Latest Future Meetings Space Research launched by German Convention Bureau at IMEX America

Highlighting current innovations and looking at future trends in the global meetings industry, the German Convention Bureau (GCB) will share the latest news from its Future Meeting Space programme at IMEX America tomorrow, including the Future Meeting Room.

The Future Meeting Space, a multi-year effort undertaken by the GCB, European Association of Event Centres (EVCC), and world renowned Fraunhofer Institute of Industrial Engineering (IAO) is intended to provide planners, venues and suppliers with insights and hands on tools to make their meetings more futuristic, and to stay ahead of the curve on developments in knowledge sharing, design, technology and more.

The Future Meeting Room is an online toolbox to map out and implement meetings with heightened engagement, innovation and creativity in mind.  The Future Meeting Room toolbox works against a backdrop of six Future Meeting Space Scenarios introduced by GCB this summer including:  Hybrid meetings—with face-to-face and virtually connected participants; Virtual to Live meetings- taking online created communities face-to-face, and Co-Working meetings- longer in length but allowing for live collaboration, in-depth networking, and concentrated time to attend to work back at the office.

Building on these scenarios, or creating combinations to meet unique knowledge sharing and interaction goals for delegates, planners and meeting pros can then use the Future Meeting Room toolbox to guide them through ideas on a number of areas including space, geography, technology and organisation.

The toolbox helps planners to consider various aspects of location – whether to have traditional closed door sessions or an open learning layout; whether to have seating in the round, classic theatre style or a more informal set up.

Planners can also run through different technological elements – adding crowd sourcing and polling technologies and devices; real-time cloud access for content sharing and data transactions; 3D or 4D Immersion Projectors; gamification and Digital Translation in order to expand delegate value and engagement.

GCB Managing Director Matthias Schultze and GCB Regional Manager of North America Linda Nuss, along with an avatar, will take buyers and planners through the Future Meeting Room on Wednesday 19 October at the IMEX Inspiration Hub. Real world “future meeting” examples from Germany, such as Bits & Pretzels in Munich and MedTech in Nuremberg, will also be used to illustrate innovation in action today.

Since launching the Future Meetings Space programme at IMEX America last year, the GCB, EVCC and Fraunhofer Institute has delivered three tools.  This includes the online Innovation Catalogue providing hands on ideas, examples and inspiration; the six Future Meeting Scenarios, and now the Future Meeting Room.

Commenting on the benefit of the Future Meeting Space insights and tools for planners, Matthias Schultze said: “The way we are using technology, sharing knowledge and engaging with each other is constantly evolving. The Future Meetings Space project is designed to help planners, destinations and locations address this change and opportunity as they come to Germany to meet and do business. We hope our newest hands on tool, the Future Meeting Room, continues to help them think in new ways, put new ideas into action, and drive innovation and creativity for their clients and delegates.”