Recognizing-events_4.0.pdf - 1 views
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The purpose of this research is to explore and define the digital maturity of events using the Industry 4.0 model (I4.0) to create a definition for Events 4.0 (E4.0) and to place various relevant technologies on a scale of digital maturity.
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These surveys and the thorough literature review that preceded them allowed us to map the digital technologies used in events to levels of a digital maturity model.
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This study has responded to calls from the academic literature to provide a greater understanding of the digital maturity of events and how events engage with digital technology.
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We found that engagement with technology at events and delegate knowledge satisfactorily coexists for and across a number of different experiential levels. However, relative to I4.0, event research and the events industry appear to be digitally immature.
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Events are in the midst of rapid social and technological change. With a growing variety of technological means, the industry is fast-paced and increasingly delivered to a discerning consumer market while finding ways to connect with consumers through technology
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Digital technology is the thread of the fabric of organisations (Li et al., 2018). It is an increasingly important part of how they engage with their customers.
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Moreover, engagement with events as fans, spectators, delegates or organisers can be augmented with digital technology by improving access and sociability capabilities, refining the personalisation of events, and thereby creating enhanced experiences.
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As we advance into what many in business and academia consider to be a fourth industrial revolution, the capacity to control and exchange data electronically has extended our ability to create, edit, maintain, transmit and retrieve information.
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I4.0 can be described as the digitisation and automation of the manufacturing environment. It also creates digital value chains to enable the communication between products, their environment and business partners. Digital applications have impacted the tourism sector too giving rise to ‘Tourism 4.0’
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The events industry is an ideal environment to benefit from the implementation of a widespread digitised approach with numerous organisations empowering managers and improving the overall event experience with the integration of extensive ICT practices and systems.
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With the more widespread adoption of digitalization in event delivery and as the supply chains of all events become intertwined with technology, we can learn how the digital maturity of events in the 21st century is shaping event management and event control.
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The team set out to answer the following research questions: RQ1. Can digital maturity in events be defined? If so, RQ2. How should the levels of digital maturity of events be classified with regard to the digital maturity of the events industry and the development of event management theory?
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Successful events are no longer measured by simply achieving a respectable attendance, a great deal more engagement is manifest through digital technologies
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Successful events require organisers to create something that is considered by those who attend as a valuable and memorable experience (Pizam, 2010; Tung, 2011). Creating memorable event experiences can be described as being dependent on a number of factors including creating regular attendee engagement, providing appropriate activities, relevant subject matter, topical and contemporary focus and targeted to a sizable receptive audience.
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technological factors being one of the most important areas of demand for companies along with the implementation of I4.0. SMEs (Small to medium enterprises) are [lagging] behind in developing strategies to implement new solutions.
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The development of digital maturity in events can be compared to smart tourism, which Gretzel et al. (2015) expressed as a logical progression from traditional activities. Smart tourism is characterised by an ability to transform large amounts of data into enhanced tourist experiences and increased destination competitiveness thanks to the interconnection of the different stakeholders through latest ICT advancements
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As the components of I4.0 become more prevalent in the events industry, much value can be obtained from understanding how businesses are adopting new levels of digital engagement in order to engage their audiences
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it is prudent to suggest that the survival, and future success of events can depend upon digital maturity and transformation
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owever, dealing with digital maturity requires careful attention as Neuhofer (2016) urges caution advising that applied technology solutions have proven to have the ability to create or destruct the value of the experience.
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I4.0 therefore acknowledges the impact of connected computers with the key constituents being cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing
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highlighted that the use of communication networks globally has risen dramatically and become ubiquitous due to the rise of smartphone ownership. This has been fuelled by social media, apps and faster broadband speeds to create a networked society
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By combining the Internet of Things data and big data (extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions), event managers are able to create a competitive advantage.
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As event companies develop new and innovative ways to connect, the events themselves are absorbing aspects of I4.0 at every stage of the process; pushing the boundaries of event experiences far beyond the physical world
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They are used to promote events before, during and after delivery and are used to gather data and inform decision-making. Generating responses from an event can be achieved using a number of methods and through both qualitative and quantitative data.
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With the advent of big data and analytics, new sources of valuable data are available to guide decision-making processes in a more informed manner. Businesses were once looking at historical data, but advances in database technology and system processes have led to near real-time data collection and analytics
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Failure to adopt aspects of digital technology does not necessarily suggest a poor experience or the end for those businesses less digitally mature; not every event business relies on this kind of data support to survive. Instead, this research provides an opportunity to better understand where event businesses do engage and more importantly, how communication between non-digital and fully integrated individuals/businesses can be improved.
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Digital maturity and transformation today differs from previous periods as it not only provides the change in the main business processes but also reveals the concepts of smart and connected products through service-driven business models
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Our analysis begins with an attempt to uncover the potential challenges, on-going developments and various strategies that will provide the events industry and academics with a forward-facing approach to the growth of technology within events. By including industry professionals and academics, the research contributes to bridging the gap between practise and academia.
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Because the research and empirical data collection includes industry perspectives, we believe this research will provide value to event managers, marketers and practitioners around the world who wish to understand more about the digital maturity of events.
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After conducting the social media analysis (1), it became evident that the discussions appeared to be around topics that utilise digital technology rather than the technology itself. Furthermore, and probably a reflection on the value of the group, a lot of the data included questions about understanding the topics rather than providing usable information to our research.
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We did not have detailed information about the precise characteristics of the individuals who contributed to the dataset of posts. However, to an extent, their roles listed in LinkedIn were informative. These included events consultants, social media managers, marketing professionals, EventTech managers, CEOs at tech companies and events students.
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Although this response rate of 52 academics may be considered low, this did allow for the creation of the initial insights into the E4.0 concept and crucially it provides a starting point to better understand the levels of the developing digital maturity model.
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The most referenced themes were social media, marketing, apps, GDPR and mobile. The top 14 themes are shown in Figure 1 below.
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The results of the thematic analysis reveal the most pertinent events and technology topics in this group in the time period specified. The most common topics were social media and marketing. Marketing appeared alongside other topics as a verb, a noun and an adjective. This certainly influenced its prominence.
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This statement reinforces the knowledge and general use of social media during events. Mobile and event apps were recognised as presenting opportunities to enhance events and were considered to be a permanent part of events.
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Carefully managed and fully integrated data and digital systems including social media, apps and CRM create digital value chains to enable the communication between events, their environment, and business partners.
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Event organisers invest heavily on social media engagement and expect a great deal in return through social media retweets, tagging and sharing of images. However, it is just as important to understand if delegates consider technology at events that important.
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Our expert respondents were asked if they considered the events industry to be at the cutting edge of technology. Responses were largely supportive of the suggestion that it is. 64% agree, 22% neither agree nor disagree and 14% disagree.
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Online registration/digital booking was very familiar with 65% ‘extremely familiar’ with the technology.
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The survey also collected a selection of qualitative data as respondents were asked to if there were any specific examples of connected/digital technology considered to be essential to the delivery of an event that had not been discussed in the survey. Significantly, 23% answered no to this question.
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With regard to the digital maturity of the events industry affecting the development of event management theory, the literature review indicates that academics are making contributions to theory and a broad understanding of digital technology exists.
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industry appears not to be digitally mature. Also, our findings suggest that relative to I4.0 not all events are digitally mature. Therefore, the ‘digital immaturity’ of the events industry may be having some effect on event management theory
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It became evident from the survey that many respondents suggested they were not familiar with technology that they would all have experienced.
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The results from the survey suggest that widespread academic understanding of technology at events is extensive. Some digital technology is considered routine, while other comprehensively used technology appears to be unfamiliar to the end user.
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The growing digital maturity levels form the foundation for E4.0 and will contribute to what Gerbert (2015) described as greater efficiencies and changing traditional relationships among suppliers, producers, and customers.
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Therefore, satisfaction from the event comes down to providing delegates with the right communication levels they need to complete their individual objectives. This can range from the most basic social engagement to the gathering or observation of big data. Events are evidently a melting pot of experiences and goals and not all of them demand the highest levels of technology to complete.
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Artificial intelligence has the ability to provide events with endless systems that sense, learn and decide throughout the delivery process though many gaps exist.
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The data also indicates that there is good knowledge across all types of digital technology. This is reassuring for the development of education as the events industry embraces digitalisation
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However, as more value is placed on the use of digital technology and events mature through greater access to technology, we see the emergence of an E4.0 era.
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Thus, this model anticipates that events will grow in their digital maturity to level E3 and E4. Thus, digital technologies may become sufficiently embedded so that data related to one element of an event will be used to inform other elements of an event in real time
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Online registration and wearable technologies such as delegate smart badges are superficial digital experiences and only considered as a process rather than as a fully perceived digital experience.
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Our findings indicate that digital communications have enabled a shift in the content of events, marketing and the use of social media as a communication tool before, during and after the event.
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On the limitations of our research, one might argue that engagement with technology, or indeed lack of it, does not provide evidence of the immaturity of digital technology in events. However, the digital maturity model that we propose is principally informed by the literature on digital technology and events.
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This research has provided a revealing perspective on the use of digital technology in events. It has built on theory that has been previously developed in this and similar subjects of research, such as business and tourism. From this, the research can claim a number of contributions. It (i) provides an empirical investigation into how event businesses and individuals engage with digitally technology at events, and (ii) it provides a definition of E4.0 and other preceding levels that contribute to digital maturity.
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Our research has shown that event delegates are aware of the ability to communicate in a reciprocal process with technology rather than through a linear/top down process. This in itself is evidence of E4.0. Furthermore, this research highlights how industry is continually striving to optimise the delegate/event relationship through apps and other technology. The industry’s on-going mission to create deeply flexible communication opportunities is eliminating the possibility of gaps in the communication process in order to optimise delegate engagement at events.
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A broader discussion on potential issues such as IT & data security, skill-sets, expensive production costs and outages; these are significant problems within internet and cloud-based technology. Furthermore, the emerging topic of E4.0 itself requires both conceptual and empirical development.
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This research has shown that there remains a great deal to discover about the use of technology at events and many opportunities exist for further research from academics and practitioners working together to provide mutual benefits for both industry and education.
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This article covers a study performed to determine the digital maturity of events. The research conducted reveals that the majority of industry professionals are aware of technology in events. The study ultimately finds that events have a low digital maturity, but high potential for advancement. The article also addresses the limitations of the study performs and agrees that additional research should be performed to determine the relevance of technology in the events industry while acknowledging that digital engagement is not necessary or conducive to every type of event. -
This article has discovered the fact that the event industry was digitally immature. It also introduced a new concept which is called E4.0 into the academic literature. The article is meaningful since it has filled a gap in the literature relating to events and digital maturity and responded to some of the calls for research. The authors were also planning to make further research on E4.0, events, and digital maturity. They have mentioned that the studies on E4.0 itself were also requiring deeper research.
