Zambian Music Awards 2014, what could have been, TECH-wise

Ah the Zambian Music Awards 2014, the hype that it was, and the disappointment that followed when people’s favourites did not win. Congratulations to all who did though.

We had an opportunity to be there and as TechTrends, we did not bother about who wore what, who came with who or who won what. We had our geek eyes open for possible tech must-haves for the event.

Firstly, who doesn’t want to attend such a grand event without tweeting or updating their status about it? There should have been free Wi-Fi as part of the ticket package. K350 is not that easy to come by and is much more than a few drinks and a cold samoosa.  This would have blown the roof on social media because attendees would have had a chance to talk about it on their personal pages/accounts.

If not for free Wi-Fi, mobile service providers could have chanced the opportunity to sell their internet bundles through agents at the venue, unless ofcourse there were conflicts of interest involved with the promoters. We bet some people didn’t have an active bundle at that point and only got to post their experience in pictures the next day, or they probably still have them as we speak…

Then there could have been a way to get selfies out together with their hashtag #ZMA2014 with photos of all the celebrities that where there.  A device with a good front camera and timer would have saved a lot of time for the photographers running around with heavy Nikons, Canons and Samsungs startling everybody with flashlights. We could have simply stood in front of it, taken the selfie via the Zambian Music Awards 2014 account itself on Facebook and Twitter and voila, a trending topic caught all over the world. Great and easy way to expose the awards ceremony.

Another way to enhance interaction among attendees themselves at the Zambia Music Awards 2014 was to have a near field communication (NFC) device that allowed them to share pics by gently tapping two devices together and then forwarding them to social media like Facebook and Twitter instantly. This technology is not yet mainstream because few devices actually have the software but smartphone makers are starting to incorporate it into their models so hopefully by next year, we will be tapping phones at the ceremony sharing our favourite pics. Samsung already has it though.

Like c’mon, this is the age of the mobile phone, smart or not, the tablet/phablet, why can’t we take advantage of that? Your argument might be that not everyone has a smart mobile device. We say they should look for the many cheaper options available from brands like Huawei, ZTE and Samsung.  We really should be able to move away from the traditional pen and paper way of doing things. We are TECH-SAVVY, why not you too? There’s a lot of small technological additions that could have made it even more amazing.

It was a great event though, half well planned, an amazing crowd and lots of smiles all night.

Till next year, we’re watching you.

Regards,

TechTrends Zambia

Image Credit: ZMA Facebook Page