Raise your hand and repeat after me:

“I resolve to evolve and grow my event.  To continuously seek out new exhibitors who can provide the best products and services in our industry that not only fulfill the needs of our attendees…but will expose them to the future of our industry.  I resolve to seek out the best educators & speakers in our industry.  Speakers and educators who are passionate, engaging, innovative, and who deliver more than content…but who deliver a fully interactive learning experience.  Last, I resolve to be a leader of change.  As an event manager it is my resolution to stimulate growth, to encourage new ideas, and to embrace new technologies that enable us to effectively plan, manage, and share our event with the world.”

CONGRATULATIONS!  You are now on your way to a successful new year!

So, now that you have made your new year resolution…take your first step toward innovation!   There are many new technologies out there that can help you to improve the planning and delivery of your event.  Here are just a few hot technologies you should watch for:

1. Integrated Mobile Apps – Look for mobile apps to take over this year more than ever!  As smartphones and tablets become more mainstream…attendees are expecting to access your event while mobile.  By integrating your mobile app with your expo management system…you can manage your event from one place and keep your website and mobile apps current in real time with no additional effort.

2. Attendee Acquisition Tools – Research has shown that over 60% of attendees come to your event via your exhibitors.  With this knowledge, event managers are looking into new ways to tap into the exhibitors contact list using social media, email campaigns, and the latest attendee acquisition tools (Like our own released last week!) to keep attendance growing.

3. Widgets – There are dozens of widgets that can take your website from bland to fab!  From countdown clocks, to twitter and facebook feeds, to sharing buttons, forms, polls, video, photo slideshows, etc… widgets are easy, fun and provide a more interactive social environment for your website.

What new technologies do you resolve to try in 2012?