With a background in mathematics and computer science, Stephan Forseilles launched his career in the telecoms world before discovering his true calling in the exhibitions and events industry. For the past 20 years, he has been at the forefront of innovation as CTO of Easyfairs. An active participant in many industry initiatives like UFI’s Digital Innovation, Stephan is also a speaker at global conferences, sharing practical thoughts and insights on event technology, digital transformation, and AI. His passion lies in reshaping the industry to be more digitally savvy and customer-focused, paving the way for a vibrant and future-ready events landscape. 

• In this episode Stephan Forseilles discusses the role of technology in creating better trade show experiences, and the progress of technology over the decades. He also mentions the most unchanging aspect of trade shows— which is the critical objective of bringing people face to face. He admits that this is the reason why he, with his background in “dry ” technology, stayed back in the industry. 
• Stephan talks about current trends and some technology that never took off the way the seemed promising at start, such as blockchain. One reason, he feels, is because there is so much investment in AI that hardly any resources are left for developing other technologies. He discusses the many platforms and matchmaking initiatives and explains why bigger organizers should build their own customized platforms. 
• Stephan elaborates on privacy laws, and how data can still be collected honestly and transparently to ultimately help attendees and exhibitors benefit more through better and higher quality conversations. He concludes that the best experience in a trade show is where every individual is treated as an individual, and their specific needs are taken care of. 

Run time – 01:08:15 mins.

Links for Subhanjan 

[email protected] 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/subhanjansarkar