The future of Virtual Tickets at exhibitions
VRrrooom … Virtual Reality is off to the races.
Last week Manoush, host of Note to Self, put a new spin on the virtual exhibition ticket.
Anyone in business is offered (harangued) about buying tickets to exhibitions within their industry. A trend of the past few years (even longer for some forward thinkers) was that of the virtual ticket.
In the early days of the virtual ticket, you would get access to PowerPoint presentations, exclusive offers from present exhibitors and if you were lucky, a link to a recording of a key note address. The virtual ticket has now naturally progressed to the live feed for talks plus extensive downloads.
The amount of content offered on virtual tickets is becoming so thorough that actual tickets get the virtual as a supplement in case you didn’t get to see all of the attractions.
But one thing is lacking from the virtual ticket and that is control. You are at the mercy of whatever the organiser decides to offer and you get no real conversations or networking opportunities with other patrons or exhibitors beyond the odd chatroom.
Speaking of natural progression, the evolution is still happening. Manoush Zomorodi host of Note To Self (an excellent podcast about living in a digital world) took it to the next level at a conference as a telepresence robot (podcast here).
The tech isn’t there yet (nor are Manoush’s driving skills) but the signs are clear. The next step will be more roombas with cameras attached which you will be able to rent at exhibitions. Then they will turn into drones and eventually we won’t need to go outside anymore. But as we’ve seen from the prognosticators of our age, the Hollywood screenwriter, our need for human contact will overcome (see Surrogates, Wall-E, Demolition Man).
Photo Credit – Woodkern