Central Hall is one of the high profile central London event spaces at which Eclipse provides managed and technical services and Meet The Future, attended by over 300 delegates, was designed to showcase and raise awareness of a number of state-of-the-art technologies that could potentially shape the future design and production of all types of events.
Meet The Future was co-ordinated for Eclipse by key account manager Matt Green who looks after Central Hall and MD Robin Purslow.
Says Green, "We were keen to support 'Meet The Future' both as the primary technical sponsor and also to demonstrate our abilities to present leading edge events and 'experiences' with high production values and imagination."
The invited audience of event planners and producers and MICE professionals were carefully selected and given the opportunity to explore various technologies with an exhibition in the venue's Great Hall and also attend a series of keynote speeches from an inspiring line-up of speakers including futurologist Mark Stevenson.
Delegates could see the possibilities of holographic technology demonstrated first hand by Musion in an interview with Dr Paul Redmond who had his image beamed into the room. In the interview he elaborated on his research into the future of working with 'Generation Y'.
Robin Purslow comments, "At Eclipse, we are very excited by new methods and technologies and the possible benefits for our clients, so we are constantly on the lookout for ideas and inspiration to make their events special and unique. It was great to be involved with CHW's team on this one."
Eclipse was also central to deciding on some of the technologies to be highlighted, of which Google Glass and the holographic technology attracted the most overall interest.
People were impressed by the potential of Google Glass in the context of speakers, presenters, chair-persons and moderators at conferences ... instead of using traditional comfort monitors which can interrupt site lines and be difficult to read, messages and autocue scripts can be sent directly to the glasses.
The holographic technology enables high end videoconferencing and could be ideal for a scenario like a senior executive wanting to address a team but unable to physically be present, or for a crucial keynote speaker who can't attend a conference or seminar. The lifelike virtual appearance of the person can be a big WOW factor for other participants, and utilising standard satellite link technology, proper real-time interaction with the speaker and the audience is easily possible.
(Jim Evans)
