How companies can benefit from digitally enhanced event experiences and group processes.

G+B Interactive is the software and technology spin-off brand of GAHRENS + BATTERMANN – one of Germany’s biggest and best known AV companies. With over 30 years of event expertise, GAHRENS + BATTERMANN was one of the first event specialists to concentrate their focus on the digitisation of the conference, meeting and events industry. Their goal is not only to supply marketing executives and event producers with the latest tools to drive interaction and value in meetings and conferences, but to also create and develop these tools, and deliver integrated concepts and highly effective solutions for a vast variety of different event formats.

“Digital technology can significantly contribute to an event by making it smarter, faster and more effective“, explains Max Burger, Event Technology Consultant at G+B Interactive. “By using our software tools, marketing executives and event producers can discover exciting new ways of bringing people together and leveraging their knowledge, skills and ideas.“

Industry gatherings often require serious financial commitments and therefore need to deliver a meaningful and quantifiable outcome regardless of whether they take the form of an internal or external conference, board meeting, roadshow, trade fair/exhibition, product launch or other special event.

“If a company operates on a national or even international scale, bringing the right people together for a conference, meeting or trade show can easily result in spending huge amounts of money on travel expenses and working hours. Our goal is to enable companies to use this time more effectively and produce a valuable outcome for all the people involved. And, in addition, our software solutions not only make a more efficient and effective use of precious time, but also contribute to making meetings and events more engaging, relevant and fun for the attendees!“, explains Burger.

Among the wide range of G+B Interactive software tools available, Digital Facilitation can be considered to be the “ultimate superweapon“ when it comes to digitally enhanced events, conferences and meetings. This highly effective software tool is most applicable in situations where groups of people come together to create sustainable results. The aim of these gatherings may be to develop a new business strategy, to find a suitable solution to a relevant problem or simply to evaluate or analyse any given subject as a group.

Nowadays, the most common workshop methods used such as an Open Space Conference, a World-Café, Future Search or other tailored teamwork or group facilitation processes are based on a long-serving combination of pinboards, coloured cards, text markers and stickers. The problem with these processes is that they are time-consuming, extremely complex to monitor and hence often limited to 20 – 30 people.

This is when the advantages of digital facilitation technology become clear: “Imagine that you could conduct a SWOT analysis with 300 of your most knowledgeable managers in four easy steps within 25 minutes – would this sound interesting to you?“, asks Burger. Digital Facilitation takes proven workshop methods to the next level. With the G+B Interactive tool, you can bring together up to 1,000 people to conduct any given or tailored group process. Generating meaningful results in an interactive manner within large groups has never been faster or easier.

Furthermore, Digital Facilitation processes can easily be integrated into GAHRENS + BATTERMANN ´s powerful engagement tool “Event Vote“. Equipped with customised G+B Interactive iPads or their own smart phones and tablet PCs, attendees can directly send questions and contributions to the speakers on-stage or carry out live voting with immediate results. What’s more, Event Vote can be upgraded to a fully digitised conference folder/booklet with customised time schedules, digital attendee lists and a variety of interactive socialising features. Attendees can follow presentation charts on their smart devices, take notes and collect valuable information by using a practical shopping cart function.

With the launch of our most recent software tool “Teamplay“, we are meeting the demand for professional Gamification Strategies and serious gaming applications for corporate environments. In five specially developed group games, attendees can experience collaborating and working as a team by using their collective intelligence to solve game challenges which are both tricky and fun. “The great advantage of our G+B Interactive software suite is the easy integration of many different powerful event tools into one single mobile application – custom tailored for any event“, comments Burger.

GAHRENS + BATTERMANN is represented by seven subsidiaries throughout Germany and stages 7000 medium and large-scale national and international event productions per year. With 289 employees and a worldwide project volume of approx. 40 million euros, GAHRENS + BATTERMANN is one of the leading AV and event technology suppliers in the event marketing industry.

International guests are most welcome to visit G+B Interactive´s Event Technology Showroom located in Frankfurt am Main. Airport pickup and accommodation can also be organised as required.

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