This year holds great potential for the exhibition industry as it faces high attendee expectations in a post-pandemic era. In the past 2 years, all the events that weren’t canceled had to move to some kind of online platform. However, involving visitors online to learn about and experience a brand’s products will never be the same as in real-life. This year’s exhibition industry trends involve creating event experiences that feel fresh and new to visitors who worked from home and couldn’t travel. Now, they want to feel entertained and educated. As technology is constantly evolving, incorporating advanced technologies in the exhibition industry has taken the customer experience to a significant level. In this article, we will show some of the latest industry trends.
Use Your Senses
The five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) already have been combined by exhibitors to appeal to visitors. And today’s technology makes it easy for them. A distinctive lighting design, AR and VR technology, interactive displays, touch-panel interfaces, soothing background music, and gamification help to strengthen the visitors’ sensory abilities to meet the main objective, connect with the brand.
Must See: Dubai Expo
The Dubai 2020 expo was postponed due to the pandemic and opened its doors on 1 October 2021 and ends on 31 March 2022. The incredible, 438 hectares exhibition features country and branded stands in 3 themes: Opportunity, Mobility, and Sustainability.
The latest technological creations play a key role in Dubai Expo. Throughout the expo, small robots are used for various purposes. The more than 150 robots were created by a Chinese company, Terminus, and were equipped with multi-touch screens and powered with 5G capabilities. They were created with innovative robotic technology to interact with guests from all over the world by welcoming and helping them. The Robots monitor social distancing and with an AI system, they help with queue control on the site.
Adventure-seeking guests can try out a new experience at Emirates’ “learn to fly” simulator. They can get an exciting glimpse into the future of aviation through interactive multisensory installations and virtual reality. To top this up, they can even design their aircraft.
The UK Pavilion is also known as Poem Pavilion was designed by the leading artist and designer Es Devlin. The exciting characteristic of the pavilion is that it uses advanced machine learning algorithms to create collective poems from words written by visitors. The result illuminates the twenty-meter diameter fa?ade.
Latest Trends in China
The China International Import Expo is one of the most prestigious exhibitions in China setting a high standard every year for all exhibitors when it comes to the design and technological features. In November 2021 the CIIE was held for the 4th time and served as a great opportunity to promote the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics as well.
Attendees could try VR headsets to experience skiing for their winter Olympic-themed activity. Many sporting goods retailers such as Decathlon provided ski simulator experiences while Fila, a sportswear manufacturer came up with a snowboarding simulator at their booth.
A landscape-inspired Burberry exhibition stand was an immersive experience presenting the latest textile and design innovations. The incredible physical experience stretched to the online field with the help of on-site QR codes where visitors could unlock exclusive WeChat content like digital wallpapers and shareable stickers inspired by their campaign.
The exhibition and event industry serves as one of the best demonstrations of the transformation society has undergone over the last two years. However, this is still not the end of the route. The rise in technology and increase in data capture will be key drivers in the next years. Using data means gaining a better understanding of customer needs. As technology evolves, collecting this data will be easier which will result in the scope to give visitors exactly what they want.
