A brand experience creative has tipped branded events to surge in 2020 on the back of technological innovation.

The Company We Keep founder Nigel Ruffell said personalisation, AR, holograms, VR, A.I. and sustainability are the way forward in the branded events space.

“Some trends are continuing to grow and develop. VR-enhanced events are ever-evolving and the introduction of AR for events, for example, aids immensely in storytelling. But one of the strongest emerging trends is the personalisation and customisation of the experience,” said Ruffell.

It comes as the number of companies organising 20 or more events per year increased by 17 per cent between 2017 and 2018, while research from Bizzabo shows a 32 per cent increase in marketers who believe events are the single-most effective marketing channel.

Specifically, Ruffell predicted VR to give way to AR in the events space.

“With VR, you can put a client into the experience so they can understand and assess the experience beforehand,” he said.

“Now by integrating VR and AI, attendees who have chosen the things they’d like to get out of it can have a virtual assistant guide them through the event. That guide may be visual or using prompts like bots.”

He also heralded the rise of ‘sensory experiences’.

“Long gone are the days when you “visited” an experience. Now you experience it, and increasingly that sensory experience gets closer to reality,” he said.

“The outdoors can be brought inside, for example, with night sky ceilings, real plants, natural materials, like wooden beams and trellises. Elements that you can touch, hear and smell.”