• by Ian Framson
• Apr 20, 2017
• xlive

In 2016 I became friends with Max Rollinger, the enterprising founder and host of the XLIVE conference series. XLIVE provides real-world continuing education (plus networking opportunities) for business professionals involved with festivals, concerts, and music tours. I attended and spoke on a panel discussion at the 2016 XLIVE Annual Conference in Las Vegas and shared my experience in this blog post. The experience was productive on many levels. When Max invited me to speak on the Unlocking the Future panel at the XLIVE Data & Analytics Summit in Los Angeles on April 5^th 2017, I was more than happy to accept the opportunity. However, it is somewhat daunting to be responsible for forecasting the future!

As a company, one of our core values is to continuously pursue learning in an effort to improve our human capital, better serve our clients, and become a better business. I personally believe in this core value and consider myself a lifelong student - of the event industry, technology, foreign language, human nature, and the great game of business. I spent all but 45 minutes of this latest XLIVE conference in the role of participant. I had the privilege to learn from executives at Live Nation, Netflix, Eventbrite, the San Francisco 49ers, and many other leading companies. The group consensus leaves no doubt that technology has infiltrated the live event industry. Social media and digital marketing are driving tectonic shifts in the way we market events to fans. RFID, beacons, cashless payments, and mobile apps are revolutionizing the way fans experience events. Even fans at home with a case of FOMO (fear of missing out) are able to remotely watch their favorite artist’s concert live stream and digitally interact with the artist and fellow fans (often in a strategically designed effort to encourage them to buy tickets to attend a future event in-person). And the data produced by all of these digital activities are being tracked, reported, and analyzed to aid internal business decision-making.

In the role of panelist, I tried my best to share the shifts we are experiencing as an Internet and WiFi provider for events, with examples of bleeding-edge projects with which we’re involved. We are being brought in much earlier in the event planning conversation, sometimes six to nine months in advance. We are being introduced to multiple stakeholders within the event including the production team, digital marketing team, press, merchandise vendors, registration/ticketing vendors, and more. We are being asked to develop WiFi captive portals and splash pages for sponsors. Big data is a hot buzzword right now. Many event promoters are looking at the guest WiFi network as an opportunity to capture fan data in a quid pro quo exchange for branded artist content and fast Internet access.

From a fan perspective, the ‘Instagrammability’ of an experience can be equally important (if not more important) than the live experience. For better or worse, some fans feel that if they can’t humblebrag to friends in real-time on social media that they are having ‘the best time ever’ at a music festival, then the experience is for naught. If unreliable connectivity prevents fans from sharing in real time when they are most excited to do so, the fan experience suffers and the artist/promoter misses out on a valuable (free) marketing opportunity.

I shared the example of working with Tommy Hilfiger on their 2017 spring fashion show, developing a custom WiFi splash page, and providing calls to action for guests to buy runway fashions in real time through Tommy’s online store, follow the brand on its social media channels, and access free WiFi. I hope our session participants found value in my attempt to give a glimpse into the future by sharing some of the cutting edge projects we’re working on.

If you’re in the business of festivals, concerts, and music tours, I highly recommend participating in the XLIVE conference series. I continue to be impressed by Max’s ability to execute a professional and near-flawless event. In a veritable forest of events-for-the-event-industry, this one is truly top notch.