Micro Communities Will Be Event Tech’s Future: Sai Srinivas, MPL
Event tech is here to stay, and it will coexist with the long-term change piloted by the pandemic in the event culture. Internet access and digital payment penetration have acted as the foundation for the entire technology ecosystem at meetings, conferences, and other events. The event tech industry, which is still in its nascent stage, has the potential to grow leaps and bounds as the contactless economy will exist for a long time.
Sai Srinivas, who is the co-founder & CEO of Mobile Premier League (MPL), believes that the budding event tech industry will witness a similar growth trajectory, which gaming has experienced so far. He says, “There will be newer and more interactive ways the online events would work in the future. We will see emerging examples like Twitter Space and Clubhouse in the event tech space. Few years down the line, the same events will be attended by 10,000 people – viewing, participating, appreciating, or even gifting virtually.”
People already know the core basics of hosting a virtual event. Srinivas thinks that to rule the roost, one must build more unique ways of interacting. “Make the experience more interactive will bring the audience to join the conversation. There can be many different ways of being interactive. One can be virtual rewarding,” he adds.
Speaking on the key trends in the consumer internet economy while considering the event tech, Srinivas shares, “Mass market microtransactions are taking place. We can now see people willing to pay a huge sum for engaging with thought leaders, game streamers, or singers virtually on several platforms.” While building technology, the event tech companies must create a methodology or monetisation strategy of taking up a small amount of money from a large audience base rather than a large chunk from a small group.
The future of event tech platforms in hybrid settings will be micro-communities. While citing Discord’s example, the entrepreneur speaks how the platform allows people to create micro-communities, where one can build and engage with own community constantly. “The event tech is still lacking the interactive feature. Soon you will see the creation of micro-communities in the consumer internet space. I believe the event tech event platforms can build such communities with opportunities to meet someone and build a potential partnership,” he states.
Building such micro-communities will prove extremely powerful for the event tech industry. “I think someone will soon build virtual micro-communities, which may become a crucial part of the event tech space,” Srinivas concludes.
(Sai Srinivas was speaking at the recent Event Tech Summit organized by BW Applause and everythingexperiential.com in association with BW Businessworld and BW Marketing World)
