In this episode of Event Experience by Bizzabo, host Rachel Moore welcomes Brandon Wernli, CEO of BW Events Tech, to discuss the evolving landscape of event technology. They explore the importance of understanding client needs, selecting the right tools, and the practical application of technology in real-world events.
Brandon shares insights on tech adoption in events, highlighting a real-world example involving augmented reality and AI to enhance attendee experience. He emphasizes the importance of having a clear strategy, budget considerations, and the value of pilot testing new technologies before full-scale implementation.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:09] Welcome to Event Experience by Bizzabo, the podcast where we bring the best and brightest event experience leaders together to share stories, tips, and lessons learned from creating some of the world's biggest events.
[00:00:31] Rachel Moore: I'm Rachel Moore, your podcast host. In this extended conversation from Bizzabo's event trends webinar, we welcome back Brandon Wernle, CEO of BW Events Tech to our microphones to discuss the evolving landscape of event technology.
[00:00:47] Together, we're about to explore the importance of understanding client needs, selecting the right tools, and practical application of technology in real world events.
[00:00:58] All the talk today is about tech adoption for your successful event experience.
[00:01:04]
[00:01:04] Rachel Moore: Today's guest has a strong background in sales, enterprise software, and customer relationship management, which is no surprise since he guided event tech strategies for major brands such as Google, DocuSign, Cisco, and Hilton.
[00:01:27] Today, he's the CEO of BW Events Tech. I am thrilled to welcome Brandon Wernli to the podcast.
[00:01:34] Brandon, thanks for joining us.
[00:01:36] Brandon Wernli: Thanks for having me, Rachel. It's really good to be here.
[00:01:38] Rachel Moore: It's great to be here with you again, too. I know we're having this discussion right after you were a panelist on a Bizzabo webinar where we also met, so, uh, I'm excited to have this extra time with you, and I'm sure our listeners are, too.
[00:01:50] Rachel Moore: Um, All right, a long day ahead, long day on the ground, uh, at an event. You know, We're all talking those 10, 12, 14 hour days.
[00:01:59] Uh, what are your go to on the ground event day shoes you're going to be wearing?
[00:02:03] Brandon Wernli: Honestly, I go through shoes so frequently that I don't know that I've stuck to a particular brand. But what I have learned is they've got to be comfortable.
[00:02:11] I have had, I've had the dress shoe with a heel on, right? Uh, nice men's dress shoe. And, uh, I mean, everybody knows, by the end of the day or the end of the week, you just want to, just throw the shoe against the wall and try again.
[00:02:25] So honestly, it's just anything that's comfortable that has the longevity of a hard week. And it comes from so many brands for me. It's, it's hard to pinpoint one.
[00:02:34] Rachel Moore: Hey, whatever works is a perfect, perfectly good answer. So that's great.
[00:02:38] Brandon Wernli: Sometimes, I wanted rollerblades. I'll tell you, just like a motorized scooter, just to get from one end of a venue to another, that would be pretty ideal.
[00:02:46] Rachel Moore: I think of the scene from the movie, Pixar movie Ratatouille, where he's, he becomes a, uh, uh, you know, a server and he's, he's skating around the whole restaurant. I'm like, "Oh, I need that." I mean, I'd be, I'd fall down half the time, but I think it's brilliant. Because yes, get me there faster. That'd be great.
[00:03:02] Is there anything that you're listening to, watching or reading these days that you can't put down and does not have to be events related?
[00:03:08] Brandon Wernli: So, uh, a unique thing about me is I actually have five kids.
[00:03:12] Rachel Moore: Oh, hey, full house.
[00:03:15] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, full house. And so that, that's a very, gratifying part of my experience. And so I, I'm working with, uh, two of my boys with, uh, baseball and football, and we're, I'm working with new plays with them.
[00:03:29] And so, uh, if I'm spending a lot of my time, it's actually watching YouTube videos and helping coach my kids on various sports. It could come in the form of reading, but I find that, that's where a lot of my time when I have extra time is dedicated.
[00:03:43] Rachel Moore: Oh, well, hats off to you. I mean, who, and goodness, uh, I just am so thankful that, and I'm a parent too, in this day and age, we have YouTube, to be like, I need to know how to do this so I can tell my children's, and it's, it's like our, it's current day encyclopedia. It's fab, fabulous. So, big fan.
[00:03:59] Brandon Wernli: I'll tell you, you know, sometimes I have a vision of what I would do in a moment with sports. And I'm like, this is the proper form. And my kid is like, dad, I don't buy that. It doesn't look good on you, you know. So, YouTube can be a validating or a correcting force in my life.
[00:04:15] Rachel Moore: You're like, thanks, kid. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. My offspring. That's great. Appreciate that feedback.
[00:04:19] Is there a particular social post or a piece of media or even a hot take about events that you found interesting lately?
[00:04:26] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, you know, I think that there's a lot playing out these days with, you know, my good friend, Julius Solaris. Uh, he and I collaborate a lot. He's got a lot of great insights that every now and then, you know, we're checking.
[00:04:39] I know you guys at Bizzabo, you've done a lot to put a lot out there on the internet. I've really appreciated, you know, um, and Erika Spohr, our last panelist.
[00:04:49] She does a fantastic job putting together metrics. They've been very thoughtful. Um, I believe she put out some metrics on the last broadcast about immersive technologies and what that might look like. And, and so, yeah, there are some key people in the industry that I do watch out for, whether it's Julius or Erica, that I very much appreciate.
[00:05:08] They have a really good pulse and, and, uh, we, we try to, you know, match some of our metrics with what they see and and, uh, come together with, uh, some good insight. It's really been interesting.
[00:05:19] Rachel Moore: Yeah, great all great recommendations and places we can follow those folks is great.
[00:05:24] Rachel Moore: But, you are the most familiar with yourself and your world and your role.
[00:05:27] So, can you tell our listeners more about that? What is your, what's your daily world like?
[00:05:32] Brandon Wernli: Yeah. I mean, like you said. So, I'm the founder and CEO of BW Events Tech. We've been around for about 12 years or so.
[00:05:39] A little bit about us. Uh, we have about 250 people worldwide. And we are event technologists. And from a high level, uh, we essentially help guide and recommend the proper tech stack based on the strategy of our clients for what they're trying to accomplish for their event portfolio.
[00:05:59] But we also, uh, help support events, from a technology standpoint, project, manage, build. And then we offer a, uh, a nice type of flex within the environment where we can take platforms that are traditionally SaaS in nature, and we can help customize them to stretch them to do what the clients are trying to hope to get out of them or hoping to get out of them that is.
[00:06:25] That's the role that we play and my responsibility is that, uh, we offer the best service possible, as leading that ship, uh, within the industry, so.
[00:06:34] Rachel Moore: That sounds like a winning formula. Uh, everyone listening, I'm sure we've all, even if it's not events related, we've all run into tech where you're like, I just, I want to stretch it and make it do and fit perfectly over my particular situation. And so, it sounds like that's a lot of what you all accomplished for, for your clients.
[00:06:52] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, that's a good way to say it. That's exactly what we try to do in the industry to help things be more flexible for our clients.
[00:06:59] Rachel Moore: Nice. So you're basically like silly putty for, for your clients, where you're just helping it. Make, make it fit into the right, into the right uh, niche.
[00:07:06] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, I mean, there's, there's somewhat of a chasm that has been created in the industry, especially in the last 10 years, where event platforms or digital platforms or any platform for that matter is really geared in efficiency wise to create a product road map, stick to that product road map, and then they have very important enterprise clients, let's say, or any client.
[00:07:27] You know, not every platform is a one size fits all. So, those demands come in to tweak that platform in various different ways. And they want so badly to appease all of those requirements, but they can't if they're going to have a very efficient road map and address the masses, so to speak.
[00:07:43] So, yeah, we, we do try to sit in the middle of that client vendor relationship and say, "Okay, client, um, what are you trying to accomplish? Because we know what your strategy and your goals and objectives are. Those are so important to move the needle. And instead of you jumping ship from one platform to the next, trying to find that perfect one, let us help you with what you've got."
[00:08:03] And so, we become best friends with those platform vendors, as well as good friends with the clients and trying to help them satisfy some of those custom needs.
[00:08:11] Rachel Moore: That sounds literally magical. Because it's, it's your. You are saving people so much time too, and the headache of like, "Oh God," you know, just the, the knowledge of thinking, "Oh God, I've got to switch." That notion right now is making people sweat. You know, it's like, "Oh my gosh, it's just so much work."
[00:08:26] And so, you really do, you're doing that legwork for people. And that's so great and perfect why we have you here. I'm excited too, because as I mentioned, you are a panelist on our recent webinar, where we were tackling trends in the events industry.
[00:08:40] We're barreling into 2025. We're recording this right before the turn of the year, and I think people will be listening to this right after, uh, the new year. So, uh, it's perfect timing. And as I said, we're excited to have this opportunity, particularly with you, to expand farther. Uh, than the short segment we had in that webinar.
[00:08:56] So, I want to kick off with this question and we, we asked you this in the webinar, but I, you know, let's have some more time to kind of, kind of dig into it.
[00:09:03] What are things that event planners and the tech experts who support them. What, what should they consider when selecting tools for trend implementation?
[00:09:14] Brandon Wernli: Oh, excellent question.
[00:09:16] So there's a few things. First of all, we try to invite our clients to take a careful look at what is their strategy. You'd be surprised at how that strategy may not be super clear from top to bottom. Even though there is a strategy, it's, is it well known because, um, we try to help them understand what is their North star? What are the KPIs? What is the point of this event? And so those questions need to be clearly answered so that you know, that you've got the right technology stack in front of you.
[00:09:46] Other perhaps obvious considerations is, okay, so what does your budget look like? It doesn't necessarily always mean that the budget is static because if you can show that through the technology, you can facilitate sufficient ROI, there are times where that budget grows to be able to meet the needs.
[00:10:03] We then conduct an analysis, uh, for our clients. We maybe put it in matrix form. Where we look at, what are your requirements for your event or your event family. And we document them. We put, we call them like P0 through P4 or priority list, right?
[00:10:20] We give them a prioritization. What are some of the things feature wise in order to hit your North Star, can you not live without? And then, what are the negotiable things?
[00:10:30] To our previous point, because there's no one size fits all, we can't assume to have some platform check every single box, but let's make sure they check the most critical ones.
[00:10:40] So, as you can imagine, on, on such a matrix that one can create. Is that, uh, you'll have on one access 8 to 10 leading platforms, depending on what the nature is, that you're, of the platform that you're trying to swap over. And then on the other access, you've got all of the requirements.
[00:10:56] Inevitably, and generally what we've seen is 2 or 3 platforms will bubble to the surface. And then the X factor that we bring to the table.
[00:11:07] And if you've got developers who like ours that work in this. I'll say this more generally speaking. If you have a gen, uh, developers where you may not leverage BW events, that's also fair too. But the opportunity is, is let's take a look at some of those more critical items if there's a gap there, that the two or three who are doing the best job possible to fulfill those requirements. If you can leverage custom solutions or plugins, that's very helpful.
[00:11:32] But I would also suggest when looking at a platform, does the platform have open and flexible APIs? Is there front end flexible where you can get into the CSS and maybe play around with some JavaScript?
[00:11:45] Because then, even if those two or three platforms can do a majority, if that's as far as it can go and they're not more flexible than that in the API and the front end standpoint. There's not a lot further you can take it.
[00:11:59] Rachel Moore: hmm. Mm hmm.
[00:12:00] Brandon Wernli: And so, we take that into consideration as we're making recommendations for either platforms or those merging emerging technologies. And is it worth the time?
[00:12:10] So, that, that's an important part of the whole experience.
[00:12:12] Rachel Moore: Yeah. Well, and I'm going to be honest, there may be some people listening who you were like talking, uh, open API, JavaScript, uh, CSS, things like that. And there might, there might be like, don't know what those mean.
[00:12:26] I think, we've all been tool shopping before, right? Like we've been, you know, you look around or you might even just go do a Google query and say, "Hey, I need to do this. What, what tool do I need?" And then you start seeing all these search results and then you start going looking at these vendors. And then, like we said, it's a lot of legwork.
[00:12:41] Like, I, I kind of want to ask you this too. Like, If you know that an event planner, so someone listening to this podcast is like, "Well, I just want to do this."
[00:12:50] You're basically saying like, so when they go to that, like a vendor or some options websites, they should keep an eye out for that kind of stuff. It's really crucial what you're saying too, because there, it, for people who do have an understanding of like what that open API stuff and that flexibility is, they know, that, that basically opens, opens the gateway to more possibilities versus having everything closed down.
[00:13:10] So like, are, if people are visiting vendor websites, uh, what are where should they be looking for that kind of stuff?
[00:13:16] Like, is there kind of a, you know, like across the board like "Yes, every product would have it listed here" or I'm just kind of like, could we point them in the right direction? So where they know that "Yeah, this would be a tool that I need to explore."
[00:13:26] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, you know, on the on the website, I think from that level, you might be able to get a pulse on the tools ability to integrate well with other tools.
[00:13:34] Rachel Moore: So integrations
[00:13:35] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, integrations. Let's look for that. Flexibility with branding. That's not a clear cut. Hey, there's the kind of flexibility that you're looking for, but that at least gives a clue that you're on the right track because some platforms what they'll do, and it's a good thing for a lot of the turnkey smaller events is, "Hey, I can create a template and then copy that template over and over again."
[00:13:57] But, what you're going to get is, is, but that means to put a banner right here. You've got these 10 colors that you have to choose from and you know, that's it. And, so pretty much locked in.
[00:14:09] It may be helpful if, if the website doesn't give enough clarity in that, in that regard, to have a list of a few questions, you know, have prepared for yourself for that demo.
[00:14:20] That's going to come from the vendor. Your prioritization list of these are our critical things. And focus the demo on those things. Unfortunately, you're going to have to turn on your, your thinking cap to try to see if that they're, they're selling you something that isn't fully baked in. You get that.
[00:14:39] And so it is helpful sometimes to have a consultant to work through that with you. But, um, yeah, I would have prepared those questions, see if they can integrate well with other platforms and see if the branding
[00:14:52] And, um, Oh, look, the balloons here, if the branding is flexible enough to be able to allow you to break outside these templates, let's just say.
[00:15:03] Rachel Moore: Yeah, how did those balloons just happen? I'm sorry. I want to like look at that.
[00:15:06] Brandon Wernli: To be honest with you, I thought that was specific to a particular platform, but maybe it's not.
[00:15:12] Rachel Moore: I don't know. It was just fun. I just think it's fun now and now we're gonna have to like, okay we'll have to like investigate that like which I don't think it happened here in the studio, but you know, Brandon if all of us could just have balloons just spontaneously appear when we talk I think that would be interesting.
[00:15:24] Brandon Wernli: Hey, sometimes it's firework. So I'll be careful with how many fingers I hold up.
[00:15:28] Rachel Moore: I loved it. I love it. It was actually kind of a nice little ad. I'm, now i'm like thinking how could I add that in here? That'd be great. Be like, look you just deserve you just deserve what just happened. It's very celebratory.
[00:15:38] Brandon Wernli: We'll be right back with more event experience after the break.
[00:15:41] From backstage to the spotlight. The Event Experience Podcast by Bizzabo gives you a front row seat to the event industry's most captivating stories.
[00:15:52] Want to get more out of each episode? Visit bizzabo.com/podcast. That's B I Z Z A B O dot com forward slash podcast for show notes, transcripts, links, and resources mentioned in each episode and more. The Event Experience Podcast by Bizzabo where events become unforgettable experiences.
[00:16:13] Brandon Wernli: We're back with Brandon Wernli to learn his real world example of tech adoption in events.
[00:16:20] Brandon Wernli: Having sat, how many of us have sat on these demos too, where like me, you may, I think it's so cute what you just said, "Give them a list of the things that you know you need" When they don't know what they need. That can be a time when there's like, "Hey, let's, let's get Brandon's company to work with us because they do know, and they can, they can bridge that gap."
[00:16:40] Rachel Moore: But, I think one key and I don't know if you'll agree with this but um, I think we've all been in those demos too where you can tell it's a cookie cutter demo like maybe you did give them that list but there, it's taken them a while to get to those items and you can actually interrupt them and saying "Hey. Why don't we just cut to where I, the three things that I said I needed. Do you, or is that in this demo? Can we just go there next?"
[00:17:03] And you can actually tell salespeople and stuff to be like, "Hey, go there instead of, let me sit for 40 minutes until you get to the part that was relevant to me."
[00:17:12] Brandon Wernli: That's a great suggestion.
[00:17:13] And I imagine for members of this audience, they've seen that experience where they may have attended another event or 1 of their executives have.
[00:17:20] Rachel Moore: Yeah.
[00:17:21] Brandon Wernli: Some shiny, flashy thing and they're like, we have to use this platform. And so, all the emotions head towards this platform, but that analysis hasn't been done. And so, your top 10 things that are critical are not even part of the tool.
[00:17:35] And sometimes a sales presentation can look like that. They're going to, they're going to show you some of their coolest things. But to your point, you've got to make sure we start with the priorities and let's knock through those and give those to them in advance so that you know that you're not wasting your time.
[00:17:50] But, if you've gone through an exercise of creating that matrix and you know these tools well enough through a consultant or something, you should be able to filter a lot of that out up front.
[00:18:00] Rachel Moore: I love it. Love it. Great advice. Great advice.
[00:18:03] Well, I'd love to get into like some real world example. This is something we didn't have a lot of time to dive into in the webinar. So, um, I always call it the receipts. It's like, look, we talk about all these, you know, philosophically and conceptually, but it's like, but then let's actually see how can, some, some of these notions play out in real world events?
[00:18:21] So, I'd love it if you could share an example of tech adoption, uh, in a real world event that highlights both successes and challenges.
[00:18:29] Brandon Wernli: Excellent. We'll do.
[00:18:30] So, here's an example of something that played out is, uh, several years ago. If you remember, if the audience remember the Pokemon Go craze that came. There were a lot of event owners that said, "Okay, how in the world can we involve this with our events? This is a cool trend." It definitely is. It gets people involved and very popular.
[00:18:52] And so, we took a look at this and, you know, the challenge that people sometimes have is, okay, this is cool but.. Is it something to put money to just for the sake of deploying a new trend or technology? Or is there something more here that we can, we can accomplish? Is there some ROI that we can achieve?
[00:19:10] In this situation, we were working with a client and they had received some surveys from their attendees that said a couple of things. They said, they were having a hard time finding the content that they came to the event to consume and second, they had a hard time getting around the venue to locate it once they did find it.
[00:19:29] Rachel Moore: Oh, wow. Yeah.
[00:19:30] Brandon Wernli: Inefficiency. Trying to get to where they needed to go.
[00:19:33] So we knew that, that was the challenge. We knew that there was an emerging tech. It wasn't mission critical that we play that, but if we could, that's fantastic.
[00:19:43] So the other dynamic that played into the challenge is they changed the format of their event and some of our event owners may have seen this concept before where they put a lot of their event. In other words, within, within their exhibit hall, they not only had their booths and partners there, they also inserted demos and sessions, and I would say 95% of all the comings and goings of the event was now located in the exhibit hall itself. They just wanted this to be a very active experience.
[00:20:14] So they organized it. As context, they organize this into a city floor plan with technologies, organized into city boroughs. you kind of see that in your mind. And so every hallway became a city street with crossroads, right?
[00:20:30] So what we ended up doing is based on the challenge that was presented to us, as well as the makeup of the event, as we were dealing with, We brought together the following technologies and I'll share with you our solution.
[00:20:42] So, we leveraged mobile app, AI technologies, augmented reality. We also had a CMX, which I'll talk about what that means. CMX technologies for wayfinding.
[00:20:55] Here's what happened with the attendee and I'll share with you how the technology played out. As you got to the crossroads of this city experience, there would be a pillar that was there at the crossroads, almost like a bus depot stop.
[00:21:08] Attendees were instructed to take their phone and to look at the pillar and on the pillar or on the phone rather, they would see from the pillar and augmented reality. A visual of signposts that would point the way that they should go.
[00:21:23] Now, what was specific about the signpost is that AI technology allowed us to take a look at. Let's say if Rachel, if it was you that was coming to the post, it knew exactly what you said during registration. It knew what kind of purchases that you made prior to coming to the event with the company. It knew what the demo or the session was that you attended right before you, you approached this pillar.
[00:21:48] And based on all of that data, it said, "Rachel, I know who you are, roughly. And these are the activities around this pillar that would be of interest to you."
[00:21:58] Rachel Moore: goodness.
[00:21:59] Brandon Wernli: So once you tap on the directional, that's where CMX plays in. Just a little note of what CMX is from a high level in layman's terms. It's taking wireless, those wireless boxes. Okay. And it uses triangulation to say, this is where Rachel is indoors.
[00:22:15] I can pinpoint where Rachel is. So on your phone, when I tap on, or when Rachel taps on the directional, it would pull up a map, just like Google Maps, let's say. And it would show Rachel where she was in the venue and exactly the map or the route of how to get to where she needed to go.
[00:22:33] And so, attendees were going to those places and they were getting excited because, you know, they were going to where they were meant to go then algorithm would update. So, the next time they came back to the pillar, it would know, Oh, that's where you went because you scanned there, but then you surprised us and went over here.
[00:22:52] So, let's now bring that back in the algorithm and this next recommendation is going to be even smarter. A lot of emerging technologies come into play. What was fantastic about this is that, we were able to track the R.O.I. after the fact.
[00:23:06] R. O. I. In this regard was did the survey scores increase? Did the return that we got? We did get the bump in survey scores. We had a high level of adoption because, hey, you know, the Pokemon Go concept was very popular at the time. We hit its peak and it had a practical application to a real concern and it, it did solve somewhat of a problem as a result.
[00:23:31] And so, that was one of the ways in which leveraging technologies, uh, solved real world challenges from an event setting.
[00:23:38] Rachel Moore: Okay, so many things we should dig into there.
[00:23:41] First of all, super cool. I mean, I know Pokemon Go and, and, anecdote, I actually installed that app and I caught a Pokemon and I immediately uninstalled it because I'm like, I have no time for this. I knew, was going to get sucked right in. Yeah. I was like, "Nope, not going to do it."
[00:23:56] It was so timely, but I love that, first of all, it wasn't just, "Hey, let's just replicate Pokemon Go, let's make some kind of, make up some kind of widget or something," you know, that, "Oh, they just have to find it," which could be fun. I mean, let's, let's, let's be honest, it can be entertaining, be like, "Oh, cool, I see what you all did, you made your own Pokemon Go" but just like maybe custom, maybe it was like, cause, cause I could totally see an event planner or team saying, you know, "Why don't we just make our logo?" You know, or like planted around, you know, different spots, like an Easter egg thing.
[00:24:29] Okay. Sure. You could do that. But, the main point was you, you actually married this up. Yes. It's cool tech. You took a timely trend, but you married it up to metric. And something that the audience had said, we need this. We would like more of this from you. So you basically said, no, let's actually use this to improve that attendee experience.
[00:24:53] So it wasn't just, "Hey, let's do the trend for the sake of the trend." But you made a practical application that, that moved the needle for ROI and the metrics for the event. But it was a smart use, a very practical smart use for what, what the trend, how the trend was implemented.
[00:25:13] So crucial. I love that you shared that.
[00:25:15] Brandon Wernli: Yeah. And you know, it's interesting is one of the things that organically played out as a result of the build of this experience is that, occasionally we get questions of how do we get, let's say sales and marketing discussing or collaborating over this event as a five hole.
[00:25:33] And what ended up playing out is sales caught wind of this concept and said, you know, from the data flow that we're seeing, we're noticing that there's certain activities on site at the event that suggests that as a result of an attendee participating in said activity, they have a higher propensity to buy our products.
[00:25:51] And I'm seeing what you're doing with this hypothetical personalized journey. And they say, " Is there a chance we could insert as part of the recommendations, activities, or demos that could be part of the next step in that person's journey towards, uh, achieving that likeliness to buy?" And so within the algorithm, although very specific to the attendees needs, it's just the quality level increases.
[00:26:16] And, maybe it's a particular type of demo with a particular. Then that plays into a even bigger strategy, and they start like frothing at the mouth at the opportunities that are there.
[00:26:29] So it has, you know, once you get good tech for good, that has good ROI, it has a practical application and you administer it in a seamless way, a lot of the parties will coalesce around it to continue to see more opportunities with the strategy than what you sometimes think you're, you're achieving. So it kind of interesting.
[00:26:48] Rachel Moore: Well, and, and this drives it to one of the other things too that I wanted to, to dig in and was like, it's so crucial then to be able, cause you did such a great job too, by the way, like explaining the tech, like the triangulation of CMX and, and all, okay, I get it. Like that's how Google maps knows that I'm, you know, moving or walking toward, you know, my destination. Like, okay, you need to take that turn in three quarters of a mile or whatever.
[00:27:11] Knowing that you had, like, I'd love to kind of learn too, like, did the client, how did they approach you? Did they just like say, "Hey, we want to make Pokemon Go happen in our, in our event." Like, was it that simple? And then it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:27:25] But like you had already mentioned, let's look at your strategy, let's look at your goals for this event. Why are you even doing it? And stuff like that. Like how, how, uh, what was, how did that evolve?
[00:27:34] Brandon Wernli: Yeah, I, it was a thought. It was one of those strategic pillars that we had and said, what are some of the trending technologies that, because this client was a very tech focused client, and part of it was a perception of the brand, too.
[00:27:50] That's why it was for them very important, is there were some, there was some latitude there where we could pull off a high tech deployment with lesser value towards ROI because it does push the brand needle, if that makes sense.
[00:28:06] So that was a play that we had in our back pocket, but they, this was a team that we were working with that was really good. They understood that, okay, we, we have money to solve challenges and to really drive strategy. Is there a deeper strategy?
[00:28:22] And they went in with eyes wide open and did a fantastic job. I learned a lot from this team. I use it as a, That's kind of a pattern by which we try to set up the right metrics up front and the clarity of strategy up front so that we have success leaning on these professionals that I worked with at this client company. So.
[00:28:41] Rachel Moore: Really cool. Well, and I get food for everybody to think about, right, where it's like, okay, and every, you know, every brand is gonna be different. And that's going to segue nicely to my next question for you.
[00:28:50] But, um, before we go there, but it's like, you know, everybody's going to have their own budget or their own bar they're trying to achieve and their own style of brand. Like you said, that tech's going to be super important for some brands, others, it's going to be some other, you know, some other focus, or like you said, pillar of, of what they're offering is to their clients, right?
[00:29:08] Brandon Wernli: That's absolutely right. And there are some tactics that we've employed when the client has a more restrictive budget. They need to optimize the technology and toward in order to facilitate what they're trying to accomplish.
[00:29:20] And so, there's some tips or tricks that we try to accomplish in some kind of the X factor that I suggested or alluded to before on how clients can optimize their budget to have the best tech possible to create the outcomes that they're looking for. We just know we need to scale back or be as efficient as possible with our, our efforts.
[00:29:38] Rachel Moore: Yeah, because like you're describing this whole scenario. I'm like, okay, I could see that. I keep thinking cha ching because I'm sure that that was like getting that that's, that's not cheap, you know, pulling off everything you did, but, but the payoff, obviously you do, you do balance all that was saying yes, but are we going to get that wow factor?
[00:29:55] I can just imagine attendees. There were like, because, the first thing you're going to, if you're walking with a buddy and you're going to be comparing the like, "What did you get recommended? I'm going over here. You going over there?" And, you know, just like, Oh, I just think it's so cool that it's so smart, you know?
[00:30:09] And, and yeah, just imagining the, uh, the delight that you created with that experience. And then it's hard to kind of quantify that.
[00:30:16] Brandon Wernli: Yeah. And you know, it's interesting. It's, we are looking for those immersive type experiences that will cause that chain reaction for clients because then we get a greater adoption. They talk about it to other, you know, to other clients, the industry peers and so forth. And it also causes that retention rate of former attendees who have attended, you know, in the past come back in the future.
[00:30:40] They're curious what's going to happen next and a little bit of anticipation is a helpful and healthy part of the experience.
[00:30:47] Rachel Moore: Oh, gosh, yeah, every event planner is going, yes, yes, it is.
[00:30:49] So I have a question for you to, um, in the webinar that we just had with Bizzabo, our other panelists, you represented the tech, we had two other panelists, each respectively, representing a corporate event planner and agency event planner.
[00:31:03] Is there a guidance that you can share for either or both kind of thinking of the different environments they work from? When it comes to involving tech and trend adoption or execution, um, like, like, how is it different for a corporate planner versus like say an agency planner?
[00:31:17] Brandon Wernli: There are some fundamentals that I think are probably universal. It's time and budget and ensuring that the proper strategy and the metrics are understood up front.
[00:31:28] I think from an agency standpoint, if one isn't comfortable or have enough experience with the technology, it's helpful to bring in a guide to, to help guide the timelines and deliverables.
[00:31:41] Uh, on occasion, there's a risk that's run to oversimplify what's needed in order to perform a deployment like the one I described.
[00:31:49] There's those inevitable gotchas, you know, data privacy wants to, you know, weigh into everything and vet every aspect of the experience.
[00:31:57] And so, having up front the understanding or clarity around budget. What are the goals of the deployment? What are all your metrics you're trying to track? Do you have the timing down?
[00:32:10] Also that, as I was alluding to the data privacy lead time, a lot of organizations, it'll take three or four months in order to get a new tech or solution through the door.
[00:32:21] You need to prepare for that and is that solution that you've vetted, vetted well enough where you know that they're going to pass the test, otherwise you're at the drawing board and now it's probably too late in order to conduct this.
[00:32:35] And the, the other thing that we typically recommend to all parties is if you're introducing something new, let's start with a pilot. Let's not go full scale because there is inevitably going to be coming, come some learnings in that 1st year of deployment.
[00:32:50] And so, you want to continuously plan this, uh, significantly and or if you have the option, try to conduct a pilot where you've got a controlled space, learn from it, and then, uh, extend this out to the full, audience that you're working with.
[00:33:05] Rachel Moore: Really great points. Those are great. And that actually leads me to my final and easiest question of all.
[00:33:11] Brandon, where can our listeners find and follow you online?
[00:33:14] Brandon Wernli: You know, you can find me on LinkedIn.
[00:33:16] I really look forward to connecting with anybody on LinkedIn. Please connect with me message me. I really do look forward to collaborating. And if you also have some challenges with your event text stack, you're just trying to get some insight on how to deploy something challenging. I'm happy to chat through it with you and, and see if there's some value that we can add in some way.
[00:33:36] Brandon Wernli: Brandon SkillUp advice is along the same lines of failing to prepare means to prepare to fail. Well, technology isn't perfect and it's also run by humans.
[00:33:57] Rachel Moore: It is. Yes.
[00:33:59] Brandon Wernli: As a result, there's a couple of pieces of advice on that front. One is contingency plans are part of a successful deployment, and so in the development of that plan, what is the backup plan? And what is the worst case scenario? And let's game plan the whole thing.
[00:34:17] Because some of the most successful technology deployments have come, not be, have been successful, not because they've been perfect, but because the contingency plans were perfect.
[00:34:27] Rachel Moore: Nice.
[00:34:27] Brandon Wernli: So you know exactly what's going to happen if, let's say, this live stream goes down, you've got two other plans. And ultimately, at the end of the day, the attendee may not know it, even though we know that things had potentially gotten tense, but the, they didn't have to, or, or they didn't get so tense because you had a plan and you knew how to execute it.
[00:34:48] And then building within that timeline, let's game plan or, uh, that whole experience of, okay, this deployment went down, let's switch to the backup. How seamless was that? that's an important part.
[00:35:00] The other thing that I would suggest is as part of that foundation that I was suggesting is, don't get overly intimidated by the technology itself assuming that you've got the right people in the room. you've got the experts in the room who know their craft well, your job is then to project manage it to ensure that people are holding to timelines, they're communicating well, they're communicating vulnerabilities, any gotchas in advance, and you'll be amazed by having the right people in the room. What kind of incredible cutting edge solutions that you can develop and that's a really fun part.
[00:35:35] Trust the experts to do their thing, lean on them, and you do your best to project manage the experience just as you're good at. And, uh, it can be a lot of fun.
[00:35:46] Brandon Wernli: Thanks again to Brandon Wernli for joining us on event experience. And thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, we'd love to hear it.
[00:35:55] Connect with us on social and subscribe, rate and review us wherever you're listening. Also, don't forget to share the show with your colleagues and friends.
[00:36:03] You can find transcripts of each episode and key takeaways on bizzabo.com/podcast
[00:36:10] On behalf of the team, thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of event experience.
