Big data for the next generation of event companies

Big Data For The Next Generation Of Event Companies
Table of Content
Introduction
Big Data
What is big data
Factors determining the rise of BD
Characteristics of Big Data
The Big Data Industry
The Events Industry
Why Big Data matters to the events industry
The use of Big Data
Consumer behaviour is changing
Customer Centricity is an evolving concept
Big data is already here
How event companies can tap into big data
Small-scale Big Data in the Events Industry
Data capture
Data management
Analytics
The next generation of Event Companies
Summary
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Introduction
Only on rare occasions do we consider the amount of data that our every action produces. It’s
pretty overwhelming just to think about every interaction on every app on every device in our
bag or pocket, in every environment and every location.
But then there’s more. We also use access cards, transportation passes and gym memberships.
We have hobbies, we travel, buy groceries, books and maybe warm beverages on rainy days.
We are part of multiple communities. Looking around billions of people are doing the same.
Our every action produces data about us. This is big.

We believe taking an interest in this wealth of data will be the key to success for next
generation Event Companies.

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We are living in a fastchanging world, where it’s ever more important to foresee trends and
seize opportunities. A global perspective is not a strategic advantage anymore it is a
necessity.

Event companies are facilitators, they create common grounds for brands and audiences, by
thoughtfully connecting goals and means. Having a deep understanding of customer behavior,
group psychology, digital habits, brand interaction, communication, and awareness through
unlocking the power of big data will ensure next generation event companies thrive on
strategy.
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Big Data
What is Big Data?
The environment in which we live is increasingly connected to every other environment. We are
increasingly connected to other human beings. These connections result in data sets that are so
large and so complex that they are impossible to be processed through conventional methods.

Big data has been described as the human society growing a nervous system in which 1
every human and every machine is a sensor in this planetary array. It has been argued that we
are witnessing a turning point in the evolution of the human race and, from this perspective,
things may never be the same again.

1
Source: http://www.rocoeducational.com/the_human_face_of_big_data
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Analytics is the neuroscience of big data. Just like its humanoriented counterpart, it seeks to
understand the structure and to explain the processes that define our society. Big data is not
about statistics. It’s about pattern and connections, through layers and layers of subtle data that
have the potential to reveal the human mind in a way never before thought possible.
The implications for businesses are enormous. Never before has more accurate, more
complete,and more relevant information been available to describe customers, their needs and
their actions.

Factors Determining the Rise of BD
For years, trying to back big data with numbers has been unnecessary. Maybe Professor
Francis Diebold had some explaining to do when first using the term from a theoretical
perspective in statistics/econometrics .  2

By the time Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, came upfront with some figures in 2010, stating that
“There was 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003,
but that much information is now created every 2 days” , there was no doubt that big data is 3
happening. Even though the actual numbers he used were challenged at the time, a common 4
idea is in place: the amount of data recorded is in perpetual exponential growth and claims
about the amount of data humanity creates may become obsolete in matters of days.

The World Wide Web, online advertising, globalisation and the overall expansion of the global
economy, the advancements in mobile technology, and all subsequent factors such as social
media, the digitization of brands and events, data collection technology and cloud computing,
are all determining factors in the development of the evergrowing layer of data that is now a
part of our existence.

2
Source: https://economics.sas.upenn.edu/sites/economics.sas.upenn.edu/files/12037.pdf
3
Source: http://readwrite.com/2010/08/04/google_ceo_schmidt_people_arent_ready_for_the_tech/
4
Source: https://blog.rjmetrics.com/2011/02/07/ericschmidts5exabytesquoteisaloadofcrap/
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Characteristics of Big Data
Big data is not just any large set of data. Industry professionals seem to be on a continuous
race to discover yet another of its key traits. Given the fact that big data is evolving right now
it’s only natural that our understanding of it grows at the same pace.

The most common definitions of the term are based on a Vfactor scale. At first (Gartner, 2001),
Volume, Velocity and Variety were thought to be the key terms for an accurate, complete
definition of Big Data : highvolume, highvelocity and highvariety information assets that 5
demand costeffective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight,
decision making, and process automation.
However, as market players dove deeper into this new realm, additional Vs were added to the
original definition: Veracity , Value , Visualization, Variability , Virality, even Viscosity the 6 7 8 9
last term being used to describe the latency or lag time in the data relative to a point of interest.

On a nonV scale, big data consists of very large and distributed aggregations of
unstructured petabytes or exabytes of data, about millions/billions of individuals, made of
billions/trillions of records, with very few connections and interrelationships in its unprocessed
state .  It’s fair to say that this kind of data is unusable by the average business. 10
The Big Data Industry
Luckily for most businesses, there are other businesses that do most of the work of turning big
data into actionable, relevant insight. From Google Analytics to industry reports by market
5
Source:
http://blogs.gartner.com/douglaney/dejavvvueothersclaiminggartnersvolumevelocityvarietyconstructf
orbigdata/
6
Source: http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/fourvsbigdata
7
Source: http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/the5vsofbigdatabybernardmarr
8
Source: http://dataconomy.com/sevenvsbigdata/
9
Source:
http://www.datasciencecentral.com/profiles/blogs/howmanyvsinbigdatathecharacteristicsthatdefinebi
gdata
10
Source: http://www.opentracker.net/article/definitionsbigdata
7

research agencies, to academic studies in sociology, there are plenty of ways to make use of
big data as a small or medium business, without the need to process big data directly.

From a strategic perspective, there is a huge conceptual gap between business data and big
data:
● Business data is only relevant to the business when it is specific, localized and can be
processed through internal means: competitor analysis, qualitative research, marketing
ROI reports, sales figures and so on
● Big data the more broad the data sets, the more accurate the analysis. Business
instruments based on big data are relevant to identify global market trends and
forecasts, consumer insight, opportunities to optimize online presence, etc.

The good news is that big data services are increasingly available, and the big data analytics
market is on the rise, with projected wide adoption across all industries . Specific solutions 11
such as DataasaService and DataAnalyticsasaService are also servicing small and
medium enterprises in their need to grasp big data .  12
11
Source: http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS40560115
12
Source: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/MarketReports/bigdataasaservicemarket4129107.html
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The Events Industry
Why Big Data Matters to the Events Industry
As individuals, we may not feel the impact of big data directly. But there’s a good chance that
the next time we find ourselves saying something like ‘this went so smoothly’, ‘this is just what i
needed’ or ‘this exceeded my expectations’, big data analytics may be the reason.

Taking business decisions based on global understanding of the market and of the customer
personas is crucial for customerfacing businesses. The events industry has some particular
traits that make the use of big data imperative:
● Events, both online and offline, have the highest client interaction density. This is why
brands and organizers plan events: to engage as many people as possible in a given
timeframe.
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● Events are responsible for some of the most genuine or spontaneous forms of
clientbusiness interaction. Mistakes are not an option, organizers need to be
prepared for virtually any possible scenario.
● Well organized events are one of the most effective forms of marketing and brand
engagement and storytelling is the key to audience acquisition.
● People are craving experiences and brands are trying to conform. The market for
online, AR, VR, and experiential events is growing to the disadvantage of traditional
events such as tradeshows, conferences, and exhibitions. Big data is critical to
understanding the audience profile and set up memorable experiences.
● On a more general note, consumer behavior is changing, and in more than one.
There’s a huge gap between generations, in terms of how individuals respond to
information and interaction.
● In a designated space and time, data can be collected accurately and easily.
Technology has evolved to allow marketers to gather large amounts of data at events, in
real time. We may not talk about the BIG big data in this case, but onsite data collection
is still complex and relevant, and needs extensive resources to process.

The Use of Big Data
Event planners can get actionable insights and recommendations from many big data sources
and apply it to every stage of the event organizing process, from marketing to postevent
feedback.

Here are 3 good reasons why event organizers should be serious about understanding the
industry as a whole and the global citizen in particular and how the next generation of
professionals is challenging the old ways of the industry.

1. Consumer Behaviour is Changing
10

Exposure to technology has brought big changes to our society. The digital realm is ever more
present, to the point that it disrupts common processes and development patterns. The
generation gap is deeper now, with notable differences and different reactions to technology .  13

Generation Z, the ‘digital natives’ the first generation born into an Internetconnected world
have structurally different brains than those of earlier generations, as a result to perpetual
exposure to digital information. Their part of the brain responsible for visual ability is more
developed than that of previous generations, making visual forms of interactions more effective,
while auditory interactions are disliked by this age group, for example .  14

With information readily available and ecommerce widely used, the sales process is also
changing. The customer is now selfeducated, aware and in control of the interaction . If 15
anything, they are not looking at events to gain information, but experiences. Brands are shifting
their focus from advertising to engagement and from sales to awareness.
This is highly relevant to event organizers, as it highlights the need to first understand the
customer globally (step 1), then build relevant market segmentation (step 2), before
responding individually (step 3).

2. Customer Centricity is an Evolving Concept
Driven by big data and analytics, event planners will be able to respond better to their
customer’s expectations. Although elusive, customer centricity is a declared goal of most
clientfacing businesses. However, many of them still focus solely on improving client service, in
the spirit of past decades.

Customer centricity as a concept has evolved. It is now about learning all there is to know about
the customer persona and building the entire business around this knowledge. You want the
client to feel like he belongs to the community way before he interacts for the first time and to
feel that a product or service was designed for people like himself.

13
Source: http://dmresourcecenter.com/unit1/digitalnatives/
14
Source: http://www.mdle.net/Journal/A_Tsunami_of_Learners_Called_Generation_Z.pdf
15
Source: http://blogs.forrester.com/lori_wizdo/150525b2b_buyer_journey_mapping_basics
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It’s event organiser’s mission to make good use of the concept, by focusing on both their clients
(brands and companies) and their client’s clients (attendees) with a customercentric approach.
It is the only constructive way to deliver quality services by building a common ground for
interaction. There’s a new chance with each new event.

3. Big data is already here
One common misconception about big data is that it is inadequate to small companies. It’s true,
collecting, managing and analyzing big data is very resourceintensive, but using big data
doesn’t have to be.

Chances are small and medium businesses are already using big data tools. Take Google
Analytics, one of the most common examples: companies are using it to determine traffic
patterns, website content, visitor profiles and so on. The highly visual graphics and reports are
only the tip of an iceberg of millions or billions of entries, records, hits and clicks that would
otherwise be useless to a business. Common big data tools can provide actionable insight for
any business, and there are plenty to choose from.
How Event Companies Can Tap into Big Data

● Using web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Google Trends, Cohort Analysis,
AdWords, that aggregate huge amounts of web performance data and present it in a
visual, readable format. Using these tools to make informed marketing decisions is
nothing short of making use of billion of data pieces . 16
● Using social media analytics tools. The line between online and offline social life is
long gone. Event organizers need to understand where to meet their audience in the
digital realm, how to engage customers, and how to take brands further on their digital
journey. Social media tools reveal significant patterns of interests and interactions that
hold the key to building constructive event strategies . 17
16
Source: http://ed.ted.com/on/ldfSrtjS
17
Source: http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/20/top10socialmediaanalyticstoolstheventurebeatindex/
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● Keep an eye on academic research. Universities have considerable computational
capabilities and have been known to produce groundbreaking studies in social and
economic sciences. Consumer behavior is a trending topic and big data will become a 18
standard research media in the academic environment . 19
● Keep an eye on marketing industry giants. They are always publishing uptodate
reports on consumer behaviour , trends and forecasts.  20
● Using other big data services it’s important that event organizers take advantage of
the multitude of available services based on big data use events portals, promotion
apps, management and communication tools and other services that also offer industry
reports based on their entire portfolio of clients.

18
Source: http://www.saylor.org/site/wpcontent/uploads/2013/02/BUS203PoMCh3.pdf
19
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JCM0420151399
20
https://assets.kpmg.com/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2016/04/aneweraofexperiencebranding.pdf
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Small-Scale Big Data in the Events Industry
From a functional standpoint, big data derives from both quantity and quality. It can be argued
that the big data approach differs from the traditional business data approach through its main
goal to identify patterns and showcase trends, generally, rather than to identify problems and
showcase solutions, punctually.

Events enjoy a very special status when it comes to customer interaction. Event organisers
have the power to control the environment, the audience, the actions to an extent never
before available to companies, with plenty of tools to collect relevant data and use it to gain
strategic advantage.

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Historically, events have been used to target customers individually. From a data perspective,
the more identifiable a piece of information was, the more valuable. With big data, the goal is to
get an accurate image of the “collective mind”, as opposed to a database with fragmented
individual information.

For the event organizer, data that is not crucial to the event, but is collected nevertheless
across the entire audience and across all interactions in order to understand the event and the
reactions to it globally, can be considered a form of big data the smallscale big data.

Smallscale big data shares some of the characteristics of its bigger sister, like velocity and
variety, only downsized to a scale that is usable by SME companies. As the perfect
compromise between big data and business data, smallscale big data brings together the best
of both worlds: specific, yet still very broad and complex, it can be used to identify both trends
and patterns, as well as individual actions and reactions.

Event data, unlike big data, is absolutely manageable by event organizers, from capturing, to
storing, to analyzing it, using advanced analytics tools. It is the perfect scalpel to perform the
finest actions with surgical precision.

Data Capture
Data capture tools are increasingly available to event professionals across all stages of event
planning. From following the buzz online, to measuring physical traffic in a certain location,
there’s a tool for that. Mobile technology, wearable devices, the Internet of Things, beacons,
augmented reality, interactive touchscreens and interactive apps, all create data for organizers
to store and analyze.

Data Management
Unlike big data, smallscale big data is usually more homogenous and contains less errors. This
means higher usability and less time from capturing to analytics. For event professionals, this is
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particularly important, as it gives them the chance to act quickly and make realtime adjustments
to meet customer’s needs.
Analytics
Also, unlike big data, smallscale data can be analyzed using conventional methods. Highly
visual data mining solutions offer event planners the perfect tools to understanding their
collective customer.

The next generation of Event Companies
A constructive approach to big data is likely to morph into a company’s growth strategy. Once
professionals get a grasp of the magnitude of the insight big data provides, there’s no going
back. The discipline of looking for patterns and trends and using them to gain strategic
advantage will have quickly settled as a core business value.

This is especially important to event companies, as they have a first hand opportunity to dive
into their very own, highly specific, curated and selfmanaged data sets to look for a better
understanding of both their clients and customers. Event companies need to keep up with their
audience.

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Summary

Big data is not an abstract concept anymore. It is something increasingly available to large and
small companies alike, and for good reasons. It provides strategic insight, patterns and trends
that are critical to successful businesses.

As the Analytics industry is seeing an amazing growth , both large and SME event companies 21
can benefit from big data at two different levels. Boosting their global perspective will help them
make informed, databacked, strategic decisions, while tapping into smallscale big data
analytics will allow them to address each event individually and focus on a real customercentric
approach.

21
Source:
https://globenewswire.com/newsrelease/2016/04/11/827636/0/en/GlobalInformationTechnologyOperation
sAnalyticsMarketPoisedtoSurgefromUSD25Billionin2014toUSD92Billionby2020MarketResear
chStoreCom.html
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