What will the future of meetings look like? No one knows. But we can identify trends that will affect the future of meetings and start preparing for these. MPI asked 27 experts outside the event industry what forces will change our meetings in the next 10, 20, even 30 years. And we released the tech-related answers late last week. Here are seven trends/outcomes that resonated with me. Download the paper here for more—and for ways you can start preparing. 

1. Automated systems will help you deliver events. Think speech recognition and targeted messaging—even gestural tracking. 
2. Technology will help increasing numbers of non-attendees interact with your events.
3. Don't ask Gen Y and Z to disconnect—unless totally necessary. They resent it. (But also realize that your meetings will no longer be "private.")
4. As people become more tech-savvy, they will have increasingly high expectations of event technology.
5. BUT, be wary of conference tech that is used to “show off” rather than add value.
6. Mobile devices will soon translate the languages of speakers into ones that each attendee knows.  
7. Neural technology will obtain delegate emotional feedback during your meetings, providing immediate mood feedback.