The tech turning events into digital playgrounds
Events organising is "the biggest industry you've never heard of", says Reggie Aggarwal, chief executive of US technology company Cvent.
From music festivals to corporate expos, trade fairs to charity auctions, we spend about £375bn a year on events worldwide - £40bn of that in the UK.
It seems we gregarious humans still love to press the flesh, chat in person and see things for ourselves, despite the availability of online collaboration tools, teleconferencing and email.
And technology is "transforming the meetings and events space," says Mr Aggarwal. "It's a market ripe for automation."
Seamless registration
Going digital has enabled organisers to send out invitations via social media, email and mobile, and provide attendees with a more integrated registration, travel and hotel booking experience.
"We've seen two major changes in the space since we started [in 2006]," says Renaud Visage, co-founder of San Francisco-based Eventbrite, a tech firm that offers an events organising platform.
"Social media, which is very important for marketing, and mobile, which can be used for event apps and for checking-in attendees."
Poster for Colour Conference 2016Image copyrightColour Conference
Image caption
Organisers can promote their events on Eventbrite's website
The company has grown fast, processing about $3bn (£2bn) worth of tickets and powering a million events last year, says Mr Visage.
Innovations include dynamic pricing for online seat reservations, depending on where they are in the venue, and the ability to sell merchandise around the event as well.