Touchless technology, crowd-tracking sensors and real-time data to define future of $1tn megaevents industry

Touchless technology, crowd-tracking sensors and real-time data to define future of $1tn megaevents industry

- Research highlights how megaevents can continue despite COVID-19 restrictions

- Calls on government leaders to learn lessons from events like the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Hajj and Dubai’s Expo 2020

- Examines how megaevents can evolve leveraging technology, and the role platforms such as the Metaverse could play in transforming events in the future

Dubai: The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies including such as crowd-tracking sensors to collect real-time data, mixed reality and metaverse will define the future of megaevents in the post-COVID-19 world, a report published by the World Government Summit Organization has revealed.

The research, published in partnership with PwC, calls on government leaders to learn lessons from events like the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, Hajj and Dubai’s Expo 2020 which were held successfully during the pandemic using a mix of virtual, physical and hybrid approaches.

According to the report, cities hosting megaevents – which contribute almost $1 trillion annually to the global economy – must "rethink how to deal with these events in the future because the frequency of future shocks is expected to increase”. Organisers should plan for a “hybrid future” and look to new ways of hosting events rather than a return to the pre-COVID-19 way of working.

The ‘Meeting