Contributing Author: Petra Johansson Having been asked to give my perspectives on event management in the media and technology sector – a sector I am naturally passionate about – the main thing that comes to mind is the ever growing number of event technologies made available to our somewhat traditional profession and the media and technology sector is naturally the early adopter of these technologies. More than once a week I get pitched ‘a new revolutionary event technology’ and I am sorry to say that most of them are neither new nor revolutionary to the event manager. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of new and interesting event technologies – both mobile and web based – to adapt to your event management process for planning, running and executing your event; technology that will enhance the delegate/speaker/sponsor experience at the event, technology to simplify the event management process. One of the most interesting technologies I have seen recently is Eventasaurus, which gives the event manager one single tool from which to run all event related event listings across multiple platforms including LinkedIn, Lanyrd, Facebook, Plancast etc. For social media Bullseyehub is another great tool that allows you to plan and execute a social media campaign for your event very easily. It also includes event marketing tools and list management. Setting up and keeping event listings and social media up to date is one of the most time consuming jobs for an event manager these days. At a recent industry event for event managers, I attended a few sessions focused on event technology hoping to see some new interesting tools. I was appalled to see how slow the adaption of event technologies has been across the traditional event management industry. One of the sessions I attended showcased a hand-held voting device – very chunky and similar to devices I was demo-ed many years ago. The event managers next to me where all oh-ing and ah-ing and thought it very new and exciting. There are some really exciting mobile apps out there, which can do exactly the same thing straight from the delegates’ mobile phones. So there is no need to hand out and then collect chunky and old fashioned hand-held devices which will cost you a fortune if you fail to return them all to the supplier. YasmoLive is a great mobile app that I have used for events and there are plenty of more options out there – just Google ‘mobile event technology’. Be selective though, and make sure the mobile app you choose to use works for the purpose of your event. Many mobile app makers will tell you their mobile app is one of a kind – not true – and differentiates them from all the others out there, but most of them don’t. Being pitched plenty of these apps on a regular basis, I find that very few stand out as one of a kind! Where the event management industry in general is still very traditional, I am delighted to find most of my work within the media and technology sector when it comes to events. This is naturally one of the fastest growing sectors and tends to be quick in adapting new (good) event technology and also one with an increasingly number of new events being launched or re-launched in new formats. And you can hardly find a media/technology event these days that is not using some flashy and interactive mobile or web app to enhance both the participant’s and organizer's event experience! Event management in the media and technology sector is an ever accelerating spiral – most of the time upwards but sometimes it goes in the other direction. Client demands require the event manager to turn around innovative and creative event concepts in an ever shorter amount of time to follow the natural pace of progression and innovation in the media and technology sector. And while technology means that the process of event management in many aspects can be speeded up considerably, event management remains a very time consuming hands-on profession.