Events are a great place to put new technologies to the test and the next big thing seems to be smartwatches. After a few weeks with new Google Wear watches, we tried them in a few event settings. Here is what we learned. 

Keeping your attendees engaged during an event is a top priority. Smartwatches help in that regard, by letting you get a glance of your notifications without pulling out your device. Plus, it reduces the urge to respond to items and keeps your attention on what's going on in a session. 

On the flip side, having easy access to all notifications can lead to overload. With such easy access, it hard to simply silence your smartwatch and ignore the notifications. This can mean grabbing attention away from the event and onto the wrist. 

Sometimes you just need to grab a quick note or look up a simple piece of information and smartwatches are ideal for that. You can send a text, make a quick note, or do a mini google search. It’s a great platform to build in event actions like contact swap, checking meetings or answering live poll questions. 

Distilling often complicated information into a single notification means its easy to miss important details. This leads to the need to grab your phone out of your pocket all the time to get the full picture and can often be much more distracting than just using your phone. 

Overall, smartwatches are well on their way to becoming integrated pieces of our digital lives. As they become better, event organizers would be smart to continue to embrace the technology along with event apps.

Looking to take your event mobile? Contact us today to learn how EventEdge can tailor an app to your event, conference, or tradeshow.