February 6, 2024 • 28 mins
Get ready for the dynamic duo - Bogdan Maran and Merijn van Buuren - as they kick off the first episode of "Ctrl+Alt+Event" on the intersection of Events, Marketing, Data, AI & Technology!
"Ctrl+Alt+Event" is not just a keyboard shortcut; it's our way of taking control of the world of events.
We're here to Ctrl the narrative, Alt-ernate perspectives, and Event-ually drop some knowledge bombs! 💡🚀
Here you'll get your weekly dose of tech, humour, and the occasional self-mockery with a sprinkle of data visualisation and AI.
Let's Ctrl+Alt+Event our way to better events! 🎧✨
Here's what's in store for this premiere:
👋 Meet Your Hosts: Meet Bogdan and Merijn to get to know the minds behind the mic.
💡 What to expect: Who is the Ctrl + Alt + Event concept for, and what is it all about?
📊 Data Visualization Surprise: A special data visualization for tech-savvy minds.
🔮 Future of Event Predictions: What's in store for the events landscape?
🗓️ Weekly Rendezvous: Mark your calendar! "Ctrl+Alt+Event" will be live on LinkedIn every Tuesday at 3:00 PM GMT to answer all your burning questions.
🔄 Host Rotation: Bogdan and Merijn will alternate hosting the live event each week, so make sure to follow them both to receive notifications.
🔗 Connect with Us: Bogdan Maran, Merijn van Buuren
👥 Get more involved: reserve your spot here
🎙️ Become a guest on our show: apply here
It's not just a podcast; it's a tech-forward experience you won't want to miss!
See you next Tuesday at 3:00 PM GMT! 🎉✨
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bogdan Maran (00:10):
Hello, can I start nice and say that you're on
mute just to go with the fightthat you had in the last five
years, or something like thatGot to love it.
Merijn van Buuren (00:22):
Welcome everyone, so good to see you
here.
Thanks for inviting me, Bogdan.
You came up with this amazingconcept, so let's not let people
down.
Today we're going to dive rightin.
As you probably know, my nameis Merijn van Buuren, I'm
founder of Event Mender, and I'mhere together with Bogdan Maran
, founder of Visual Hive.
Bogdan Maran (00:44):
Hello everybody and thank you for joining us.
And hello, nathan.
I can see there that you'vejumped on and high-end as well.
We've got people watching us,which is something new, and this
should be fun.
So let's start telling peoplewho we are, or who most people
know us.
But who are you, Merijn?
(01:06):
Where are you coming from, whathave you done and why are you
here?
Merijn van Buuren (01:11):
Well, I think the main reason I'm here is
because I've been a big techentogist for quite a while now.
Obviously, I started within theevent industry in the physical
event space, but during thewhole pandemic that shifted to
more virtual, I decided to helpmore companies embody that
virtual and help them with thetransitioning from virtual, from
(01:33):
physical to virtual, and inthat I encountered a lot of
different technology suppliersand also the fact that there are
so many of them.
We barely know where to getstarted in doing the research.
So that's where the idea forEvent Mender came on Work
together with over a hundredvirtual and hybrid event
platforms planning software,ticketing software, you name it
(01:57):
and that's where I gotintroduced into really event
technology and that's where mypassion and expertise comes from
.
How is that for you, Bogdan?
Bogdan Maran (02:08):
Not to say I'm old enough to have a previous life
no, but I used to be.
I quote Nathan because I knowNathan is here and he said hi
and me and Nathan go a whileback and he has the ability to
describe my thoughts better thanI do usually and he said that
I'm a former photojournalist anddata scientist, which is not
(02:30):
particularly accurate becauseI'm not a data scientist per se.
I'm a more of a data enthusiast.
I would go with datastoryteller and we can go in
details a bit later.
But Visual Hive was founded in2019 out of a couple of long
conversations and beers withNathan, and we're looking at
(02:51):
specifically working with datascience around visual content
and by visual content I meanphotos and videos, not content
by somebody speaking on a stage,because that's another thing
that you're going to go intotoday about how we describe
things in technology and howcomplicated and how many we have
many words that mean the samething, but we got into the
(03:13):
pandemic.
We're apart from having apodcast at 6am with Nathan that
was very fun to have live at 6am, don't get me wrong like we do
live today, we've built customplatforms for event
professionals.
We've done a lot of datavisualization, a lot of
integrations and nowadays,Visual Hive is back with working
(03:33):
on a data driven AI marketingengine for marketers and events,
and we're not that far away inour journey, as you are.
We've just tested an alpha, wegot some good feedback and now
we are working harder to getthere.
Congratulations.
That's me on the long line.
Merijn van Buuren (03:53):
I think it's a very good and comprehensive
introduction.
Also good to know, maybe, whois this actually for
Control-Alt-Event?
I think we mainly created thisfor event organizers and company
that orchestrate remarkableevents, or just those who really
like technology To betterunderstand what the capabilities
(04:15):
are, to give you someactionable insights, some case
studies here and there to seewhat's possible in event
management when it comes totechnology.
It's quite an untappedpotential, although a lot of you
have scratched the surface interms of what's possible.
We would like to help you takethe most out of it, and I think
that's the main reason why westarted this, but maybe you have
(04:37):
something to add there.
Bogdan Maran (04:40):
Because we are both on the geeky side when it
comes to technology.
We really enjoy it, but at thesame time we're looking at the
practical side of it, becausewe've got our neck deep if not
way more than that on a dailybasis, not just with what we do,
but with everything fromconsultancy and helping people
actually get value out of it.
I really liked the idea of Ireally like coming up with
(05:04):
brands and the Control-Alt-Event.
I really like the Windowsrestart concept Because we are
at a point where events need tobe and not just a restart but
like a forced restart, becauseevents are a very conservative
industry and they're talkinghere specifically around B2B
events.
And again, we all say events butwe all come from different
sides.
Some are weddings, some areparties.
(05:26):
We mainly tackle B2B events, ifI'm not mistaken, like 95% of
the cases where technology isvital and that restart needs to
happen way more effectively,specifically because we have a
lot of advances in technology,computing and everything else,
but also because the people thatwe serve, the attendees, the
(05:48):
ones who create the experiencesfor have technology experiences
enhanced.
They have enhanced technologyexperiences outside the events
and we have to catch up as anindustry and that's why the
Control-Alt-Event kind of camewith us.
Let's force it to go to whereit needs to be.
Merijn van Buuren (06:06):
Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more.
So, in terms of what people canexpect, format boils pretty
much down to every Tuesday at3pm GMT or 4pm CET, so the time
it is right now will go live onLinkedIn.
That's where we'll unraveldifferent challenges, focus on
(06:27):
specific use cases, as Imentioned, but also want to give
you the possibility to actuallyask questions.
I see quite some people in thechat, so very good to see you
there, and if you have anyspecific problems with
technology, feel free to alsomake some suggestions.
We are relatively flexible,although we have about 400
different topics that we want tocover in the foreseeable future
(06:50):
.
Bogdan Maran (06:53):
That's what you came up with last night.
I didn't really manage to addtoo much to that.
Merijn van Buuren (06:58):
We'll be around for a while, but always
open for suggestions and if youhave specific questions for us
regarding the topic we'll behosting about then going live on
LinkedIn and joining us.
There is the place to do it.
Bogdan Maran (07:12):
Yeah, pretty much, and yeah, apparently you'll
also, because we've worked veryhard in the last few days.
You'll also find us on verysoon on TikTok, on wherever you
get your podcasts from.
So as soon as we finish this,this will be turned into a
podcast.
But, as Arjen said, you need,if you have any questions
regarding the subjects thatwe're going to talk about each
week, jump on.
(07:33):
Let's have a chat.
In the questions we'll try tonot just philosophical chat, but
actually practical examples ofhow you can improve this or that
in your life as a professionalevent.
Otherwise, we'll know thepeople to come to if you want to
make your life better in anyother forms.
Merijn van Buuren (07:53):
Very true, very true.
Well, I think we covered who weare, why we organized this
podcast, who is for what theformat is going to be, what
people can expect.
So maybe dive a bit deeper intotoday's topic.
Yes, that was my cue right.
Bogdan Maran (08:08):
I missed that.
Nathan is going to laugh hisass off.
I missed my cue.
So, apart from everything else,because I'm a data enthusiast,
I kind of convinced Arjen togive me the chance that on every
episode we would have a datavisualization example.
So we'll try to keep it withinthe events and because that kind
(08:29):
of drives me to do things, I'llgive you.
That's my first episode, soI'll share the first bit of the
data visualization.
I hope you enjoy this.
These are not counters.
So first of all, we have to saythank you to Ufi, because Ufi,
as far as I'm concerned, itcomes to open data and event.
It's kind of the place to go ifyou want to have some reliable
(08:52):
data and play with it, at leastfrom my kicky side.
So we looked here at the AerofFair statistics from 2022, with
some side notes.
There is no UK, because UK isnot in Europe anymore, not even
according to Ufi, which isfrustrating for many reasons.
But they're not going topolitics.
We are going and this are.
(09:14):
We picked up 1,016 shows fromUfi's database database, from
the report that they published.
This is live.
You can go and Ufiorg and pickit up and look at it yourself.
Not this colorful slightlybetter probably but we looked at
how many events did we have interms of from these events.
(09:36):
We looked at the number ofcompanies with individual stands
versus the total square metersbooks.
The idea was to give a littlebit more perspective from just
the number of 1,006 events,which usually events that you
don't do, usually mainly usecounters.
So I wanted to put everythingabout data straightening.
(09:57):
It's put it in context.
So on the button here you'llsee the total square meter
booked for all this 1,600 events.
So you have the number ofcompanies with individual stands
and at the top here you have ifthis works, it should work at
some point.
You have Spain, which has thebiggest numbers of stands or
(10:20):
individual companies thatexhibit it, but not the biggest
number of visitors, because atthe bottom here you have Germany
, which has way less firmsrepresented but a lot more
people coming to their events.
And at the intersection hereyou have Portugal, which had not
so many events.
You have on the left-hand sidehere on the top, how many events
(10:42):
they had, but they had onlyabout 1,000 firms and over
200,000 visitors.
And the big orange block hereis Turkey, which had over 8
million visitors with not somany firms represented.
But the fun bit is, if you wantto go further in, you can do
visitors for each city.
(11:02):
So I've picked up here the top10 cities where you have, on the
top right you have Madrid, atthe bottom here you have Munich,
so you have the Germanefficiency, where they only had
172 companies represented butthey had over 1 million visitors
, and at the bottom here youhave Turkey, with a lot of
(11:23):
cities and a lot of visitors.
So, because this is fun, I alsowanted to look a little bit more
into context.
So I looked at the average priceof a bottle of wine in these
countries in 2022, and the GDPof those countries in the same
year and, as you can see,finland, which only had one
event, unfortunately ranks quitehigh because wine is very
expensive there.
(11:44):
And on the other side, germanysits quite nicely at a decent
bottle of wine, but with a bigGDP and a lot of visitors.
So that's kind of my very fastpresentation of data.
So I use Power BI thank you,Ufi, for the data and hopefully
(12:05):
every episode will havesomething completely different
but as fun as possible.
So, if Ufi is interested, I'mnot applying for a job, but
maybe for a partnership becausethey have a lot of data we can
play around and we can go intobusiness intelligence.
But this hopefully gives you afeeler of what I think when I
talk about data visualization.
(12:26):
And it's not about how manytimes people go to the toilet
and you have to scan them andyou have a properly two million
visitors that came to your showor something to that degree, and
that shuts up now.
Merijn van Buuren (12:36):
Well, I love it and I think I see Selima also
says great figures.
Thank you for sharing it is.
It gives a different dimensionto just data that you normally
see in the sheet, which doesn'tsay a lot, but the moment you
can visualize it, it doesn'tjust become more fun, but also
you can very quickly getsomething actionable out of it,
(12:58):
because in one bird's eye viewyou can see that.
She asks where to find thisinformation.
Bogdan Maran (13:05):
Yeah, so if you go to Ufi website, so I'll share
the link in the chat just as Ifinish speaking and you go to
resources and you can downloadthe reports.
Those reports are very containa lot more information than I
put here.
For me, the pleasure is just toplay and try to tell a story
with that data.
But you can find a huge amountmore information on Ufi website
(13:26):
and they are amazing people.
So just go and check it out andI'll put it in the chat,
Absolutely.
Merijn van Buuren (13:31):
Yeah, I think this is already a little bit
about navigating the future ofevents.
Data is going to play a bigrole in visualization even more,
so really appreciate yousharing and putting in the hard
work of actually visualizingthese examples.
As Bogdan mentioned, he willput it in the chat now that I'm
talking and he can actuallyfocus on typing.
(13:53):
Today is also about navigatingthe future of events and where
this industry, as you mentioned,sometimes we feel like we need
a hard reset, and part of thatis also figuring out where do we
then want to go, and I think weprepared a little fun element
(14:13):
for today, which is makingpredictions in terms of what is
going to happen in the eventindustry with technology More of
the fun ones, not per se, theones that are mentioned quite
often and that are quite obviousfrom points of view, but I
(14:34):
think you gave this also somegood thoughts, bogdan.
Yes, I did.
Bogdan Maran (14:40):
My first one, and one of my favorites, because I
just due to some recentconversations is sustainability.
And I'm not predicting thatevents are going to talk about
sustainability, because they aregoing to and they're going to
be very important.
They are going to and they'regoing to have shows about it and
we're going to go on and on andon, which is absolutely
fabulous and important.
(15:01):
My prediction is that by theend of the year, 99% of people
will see, will still thinksustainability means environment
, which is not necessarily true,and my prediction is that
nobody's going to come and talkabout the economic and social
impact that events have, or atleast talk about it, but just in
the background, because thewhole environment thinks it's
(15:25):
sexier and, again, vitallyimportant, but it's not the only
one.
Merijn van Buuren (15:30):
All right, I think I can kind of get on board
with that one, but I'm verycurious to see, and hope
actually to see, more peoplerealizing the other side of it
as well.
But we're going to see how thatpans out.
When I actually was stayingaround with JetGPT to get some
inspiration for this, it came upwith events in space zero
(15:52):
gravity, networking sessions,anyone and I think at first I
had to laugh at it because I waslike that's way too crazy.
But then at the same time youhear Elon Musk planning to go to
Mars and putting quite somesteps in that direction.
I think it definitely will bewithin our lifetime that we'll
be able to travel to a planetand not take several months to
(16:16):
get there.
Will there be events in space?
I think so and I think it canbe very fun, probably first for
those with a very big budget,not for us in the beginning
stage, but maybe by the end ofour lifetime it will be a bit
more affordable and we'll seemore events in space.
I would love to see thatactually as one of my
(16:39):
predictions.
Bogdan Maran (16:41):
It might not be that expensive because if you
take, for example, davos and yougo out of Switzerland, I don't
know how much expensive thespace can be if you compare that
to Switzerland.
So it might be way morefeasible than you can imagine at
this point.
Merijn van Buuren (16:54):
Fair true, fair, true, we'll see.
Time will tell.
Do you have another predictionfor us to share as well?
Bogdan Maran (17:03):
Yes, it's not as fun as going into space, but
what is honestly a prediction isI'm looking forward.
I'm trying to find an AI thatcan count how many times people
can say video is a king, becauseI estimate at least 5,374 when
it comes to live events andpodcasts, and I think it's going
(17:24):
to go overboard.
But my hope is that it's notgoing to be just talk.
It's going to be a little bitmore than talk and we can make
this educational part and linkit to the social and economical
sustainability way better.
Going kind of dark here, youweren't very fun with it.
Merijn van Buuren (17:45):
We cover all different parts of the
prediction game.
It happens, I like.
Obviously we've seen the VisionPro being released into the
wild, let's put it like that.
I've seen quite some videos ofpeople just tapping around in
space with their ski glasses on.
(18:07):
I think it's very fun.
I see two ways of it andthere's that I think it was
Simpsons that predicted kind ofthis where everyone is walking
around with their ski glasses.
I'm curious if we'll see it inevents.
But I think there is quite abig chance that when this
evolves into something more,something that you can carry a
(18:31):
lot easier, rather than havingto ski big ski goggles on your
face and being really kept offinteracting with people because
everyone is looking at you weird, when it becomes more
integrated into your self-beingand you as a person, rather than
really having a screen inbetween, I think we can
(18:54):
definitely see that in the nextfive years, maybe ten, that we
will have the capability thatthis Vision Pro is bringing to
us in a bit more ease, formfactor, where that will actually
add another layer to events,where we can have the whole work
suite of tools that we normallybring or keep at home.
(19:15):
We can actually bring it withus at an event and that could
offer quite a lot of interestingcapabilities.
So I think we're going there aswell.
Bogdan Maran (19:25):
It would be very fun to see, apart from just
seeing the monstanzas like verysexy things like coffee.
Do you want a coffee or do youwant to play with the Vision Pro
?
I did see a video this morningwhich was kind of the epithome
of this new technology.
It was a guy driving a Teslatruck self-driving trucks the
truck was driving very slowly onthe side and he was with the
(19:47):
Vision Pro playing around in thecarriage.
Merijn van Buuren (19:51):
Was that the guy that got arrested?
I don't know if he got arrested.
Bogdan Maran (19:54):
To be honest, I didn't really follow up.
He was just stuck in my head,which I found fascinating.
We did have a couple ofquestions, one from David in
terms of is there a new role forevent technologists, especially
if there are predictions thatwe've made in terms of
technology is going to be kindof at the heart of it?
And apart from the space bit,because it definitely is an
(20:15):
event technologist there Iwouldn't go in space with a
company that organizes eventsthat doesn't have an event
technologist role, at least aminimum one.
Merijn van Buuren (20:26):
Very true.
No, I think, as I mentioned inthe chat real quick, if it
doesn't exist yet, then youbetter make that role within
your company, because the morewe proceed into the future, the
more urgent it gets to have theright coverage for technology
and have that knowledge in-house, especially if we go to far
(20:48):
places like space.
Bogdan Maran (20:50):
And it's part of what we try to do as well with
this in terms of trying to getas many people as possible in
conversating about events andevents technology.
And just to add very quick toDavid's point event technology
and I'll lead you to that intothe topic of next week, if
that's possible because you'rewrapping up the time Because
event technology is quite a widerange of what you need to do,
(21:14):
and one of the special thingsabout events is that everybody
needs something else or in adifferent format, because they
need to fit whatever they do atthat point in time.
And event technologies aregoing to be ideally somebody as
a generalist, because they needto understand a lot of things
and know what to pick and whereto pick and then have either
(21:36):
relationships with eventtechnology companies that can
help quite quickly orrelationships with people like
A-DalandB, who does consultancyon events, with what we try to
do when we do consultancy forevents, so they can come to
specialists to help them.
Do you need help with AI, doyou need help with integration,
do you need help withregistration, do you need help
with specific bits?
(21:57):
But they need to know what toask for at some point.
You know you're Polish here andyou can go.
Do you need to help with lifecaptioning in multiple languages
?
That's a pain in the ass, bigpain in the ass, very hard to
solve.
But you need help with what toask for, because if you think
it's going to be solved in threeseconds, it's not going to be
solved in three seconds.
Maybe now you go to Poland, youcan do it, but it's still hard
(22:19):
work to get to that point.
Merijn van Buuren (22:22):
Very true, and I think that's also one of
the topics we'll be covering abit later.
Actually, salima, you said thebiggest challenge is to get
sponsors and participants over50 years old to embrace
innovation in design andplanning.
I think that's a very goodpoint, at least at the
(22:43):
crossroads where we are rightnow, where there is that 50-50
kind of new, more tech-enabledgeneration entering the market,
but those that don't really feellike they are super
tech-enabled are still in theworkforce as well.
(23:04):
Obviously, within 10, 15 years,that will kind of solve itself,
but at the moment, I think abig part of that is just
educating and making sure totranslate also in their
knowledge and know-how what thecapabilities are, but also to
make it as quote-unquotechild-friendly but in this case
(23:27):
50-plus-friendly as possible forthem to understand and to
embrace it.
And I think that's also aperfect segue actually to the
topic we'll be covering nextweek, where, in this case, we'll
focus specifically on eventprofessionals.
But it's a good way to explainwhat we're meaning.
(23:48):
Next week, we'll actually betalking about a topic that we
call from AI to Zapier, and it'smainly about understanding
integration terms for eventprofessionals.
So what are these terms?
Which terms are out there,which ones are the ones that are
essential for you as an eventprofessional to know.
But also take that one stepfurther and actually make it
(24:09):
actionable.
And knowing what a term meansis one thing, but understanding
what it can do and whatimplications it has for you and
your events, that's another.
And I think that's the sametranslation you need to make
when you're talking about50-plus audience.
If you just explain them like,hey, we have this amazing tool,
(24:31):
okay, they know it's an amazingtool, but they haven't made the
translation yet in terms of whatvalue would it bring them and
don't feel taken by the hand.
And we are at least trying toachieve taking event
professionals by the hand andlaying a foundation, because in
the third episode we'll actuallydive deeper into automation and
integration and then it's veryhandy to have that foundation
(24:54):
laid out.
Bogdan Maran (24:55):
So I think what's the name of it?
Because it came up with afantastic name and I really
liked it.
Merijn van Buuren (25:02):
From AI to Zapier, understand the
integration terms for eventprofessionals.
You'll be seeing the eventgoing live, probably by tomorrow
, so then you have a few days toget it booked in your calendar
because you don't want to missit.
It's really the foundation forwhat we'll be talking about in
(25:22):
the future, so it's good to havethat kind of A to Z handbook
with you and, obviously, ifthere are any terms that you're
unfamiliar with, please bringthem to us during the live.
Put them in the chat.
We'll be more than happy toanswer it and dive into it, give
you a better, actionableinsight in terms of what it
(25:43):
actually means.
Yeah, I think that's prettymuch it for today.
Bogdan Maran (25:48):
Finish your content, which is a very high
standard bar we need to keepfrom now on.
Merijn van Buuren (25:54):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I agree, for those that arehungry for more, we will be
finding ways how we can offersome exclusive content, behind
the scenes valuable resources,some vibrant behind the scenes
discussions that are not, per se, going to be here in these live
(26:17):
sessions.
If that sounds interesting,send either Bogdan or me a
direct message.
We will kind of create a waitlist.
So the moment we take that nextstep, after we progress a few
episodes, you'll be the firstone to get an invitation to join
in.
And also, good to know, we willbe switching from one to
(26:41):
another.
Bogdan Maran (26:42):
Next time is going to be your profile that is
going to have the event.
So look up to the marriage.
That's correct.
Merijn van Buuren (26:48):
So make sure you follow both, either Bogdan
or me, which one you're not yetconnected with.
Make sure to create aconnection so you actually get a
heads up when we go live.
It will be every other week, itwill be on another account.
So make sure to follow both ofus.
And, yeah, anything else youwould like to add before we chat
(27:11):
?
Bogdan Maran (27:11):
Apart from the fact that we've did it live and
thank you very much foreverybody who came and I'm not
going to read all the names, butit were way more than I
expected and I'm completelyblushed and mildest stress that
we need to hopefully do a goodjob and you're going to come
next week.
Well, just that.
I'm heading down towards 50.
And I think 50s are going to bevery tech aware in a couple of
(27:34):
years.
At least the 50s I know arevery tech aware.
Just make it simple and addvalue.
Merijn van Buuren (27:42):
All right, perfect, selima, be sure to
watch out.
We will send you a personalinvite.
That's also possible for us toinvite you, so you will
definitely get the invite forthe next episode where we dive a
bit more into the A to C, andfor everyone else looking
forward to the next one.
Bogdan Maran (28:00):
Thank you indeed very much for joining and happy
days Indeed, have a lovely dayand a lovely week.
Cheers.
Hello, can I start nice and say that you're on
mute just to go with the fightthat you had in the last five
years, or something like thatGot to love it.
Merijn van Buuren (00:22):
Welcome everyone, so good to see you
here.
Thanks for inviting me, Bogdan.
You came up with this amazingconcept, so let's not let people
down.
Today we're going to dive rightin.
As you probably know, my nameis Merijn van Buuren, I'm
founder of Event Mender, and I'mhere together with Bogdan Maran
, founder of Visual Hive.
Bogdan Maran (00:44):
Hello everybody and thank you for joining us.
And hello, nathan.
I can see there that you'vejumped on and high-end as well.
We've got people watching us,which is something new, and this
should be fun.
So let's start telling peoplewho we are, or who most people
know us.
But who are you, Merijn?
(01:06):
Where are you coming from, whathave you done and why are you
here?
Merijn van Buuren (01:11):
Well, I think the main reason I'm here is
because I've been a big techentogist for quite a while now.
Obviously, I started within theevent industry in the physical
event space, but during thewhole pandemic that shifted to
more virtual, I decided to helpmore companies embody that
virtual and help them with thetransitioning from virtual, from
(01:33):
physical to virtual, and inthat I encountered a lot of
different technology suppliersand also the fact that there are
so many of them.
We barely know where to getstarted in doing the research.
So that's where the idea forEvent Mender came on Work
together with over a hundredvirtual and hybrid event
platforms planning software,ticketing software, you name it
(01:57):
and that's where I gotintroduced into really event
technology and that's where mypassion and expertise comes from
.
How is that for you, Bogdan?
Bogdan Maran (02:08):
Not to say I'm old enough to have a previous life
no, but I used to be.
I quote Nathan because I knowNathan is here and he said hi
and me and Nathan go a whileback and he has the ability to
describe my thoughts better thanI do usually and he said that
I'm a former photojournalist anddata scientist, which is not
(02:30):
particularly accurate becauseI'm not a data scientist per se.
I'm a more of a data enthusiast.
I would go with datastoryteller and we can go in
details a bit later.
But Visual Hive was founded in2019 out of a couple of long
conversations and beers withNathan, and we're looking at
(02:51):
specifically working with datascience around visual content
and by visual content I meanphotos and videos, not content
by somebody speaking on a stage,because that's another thing
that you're going to go intotoday about how we describe
things in technology and howcomplicated and how many we have
many words that mean the samething, but we got into the
(03:13):
pandemic.
We're apart from having apodcast at 6am with Nathan that
was very fun to have live at 6am, don't get me wrong like we do
live today, we've built customplatforms for event
professionals.
We've done a lot of datavisualization, a lot of
integrations and nowadays,Visual Hive is back with working
(03:33):
on a data driven AI marketingengine for marketers and events,
and we're not that far away inour journey, as you are.
We've just tested an alpha, wegot some good feedback and now
we are working harder to getthere.
Congratulations.
That's me on the long line.
Merijn van Buuren (03:53):
I think it's a very good and comprehensive
introduction.
Also good to know, maybe, whois this actually for
Control-Alt-Event?
I think we mainly created thisfor event organizers and company
that orchestrate remarkableevents, or just those who really
like technology To betterunderstand what the capabilities
(04:15):
are, to give you someactionable insights, some case
studies here and there to seewhat's possible in event
management when it comes totechnology.
It's quite an untappedpotential, although a lot of you
have scratched the surface interms of what's possible.
We would like to help you takethe most out of it, and I think
that's the main reason why westarted this, but maybe you have
(04:37):
something to add there.
Bogdan Maran (04:40):
Because we are both on the geeky side when it
comes to technology.
We really enjoy it, but at thesame time we're looking at the
practical side of it, becausewe've got our neck deep if not
way more than that on a dailybasis, not just with what we do,
but with everything fromconsultancy and helping people
actually get value out of it.
I really liked the idea of Ireally like coming up with
(05:04):
brands and the Control-Alt-Event.
I really like the Windowsrestart concept Because we are
at a point where events need tobe and not just a restart but
like a forced restart, becauseevents are a very conservative
industry and they're talkinghere specifically around B2B
events.
And again, we all say events butwe all come from different
sides.
Some are weddings, some areparties.
(05:26):
We mainly tackle B2B events, ifI'm not mistaken, like 95% of
the cases where technology isvital and that restart needs to
happen way more effectively,specifically because we have a
lot of advances in technology,computing and everything else,
but also because the people thatwe serve, the attendees, the
(05:48):
ones who create the experiencesfor have technology experiences
enhanced.
They have enhanced technologyexperiences outside the events
and we have to catch up as anindustry and that's why the
Control-Alt-Event kind of camewith us.
Let's force it to go to whereit needs to be.
Merijn van Buuren (06:06):
Absolutely.
I couldn't agree more.
So, in terms of what people canexpect, format boils pretty
much down to every Tuesday at3pm GMT or 4pm CET, so the time
it is right now will go live onLinkedIn.
That's where we'll unraveldifferent challenges, focus on
(06:27):
specific use cases, as Imentioned, but also want to give
you the possibility to actuallyask questions.
I see quite some people in thechat, so very good to see you
there, and if you have anyspecific problems with
technology, feel free to alsomake some suggestions.
We are relatively flexible,although we have about 400
different topics that we want tocover in the foreseeable future
(06:50):
.
Bogdan Maran (06:53):
That's what you came up with last night.
I didn't really manage to addtoo much to that.
Merijn van Buuren (06:58):
We'll be around for a while, but always
open for suggestions and if youhave specific questions for us
regarding the topic we'll behosting about then going live on
LinkedIn and joining us.
There is the place to do it.
Bogdan Maran (07:12):
Yeah, pretty much, and yeah, apparently you'll
also, because we've worked veryhard in the last few days.
You'll also find us on verysoon on TikTok, on wherever you
get your podcasts from.
So as soon as we finish this,this will be turned into a
podcast.
But, as Arjen said, you need,if you have any questions
regarding the subjects thatwe're going to talk about each
week, jump on.
(07:33):
Let's have a chat.
In the questions we'll try tonot just philosophical chat, but
actually practical examples ofhow you can improve this or that
in your life as a professionalevent.
Otherwise, we'll know thepeople to come to if you want to
make your life better in anyother forms.
Merijn van Buuren (07:53):
Very true, very true.
Well, I think we covered who weare, why we organized this
podcast, who is for what theformat is going to be, what
people can expect.
So maybe dive a bit deeper intotoday's topic.
Yes, that was my cue right.
Bogdan Maran (08:08):
I missed that.
Nathan is going to laugh hisass off.
I missed my cue.
So, apart from everything else,because I'm a data enthusiast,
I kind of convinced Arjen togive me the chance that on every
episode we would have a datavisualization example.
So we'll try to keep it withinthe events and because that kind
(08:29):
of drives me to do things, I'llgive you.
That's my first episode, soI'll share the first bit of the
data visualization.
I hope you enjoy this.
These are not counters.
So first of all, we have to saythank you to Ufi, because Ufi,
as far as I'm concerned, itcomes to open data and event.
It's kind of the place to go ifyou want to have some reliable
(08:52):
data and play with it, at leastfrom my kicky side.
So we looked here at the AerofFair statistics from 2022, with
some side notes.
There is no UK, because UK isnot in Europe anymore, not even
according to Ufi, which isfrustrating for many reasons.
But they're not going topolitics.
We are going and this are.
(09:14):
We picked up 1,016 shows fromUfi's database database, from
the report that they published.
This is live.
You can go and Ufiorg and pickit up and look at it yourself.
Not this colorful slightlybetter probably but we looked at
how many events did we have interms of from these events.
(09:36):
We looked at the number ofcompanies with individual stands
versus the total square metersbooks.
The idea was to give a littlebit more perspective from just
the number of 1,006 events,which usually events that you
don't do, usually mainly usecounters.
So I wanted to put everythingabout data straightening.
(09:57):
It's put it in context.
So on the button here you'llsee the total square meter
booked for all this 1,600 events.
So you have the number ofcompanies with individual stands
and at the top here you have ifthis works, it should work at
some point.
You have Spain, which has thebiggest numbers of stands or
(10:20):
individual companies thatexhibit it, but not the biggest
number of visitors, because atthe bottom here you have Germany
, which has way less firmsrepresented but a lot more
people coming to their events.
And at the intersection hereyou have Portugal, which had not
so many events.
You have on the left-hand sidehere on the top, how many events
(10:42):
they had, but they had onlyabout 1,000 firms and over
200,000 visitors.
And the big orange block hereis Turkey, which had over 8
million visitors with not somany firms represented.
But the fun bit is, if you wantto go further in, you can do
visitors for each city.
(11:02):
So I've picked up here the top10 cities where you have, on the
top right you have Madrid, atthe bottom here you have Munich,
so you have the Germanefficiency, where they only had
172 companies represented butthey had over 1 million visitors
, and at the bottom here youhave Turkey, with a lot of
(11:23):
cities and a lot of visitors.
So, because this is fun, I alsowanted to look a little bit more
into context.
So I looked at the average priceof a bottle of wine in these
countries in 2022, and the GDPof those countries in the same
year and, as you can see,finland, which only had one
event, unfortunately ranks quitehigh because wine is very
expensive there.
(11:44):
And on the other side, germanysits quite nicely at a decent
bottle of wine, but with a bigGDP and a lot of visitors.
So that's kind of my very fastpresentation of data.
So I use Power BI thank you,Ufi, for the data and hopefully
(12:05):
every episode will havesomething completely different
but as fun as possible.
So, if Ufi is interested, I'mnot applying for a job, but
maybe for a partnership becausethey have a lot of data we can
play around and we can go intobusiness intelligence.
But this hopefully gives you afeeler of what I think when I
talk about data visualization.
(12:26):
And it's not about how manytimes people go to the toilet
and you have to scan them andyou have a properly two million
visitors that came to your showor something to that degree, and
that shuts up now.
Merijn van Buuren (12:36):
Well, I love it and I think I see Selima also
says great figures.
Thank you for sharing it is.
It gives a different dimensionto just data that you normally
see in the sheet, which doesn'tsay a lot, but the moment you
can visualize it, it doesn'tjust become more fun, but also
you can very quickly getsomething actionable out of it,
(12:58):
because in one bird's eye viewyou can see that.
She asks where to find thisinformation.
Bogdan Maran (13:05):
Yeah, so if you go to Ufi website, so I'll share
the link in the chat just as Ifinish speaking and you go to
resources and you can downloadthe reports.
Those reports are very containa lot more information than I
put here.
For me, the pleasure is just toplay and try to tell a story
with that data.
But you can find a huge amountmore information on Ufi website
(13:26):
and they are amazing people.
So just go and check it out andI'll put it in the chat,
Absolutely.
Merijn van Buuren (13:31):
Yeah, I think this is already a little bit
about navigating the future ofevents.
Data is going to play a bigrole in visualization even more,
so really appreciate yousharing and putting in the hard
work of actually visualizingthese examples.
As Bogdan mentioned, he willput it in the chat now that I'm
talking and he can actuallyfocus on typing.
(13:53):
Today is also about navigatingthe future of events and where
this industry, as you mentioned,sometimes we feel like we need
a hard reset, and part of thatis also figuring out where do we
then want to go, and I think weprepared a little fun element
(14:13):
for today, which is makingpredictions in terms of what is
going to happen in the eventindustry with technology More of
the fun ones, not per se, theones that are mentioned quite
often and that are quite obviousfrom points of view, but I
(14:34):
think you gave this also somegood thoughts, bogdan.
Yes, I did.
Bogdan Maran (14:40):
My first one, and one of my favorites, because I
just due to some recentconversations is sustainability.
And I'm not predicting thatevents are going to talk about
sustainability, because they aregoing to and they're going to
be very important.
They are going to and they'regoing to have shows about it and
we're going to go on and on andon, which is absolutely
fabulous and important.
(15:01):
My prediction is that by theend of the year, 99% of people
will see, will still thinksustainability means environment
, which is not necessarily true,and my prediction is that
nobody's going to come and talkabout the economic and social
impact that events have, or atleast talk about it, but just in
the background, because thewhole environment thinks it's
(15:25):
sexier and, again, vitallyimportant, but it's not the only
one.
Merijn van Buuren (15:30):
All right, I think I can kind of get on board
with that one, but I'm verycurious to see, and hope
actually to see, more peoplerealizing the other side of it
as well.
But we're going to see how thatpans out.
When I actually was stayingaround with JetGPT to get some
inspiration for this, it came upwith events in space zero
(15:52):
gravity, networking sessions,anyone and I think at first I
had to laugh at it because I waslike that's way too crazy.
But then at the same time youhear Elon Musk planning to go to
Mars and putting quite somesteps in that direction.
I think it definitely will bewithin our lifetime that we'll
be able to travel to a planetand not take several months to
(16:16):
get there.
Will there be events in space?
I think so and I think it canbe very fun, probably first for
those with a very big budget,not for us in the beginning
stage, but maybe by the end ofour lifetime it will be a bit
more affordable and we'll seemore events in space.
I would love to see thatactually as one of my
(16:39):
predictions.
Bogdan Maran (16:41):
It might not be that expensive because if you
take, for example, davos and yougo out of Switzerland, I don't
know how much expensive thespace can be if you compare that
to Switzerland.
So it might be way morefeasible than you can imagine at
this point.
Merijn van Buuren (16:54):
Fair true, fair, true, we'll see.
Time will tell.
Do you have another predictionfor us to share as well?
Bogdan Maran (17:03):
Yes, it's not as fun as going into space, but
what is honestly a prediction isI'm looking forward.
I'm trying to find an AI thatcan count how many times people
can say video is a king, becauseI estimate at least 5,374 when
it comes to live events andpodcasts, and I think it's going
(17:24):
to go overboard.
But my hope is that it's notgoing to be just talk.
It's going to be a little bitmore than talk and we can make
this educational part and linkit to the social and economical
sustainability way better.
Going kind of dark here, youweren't very fun with it.
Merijn van Buuren (17:45):
We cover all different parts of the
prediction game.
It happens, I like.
Obviously we've seen the VisionPro being released into the
wild, let's put it like that.
I've seen quite some videos ofpeople just tapping around in
space with their ski glasses on.
(18:07):
I think it's very fun.
I see two ways of it andthere's that I think it was
Simpsons that predicted kind ofthis where everyone is walking
around with their ski glasses.
I'm curious if we'll see it inevents.
But I think there is quite abig chance that when this
evolves into something more,something that you can carry a
(18:31):
lot easier, rather than havingto ski big ski goggles on your
face and being really kept offinteracting with people because
everyone is looking at you weird, when it becomes more
integrated into your self-beingand you as a person, rather than
really having a screen inbetween, I think we can
(18:54):
definitely see that in the nextfive years, maybe ten, that we
will have the capability thatthis Vision Pro is bringing to
us in a bit more ease, formfactor, where that will actually
add another layer to events,where we can have the whole work
suite of tools that we normallybring or keep at home.
(19:15):
We can actually bring it withus at an event and that could
offer quite a lot of interestingcapabilities.
So I think we're going there aswell.
Bogdan Maran (19:25):
It would be very fun to see, apart from just
seeing the monstanzas like verysexy things like coffee.
Do you want a coffee or do youwant to play with the Vision Pro
?
I did see a video this morningwhich was kind of the epithome
of this new technology.
It was a guy driving a Teslatruck self-driving trucks the
truck was driving very slowly onthe side and he was with the
(19:47):
Vision Pro playing around in thecarriage.
Merijn van Buuren (19:51):
Was that the guy that got arrested?
I don't know if he got arrested.
Bogdan Maran (19:54):
To be honest, I didn't really follow up.
He was just stuck in my head,which I found fascinating.
We did have a couple ofquestions, one from David in
terms of is there a new role forevent technologists, especially
if there are predictions thatwe've made in terms of
technology is going to be kindof at the heart of it?
And apart from the space bit,because it definitely is an
(20:15):
event technologist there Iwouldn't go in space with a
company that organizes eventsthat doesn't have an event
technologist role, at least aminimum one.
Merijn van Buuren (20:26):
Very true.
No, I think, as I mentioned inthe chat real quick, if it
doesn't exist yet, then youbetter make that role within
your company, because the morewe proceed into the future, the
more urgent it gets to have theright coverage for technology
and have that knowledge in-house, especially if we go to far
(20:48):
places like space.
Bogdan Maran (20:50):
And it's part of what we try to do as well with
this in terms of trying to getas many people as possible in
conversating about events andevents technology.
And just to add very quick toDavid's point event technology
and I'll lead you to that intothe topic of next week, if
that's possible because you'rewrapping up the time Because
event technology is quite a widerange of what you need to do,
(21:14):
and one of the special thingsabout events is that everybody
needs something else or in adifferent format, because they
need to fit whatever they do atthat point in time.
And event technologies aregoing to be ideally somebody as
a generalist, because they needto understand a lot of things
and know what to pick and whereto pick and then have either
(21:36):
relationships with eventtechnology companies that can
help quite quickly orrelationships with people like
A-DalandB, who does consultancyon events, with what we try to
do when we do consultancy forevents, so they can come to
specialists to help them.
Do you need help with AI, doyou need help with integration,
do you need help withregistration, do you need help
with specific bits?
(21:57):
But they need to know what toask for at some point.
You know you're Polish here andyou can go.
Do you need to help with lifecaptioning in multiple languages
?
That's a pain in the ass, bigpain in the ass, very hard to
solve.
But you need help with what toask for, because if you think
it's going to be solved in threeseconds, it's not going to be
solved in three seconds.
Maybe now you go to Poland, youcan do it, but it's still hard
(22:19):
work to get to that point.
Merijn van Buuren (22:22):
Very true, and I think that's also one of
the topics we'll be covering abit later.
Actually, salima, you said thebiggest challenge is to get
sponsors and participants over50 years old to embrace
innovation in design andplanning.
I think that's a very goodpoint, at least at the
(22:43):
crossroads where we are rightnow, where there is that 50-50
kind of new, more tech-enabledgeneration entering the market,
but those that don't really feellike they are super
tech-enabled are still in theworkforce as well.
(23:04):
Obviously, within 10, 15 years,that will kind of solve itself,
but at the moment, I think abig part of that is just
educating and making sure totranslate also in their
knowledge and know-how what thecapabilities are, but also to
make it as quote-unquotechild-friendly but in this case
(23:27):
50-plus-friendly as possible forthem to understand and to
embrace it.
And I think that's also aperfect segue actually to the
topic we'll be covering nextweek, where, in this case, we'll
focus specifically on eventprofessionals.
But it's a good way to explainwhat we're meaning.
(23:48):
Next week, we'll actually betalking about a topic that we
call from AI to Zapier, and it'smainly about understanding
integration terms for eventprofessionals.
So what are these terms?
Which terms are out there,which ones are the ones that are
essential for you as an eventprofessional to know.
But also take that one stepfurther and actually make it
(24:09):
actionable.
And knowing what a term meansis one thing, but understanding
what it can do and whatimplications it has for you and
your events, that's another.
And I think that's the sametranslation you need to make
when you're talking about50-plus audience.
If you just explain them like,hey, we have this amazing tool,
(24:31):
okay, they know it's an amazingtool, but they haven't made the
translation yet in terms of whatvalue would it bring them and
don't feel taken by the hand.
And we are at least trying toachieve taking event
professionals by the hand andlaying a foundation, because in
the third episode we'll actuallydive deeper into automation and
integration and then it's veryhandy to have that foundation
(24:54):
laid out.
Bogdan Maran (24:55):
So I think what's the name of it?
Because it came up with afantastic name and I really
liked it.
Merijn van Buuren (25:02):
From AI to Zapier, understand the
integration terms for eventprofessionals.
You'll be seeing the eventgoing live, probably by tomorrow
, so then you have a few days toget it booked in your calendar
because you don't want to missit.
It's really the foundation forwhat we'll be talking about in
(25:22):
the future, so it's good to havethat kind of A to Z handbook
with you and, obviously, ifthere are any terms that you're
unfamiliar with, please bringthem to us during the live.
Put them in the chat.
We'll be more than happy toanswer it and dive into it, give
you a better, actionableinsight in terms of what it
(25:43):
actually means.
Yeah, I think that's prettymuch it for today.
Bogdan Maran (25:48):
Finish your content, which is a very high
standard bar we need to keepfrom now on.
Merijn van Buuren (25:54):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I agree, for those that arehungry for more, we will be
finding ways how we can offersome exclusive content, behind
the scenes valuable resources,some vibrant behind the scenes
discussions that are not, per se, going to be here in these live
(26:17):
sessions.
If that sounds interesting,send either Bogdan or me a
direct message.
We will kind of create a waitlist.
So the moment we take that nextstep, after we progress a few
episodes, you'll be the firstone to get an invitation to join
in.
And also, good to know, we willbe switching from one to
(26:41):
another.
Bogdan Maran (26:42):
Next time is going to be your profile that is
going to have the event.
So look up to the marriage.
That's correct.
Merijn van Buuren (26:48):
So make sure you follow both, either Bogdan
or me, which one you're not yetconnected with.
Make sure to create aconnection so you actually get a
heads up when we go live.
It will be every other week, itwill be on another account.
So make sure to follow both ofus.
And, yeah, anything else youwould like to add before we chat
(27:11):
?
Bogdan Maran (27:11):
Apart from the fact that we've did it live and
thank you very much foreverybody who came and I'm not
going to read all the names, butit were way more than I
expected and I'm completelyblushed and mildest stress that
we need to hopefully do a goodjob and you're going to come
next week.
Well, just that.
I'm heading down towards 50.
And I think 50s are going to bevery tech aware in a couple of
(27:34):
years.
At least the 50s I know arevery tech aware.
Just make it simple and addvalue.
Merijn van Buuren (27:42):
All right, perfect, selima, be sure to
watch out.
We will send you a personalinvite.
That's also possible for us toinvite you, so you will
definitely get the invite forthe next episode where we dive a
bit more into the A to C, andfor everyone else looking
forward to the next one.
Bogdan Maran (28:00):
Thank you indeed very much for joining and happy
days Indeed, have a lovely dayand a lovely week.
Cheers.
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