The world seems scratching its head about the iPad.  Is it a giant iPhone with no real application, or is it so incredibly ahead of its time that we just haven’t figured out where it fits into our lives?  We’ve talked quite a bit about touch screen applications at trade shows here on TSF, but they’re very expensive applications.  While the iPad isn’t cheap for consumers, they are relatively cheap for most trade show budgets.  The large screen and intuitive input (you touch stuff) seem natural for  demonstrations, events, meeting, etc.

Interactive Meeting Technology has a terrific post outlining what some of those possibilities are:

Larger Screen = bigger fonts = easier readability for all types of attendees (like baby boomers). This means that you could create e-versions of your Show Daily, conference guide and exhibitor guides. This would make it very easy to make an event paperless AND preserve your sponsorship revenue.

Incorporating Multimedia. There will be a clear opportunity to include multiple photos and video clips from the show floor in the e-versions of the Show Daily. Electronic Exhibitor guides could contain video demonstrations of products. Electronic Conference binders could contain speaker videos. The kicker? If you are recording sessions these sessions could be setup online and available for viewing/downloading on the iPad right away.

Interactive Demos. Today – interactive demos can be a challenge to run on the show floor. I think that we will see more and more interactive marketing companies creating demos, games, quizes, etc that get attendees engaged on the show floor (or in the streeet). These apps will help companies capture new leads, qualify them, and feed them into the CRM system right on the show floor. In my opinion, the iPad – as a hybrid of the iphone and the laptop – will be perfect for this type of application.

Agendas, One-to-One Appointments, and Personalized Agendas. Did you see the new calendar function? I think that someone will come up with an application for the iPad that creates personalized agendas for attendees, schedules appointments, etc. While the iPad frontend needs to be easy to use – the database, scheduling engine and reporting will be a powerful part of this solution.

Corporate Backchannel. With the powerful user interface and portability, I could see someone creating a corporate backchannel application that runs on the iPad. While any device could be used to enter comments into the backchannel – the iPad advantage will be in viewing all of the other comments on the backchannel and privacy. Corporates don’t want their internal discussions tweeted to everyone.

Speaker Q&A. I can see iPads sprinkled across the roundtables in a large conference room. Attendees can use them to enter questions for speakers, see what others asked, and maybe even rate/rank them. How cool would it be to rate questions for the CEO? Awesome!

Way-Finding. I can see people using the iPad GPS to figure out the best route to their next appointment on the show room floor or to another part of the center or to the off-site event this evening. (Note: GPS may not be accurate enough to find most 3X3 meter booths inside of a hall.)

Sponsorship. There was a lot of screen real-estate for including innovative sponsorships – beyond banners. I am sure we will see some innovative digital sponsorship applications emerge.

Read the full article here: iPad: It Just Works…But Will It Work For Events?

The post also cautions against event WiFi which is always bad (why is that?) and events that require everyone to have the device.  But what do you think?  What are some good applications for the iPad at trade shows and conventions.  What’s going to be successful and what’s going to fail?  You’re sure to see this thing being given away at trade shows, but what about actually being used in a booth.  Is anyone thinking about it?  Or planning to use it?  Or hate the idea altogether?  Let us know!