In December 2020, the International Live Events Association (ILEA) carried out an online survey amongst its members, asking a series of 25 questions to gain insight and understanding into the trends most likely to dominate the next 12 months and beyond.
Almost 250 event planners, agencies, hoteliers, venues, marketing managers and suppliers from EMEA and North America responded, providing detailed answers on factors including, how businesses have been impacted by Covid-19; whether or not digital audiences will still be coveted once in-person events return; what technologies will form part of the new event planner toolkit; how events will become more sustainable; and the value of face-to-face in this accelerated digital landscape.
The results, detailed in this article and available in ILEA’s Exceptional Experiences report are a window onto the world of the post Covid-19 meetings and event planner and show how the role has evolved, from organiser to virtual technologist and digital marketing expert.
The findings also reveal how planner priorities have shifted from budgetary and sourcing concerns to technology, health and safety and sustainability requirements, as physical events slowly reawaken against a backdrop of human behaviours that have been changed by the pandemic forever.
Participating planners are an experienced lot, with a third (35.5%) having worked in the events industry for between 10 and 20 years and a majority (40.82%) having working in the sector for longer than 20 years.
This means that around 75% of respondents would have experienced the impact of the 2008 global financial crash on the worldwide live events market, and at least 40% would have worked through the 2001 recession, caused by the collapse of the dot com bubble, plus the 9/11 terror attacks.
Still, nothing would have prepared them for the events of 2020, caused by the global coronavirus pandemic.
In a typical year prior to Covid-19, a majority (41%) of Exceptional Experiences respondents would be organising more than 50 domestic events, with 85% also planning a handful of overseas activity.
By Q2 of 2020 however, only 10% of global respondents were still staging in-person live events.
Although the easing of restrictions in certain countries for short periods allowed 28.5% of respondents to conduct in-person live events between July and September, and 30% to run events in Q4 of 2020, a return to live activity for the 72% of planners who were staging events in Q1 of 2020 isn’t now anticipated until at least Q3 of 2021.
Instead, by July 2020, 66.6% of respondents had pivoted to staging virtual events, which remained consistent throughout Q4.
Throughout 2020, as these planner respondents grew in confidence, having up-skilled themselves in virtual event practices, they could begin to look again at which events would succeed online for 2021 and beyond, what technology is available to help them and how face-to-face marketing objectives can be translated for the virtual world.
No doubt this process of taking one step back to take two steps forward has for many, been a rewarding and eye-opening experience.
It has given planners the time and space to question the original goals and KPIs of their activity and scale each event down to its original purpose - whether that be training, networking, knowledge sharing or internal corporate communications.
Help has come from marketing departments, already used to running webinar programmes and able to offer tech stacks and marketing best practices to planners entering this new virtual world.
As a result, the virtual event format is now here to stay.
A majority of survey respondents (64%) said they’re planning to run more virtual live events in the year ahead, whilst 70.6% are also planning more or the same number of virtual events into 2022.
Contrastingly, although perhaps not surprising, 77% of respondents anticipate running fewer in-person live events in 2021.
By 2022 however, over a quarter of respondents (27.7%) expect the number of in-person live events to be back on the rise, which is likely to usher in the age of the hybrid event format.
The age of hybrid
Over 88% of respondents cited hybrid and virtual technologies when asked what new tech they’d consider implementing into event experiences during 2021. Whilst almost 86% of respondents said that once a return to physical events gets underway in 2022, they will continue to deploy a digital strategy to maintain virtual audiences.
Coupled with the fact that 43.6% anticipate a slower than expected return to in-person, likely fuelled by greater corporate scrutiny over sustainability initiatives and a reduction in air travel, the landscape for blending in-person activity with online experiences for virtual audiences will certainly be a fertile one.
Alongside hybrid and virtual technology, respondents cited other ways in which they will look to use new technology in order to better engage in-person and online audiences. These included gamification (44.6%), multi-sensory (31%) and Augmented / Virtual Reality (29.7%).
Hybrid audiences are likely to engage more with gamification (the insertion of game dynamics and mechanics into non-game activities to drive a desired behaviour), via dedicated mobile event apps.
People spend a great deal of time playing games on their mobile devices so incorporating a fun gaming element into an event app could drive in-person attendees to attend more sessions in order to collect reward points, plus keep virtual audiences better engaged in targeted content.
Virtual Reality meanwhile has had several false dawns already during the past decade. However, in order to compete as a viable alternative to attending an event in-person, VR may well hold some of the answers when devising exceptional online visitor experiences.
The biggest impact on live experiences during 2021 will of course be the ability to keep attendees safe and well, as prioritised by almost 40% of survey respondents.
Beyond 2021 however, we will see a new dawn for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and environmental considerations, as companies adapt to their customer’s evolved expectations for more meaningful brand contributions, at both a local community level and how they treat the wider planet.
Having moved from in-person to a fully-sustainable model of virtual events during the pandemic, planners will be forced to think harder about how to ensure that once we return to hybrid or in-person formats, sustainability remains a key consideration.
Having adapted for more hybrid, sustainable event formats, 63.3% of respondents believe that the value of face-to-face experiences will increase in a fast-paced digital world that continues to evolve.
After all, face-to-face interaction offers brand marketers a valuable opportunity to form deeper connections, which are simply not possible over email, zoom or social media.
Face-to-face is the Ying to digital marketing’s Yang and it forces us to lean in and experience rather than look down and switch off.
By the end of 2021, ILEA expects to see B2B marketing budgets reallocated back into live events with additional investment in virtual elements for hybrid formats.
As with other forms of marketing, this extra investment can often be reliant on event teams being able to prove ROI or ROO (Return on Objectives). So it’s important to set measurement goals and have relevant KPIs in place.
For the Exceptional Experiences respondents, the most popular metrics tracked for optimisation and the calculation of ROI are: audience engagement (61.7%), revenue generated (56.3%), website traffic (46.8%) and leads generated (45.7%).
In addition, other KPIs for generating useful measurement data may include, increases in event registrations, registration to attendee conversions, attendee satisfaction scores, brand mentions across social and other media channels, plus post event feedback.
While contributing to a sales pipeline or revenue bottom line may be the ultimate end goal for many marketing directors, focusing on attendee engagement and attendee satisfaction can produce wide-ranging benefits.
A highly satisfied conference attendee for example, will more likely become a future customer, return to subsequent events or be retained as a customer. Meanwhile, brand awareness and brand mention tracking can measure engagement across various event types—from product launches and roadshows to field marketing and event sponsorship.
Live events (along with their virtual counterparts) are also now gold-mines of information about attendees. At every touch-point, delegates leave digital breadcrumbs that provide crucial insights and data to help you create more personal, targeted experiences.
No global pandemic will alter these facts. Human behaviour dictates that we are sociable creatures and face-to-face interaction in the form of live events will continue to be the most effective and trusted marketing channel for generations to come.
In order to meet our responsibility to safeguard each other and the planet, this trusted marketing channel now just has a permanent virtual add-on, which the global live events industry will continue to embrace and evolve to ensure future added value and enhanced exceptional experiences.
The full Exceptional Experiences report from ILEA can be downloaded here
