Event Tech Live is one of the first trade exhibitions to extend its reach with a seamless 3D experience.

Working with Matterport technology, and 360 Expo’s execution, ETL’s new dimension extends the two-day show perennially, making it interactive via laptop/tablet/smartphone and immersive through a VR headset.

Leading from the front in adopting a system set to revolutionise the exhibition platform, Matterport True3D™ captures the whole show experience, replete with all the acclaimed content from five stages and downloadable PDF documents and videos from the exhibitors’ stands.

“I’m not sure if it’s an industry first but I certainly haven’t seen anything of the scale we did for Event Tech Live,” Keith McMahon, Managing Director of 360 Expo, says.

“We use infrared measurements at every point you see on the floor, the system layers photographic data from the show on top of a wireframe, incorporating assets to attach elements to,” McMahon explains. “It’s all real world and the film is shot when the show is closed, so there are no people wandering about.

“With direct links, the tours are much more intuitive than the last generation, which just looked pretty.”

The concept of the virtual tour had been nixed a bit by its estate agent simplicity until the Matterport-style breakthrough. Tellingly, Rightmove is to host new-look 3D tours on its site in the very near future and the system is already used in the United States and Australia.

It’s not expensive either. If one person/company books a stand on the back of the virtual tour, it’s pretty much paid for itself and being cloud-based, it hardly has any effect on a company’s website.

“It’s always editable too, if there’s a change in a company name, any detail etc,” McMahon says.

Event Tech Live is a busy show. Organiser Event Industry News scaled it up to two days in 2018 to accommodate demand and worked with exhibitors and sponsors to optimise visitors’ time at the Old Truman Brewery via apps and other technology.

The Matterport initiative stretches the canvas further still though. Virtual visitors can access elements/sessions they might have missed in November while the weight of interested parties can get a first proper look around the show.

Adam Parry, co-founder of Event Tech Live, comments: “Ours is an international market and, on top of everything else, this technology is an invaluable marketing element. It’s a platform for companies keen for a greater understanding about exactly what we do, and we’re delighted our partnership with 360 Expo and Matterport has brought the technology into the ETL portfolio.”

To visit Event Tech Live in VR click the following link https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=D1nQirLkPmy

Sam Hyland
Author: Sam Hyland

Sam is the assistant content manager for Event Industry News (EIN). Sam is involved in publishing news stories, videos and podcasts. Sam also collates the latest stories for the EIN e-newsletter. If you have a press release or story you think we might be interested to know about please email editor@eventindustrynews.com