Home Meeting Planner Resources 5 Event Tech Tips for Better Engagement

5 Event Tech Tips for Better Engagement

August 25, 2025

Here are five event tech tips to make your next event more engaging.

Creating an engaging event that attendees can immerse themselves in is no easy feat. There are any number of challenges, from short attention spans to high-tech integration and cognitive-emotional targeting, that make designing immersive events significantly more challenging that designing a traditional meeting.

Fortunately, there is a broad range of technological tools planners can use to overcome the challenges of creating an engaging event. For example, today’s event management platforms simplify registration, scheduling and attendee-tracking, while also providing on-site engagement tools such as polling and gamification, as well as back-end analytics. Mobile event apps also can deliver real-time updates as well as personalized schedules, networking, interactive maps and live polling right to attendees’ smartphones.

Here are a few event tech tips on how planners can use today’s smart technology to make their meetings more engaging:

Use tech thoughtfully, not just tech for tech’s sake. There are lots of technologies out there now to help make events more engaging and immersive, including virtual and augmented reality, 360-degree video, interactive displays and spatial design technologies. Don’t be dazzled by all the options — do your homework to ensure the tech you choose is user-friendly and also brings new ways to support or enhance the event’s goals.
Personalize as much as possible. Thankfully, we now have tools, including artificial intelligence-based technology, that make it much easier than it used to be to customize agendas, make session and activity recommendations, and craft communications specific to the preferences of each attendee. It may take a bit more work, including asking more questions to uncover those unique preferences ahead of time, but the level of personalization and customization AI now makes possible can boost both connection and engagement.
Make it fun. Today’s tech also makes it easy to inject some good old competitive fun into the agenda via gamification and live polling, but old-school activities such as Q&A sessions and hands-on activities also bump up engagement. Be sure to include interactive elements such as leaderboards and prizes to keep attendees motivated to play throughout the event.
Encourage connection. Today’s technology also provides lots of ways to algorithmically match up attendees who share interests, professional or otherwise. Do a little digital matchmaking then set them loose to network in person and virtually, both informally and in planned activations.
Crunch the numbers. Today’s meeting-planning platforms and system provide a ton of post-event analytics and feedback loops planners can use to refine and redesign future events. Don’t let it go to waste — use that live attendance and engagement data to make your next events even more engaging and interactive, based on data rather than the “smile sheet” evaluations of yore.

If your goals and budget allow, it also can help to plan for hybrid and multichannel experiences that optimize content for both on-site and remote attendees. Just be sure to choose a platform that can provide high-quality streaming, interactive breakouts, networking spaces, and perhaps even exhibit areas to give those who can’t be there in person at least a taste of what they’re missing.