Adelaide convention cENTRE rOLLS oUT nEW tECHNOLOGY tOOLS TO SUPPORT EVENT PLANNERS
Posted 21 June 2021
While technology has always played an important role in the delivery of winning events, its application is even more critical in today’s world.
The Adelaide Convention Centre has continued to invest in innovative event technologies, enhancing its hybrid technology studio capabilities, as well as launching a new Technology Production Suite and virtual site inspection tool to provide greater support and flexibility to conference and association event planners.
“Investment in the latest event technologies has always been a key focus for our Centre,” says Simon Burgess, General Manager, Adelaide Convention Centre. “While we already had a number of innovative technology solutions in place, over the past several months we’ve concentrated on further growing our internal capabilities and expertise in order to meet the demands of the events landscape.”
Among these, the Centre’s team has enhanced its hybrid capabilities, including video and webstreaming, to enable clients to extend their event reach to offsite delegates.
“Our experience over the past few months has been that organisers are certainly wanting to hold face-to-face events, but are using hybrid as a backup to extend their reach and engage those unable to attend.”
NEW TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTION SUITE
As part of its expanded technology offering, the Adelaide Convention Centre team is proud to have also recently launched a new, dedicated Technology Production Suite to support clients through the event planning process. Supported by the Centre’s dedicated Technology Services team, the new production suite has been designed to streamline the planning process by enabling clients to pre-visualise their event. Rather than relying on words on a page or images of past events, this Suite helps breathe life into the planning process by providing clients opportunity to view a real-time walkthrough of their desired event, along with demonstration of the technology services relevant to their event, including pre-programmed lighting.
VIRTUAL SITE INSPECTION
Last but not least, the Adelaide Convention Centre team has unveiled a new virtual site inspection tool – which like the Technology Production Suite, is proving particularly useful for interstate and international clients.
“Our team understands the importance of a site inspection in providing crucial pre-event insight into the flow, layout and flexibility of our venue beyond that which can be viewed on a map or via our collateral. Whilst travel remains restricted, we felt it was important to provide opportunity for clients to visualise the Centre.”
In response, the Centre’s Technology Services team created a virtual fly-through of the building. Built using 3D models and renders of the Centre’s internal halls and meeting rooms, the virtual site inspection can be customised to desired spaces and configurations, including banquet and tiered seating.
CASE STUDY: THE 38TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON COMBUSTION
The 38th International Symposium on Combustion held at the Adelaide Convention Centre earlier this year provides a wonderful illustration of the Centre’s technology capabilities. While originally planned as a live event, COVID-19 travel restrictions meant the event was quickly adapted to hybrid. In the 10 days leading up to the event, further restrictions forced the Congress to move to a fully online format. The Centre’s in-house Technology Services team played a critical role in event delivery, ensuring a seamless online experience by coordinating timing and logistics; providing support for the presenters; and managing live Zoom Q&A sessions.
“While no easy task, the response from both the client and delegates was terrific. The event attracted 1,360 online delegates from across 50 countries, with the program comprising 11 concurrent web streams with 742 papers delivered. Each session was hosted by an online moderator, who facilitated a live Q&A with the author at the end to provide an element of interactivity.”