“Over the past few years, the two common tenets of attendee-oriented event technology have been social media and connectivity (e.g., event apps, wearables). Now, with these types of technologies being commonplace and event-generated data continuing to accelerate, event marketers are expanding their expectations for measurement—specifically enhanced analytics. With measurement as a prioritized focus, event marketers will continue to adapt the language of big data and data science. In 2017, we expect many more event marketers to become familiar (if not fluent) in the Five Vs (volume, velocity, variety, variability, veracity) and Four As (aggregation, access, attribution, and analysis) of big data.”

“In 2015, we saw the popularity of messaging apps transcend even the most popular social networks while, in the business world, Slack became the unicorn startup du jour. In 2016, we saw the popularity of personal-use messaging apps and social media platforms spark a reemergence of business-oriented social networks. For example, launched in October 2016 is both the intuitive Workplace by Facebook and the smartly designed Microsoft Teams. Add these new offerings to the beautiful work being done by startups like MightyBell and the stalwarts of Yammer, Salesforce Chatter, and Jive, we see an ecosystem that is getting hot. In 2017, we expect event marketers, especially those that serve their brands’ communities (e.g., sales meetings, leadership summits, user conferences), to create new strategies, content, and engagements that tap into these next generation social networking platforms.”