The Eventbrite blog aims to bring you insight, ideas and expertise from a wide range of experts and industry contributors, and we’re pleased to announce the addition of a new award winning writer to our team.

Experience event journalist Bel Booker has spent the last seven years writing about all things event management as former deputy editor of leading trade magazine Meetings & Incentive Travel and its website meetpie.com.

Having gone freelance, Bel continues to produce event news and features for M&IT, recently being named ‘Features Journalist of the Year – Destination’ in the Business Travel Journalism Awards.

She will be writing for us regularly, covering everything from event planning and budgeting, to marketing and social media.

We caught up with her to see what event trends she’s most excited about in 2015…

Getting personal

“Advances in technology are coming thick and fast now and I think this year we will see much greater use of tech like iBeacons and RFID to deliver a more personalised and interactive delegate experience. Sensors can be used to deliver tailored event content to visitors’ smart phones as they progress around the show floor, or act as triggers for targeted advertising messages or personalised welcomes. It sounds a little bit Big Brother, but it’s pretty clever, nonetheless.”

Project yourself

“3D projection mapping has been around for a little while now, but it never fails to pack a punch and I can envisage more creative uses, not simply on the façade of huge buildings. Likewise, holograms are becoming more mainstream and will add ‘wow factor’ at the same time as enabling guest speakers to be in more than one place at once. I saw it demonstrated to impressive effect at the recently opened NH Collection Eurobuilding in Madrid. The holograms appear incredibly lifelike and can interact naturally with the audience.”

Make a date with data

“So called ‘big data’ is revolutionising many industries, events included. Collecting and analysing data will become a vital part of the event lifecycle. Thanks to new tools, metrics that can now be measured cover everything from event costs and savings, to attendee population and engagement. This offers event planners more insight into performance than ever before, enabling them to fine tune their future events and achieve maximum return on investment.”

We’re very excited to have Bel on board, watch out for her upcoming posts soon!