MICE venue as a platform

3 layers of venue technology

The School of Athens, masterpiece of Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, shows the ancient Greek MICE venue in terms of studying and networking with people in a gathering place. It consisted of simple indoor stage and floor surrounded by stone, where people can speech and discuss about art and philosophy.

Much has changed since the ancient Greek age such as expansion of meeting floor and development of construction in venue management. But most venues still offer the same design and meeting experience based on a simple hardware conception.

However, since the rapid evolution of space technology and networking infrastructure such as cloud computing and mobile devices, MICE venue has changed dramatically the way of gathering and communicating between people with the help of digital technologies. Especially this trend would be a great opportunity for MICE event organizers to provide holistic meeting experiences for MICE visitors and business tourists. So venue operators should think a venue as a platform to provide unforgettable meeting experiences.

Then how can venue operators easily manage technologies as an experience marketing tool? VM Consulting would like to share the way of manage digital venue technologies. It is the 3 layers of venue technology for integrating visitor experiences.

3 layers of venue technology to integrate MICE experiences

The concept of venue as a platform originally came from the model of sports stadium. Deloitte, one of global consulting firms, suggested this model for integrating venue technology into sports business in 2016 as below.

3 layers of the stadium technology by Deloitte, 2016

But this model can also be applied to not only sports stadium but also MICE venues as mostly venues have same functions and missions in terms of gathering people and providing exciting experiences. VM Consulting changed its original Deloitte model into MICE venue technology model as below. It comprises of 3 layers of MICE venue technology.

3 layers of MICE venue technology by VM Consulting, 2022

MICE Technology Infrastructure Layer

The technology infrastructure area comprises of the physical hardware management system and networking equipment for sustainable venue operation. These technologies take a role for serving venue as a foundation. Included in this layer are:

Wi-Fi access points and distributed antenna system to provide visitors connectivity on their mobile devices

AR/VR studio for unreal meeting events

Immersive display hardware for advertisement and signage

Computer vision system for monitoring accidents and visitors

MICE visitor data analytics for sharing with event organizers

Public transit information system

ESG system for sustainable venue management

ERP system for visitor, organizer and venue business integration

MICE Enabling technology Layer

Even the infrastructure layer is a foundation of venue management and comprised of essential venue technologies, it would be not worthy unless MICE organizers or third party companies can not access and utilize it's core data. Enabling technology layer is a solution to solve this kind of issues like as above. It comprises of tools, protocols and data that MICE organizers can access and use for customers such as visitors and exhibitors.

Open Application programming interfaces(APIs) that 3rd party developers makes apps using venue information such MICE event schedules, empty spaces, etc.

Broadcast system integrated with MICE contents

Interactive touch screen for ticketing, parking service, etc.

Mobile POS system for F&B, shopping

Location-aware hardware for venue's way-finding

MICE Experience Layer

MICE Experience Layer is located on top of 3 layers. It's the contact point with MICE visitors and exhibitors so that people can get information from this layer and feel experiences provided by MICE organizers. These elements are:

Mobiles apps for events and venue amenities

Mobile ticketing for MICE events

MICE rewards program for visitor loyalty

AI services for event recommendation

NLP(Natural Language Processing) for Chatbot service

Robot service for way-finding and events information

Meeting technology using hologram, zoom, etc.

Integration with SNS for sharing MICE contents

Media art using Venue exterior wall

Third party apps such as space sharing, AR game, online purchase

What is a vision of MICE venue as a platform?

As we see the 3 layers of MICE venue technology as above, all digital tools are integrated to provide holistic experiences for MICE visitors. So MICE venue should firstly decide a vision of its venue, then it can decide which technologies are appropriate for venue operation. Furthermore, the impact of technologies are based on which data can be gathered and analyzed for visitor experiences. Therefore, the MICE venue which control core data and provide curated contents to MICE visitors will be a winner in the future of venue marketing.