The Evolution of the Music Festival App Virtual Assistant.

The majority of music festivals now have a dedicated mobile device app for their events, and this has spawned a sizable industry of app developers to support them. These branded apps usually contain FAQs or chatbots to help festival-goers but this technology is now evolving with virtual assistants replacing chatbots.

The ever-increasing computing power of mobile devices has meant that most festival-goers now carry a sophisticated device with them to events. Any sizable music festival can present challenges in navigating sites to find toilet facilities, specific food and beverages or performance schedules. The old paper maps and timetables are being replaced by event specific apps that contain all the information festival-goers could want on a small device. The plethora of information contained in the festival-app can make it difficult for users to find what they are looking for promoting the development of static FAQs into Chatbots. These are now being developed using Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the virtual assistant.

Chatbots. 
The early festival apps were little more than digital brochures which often included static FAQs, they were not dynamic or interactive and only really replaced paper maps and performance schedules. As technology developed over that last 10 years the festival app has become more interactive so users can customise artist schedules and use GPS mapping to navigate a festival site. Over the same period the FAQs evolved into chatbots which were often no more than pre-scripted answers. The early chatbots were quite limited as they could only answer very specific questions. 

Development of the Context Chatbot. 
As developers of apps started to increasingly use AI and natural language processing (NLP) the capabilities of the chatbot became more capable, able to understand conversational language to provide contextual information. During the same period apps allowed for increased user personalisation and the software could send customised notifications and make relevant recommendations for example. Festival site maps became more interactive (using GPS) and were linked Increasingly to chatbots which were becoming more like capable virtual assistants able to answer location-based questions. 

The Full AI Driven Virtual Assistant. 
The fully functional virtual assistant on the festival app has emerged in the last few years and can now function as a real digital concierge for users. The current virtual assistant can now be voice activated and in addition to answering more complex questions can provide predictive scheduling to suggest performances based on user behaviour. Mapping functionality can operate in real time helping users to navigate away from congestion for example. Latest virtual assistants are now incorporating hyper personalisation for users where the software analyses past behaviour including music listening history, browsing history and artists followed on social media for example. This allows the virtual assistant to produce a personalised performance schedule that aligns closely with their own tastes. AI is also enabling the predictive capabilities of a virtual assistant by tracking food and beverage consumption and making timely reminder suggestions for future purchases. 

Future Developments. 
Festival organisers are working closely with sponsors and vendors to integrate their products, services and offerings into festival app virtual assistants. This enables highly personalised messages and suggestions to be made to festival-goers by vendors and sponsors that will be viewed as helpful rather than intrusive. Virtual assistants are increasingly being used to provide valuable health and safety information especially for hydration in extreme hot weather for example. Similarly virtual assistants can send nudges and reminders about sustainability and eco-friendly behaviour to user whilst on a festival site. 

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by Mohamed_hassan via Pixabay

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