We’re living in dynamic times of rapid technological advancement and change.

When hot on the heels of positive tech booms across pretty much every industry, artificial intelligence is talking to us from our phones and rising from the pages of movie scripts. Scary!

Yet, not all technological change has to involve a ‘burn everything to the ground’ style of revolution. Tech-savvy platform facilitations in transport, travel, property and shopping have redefined our professional and personal lives as users wholeheartedly embrace an easier fix to their rightfully impatient needs. As innovation gets smoother, we learn to appreciate change and are more trusting of technology to behave just like evolutionary elements within our organic world – great ideas will be kept and bad ideas will be discarded.

Tech expert Dr Jordan Nguyen recently addressed the fears around technology in the events industry at AIME 2019, urging us to use it wisely, and see its potential for enhancing our personal experiences and connections, rather than infiltrating our world gratuitously with bots.

“Technology is the facilitator and that’s the thing that we have to see it as – it’s an enabler,” he told his audience.

I very much agree. Every industry has moments where they need to cut the umbilical cord. To let go and embrace the future. To view technology as a tool for growth.

The events and entertainment industries are full of passionate, energetic professionals who all want the same thing: to put on spectacular events. To continue to do so requires a welcoming of processes that will lower friction and excessive labour and ultimately progress total event production towards a new dawn.

We are a progressive bunch, no doubt. Our industry is constantly moving forward through event design and production techniques, daily enhancements to audio visual systems and forever pushing the boundaries of culinary offerings.

However, just like all industries, there are operators that have taken advantage of outdated and unregulated systems which allow for the exploitation of all parties. Technology can be both a scourge and a saviour.

Labour and talent facilitation (celebrity or otherwise) has been the domain of middle men for generations. Google and SEO campaigns have further muddied the waters so that opportunists are able to monopolise online presence, overshadowing authentic and valuable facilitators who operate as talent curators, event service facilitators and experienced, trusted and knowledgeable talent providers. This ironic internet claustrophobia requires a doorway of light that only complete transparency can provide.

Without adopting specific technological advances, the industry would remain mired in complex communication and inefficient logistical processes, which continually and negatively impact talent and event organisers.

We’ve already seen how technology has elevated the event experience. The recent Microsoft Ignite and Adobe Symposium took the overall experience beyond the conference, with the objective to empower attendees to innovate their work and life.

Quelling any nervousness is also about being open-minded about how technology in other worlds can be harnessed to move our industry into a new era.

In my conversations around blockchain technology, (which we at The Event Ecosystem have used to underpin both the A.C.T.A and G.E.T platforms), I’m often met with furrowed brows. This is largely because the technology gets confused with the product of cryptocurrency. In fact, they are two very different things – cryptocurrency is simply one product that has harnessed the technology of blockchain.

I watched closely when blockchain was both embraced and then resisted with the rise of cryptocurrency. The amazing invention of an indisputable ledger system made me realise there was a great opportunity to tackle the very real issues which exist in events, and in particular, talent procurement and facilitation. With a definitive means to store data in a transparent and unalterable way, we were now able to employ smart contracts made and exchanged online with infinitely more legal protection of similar deals made in person. The technology also provides a vault for event documentation and instantaneous notifications, all of which form the foundation of trust – a paper trail, per se – without risk of secret handshakes or offline deals.

Using blockchain technology streamlines and sanitises the entire booking process by promoting transparency and frictionless communication from the moment of introduction through to the delivery of live performances.

As Dr Nguyen says, positive change is about understanding “what’s coming our way” and being strategic in the technology that we embrace. We need to evolve in step by cherry-picking technologies and strategically implementing advances that allow us to grow and improve.

Change – which technology brings – is needed for the sake of supporting the globe’s immense talent pool and revamping the often-convoluted process of producing world-class events.

For over 20 years, Harris Meitanis has looked after many artists as a solicitor, owned and operated both a record company and music publishing company, managed the careers of some of Australia’s favourite artists and even produced and released music himself. Since 1999, he has built A.P.E Events and Entertainment before founding The Event Ecosystem with an advisory board dedicated to transforming event services procurement.