Life after the pandemic: the future format for events
The events industry has experienced quite an overhaul in the last 12 months.
An industry that promotes the power of face-to-face has had to adapt and embrace not just to the possibilities but also the essential elements of virtual meetings.
For some time, the event technology space has catered for the new wave of event professionals and the merits of weaving digital and virtual into live events, but nobody expected the pandemic over the last 12 months to force virtual events to be taking place at what could only be described as a rate of knots!
We believe the two worlds of live and virtual will collide this summer, with a rise in hybrid events across the board. Here’s how.
Virtual lead up!
The ideal way to promote a live event happening this Summer would be via the channel we’ve all been using, and in many cases started to love in the last year, virtual platforms.
Everything from pre-event marketing and joining details through to community centric virtual events will be the savvy way to engage your audience in the run up to a live event, not to mention one of the only possible avenues available to us.
Essential travel may now really be essential
Many organisations have taken a long, hard look at how they operate and have learnt from the restrictions the pandemic put upon us.
Whether it be sending smaller groups of individuals overseas or domestically to live events or simply weighing up the resource issues, budget restrictions or sustainable implications, travel will be restricted.
Joining a virtual event or conducting a new business pitch online instead of in your potential new client boardroom will be a reality for many.
Greater user experience
The virtual event offering across the board has come on leaps and bounds since a manic March 2020 which saw massive groups jumping on Skype, Zoom and MS Teams.
The virtual event experience has become slick and feature packed for all to enjoy, true engagement, powerful analytics and superb content sharing features are abundant from today’s event technology landscape.
A good example of this is virtual networking, a feature that we’ve seen become incredibly popular and has given people the ability to network and exhibit virtually in an online exhibition format.
True hybrid events
Hybrid by its very definition will become synonymous with how we meet in the future.
For every single live attendee you can have 100 join the party virtually, therefore the global reach for audiences that embrace true hybrid events is vast!
One thing we should remember is that live is a beautiful format and meeting people personally and building relationships is for many a way of life, which has in some part been almost impossible during our current times.
However, others have flourished in the virtual world. They prefer to take part in events virtually where they can work from home.
Learning and communicating from a virtual space is a great option and we believe one that should live side by side with the live world.
The feedback from our clients is that hybrid will be the go-to format for events of the future, it makes sense and is in line with how we all communicate on a daily basis in a world of online coupled with the need to meet in person for all those obvious personal benefits.
Here’s to a future of real and virtual hugs and high 5’s!
