How emerging technologies like AI and NFT can shape live events – Rolling Stone

As the creator of an app that promotes exclusive and exciting nightlife and live events worldwide, let me tell you: Although many nuances cannot be replicated via technology at this time, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and NFT are poised to offer more personal experiences and a more curated approach to interactions at events.

Virtual live events represent a new method of running fairs, conferences and various entertainment events. This area shows particular promise if executed correctly. Virtual live events can allow people to “attend” events from around the world, significantly reduce the event’s carbon footprint (both in terms of production and attendee travel), reduce costs for stakeholders at various points of investment, and allow for a wider range of content.

And if you’re like me, sometimes when you’ve attended in-person conferences or events, you’ve felt overwhelmed with choices and unsure of the best way to set your agenda—which speakers to listen to, which exhibits to explore, and where or with whom to network. Virtual events can solve this problem by leveraging AI to maximize your engagement to best match your interests and goals.

For example, conversational or assistant AI can take into account your interests, check your existing schedule or calendar, present you with optimized choices and later summarize everything you might still have missed, even summarizing important lectures. So while one may “lose” something from not participating in person, they may also gain something in terms of efficiency.

Other ways AI can be leveraged for events include matchmaking, real-time translation into all known languages, and personalized video recaps focusing on the highlights each guest cares about. Matchmaking is particularly interesting, as AI is uniquely well-suited to look at countless data points about each guest—from social media profiles to questionnaires and other familiar histories—and effectively match them with others at the event who share similar goals, personalities, or backgrounds. .

The ultimate goal is to create a more immersive and satisfying experience for the participants. When an event is made more personal for the guest, it becomes more immersive. Nothing feels more alienating than not knowing what’s going on at a conference or what you should do next.

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New NFT technology is already being used at live events. Tao Group Hospitality, a global hospitality company, recently broke into NFT tickets “with a three-night NFT ticket takeover at the Marquee in New York City” during NFT.NYC 2022. According to NFT Culture, the company also released “an exclusive NFT that only attendees of the annual Swedish midsummer party can claim ” in partnership with Yellowheart. Other examples of event organizers recently using NFTs include Coachella’s recent foray into NFTs, offering a mix of physical and digital assets.

Adoption rates with NFTs in live events vary. According to a piece in NFT Now, “…most showgoers still don’t have an NFT wallet, pushing NFT tickets out of the equation for many promoters.” For me, the most important takeaway is that NFT adoption by event organizers is at least partially driven by the adoption of NFT wallets/crypto wallets by event goers.

However, that is changing rapidly. There is actually no way to know how many NFT wallets exist, given the decentralized nature of the blockchain. For example, right now I could create 1000 NFT wallets and no one would know about it. But looking at other macro trends we can estimate NFT or NFT wallet growth. 2022 is still on track to surpass 2021 for inflows into NFT marketplaces, indicating overall strong growth in this sector.

I think NFT tickets are an important indicator of where both the live events and the NFT industry are headed. NFT tickets can solve almost all the problems people have with traditional tickets (eg scalpers, fraudulent tickets, etc.). They’re a big step away from the whole JPEG idea, and they actually provide utility.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges. Data security measures, potentially required equipment and efficient approaches to curation are concerns that come with the potential of incorporating these new technologies at live events. All of these opportunities require collecting and massaging all new sets of data from all stakeholders, not just event guests. And whenever significant additional data is collected, it presents both privacy and cybersecurity concerns. Zoom, for example, had a major security hole that could allow anyone to take control of a computer with Zoom on it—even when Zoom wasn’t open—which spurred Apple to rush its own hotfix even before Zoom could. Such a security issue at a major virtual event could be catastrophic.

Business owners must fully understand the sensitivities of their event attendees — their tech capabilities and tech phobias, in particular — and take adequate measures to limit access to and protect data, regardless of user consent. The privacy and security concerns of no two events (and their guests) are the same. For example, an event aimed at young techies will be much easier to deploy things like facial recognition and matchmaking, but trying that technology with a demographic that is more skeptical of it can quickly sink the event. A best practice would be to try each of these technical advances one at a time unless one is absolutely certain of widespread and favorable guest adoption.

Ultimately, events should be part of every company’s culture – even if they’re not in the events, entertainment or hospitality industry. Every business leader can learn the best way to run events so that attendees will leave lasting impressions and deepen relationships.