Category: Blog

Future Trends in Hybrid

Posted on by Eventsforce

 

The staying power of hybrid is undeniable. While the events industry is now seeing a welcome resurgence of live, in-person gatherings, it’s clear that hybrid — thanks to its inherent agility as an event format — has become a trusted tool of planners in a relatively short space of time. That same agility means that hybrid is actively being shaped to yield to the on-going needs — and even to the future demands —  of industry professionals and the audiences they serve. The future of hybrid is already in the making and it’s time to explore the broad trends and themes that will continue to shape this format as we move forward.

Micro-events and Data:

When it comes to future developments in hybrid, the most obvious is its continued popularity within the wider event sector, a trend that shows no sign of slowing. And yet, there are some tangible observations to be made in how planners are actively adapting hybrid to meet their current needs while also incorporating it into their onward plans. First among these is the trending popularity of micro-events and specifically, how planners are actively utilising hybrid as a tool to create these smaller gatherings. In 2023 — with the budgets of so many frozen and costs rising across the board — the use of hybrid technology to create these bespoke events is an upward trend, a way for planners to fine-tune their reach to create the kinds of intimate experiences that their audiences really want.

Creating an appealing event is one thing, but gauging the outcome of that event is quite something else. For planners, only hard data offers clear, concise, and tangible insight into audience engagement and, therefore, into the overall success of their event. From the initial registration period to details collected during the course of or even after a gathering, hybrid events — where information flows in via emails, social posts, landing pages, apps, etc. — are a data goldmine for event planners. With its various digital moving parts, hybrid offers a way for planners to not only simply collect static information, but also to track and analyse metrics in order to build and refine their future events for their future audience.

The Endless Flow of Tech into the Hybrid Experience

The very nature of the format itself means that technology is an inseparable part of planning, building, and successfully executing a hybrid event. As UK Tech News highlights, the future of hybrid is very closely intertwined with the onward development of technology. Whether planners are seeking out increasingly sophisticated means of facilitating virtual audience engagement, wanting to expedite event registration via the power of facial recognition, or harnessing powerful software to allow them to analyse data at a granular level, there’s no corner of a hybrid event that is not influenced by the advancement of technology. What’s more — among both planners and attendees of hybrid events — the obvious interest in and engagement with new technologies is ever-increasing. This constant demand feeds into the development of new technology and this, of course, flows into and informs the future of the hybrid event experience.

As an agile force in the events industry, the power of hybrid is indisputable. While the precise trends and themes that will shape the format are yet to be known, it’s clear that the future of hybrid is already unfolding.

 

 

Want to learn more about hybrid events?

Is hybrid really the future of the events industry? It seems so! An Eventsforce research study with 200+ event planners shows that the concept of hybrid can be daunting for many.  They can be perceived as complex and costly.  And even with the right budgets and resources to fund a hybrid event strategy, many organisers feel unsure on where to start.

Download our eBook,  put together to give organisers a good overview on hybrid events and how they can go about addressing some of their key concerns.

Personalized event registration: barriers, pitfalls, and solutions

Posted on by Eventsforce

 

When it comes to events, first impressions matter. As the kind of “opening act” to any occasion, registration sets the feel and tone for things to come. While personalization is now inherent throughout many elements of any given event, it’s not necessarily always easy or straightforward to include an element of personalization in your registration process. But be they delegates, potential delegates, exhibitors, or sponsors, everyone deserves the warm welcome that only personalization can offer. And you, as a planner, certainly deserve to reap the benefits of a thoughtfully personalized registration process.

Barriers and Pitfalls of Personalized Registration

There is no getting around it: personalization takes time and demands substantial effort from planners. This is especially true ahead of the event registration process, when planners need to ensure that they kick off their event by targeting the right audience with the right message. But before they can even begin to work on messaging, planners need to analyse the personal data they’ve gathered — whether this information has been collected via past events, emails, or surveys — in order to carefully and correctly segment their target audiences. With so much information to hand, it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of segmentation and even — as Sitecore references — to in effect become paralysed by your data.

Likewise, with time and resources finite — and with so many other details to attend to in the run up to an event — it’s also understandable for a planner to perhaps not give personalized registration the attention it fully deserves. This is also a mistake; indeed, by neglecting to give considered thought to the element of personalization at the point of registration, you’ve also missed an opportunity to more fully connect with your target audience.

The Simple Solution

A sense of perspective is a powerful tool when it comes to considering the importance of personalized registration. After all, registration is not the main event, but it is a key element of almost any and every event (and certainly, of those done well). To that end — and especially when it comes to considering both the personal data you’ve gathered and your target audience — it’s worth zooming out to identify broad demographic categories within the details you have to hand. Once you’ve done this, consider the elements of registration that will resonate the most with your audience. Isolate and identify the strategies that will have both the greatest positive impact in terms of successfully opening your event along with the ones that will help serve your overall goal of engaging with those you really want to target. And here, it’s important to implement strategies that not only serve your audience, but also to choose the ones that slot seamlessly into your existing time and resources.

A final key point on personalization — and this concerns both the registration process as well as your event at-large — is that there is no single way to ‘do’ personalization. Whether you opt for segmented and personalized invites and e-mails or distinct registration paths or have dug deep to welcome delegates to your event with their favourite coffee, only you truly know the registration techniques that will resonate best with your core audience. As an event planner, your time and resources are precious, but with careful consideration and perspective, you can efficiently create the kind of welcome that benefits both your attendees — and yourself — now and in the future.

 

 

Want to learn more about how to personalize your events?

Get answers to the fundamental questions, as well as insight on the current state of personalization in the events industry from a recent research study with 150+ event planners with our eBook, ‘The Event Planner’s Guide to Personalization’.

How to use the subtle power of video to enhance your event marketing strategy

Posted on by Eventsforce

From pre-show advertising to post-show highlights and client testimonials, event industry professionals acknowledge the power and reach of video marketing. But there are times and tasks that call for a more delicate hand; when you want to go beyond the basics of video marketing for your event yet still fly well under the radar, here are three ideas on how to softly shift the perspective of your strategy for a more subtle — yet equally effective — impact.

Find and Embrace Emotion

Whether you actively acknowledge it or not, as a planner — and perhaps, by extension, a marketing professional — the events you organise are largely built upon your ability to effectively trigger human emotion to get the results you seek. Whether you’re aiming to drum up a sense of anticipation ahead of your event, offering up a heartfelt compliment to your speakers, or reminiscing over the event that was, the sensory power of video is unparalleled in conveying an emotion or vibe — be it excitement, nostalgia, or even a sense of FOMO.

As an event planner, it’s key to know both precisely the kind of feeling you want to tap into and how you can best create content to trigger the reaction you want. Regardless of the type, length, or purpose of your video, this is a medium that enables you to wield the emotional power of a script or story, a moving soundtrack, striking cinematography, and precise editing to influence your target audience. Don’t be afraid to lean into and embrace that emotion; it can be woven into your video content strategy to subtly yet powerfully influence the overall outcome of your event.

Get Personal Before and After

Virtual, hybrid, or in-person — no matter the format of your event, the customisable power of video makes it the perfect vehicle for personalisation. This means that different kinds of video content can be created with a view to fostering a deeper and more meaningful connection with your delegates, your speakers, or anyone connected to your event. It’s one thing to capture video during the course of your gathering, but as a planner, you can seize upon the element of personalisation inherent in the medium of video to create thoughtful content both before and after your event.

For example, rather than simply sending a nondescript email, consider creating a personalised video to invite your delegates to your event or — as in this example from Vidyard — flipping the concept around to use the power of video as an outreach tool to speak directly to individual delegates and bring about a feeling of excited anticipation ahead of your gathering. Post-event, you can likewise create personalised videos to offer up your thanks to your speakers and delegates for their time and attendance, perhaps even weaving footage captured during your gathering back into your video to subtly remind attendees just how good your event was. In addition to fostering a deeper emotional rapport with your audience, the judicious creation of video before and after an event can help to increase ROI and conversion rates and boost the efficiency of your sales cycle.

Mine Your B-Roll Footage for Video Gold

When it comes to making the most of your video footage, you may have had a set strategy in place and known in advance exactly who or what you wanted to film. But that doesn’t mean that any B-roll or alternative footage captured during the course of your event should be discarded; on the contrary, B-roll can offer up a veritable gold mine of content that can be used to continuously connect with your audience well into the future. Whether you want to create a post-event highlights video, send a heartfelt thank you, or even incorporate some footage of this year’s event into your personalised invites for next year, your B-roll footage can be cleverly re-purposed to suit your aims. Think: the use of B-roll means that you film just once, but have the opportunity to create multiple pieces of video content from just one single effort — a true return on ROI.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that this kind of alternative footage adds visual interest and an authentic feel to any video content you’ve created; in a sense, it offers up another avenue for building a rapport with your audience long after your event is over. Delve into your B-roll with an eye for any interesting moments and use them to your advantage. Humour is always a great tool for engagement and if, for example, you’ve been lucky enough to capture lots of funny moments during your event, you might even consider creating your very own blooper or outtake reel using your B-roll footage. But from a technical standpoint, it’s worth knowing that your B-roll can also be edited into your main footage in order to enhance or extend it, as needed.

For event planners, the sheer power and reach of video is undeniable. Yet when used as a tool for engagement, it can be subtly deployed for maximum impact before, during, and long after an event.

 

Want to learn more about Eventsforce? Whether hybrid, virtual or in-person, see how Eventsforce is exactly the right solution to help you meet all your event objectives. Book your demo now.

JOMO not FOMO

Posted on by Eventsforce

By Andrea Papini, Marketing Manager, Eventsforce

As he stood bathed in twilight and dust, Kevin Costner’s Ray, ‘Field of Dreams’ 1989, hears a voice in the wind, ‘If you build it, they will come’. The fact that this is a misquote of W. P. Kinsella who actually said, ‘If you build it, he will come’ is not important. 

Costner built his dream, and it was a success. But real life is often far removed from Hollywood. In a commercial setting we need more than just voices in the wind to justify expenditure, demonstrate ROI and pragmatically prove that we can do our jobs. 

How does this relate to event planning? Well, for many months now you will have seen the events industry talking above all else about the return of in-person, pivoting back to in-person, the adoption of hybrid, and moving forward with renewed optimism. Event tech suppliers are certainly optimistic, as are those managing trade shows, conferences and exhibitions. If you prick us, we will bleed optimism. Another misquote, this time William Shakespeare’s ‘Merchant of Venice’. 

There’s no lack of advice about the return to in-person. What tech to use. How to manage your events. Health and safety. The list goes on. Occasionally there is a nod to the changing world we live in post-covid. ‘We must give people a reason to turn up.’ And the answer to this is a few words about engaging content, appealing to their inner FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). 

And in 4 letters we encapsulate the problem. FOMO. We assume that people are afraid of missing out, and this alone will bring them to our events. Is this right? Even before covid, event planners were never short of information; websites, webinars, eBooks, demos, peer reviews, case studies, testimonials. Great, your events offer ‘educational sessions’ but are these sessions offering anything that can’t be found by a quick google search? Are they actually helping people do their jobs, offering detailed advice, and engaging them in conversation? Or is the speaking slot now seen as an opportunity to raise extra revenue for the organiser and to sell tickets, not to ultimately provide benefit for the delegate? Once the slot is sold, is there really any sort of quality control on what is delivered? Or am I being cynical? 

At a recent event I attended, there were many theatres, a full programme of speakers, but many only offering the most basic of advice. Apparently, you really can teach a grandmother to suck eggs. Where is the differentiation, and where is the added value? And here’s a bonus tip for event planners; the art of Stand Management isn’t dead. You’ve done the clever marketing, paid for the expensive stand and committed a considerable amount of time to the exhibition. Don’t ruin it all with staff who clearly don’t want to be there. It’s never a good look to talk to delegates sitting down whilst they stand, and even worse, to outright ignore them, talk to each other or spend the whole day on smartphones or laptops! I come to network and communicate – please don’t ignore me!

As event planners our second sin, after our over-inflated belief in the quality of our content, is failing to recognise we now live in a different world. Pre-covid, the odd working from home day was seen as a treat, but the rest of the week you could bet that nearly everyone was on that hot, packed tube, delayed train, or in their car stuck in traffic, all making their way to the office. Now, it’s all changed. Alarms go off at 8:45 to start work at 9am. There are no more 2-hour commutes. Business dress stays in the cupboard gathering dust. Life is very different. 

So, in 2022, if you want people to leave their homes, stress about what to wear and how to get to your event, and then consume information they can’t readily find online, event planners really need to think about their content, sessions and event promotion. Attendees need to fully understand how they will benefit from attending, and this messaging needs to be consistent across all your communication channels. Pay attention to the speaking programme and what is being delivered. 

Your responsibility for the session doesn’t end when it is sold. Work with your speakers to ensure your delegates get value for money, and value for time. And most importantly, don’t assume everyone has FOMO. These days it’s most likely to be JOMO; and if you don’t know what this is, a quick Google will enlighten you…

 

Want to know how Eventsforce can help you with your 2022 event planning?

Eventsforce can support you with a platform that puts the planner at the centre of the strategy.   We transform experiences for virtual, hybrid and in-person events and enable you to launch and adapt your events quickly and seamlessly. 

Whether you’re looking for a quick chat or a detailed discussion on your event tech requirements, our team of event professionals are on hand to assist you.

Click here to get in touch or why not request a demo?

CVBs and DMOs: A Hidden Resource for Meeting and Event Professionals

Posted on by Eventsforce

As a meeting and event planner, do you ever feel a little stuck? Maybe you can’t find the perfect spot for your next unforgettable event. Or perhaps you did find a location but you are overwhelmed by all the details to create a great experience for your attendees. It might be time to take advantage of a hidden gem of a resource, one that is sure to feel like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow — and it’s closer than you may think.

Turn to the local convention and visitors bureau (CVB) and destination marketing organisation (DMO) to hit an event planning jackpot. These organizations can provide you with the following information and more:

  • Suggestions and help facilitating event activities, entertainment, and speakers
  • Offer a wealth of knowledge on convention centre specifics, including floor plans and tours, to dining choices and lodging options
  • Specifics on accessibility throughout the destination
  • Itineraries and suggestions for attendees extending their visit beyond the convention
  • With ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions and mandates, CVB and DMO websites are a good source of the latest information

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s dive a little deeper by learning from Cara Frank, chief of staff at Simpleview and former director of convention services at Destination Madison.

Q: How should meeting and event professionals utilize CVBs and DMOs to enhance their planning capabilities?

A: If a planner is just starting a search, the CVB and DMO can provide support when looking for a venue or hotel by consolidating and bridging communication with these properties. If they already have a site selected but want to make the event extra memorable, the DMO and CVB can help create an amazing experience for the attendees beyond the parameters of the actual event and bring the local feel to the attendees. CVBs and DMOs can provide the best recommendations for every event type.

Q: What resources do CVBs and DMOs have to help planners with their events?

A: Every destination has something unique to offer meeting and convention attendees — something that will make the event memorable so attendees will share with friends, family, and co-workers. Sometimes, these top locations are very well known but often they are hidden gems known only to people intimately tied to the destinations. This is where CVBs and DMOs come in, which can help planners with their events by:

  • Finding offsite locations for parties, dinners, etc. Everyone is looking for a unique venue to fit their audience
  • Referrals to members and businesses for transportation, local gifts, etc.
  • Informing local restaurants and shops nearby about the event so they can prepare their staff to provide exceptional service
  • Offering attendance marketing tools on the DMO and CVB website, like toolkits for venue searching and booking, to make sure planners have resources to help their event thrive

Also, CVBs and DMOs publish the most relevant mapping tools for event planning, giving a better idea of the destination and how to prepare their attendees for seamless transportation. Punta Gorda Englewood Beach’s meetings microsite is one example; Pisgah National Forest uses Map Publisher on its microsite to help visitors navigate the destinations.

Q: How can meeting and event planners and CVBs and DMOs work together more effectively?

A: Making connections to the destination should be a top priority. While many planners visit the destination during the sales process, that could have been years before their actual event and many things could have changed. Event planners should check in periodically with the CVB or DMO as a local partner, aligning goals, and sharing event and attendee details will help create the best experience for the attendee and event planner.

“The DMO or CVB is a concierge of sorts; from steering meeting planners to the transportation companies they need for an offsite event, to navigating the best group dining options, they can match your attendees to the attractions that will resonate the best with them.”

— Cara Frank, Chief of Staff, Simpleview

 

Want to know how Eventsforce can help you with your 2022 event planning?

Eventsforce can support you with a platform that puts the planner at the centre of the strategy.   We transform experiences for virtual, hybrid and in-person events and enable you to launch and adapt your events quickly and seamlessly. 

Whether you’re looking for a quick chat or a detailed discussion on your event tech requirements, our team of event professionals are on hand to assist you.

Click here to get in touch or why not request a demo?

5 Ways to Encourage Attendees to Return to In-Person Events

Posted on by Eventsforce

5 Ways to Encourage Attendees to Return to In-Person Events

The choice of additional event formats such as virtual and hybrid, creates an interesting challenge for planners. The big question is what impact do they have on the in-person event?

In-person events have dominated for years and will continue to play a huge part. Some events should only ever be in-person. But with many planners offering a virtual component, they will have to work that much smarter to attract attendees to make the trip to a physical event.

In this post we highlight 5 ways in which your in-person event can stand out. Let’s take a look.

1) Make Clear There Is No Virtual Audience

Your in-person event is going to appeal to those attendees that are looking for an in-person experience that is not impacted by virtual attendees. This means that in your marketing messaging, you make it crystal clear that the only audience you have is the in-person one.

Potential delegates could be put off from coming if they believe you will be serving another audience. If they know that your attention will be on them and them only, you are likely to increase your sign ups.

It is easy with a hybrid event for there to be audience envy between attendees. Both in-person and virtual attendees can feel left out unless you manage their expectations. But for your in-person event, you only have the ones you can see in the room to worry about. That can be a strong incentive for people to come. They know your focus is 100% on them.

2) Demonstrate It Will Be Covid Safe

Showing that you have comprehensive Covid safety measures in place will give peace of mind for your more nervous delegates. They are interested in coming but want to be sure that no harm will come to them.

Covid safety is top of mind right now for attendees. And as you know, holding in-person events means you will be enabling people of different genders, generations, and cultures to mix. Some people will be less worried (if at all) than others. Your job is to reassure even the most nervous person. In doing so you will increase your chances of them attending.

You need to decide on admittance criteria. This will help attendees make decisions on whether to attend or not. Creating a covid safe environment is a good idea. Demonstrating that you will use contactless self-service check-in and similar measures help reinforce this. You can also offer tips and advice on safe travel to the venue etc.

Related: Top considerations for the safe return to in-person events

3) Talk, exclusivity

What can you offer in terms of exclusivity for your attendees? Exclusivity is always a big draw. You are basically saying “come to our event and get something that no one else does.” The question remains, what can you do?

Let’s explore some examples. You could have a VIP dinner that only has the best of the best (however you define that) in attendance. Attendees could sign up for the opportunity of being ‘in’ with the other VIPs. Or you could bring in a celebrity speaker and have a round table discussion with them. Think of inviting a film producer and for your attendees to glimpse what it’s like to create a block buster. Or you could go for curated networking, where attendees have been carefully matched before they arrive at the event. Imagine if your attendees could meet exactly the right people they need to.

There are many more ideas you can come up with. But the big point of exclusivity is that it is just that, exclusive. Whatever you are offering isn’t available in the same form anywhere else.

4) Highlight That It is New

Every event is new. Your in-person event is new. It’s certainly bound to be different from your pre-Covid ones, isn’t it? If it is no different you may run into problems maybe not at first, but they will appear.

If there is one thing that needs reinforcing, it is simply this, Covid has changed people. You cannot simply serve up the same versions of what you were doing before. Expectations have changed. Attendees want more. They are exercising more choice than previously, and organisations are questioning whether their staff need to go to events. In other words, the in-person events landscape has changed.

And therein lies the challenge and the opportunity. Why not use the in-person format to accentuate the senses of sight, touch, and smell. If your conference is about outdoor safety, you could lower the room temperatures and you could bring in fog machines to give a realistic experience of what it feels like being on a mountain. You could ask your delegates to come in outdoor wear to make it more realistic. That’s just one example of thinking about enhancing your in-person experience. You may not need to go so extreme, but you need to highlight what is new.

Related: 7 ways events will change in a post-Covid world

5) Be real when using FOMO

Any savvy event planner is going to be using FOMO as a means of encouraging take up at events. It’s a widely used marketing technique and it works. If something looks special, it makes an emotional tug. Limited places selling fast, is a well-used technique. People sign up to avoid being left out. It’s that simple.

If you have ever tried to get tickets to see your favourite popstar or band, you will have been through this FOMO experience. Long before the tickets are available to buy, the marketing machine whirls into life, and it makes you anxious. How can you book tickets when you are at work? Where will you be when they go on sale? Can you give money to a friend to buy for you? All these questions and more run through your mind. One thing is clear, you need to have a ticket. The FOMO is super strong.

However, use FOMO with realism. Just how good is your event going to be? Have you really worked on it to make sure that it delivers beyond attendee expectations? Use it but be mindful that attendees expect more, and they will be very unhappy if they could have missed it and not been any worse off for not attending.

Conclusion – People Are Smart

There is no doubt that unless you work on your offering for in-person events, your competitors will take advantage. This is no different to events, pre-Covid. But the impact of a global pandemic has made people think about why they go to events.

Even the hardened event attendees, now question the individual value they will get from an in-person event. Any assumptions you work on, should be re-evaluated. It is true that a lot of people want to reconnect. They want to meet again, and networking is very important to them. However, as reconnections are made, you will need to offer more than networking to attract attendees. The euphoria of meeting people will move from being super strong as a reason for attending to becoming normalised in future months.

Think smart as you work on your in-person offering. And remember, your attandees have changed. They will make the smart choices and follow what’s beneficial for them. And you should do the same. Learn from the past but understand that the future has great opportunities for those planners that look at the key ways in which to attract attendees once more to in-person events.

 

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Ask the Experts: Biggest Event Trends for 2022

Posted on by Eventsforce

Biggest event trends in 2022

Want the lowdown on all things events? In your inbox, every week. 

After the initial blow of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is little doubt that 2021 continued to disrupt the world of meetings and events. But what is likely to happen in 2022? What trends are industry experts expecting? And what should you, as an event professional, be considering for your plans next year?

We spoke to a few people that work in this area day in day out. Here are their thoughts:

Miguel Neves – Editor in Chief at EventMB, a Skift Brand

I think we are in for a shock. I hope we can all have the opportunity to meet in person, but I don’t think we will, at least not as much as we have in the past. The thing is we’ve changed. Work patterns have shifted, home life has changed, and we now know we can consume most content online just as well as we can in person. So, unless we are personally invested in an event as a sponsor, exhibitor, or speaker, we’re just not flying, staying at hotels, and investing any more time than we need to in most events.

There are exceptions, some of the larger events that are all about networking and serendipity will continue to get people to travel. But for any event that doesn’t have a “must be there” feeling, we’ll be there online, possibly while multitasking and getting some work done.

This means that events will be forced to change. Some may opt to be in-person only to try and force attendees to travel. Some will be hybrid and find ways to engage attendees regardless of their location. Ultimately Hybrid events need to have a great monetization strategy that can cope with a mainly online audience. Welcome to the new world of the hybrid attendee.

Follow Miguel Neves on LinkedIn

Related: 10 critical steps to successful hybrid events

Brandt Krueger – Technical Producer, Consultant & Educator for the Meetings and Events Industry

It makes me truly sad to say that my advice for 2022 is basically the same as it was for 2021. With uncertainty in the air as new variants are discovered, and with so many still unvaccinated, online and hybrid remain the best solution for many meetings and events around the globe. While smaller, tightly controlled events have been safely executed, not every organization can mandate vaccinations, masks, and other safety protocols for their staff and attendees.

Those that saw online events as a stopgap are now well and truly behind the game, as other organizations have been innovating and fine-tuning for 20 months. Many others are facing decisions to cancel their in-person events for the third year in a row, when they could have been using this time to expand their audience and experiment with this new digital venue. In-person events will return, but digital needs to be part of the toolbox of the future planner.

The good news is that it’s not too late and you can now benefit from others’ experiences. There are countless blogs, articles, books, and courses on online and hybrid events, with detailed descriptions of what does (and more importantly what doesn’t) work. Take a deep breath, take a moment to reflect on the goals and objectives of your event and its stakeholders, and focus on what you can do to create amazing experiences now instead of wringing your hands about where we might be in six months!

Follow Brandt Kreuger on LinkedIn

Related: 8 key mistakes to avoid when planning a hybrid event

Kaaren Hamilton – VP Global Sales Sonesta International

The buzz fresh off the exhibit floor at IMEX America, held in Las Vegas in early November, is that our industry is overwhelmingly optimistic about 2022.  With RFP’s being discussed and business awarded, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief and shared a moment of joy celebrating the return of face-to-face events.

However, with the news of a new COVID variant now we are being brought back to the reality that we continue to navigate through unpredictable times, where planners continue to be challenged and must continue to consider all possibilities.

We will continue the trend of the last two years seeing an evolution of event components that include working for and with organizations that have a sense of corporate responsibility.  That means increasingly, sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are a required expectation along with duty of care expanding to include providing a space for both physical and mental wellbeing.

Regardless of the evolving components of meetings in the new world, the world agrees in-person meetings are vital. The shared experience of travel and being in the same room with customers and colleagues cannot be satisfied by the virtual environment indefinitely.

Follow Kaaren Hamilton on LinkedIn

Related: The event planner’s guide to stress management 

Tahira Endean – Head of Events, SITE global – Writer, Speaker, Connector, Collaborator

Events must be conscious…transformative…worthwhile. It is incumbent upon us to create sustainable, intentionally designed experiences for those joining us live, or virtually.

Collaboration. We need to create the most meaningful experiences with a diverse team. More importantly we need collaboration to solve the real problems facing us including those that will fundamentally halt travel and live events. Think pandemic, or climate change as key examples.

Equity and vulnerability. It is not having a code of conduct for our events or organizations, it is a fundamental respect for and empathy with all the humans we work with, invite to our events, and interact with to create environments where everyone is safe.

Follow Tahira Endean on LinkedIn

Related: How to make events more sustainable in a post-Covid world

Paul Cook – Virtual Events Specialist, Content Writer

My view is that the events sector will experience similar fortunes to those in 2021. I believe local or regional events will dominate more so than international ones. And this will last until the point at which Covid-19 has been shown the door and left the building. But that isn’t the case at present or for the foreseeable future. The impact of the global pandemic is still very present.

What that means is that virtual events will be in demand, and the best ones will be those that increase their production values. In other words, the home-made look (think of some productions in 2020) will quickly become a thing of the past, if the organisation is to keep its brand reputation in good shape.

What I do see as a trend which will become a permanent feature, is the increased need for translation services. Whether it is live or post event translation, the requirement will be there. Event planners will be asked for interpreters more often as clients understand that to achieve their aims of diversity and inclusion, the access to what’s happening in the organisation must be open to all their staff and stakeholders.

On a positive note, the events sector offering in-person, virtual and hybrid formats is in good shape to enable their clients to achieve their goals. Choice is always good and in events there is bags of it.

Follow Paul Cook on LinkedIn

Related: 7 ways events will change in a post-Covid world

Conclusion – More Choice for Clients means more decisions for planners 

We thank our contributors for their insights and predictions for what is likely to happen in events in 2022. It’s a tough job to see the future. The only constant is change. It’s around everyone, everywhere and it’s constantly chipping away at what we understand as being normal. Sometimes change is good and sometimes not so much. The impact of change can be good and bad.

In one example of changing consumer behaviour, just think of the camera shops that were effectively put out of business because of mobile phone companies. In the days before smart phones, people needed a camera and a phone. Did the camera shops see mobile providers as a threat? Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. It doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that event professionals do not go the same way as camera shops. And there is no reason for planners to go out of business. It is clear from the views of our experts that regardless of whether you prefer in-person or virtual events or hybrids, there is room for each to play their part. You just need to decide what your focus is going to be.

Clients and attendees want and need choice – and in the events sector, we can offer it in abundance. As we enter 2022, whilst there are challenges ahead, there are also very bright lights of opportunity.

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