The 2018 NRL Grand Final saw 500 guests invited to an exclusive event at Sydney's ANZ Stadium where they enjoyed a dinner, 2 VIP discussion panel sessions, half time entertainment and post-game wrap up. 

If you saw Australia’s own Dami Im perform at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, or Lady Gaga duet with the late David Bowie at the Grammys, you’ve seen the amazing potential of this technology to astonish audiences. The technique includes a Holographic Mesh Screen - an invisible, metallic coated screen that when hung on your stage becomes a vehicle for 3D content to appear in thin air. It is unique because it doesn’t require any special rigging or reflective floor space to project onto, and can be used in most venues. 

The right technology can take your event from good to great. It can help you create immersive, engaging events that everyone talks about and help you better communicate and connect with your audience. It can wow your audience during a presentation, turn entertainment into a piece of art, enhance stage sets to become amazing visual experiences, or engage your audience by making them active participants. 

Virtual Reality (VR) is a hot buzzword in both technology and event circles right now. Like most new technology, it takes some time to understand all the possible applications and determine the best uses for each industry.  

Imagine seeing a lobster crawl across your lunch plate,  waves crashing against your wine glass and schools of fish swimming beneath your plate as you dine. It’s an unforgettable experience that would last a lifetime and that was exactly the brief to Encore Event Technologies.  

Everyone in events is familiar with large-scale projection mapping; on buildings, on stage, and at activations. But there’s almost limitless potential to tell your story on a much more personal scale. Sharing a meal is one of the most intimate human social rituals, and projection mapping onto the dinner table is emerging as a fantastic way to communicate, delight, and impress your audience. 

For devotees of Event Technology there is just no bigger event on the calendar than InfoComm. It is the largest, most exciting industry event in North America focused wholly on the pro-AV industry. It features over 1,000 exhibitors, thousands of new and existing techie products, and sees 44,000 attendees from over 100 countries every year. InfoComm 2018 was held at Las Vegas Convention Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada in the first week of June this year. Our Director of Technology, Andrew MacColl joined Encore’s Global Innovation team at this year’s annual AV geek fest to see what’s hot… and what’s not. 

Sydney will be put in the spotlight once again later this month for the 10^th annual Vivid Sydney. 

Getting people to attend your conference is one, if not the biggest, challenge event planners face. It's the whole reason you're organising the event and attendance numbers are one the biggest factors determining its success. Once you have them there, the real challenge facing planners is to keep your audiences engaged.