Louis Zheng is currently responsible for the business development of more than 10 companies under EXPOTEC Group in the Greater China region. He is a doctoral student in hotel and tourism management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and holds master’s degrees in business administration (MBA) and public administration (MPA) at Shanghai Jiaotong University. With nearly 20 years of experience in the MICE industry, Zheng has also earned UFI’s Exhibition Management Degree (EMD).
In addition to serving on IAEE’s Event Technology Committee, Louis is a member of IAEE’s Awards Committee and the IAEE China Council. Louis became a lecturer for the CEM Learning Program organized by IAEE and CCPIT in the China region in 2018, and for CIEP courses in 2023.
Here, Louis shares his views on how technology fits into the ever-evolving exhibitions and events business landscape.
What inspired you to serve on this committee and how do you see your role in bridging the gap between technical expertise and events business knowledge?
I was invited by Ms. Cathy Breden, CMP-F, CAE, CEM, IAEE’s former EVP and COO, to join the Event Technologies Committee in 2023. My original intention at that time was to deepen my understanding of the event technology status and breakthroughs in the trade fair industry in the U.S. Now, my goal is to help promote the technological level of exhibition companies in China and the United States.
EXPOTEC is a leading event technology and registration company in Greater China. Whether it is for our customers, peers, or friends, we are committed to being the most technologically savvy provider in the event industry and the most event savvy provider in the technology industry. Becoming a bridge between the two industries of technology and events is our positioning for ourselves.
How do you think the committee’s work can be leveraged to enhance IT member experiences within the association?
I think the work of the committee should focus on three aspects: marketing, promotion, and education.
The significance of marketing is to let the IT members know what the latest event technology is and how to use it.
The meaning of promotion is to assist the IT members to improve their levels of digitalization and efficiency, as well as achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.
The significance of education is to help IT members master the use of the latest event technology and improve their skills.
What emerging technologies do you believe have the potential to disrupt the exhibitions and events industry in the near future?
In fact, I don’t really like to use the word ‘disrupt’ to describe the relationship between the exhibition industry and technology. Through three years of practice during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have discovered that the relationship between the exhibition industry and technology is neither complementary nor substitutive. People still yearn for face-to-face communication between people.
For a long time to come, the relationship between the exhibition industry and technology will continue to be integrated and developed. Exhibition activities without any technology are definitely not good exhibition activities, but exhibition activities with technology are not necessarily good exhibition activities. Whether it is VR/AR, or the metaverse and artificial intelligence, what changes is the user experience and improvements in efficiency.
Unless the effect brought by technology were to subvert the ROI brought by the exhibition industry to exhibitors and visitors, technology will always be a tool for exhibition companies.
What topics do you think are most crucial to address in education sessions addressing event technologies, and why?
I think there are two points that need to be addressed urgently.
The first is “learning by doing.” No matter how good the technology is, if it is not put into practice in the education process, the degree to which the educated can master it will be greatly reduced.
The second point is that technology cannot be separated from the scene. The use of technology in the education process needs to have a clear scene. If possible, the use of event technology in this scene is in line with business logic, and promotes the business model and profit model of the activity.
In your opinion, what are the key components that should be included in a digital event technologies toolkit, and how would this resource serve the exhibitions and events industry?
For this question, I think we may refer to the application scenarios of AI technology in the events industry.
A digital event technologies toolkit should solve the following problems:
- Writing tools and text generation
- Video production and generation
- Project management
- Graphic and 3D design
- Shorthand and note-taking
- Team collaboration
- SAAS software package
- CRM
The above are all tools that event industry personnel will use in their daily work. Good technology can greatly improve our efficiency in solving problems.
