23:17.522
But you're right. You are 100% right.
00:23:17.782 --> 00:23:23.542
It's about, why do I go to the same coffee shop day after day or the same restaurant whenever I go?
00:23:23.662 --> 00:23:26.002
Because they know who I am. They know what I like.
00:23:26.182 --> 00:23:29.922
They know what my son's name is, for example. Do you know what I mean?
00:23:30.462 --> 00:23:35.222
And they know what I would order. That's what we like. We like to feel part of a community.
00:23:35.442 --> 00:23:38.802
Correct. To be seen, to be heard. Yeah. And as event organizers,
00:23:38.882 --> 00:23:41.062
I think we can often miss that part. Yeah.
00:23:41.202 --> 00:23:44.662
It's just about getting people in getting numbers
00:23:44.662 --> 00:23:47.502
bums on seats and then see you
00:23:47.502 --> 00:23:50.502
see you next year yeah and then that's the kpi and
00:23:50.502 --> 00:23:54.002
that's it no it's like how do we in
00:23:54.002 --> 00:23:57.122
order that people want to come back do you know i mean they
00:23:57.122 --> 00:24:00.442
really felt something when they came to the event so
00:24:00.442 --> 00:24:05.142
on that then talked a little bit about hyper personalization you know in in
00:24:05.142 --> 00:24:11.122
your in your head is there anything out there that you think is just more of
00:24:11.122 --> 00:24:15.782
a gimmick at the moment when it comes to the trends that you're seeing in technology
00:24:15.782 --> 00:24:18.662
and events and things like that or do you think there's things that will,
00:24:19.502 --> 00:24:21.682
really add value long term.
00:24:22.898 --> 00:24:28.838
I think it's the understanding of the buzzwords, like clients will turn around
00:24:28.838 --> 00:24:33.858
and said, oh, what can we do with, how can we put in AI? How can we make this VR?
00:24:34.238 --> 00:24:39.258
How can we make this AR? Because I've just heard what, especially marketeers
00:24:39.258 --> 00:24:44.038
and advertisers and whatever's in the papers, a gimmick in itself,
00:24:44.278 --> 00:24:47.398
right, is a little bit like, oh, wow, that's cool.
00:24:47.798 --> 00:24:50.838
But then how do we mold that? How do we use that?
00:24:51.238 --> 00:24:54.398
Do you see what I mean? Yeah. So it's not a case of just putting something in
00:24:54.398 --> 00:24:55.938
for the sake of putting something in, right?
00:24:57.620 --> 00:25:03.440
We have to also understand is as a human race, we're getting a lot more educated
00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:09.820
on what is, I'm going to take animation, for example. Like, we'll watch an animation now.
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:15.940
And if it's a 3D rendered 2D, and we'll be like, oh my God, that's a great animation
00:25:15.940 --> 00:25:17.040
piece. Do you know what I mean?
00:25:17.640 --> 00:25:21.680
Because we know what looks good. Because we know what, like what Toy Story 1
00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:27.320
used to look like compared to what Toy Story now, where they use diopter lenses and what have you.
00:25:27.620 --> 00:25:31.160
In an animation so we as
00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:34.520
humans have become a lot more aware of
00:25:34.520 --> 00:25:37.160
these acute differences right that's what
00:25:37.160 --> 00:25:42.800
i feel and it's interesting you make that analogy with toy story the change
00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:48.880
in the way that things produce because although i would argue and i think probably
00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:54.160
the same technically from a production point of view it was light years ahead
00:25:54.160 --> 00:25:57.080
of toy story one yeah but actually for me,
00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:59.940
from what I saw online from reviews, the technology actually got in the way
00:25:59.940 --> 00:26:04.160
because people were pining after the old way of it looking, right?
00:26:04.540 --> 00:26:09.000
Do you think that's kind of creeping, that creeps into the events industry a
00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:11.500
little bit when it comes to the overuse of tech?
00:26:12.180 --> 00:26:17.420
It's not distilled to the true authentic kind of what that event's supposed
00:26:17.420 --> 00:26:18.760
to be. That's a really interesting point, you know that.
00:26:19.100 --> 00:26:23.160
I think there is an element of that, yeah but
00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:27.180
it's also about how do you make the
00:26:27.180 --> 00:26:30.280
tech or the tech solution that you provide
00:26:30.280 --> 00:26:33.160
omnipresent i'm not saying like god or
00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:38.340
anything yeah yeah but it's like it molds into the surroundings so you don't
00:26:38.340 --> 00:26:43.340
feel it as in oh it's tech yeah it's invisible yeah almost it is almost invisible
00:26:43.340 --> 00:26:48.980
it's a part of like second nature as it were and and and and i guess that then
00:26:48.980 --> 00:26:52.320
is the strategy in which making sure that the technology doesn't become overwhelming,
00:26:52.380 --> 00:26:53.060
because this is some of the.
00:26:54.937 --> 00:26:58.737
Feedback even we've had at event tech live from from sometimes
00:26:58.737 --> 00:27:02.057
even technology providers themselves like adam there's
00:27:02.057 --> 00:27:05.137
too much there's there's a there's an event app there's lead capture there's
00:27:05.137 --> 00:27:08.997
a q a tool there's a polling there's there's a virtual platform there's a hybrid
00:27:08.997 --> 00:27:12.877
platform there's you know there's facial recognition there's all this kind of
00:27:12.877 --> 00:27:16.877
stuff and we just don't know how to to to do it all to use it all i guess so
00:27:16.877 --> 00:27:22.377
i guess it's it's also like knowing when to stop i guess Would you say to make
00:27:22.377 --> 00:27:23.357
it not feel overwhelming?
00:27:23.697 --> 00:27:27.997
I think so. Yes. I, I, I mean, when we're looking at the overall,
00:27:28.417 --> 00:27:32.337
let's say the overall subject of a particular event, right?
00:27:32.477 --> 00:27:36.097
I mean, okay. If you're going to event tech live, don't complain about being
00:27:36.097 --> 00:27:40.697
too much tech, too teched out. Yeah. That's what we do. Right.
00:27:42.442 --> 00:27:47.122
If we're going to, let's say, a food and events show, and yeah,
00:27:47.182 --> 00:27:52.322
of course, we can look at, okay, your reaction is this from the taste, and things like that.
00:27:52.362 --> 00:27:57.002
Yeah, we're picking up on human nuances, right? I used the word again.
00:27:57.442 --> 00:28:02.162
Yeah, we're looking at human interactions and responses.
00:28:02.642 --> 00:28:08.742
So it's about the best, one of the best things that I remember is that we did
00:28:08.742 --> 00:28:13.142
an event, which was like, it was coined as 5D.
00:28:13.362 --> 00:28:17.682
So it was like audio visual, there was smell, taste and what have you.
00:28:18.582 --> 00:28:22.582
And it tasted awful and it didn't smell great.
00:28:24.622 --> 00:28:28.682
So yeah, if we don't get that right, I mean, I know it's subjective,
00:28:28.682 --> 00:28:31.602
but it's the same sort of, you are right.
00:28:31.742 --> 00:28:37.722
Like you expect about, okay, we are taking this tool into this particular event.
00:28:38.322 --> 00:28:43.002
Maybe it doesn't need this tool Maybe people want to just taste really good food, right? Yeah.
00:28:43.322 --> 00:28:50.342
And let's leave it at that. Yeah. We can do the polling and we can do the event
00:28:50.342 --> 00:28:51.902
registration and things like that.
00:28:52.062 --> 00:28:55.022
But, you know, that's my opinion on that.
00:28:55.856 --> 00:29:03.336
So, taking a look at the emerging technologies, what do you think,
00:29:03.516 --> 00:29:09.656
as an industry, we should be thinking about and looking at in the next five or so years?
00:29:09.676 --> 00:29:12.536
You're obviously right at that bleeding edge. You know what's coming down the line.
00:29:12.776 --> 00:29:20.856
Me, for an example, one of my thoughts goes to, we're seeing companies like
00:29:20.856 --> 00:29:24.056
Apple integrate translation directly into AirPods.
00:29:24.056 --> 00:29:26.816
Yeah that's going to mean events are more accessible to
00:29:26.816 --> 00:29:29.616
people to talk and stuff we've got meta coming out
00:29:29.616 --> 00:29:33.036
now with you know the latest version
00:29:33.036 --> 00:29:36.396
of of glass with ray bands yeah and the
00:29:36.396 --> 00:29:40.636
addition in that of the what looks like to me and i must admit i've not done
00:29:40.636 --> 00:29:43.576
too much research it's like a band that's picking up haptics where people move
00:29:43.576 --> 00:29:48.376
their fingers to to do things on that like for me i'm like okay as an event
00:29:48.376 --> 00:29:53.616
organizer if i've got a thousand people with meta glasses on
00:29:54.056 --> 00:29:56.656
because now that's how they interact with the world.
00:29:57.316 --> 00:30:01.196
What does that mean for me as an event organizer? Is that a positive?
00:30:01.536 --> 00:30:05.776
Am I going to be able to provide addition? Am I going to be able to enhance
00:30:05.776 --> 00:30:08.376
my event for those attendees with that?
00:30:08.716 --> 00:30:12.976
Does that create a disconnected experience? Because some people are getting
00:30:12.976 --> 00:30:14.476
an experience and others aren't.
00:30:15.056 --> 00:30:18.616
How do you see? What do you see coming down the line in terms of the future
00:30:18.616 --> 00:30:22.996
event technology that you think we should get excited about as an events industry? I think...
00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:27.400
What you said was a great example, right? You're a thousand people.
00:30:27.520 --> 00:30:30.960
Let's say it's a concert, right? And you're wearing metaglasses, yeah?
00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:36.000
So you're out in a concert, you're looking at the performer, right?
00:30:36.600 --> 00:30:41.820
You can go there as a normal attendee, right? And say, okay,
00:30:41.920 --> 00:30:43.300
great concert and what have you.
00:30:43.800 --> 00:30:48.700
Or with the metaglasses, you could actually enhance the experience you have
00:30:48.700 --> 00:30:52.340
through what's happening on stage, for example. Let's say with AR,
00:30:52.580 --> 00:30:54.260
because with this, it'll be AR, right?
00:30:55.080 --> 00:30:58.820
With the glasses, you could do a lot of stuff in AR. So you're looking at the stage.
00:31:00.096 --> 00:31:03.216
I was going to say Elton John, but he's not my favorite. I mean,
00:31:03.776 --> 00:31:07.116
tiny dancer, amazing son, mate. Come on. Exactly.
00:31:07.936 --> 00:31:11.176
And like, we could actually have that performance enhanced.
00:31:11.836 --> 00:31:15.936
So once again, it comes to how the viewer feels.
00:31:15.976 --> 00:31:20.336
I'm not just another person in the audience. I was actually a part of this.
00:31:20.616 --> 00:31:24.716
That was me. Like, let's, okay, just top of my head, right? Like,
00:31:25.316 --> 00:31:32.956
let's say you could put together a metahuman who's standing alongside Elton
00:31:32.956 --> 00:31:35.456
John, or whoever, right?
00:31:36.616 --> 00:31:40.476
Dancing, that you see through your glasses, oh my god, I was a part of that.
00:31:40.736 --> 00:31:42.516
Do you know what I mean? That enhances it.
00:31:42.816 --> 00:31:46.356
But yeah, that's the individual's choice, right?
00:31:46.536 --> 00:31:51.196
It's not a kind of like, oh, you have to have these glasses to make this happen. You know what I mean?
00:31:51.436 --> 00:31:54.336
Yeah. But yeah, I totally get that.
00:31:54.336 --> 00:31:57.516
Is i don't think it takes away i think it can
00:31:57.516 --> 00:32:00.296
enhance the experience if you want to
00:32:00.296 --> 00:32:03.376
enhance it see what you've just said there makes
00:32:03.376 --> 00:32:07.156
me think that if somebody inside meta
00:32:07.156 --> 00:32:10.116
in their events team is not
00:32:10.116 --> 00:32:17.416
thinking about collaborating with an artist taylor swift yeah i don't know whoever
00:32:17.416 --> 00:32:22.136
okay yeah not my favorite either but somebody let's say somebody that's really
00:32:22.136 --> 00:32:27.036
innovative and really pushes the boundary of the experiences of their events
00:32:27.036 --> 00:32:28.536
and concerts and stuff like that, right?
00:32:29.296 --> 00:32:35.836
If they're not thinking about collaborating with an artist on a tour where actually
00:32:35.836 --> 00:32:40.276
it's exclusive to people that only have meta band.
00:32:41.462 --> 00:32:45.582
Meta ray ban glasses get that right that's a tongue twister isn't it yeah so
00:32:45.582 --> 00:32:50.162
that the experience is for those people that have that product that seems to
00:32:50.162 --> 00:32:53.022
me like a massive wasted opportunity for.
00:32:53.642 --> 00:32:57.182
For meta to be known at the leading edge of experiences for
00:32:57.182 --> 00:32:59.922
ray ban to be the mechanism in which and the
00:32:59.922 --> 00:33:03.482
design element and the and the artist to create an
00:33:03.482 --> 00:33:06.822
experience around that technology and
00:33:06.822 --> 00:33:10.582
everybody be having that experience like
00:33:10.582 --> 00:33:13.682
that seems to i mean i don't know maybe that's a way to sell like
00:33:13.682 --> 00:33:17.302
a couple of hundred thousand ray-ban sunglasses
00:33:17.302 --> 00:33:20.422
for this kind of thing a hundred
00:33:20.422 --> 00:33:23.462
thousand that and it's an experience for
00:33:23.462 --> 00:33:26.242
the an exclusive experience for the for the people
00:33:26.242 --> 00:33:28.922
who actually attend yeah right so what is
00:33:28.922 --> 00:33:31.962
an artist doing they sing a song they
00:33:31.962 --> 00:33:34.902
do the performance and like you know like the kendrick
00:33:34.902 --> 00:33:37.802
lamar okay the kendrick lamar halftime show
00:33:37.802 --> 00:33:40.862
was amazing just to watch yeah right yeah
00:33:40.862 --> 00:33:43.562
let's see let's imagine that we could
00:33:43.562 --> 00:33:46.242
have enhanced that as a viewer yeah do you
00:33:46.242 --> 00:33:50.362
know what i mean even at home watching at home yeah like i mean there's been
00:33:50.362 --> 00:33:55.082
a few things that have been done like even with the snapchat filters yeah chance
00:33:55.082 --> 00:34:01.862
the rapper did the launch at Ralph Lauren's store with a Snapchat filter that
00:34:01.862 --> 00:34:06.102
got a load of people kind of like excited about their album.
00:34:06.282 --> 00:34:09.322
And they actually went to Ralph Lauren and they went all around Ralph Lauren
00:34:09.322 --> 00:34:16.802
to pick up certain parts of the album that they wouldn't have got just from the whole album itself.
00:34:18.562 --> 00:34:24.142
That's quite, I mean, look, first of all, Snapchat, I'm not dropping names there,
00:34:24.442 --> 00:34:30.062
right? But to put together a filter with a 3MB bandwidth, you've got to rate
00:34:30.062 --> 00:34:31.722
them. What's a 3MB bandwidth?
00:34:31.982 --> 00:34:34.482
Meaning the filter itself.
00:34:35.637 --> 00:34:41.157
Like the backend for it, it's a 3MB file that they have to turn around and create
00:34:41.157 --> 00:34:48.897
something within that space, that amount of data on a Snapchat filter. Do you know what I mean?
00:34:49.337 --> 00:34:55.877
Wow. Man, it's nuts, you know? And that's genius, man, like to turn around and
00:34:55.877 --> 00:34:59.557
say, okay, we're going to make something look like this and with your phone,
00:34:59.637 --> 00:35:01.477
with AR, with a Snapchat filter.
00:35:01.477 --> 00:35:04.217
I love that going back to what you were saying though
00:35:04.217 --> 00:35:07.117
about like the nfl and and my
00:35:07.117 --> 00:35:10.337
brain goes towards things like festivals and things like right i
00:35:10.337 --> 00:35:14.137
was chatting to somebody in fact i was delivering a presentation
00:35:14.137 --> 00:35:17.037
for a group of event organizers
00:35:17.037 --> 00:35:20.617
brands and there was a couple of people from live nation in the
00:35:20.617 --> 00:35:24.757
room and this was about like what technology is coming and one of the challenges
00:35:24.757 --> 00:35:29.997
they threw out at me was we've hit the capacity the maximum capacity of our
00:35:29.997 --> 00:35:34.857
event we can't physically have any more people come to it and other events have
00:35:34.857 --> 00:35:37.657
this glastonbury has this every year download has this every day they sell out
00:35:37.657 --> 00:35:39.337
of tickets they max down capacity.
00:35:39.837 --> 00:35:43.017
Which means there's a lot of people left just watching
00:35:43.017 --> 00:35:47.597
on tv right which is a very kind of like passive kind of thing correct and it
00:35:47.597 --> 00:35:51.097
makes me you know what you were saying there it makes me actually really hopeful
00:35:51.097 --> 00:35:55.037
that people through the technology they're going to have at home can actually
00:35:55.037 --> 00:36:00.837
have a more immersive visceral experience with those kind of things totally I mean, I won't,
00:36:01.037 --> 00:36:07.177
something's been offered to events are great for a, a certain DJ and launching
00:36:07.177 --> 00:36:10.757
his album and us doing something with him.
00:36:12.197 --> 00:36:15.597
Did I say him? Yeah. Anyway, there's loads of male DJs. Yeah.
00:36:15.857 --> 00:36:17.497
It doesn't narrow it down. It doesn't narrow it down.
00:36:18.997 --> 00:36:20.277
Enhancing the actual.
00:36:21.432 --> 00:36:25.192
The actual launch of his album right and how.
00:36:25.192 --> 00:36:29.832
The viewers at home like using an.
00:36:29.832 --> 00:36:33.212
Immersive immersive or even.
00:36:33.212 --> 00:36:36.352
Like sort of immersive interactive is what
00:36:36.352 --> 00:36:39.852
the idea was right it is fingers crossed
00:36:39.852 --> 00:36:43.632
and it's about how do we take that okay
00:36:43.632 --> 00:36:46.512
you've got a thousand to a hundred thousand people
00:36:46.512 --> 00:36:49.872
at the event how do we set up yeah right and
00:36:49.872 --> 00:36:53.052
that's where we have to embrace the technology
00:36:53.052 --> 00:36:58.872
yeah and that's when you give us a call final question
00:36:58.872 --> 00:37:01.692
for you then tony just just thinking about your work at
00:37:01.692 --> 00:37:04.312
events agree is there a is there a
00:37:04.312 --> 00:37:07.772
single project or a moment in your career while you've
00:37:07.772 --> 00:37:10.672
been there that's like truly stood out for you and and
00:37:10.672 --> 00:37:13.712
if so what was what was what did that look like what were you really proud of
00:37:13.712 --> 00:37:16.572
yeah i mean look there's been
00:37:16.572 --> 00:37:20.072
a lot of there's been a lot of projects where we do like interactive
00:37:20.072 --> 00:37:23.032
stands and immersive stands which are cool every
00:37:23.032 --> 00:37:25.932
single one of them like the the technology that goes
00:37:25.932 --> 00:37:30.032
behind it the thinking the creativity has been wow a
00:37:30.032 --> 00:37:33.192
standout piece i would say was the
00:37:33.192 --> 00:37:36.132
riyadh marathon yeah right that we
00:37:36.132 --> 00:37:39.312
did last year and it really was
00:37:39.312 --> 00:37:42.732
a mix because there was a immersive element
00:37:42.732 --> 00:37:48.792
there was an ai element there was an ar element from one event wow right so
00:37:48.792 --> 00:37:53.852
i'll give i'll give you an example when you registered you scanned yourself
00:37:53.852 --> 00:37:59.452
and a ai avatar is created with your face yeah and.
00:38:00.313 --> 00:38:04.613
Then the actual map of the marathon, the invitation was an AR invitation.
00:38:04.613 --> 00:38:08.773
It wasn't just another email. It was an AR invitation.
00:38:09.133 --> 00:38:14.373
And you could actually place your camera on the wall and they'll show you the
00:38:14.373 --> 00:38:17.953
map of the Riyadh marathon and your little avatars on there, right?
00:38:18.673 --> 00:38:24.913
At the fan zone itself, we did something which was called, we called it the fly-a-thon,
00:38:25.213 --> 00:38:28.573
where you ran the marathon on an
00:38:28.573 --> 00:38:31.593
immersive area like on a treadmill and
00:38:31.593 --> 00:38:34.293
you were flying through the skies of you were running through the
00:38:34.293 --> 00:38:38.373
skies of Riyadh through the clouds yeah the AI
00:38:38.373 --> 00:38:41.333
avatar ended up being a part of
00:38:41.333 --> 00:38:47.213
their nationwide billboard campaign because they took people and took those
00:38:47.213 --> 00:38:53.133
avatars and put them on a billboard so it's just there's so much and even the
00:38:53.133 --> 00:38:58.833
people who visited like monitoring where they went what they spent time with,
00:38:59.193 --> 00:39:01.273
you know, how they're interacted, yeah?
00:39:01.473 --> 00:39:07.113
And I know we didn't do the floating LED screen, as I said. Yet.
00:39:07.673 --> 00:39:13.953
Yet. Yeah, so, I mean, yeah, that's one of the standout pieces. The other thing is.
00:39:15.104 --> 00:39:22.264
Something we did for EDGE, which is a huge organization based in Abu Dhabi and they really are.
00:39:22.544 --> 00:39:26.644
We did something for their military side things, like the military exhibitions,
00:39:26.884 --> 00:39:31.104
but it's about how do we showcase what we have. Yeah.
00:39:31.564 --> 00:39:37.664
And let me put this across. This wasn't like an aggressive military or this
00:39:37.664 --> 00:39:38.944
is how we bomb things. No.
00:39:39.304 --> 00:39:44.584
Right. It was showcasing the technology of the new stuff that's been out.
00:39:44.584 --> 00:39:47.484
Yeah that the the devices and what
00:39:47.484 --> 00:39:50.564
have you so that was also a stand-up piece
00:39:50.564 --> 00:39:54.044
like because at the end of the day it's about
00:39:54.044 --> 00:39:58.244
how do we impart that information without being too intrusive right yeah but
00:39:58.244 --> 00:40:03.844
i mean we had marathon for me was like i mean one of the one of the the sort
00:40:03.844 --> 00:40:09.364
of pinnacle pieces but we've got something coming up once again okay right and
00:40:09.364 --> 00:40:10.784
I might come back on the interview,
00:40:11.504 --> 00:40:18.464
to shout about that because the tech side and the innovation side and the human side is wow.
00:40:18.984 --> 00:40:21.304
Yeah. And it's about using yeah, no, I'm not going to say.
00:40:22.304 --> 00:40:25.004
Don't spoil it. Don't spoil it. You're under NDA, mate, before you,
00:40:25.164 --> 00:40:27.944
you might have done it before this. I think I think,
00:40:28.508 --> 00:40:31.508
First of all, for anybody listening, we'll try and link somewhere in the show
00:40:31.508 --> 00:40:35.528
notes and point people so you can go and see something maybe on the Eventagrate
00:40:35.528 --> 00:40:41.288
website or on the Riyadh Marathon website or something so you can see that content
00:40:41.288 --> 00:40:42.848
and that case study and stuff like that there.
00:40:42.848 --> 00:40:47.988
I think from my conversation, Tony, what's really exciting for me is there's
00:40:47.988 --> 00:40:55.688
so much opportunity when it comes to how we create these experiences and how we really,
00:40:55.908 --> 00:41:01.668
truly have attendees have a meaningful experience and go away feeling part of
00:41:01.668 --> 00:41:04.068
something or more brand affiliation or something like that.
00:41:04.608 --> 00:41:07.388
But the key and the theme that i've heard all the way
00:41:07.388 --> 00:41:10.968
through what you've been talking about is that the technology
00:41:10.968 --> 00:41:14.168
should not be the reason it should be the solution correct and
00:41:14.168 --> 00:41:16.888
when it's the right solution yeah and i think you
00:41:16.888 --> 00:41:19.768
know human nature as we go back right to
00:41:19.768 --> 00:41:22.468
the beginning of this conversation is we we want
00:41:22.468 --> 00:41:25.488
to be the latest and the greatest and the shiniest and
00:41:25.488 --> 00:41:28.828
there's a lot of one-upmanship in especially in brands and
00:41:28.828 --> 00:41:31.908
and those kinds of things everybody wants to be the latest and greatest and
00:41:31.908 --> 00:41:34.948
as you pointed out was it do something nobody's ever
00:41:34.948 --> 00:41:37.688
seen before which is kind of our mantra and we do
00:41:37.688 --> 00:41:40.788
that and i think that's really great
00:41:40.788 --> 00:41:44.628
that a company like event and yourself really are
00:41:44.628 --> 00:41:47.728
at the forefront of that that while you have all
00:41:47.728 --> 00:41:50.648
of these tools and these technologies and these great developers and people
00:41:50.648 --> 00:41:53.888
it comes back to why why do
00:41:53.888 --> 00:41:56.608
we want to do this what what is what how is it delivering on
00:41:56.608 --> 00:42:00.048
our objective and stuff exactly that i mean yeah i
00:42:00.048 --> 00:42:02.928
mean even our founder and our
00:42:02.928 --> 00:42:09.928
you know the heads of the company like he's a tech creative genius and that's
00:42:09.928 --> 00:42:16.408
what helped found event integrate like technical i mean technical geniuses is
00:42:16.408 --> 00:42:21.808
what formed the company actually so the founder the ceo that like.
00:42:22.981 --> 00:42:27.001
And they instill that in the people that work as well. So yeah,
00:42:27.261 --> 00:42:30.681
it's really like a wow place to work. It really is.
00:42:31.101 --> 00:42:34.641
Amazing. For anybody that wants to find out more about you or Eventagrate,
00:42:34.761 --> 00:42:36.381
where's the best place for them to go?
00:42:36.501 --> 00:42:40.601
Yeah, you can go to the Eventagrate website, which is eventagrate.com.
00:42:40.681 --> 00:42:45.021
Yeah, you can find out about me and my restraining orders. Yeah.
00:42:45.781 --> 00:42:48.661
You could go to my LinkedIn, which is Tony Lehal.
00:42:49.561 --> 00:42:52.201
Maybe even the real reason you called Tony. Yeah.
00:42:53.181 --> 00:42:59.381
We'll save that for the next episode you can talk about it now if you wish but yeah we can do that,
00:43:00.001 --> 00:43:03.941
Tony brilliant thank you very much mate you've been a fantastic guest
00:43:03.941 --> 00:43:09.421
and really excited to see what you at Events Great create for the events industry
00:43:09.421 --> 00:43:13.941
across the globe thank you so much for inviting us over man it really is a pleasure
00:43:13.941 --> 00:43:21.521
this is amazing we need more people like you to talk about these things to make it palatable Thank you.