Here’s another great article on http://www.eventmanagerblog.com by author Nick Borelli, on how to capitalizes on the Pokemon Go craze to benefit your events.

The latest gaming craze of Pokemon Go can teach event planners a lot of about what attendees want from the blending of digital and live experiences.

I think I have the recipe for why Nintendo’s Pokemon Go mobile game is such a massive hit and I believe there are a number of lessons here for event planners to learn from. The elements that make this game so addictive are the same things that make event attendees into engaged event participants. Pokemon Go is a true experience in a way that video games have only touched upon before and experiences are what events are all about.

What Can Pocket Monsters Teach You About Events?

So what does any of this have to do with event planning? Turns out, a lot. I’ve deconstructed what made this game so mass-adopted that it currently has more active users than Twitter and has been downloaded on more devices than Tinder (it’s literally more popular than love now). It has sent Nintendo’s stock up 20% giving the company its first big win in years.

Augmented Reality

This is the component of the game that excites me the most. In order to really play the game, you have to interact with real objects and places. You can see the Pokemon in the real world flying and running around as you attempt to capture them. The blending of digital engagement with live engagement is one of my areas of expertise and I immediately recognized this game’s potential impact on events because of this technology.

Unlike virtual reality which just approximates and creates a false reality, augmented reality adds digital elements to the real world enhancing what is already there. Applications of this technology are currently high ticket items but the cost is coming down. Augmented reality has been used at trade show booths to show products too large to fit in the booth or too costly to ship as well as different colors or added features for products. Imagine instead that branded characters and mascots can interact with attendees of events or add a story element to events that progresses throughout the day.

One of the more exciting applications for augmented reality was explained to me at IMEX America this year. Both stage design and screens for events with large audiences can be digitally added into what is essentially a blank canvas of place holder objects to create a very high budget look that can either adapt to the attendees’ whim or be transformed by the design team for a desired effect. Expensive software may be replacing expensive hardware.

The above is an excerpt from an article by Nick Borelli on http://www.eventmanagerblog.com. I encourage you to read his article: 12 Things Event Planners Can Learn From Pokemon Go where you’ll learn all the ways you can use the Pokemon Go craze for your events.