Now that the events directly have started to turn slowly, you may be wondering how they will look. Will they look exactly like they once did in a pre-COVID-19 world? Or will we see some virtual events and hybrid trends of events sticking to the new live events environment? The Clarity team suspects we will see some trends sticking around! While entirely focusing on virtual events and hybrid events was not ideal, the whole industry gained a new set of skills and gained some tools that will make live events stronger than before. Keep reading to find out what trends our Sales VP and one of our expert manufacturers expect to stay in the live events!
- Interaction between audience and presenter
- Increased analysis and measurement of ROI
- Shorter session times
- Repurposed content
- Remote presenters
Interaction between audience and presenter
In a pre-COVID-19 world, it was unusual to attend an event or conference directly and to interact with presenters while sitting in an audience. Direct audience surveys and surveys were done with audience response systems, whereas today, they can be made much simpler and will be much more common emerging from the pandemic. Now, in a post-COVID-19 world, this interaction is a different game because of the virtual environment. If there is one thing that virtual event is, they are interactive, which is great because it makes everyone talk and gets involved in what is happening. We saw that participation rose to a whole new level in these events, so we expect to see this trend stick to this new direct environment. 5 years ago Auditor Response Systems (ARS) we had required a lot of equipment to operate and it was “weak” at best. But now, we have a much newer technology program like QR codes that can be made directly from your phone and make it much easier to support audience participation.
Increased analysis and measurement of ROI
In the past, companies spent money attending conferences to connect, sponsor, and so on. But, the only way they would know if it was worth attending was if everyone got into a room with each other and were asked directly or if they closed some deals. Not the most effective way to measure success if you ask us. Now, because of the virtual event and enhanced analytics they brought to the world, you can see your dashboard, what market they are in, what your tracking plan is, and much more. The days of people simply showing up, managing their booth, and handing out business cards are behind us. There are many more expectations about what kind of ROI you get from sponsoring a conference, attending a conference, and holding an exhibition at a conference. While virtual events may be disappearing, the analytics and data-driven expectations that came with them certainly are not, and we expect this trend to persist for some time.
Shorter session times in virtual event
Let’s be real… No one wants to sit for 2 or 3 hours straight listening to a conference and virtual events. Virtual event sessions and virtual events, usually, were much shorter than your standard live event. They included more vacations and more time for interaction and networking. While it used to be normal to have 3 hours of presentation with a 15-minute break, we do not think it will be anymore. The Future’s Past Events team expects that this new era of live events will have shorter session times for people’s attention, but also for travel and safety reasons. Shorter session times
Repurposed content
There has always been recording and editing in live events, but last year, the whole industry was forced to make it to a much larger size for the virtual events as the standard practice for virtual events is to record everything instead of just aspects. In this new era of live events, all content is expected to be recorded, whereas, in the past, only parts of an event were recorded. One reason for this was cost, but now with new technology, recording your event is simpler and more cost-effective. Everything was automatically recorded in a virtual environment and people would expect it to be the same for the new live environment. You can record a presentation and reuse it on social media or direct request, sell it for educational credit, or even turn it into a webinar presentation. You present it once and distribute it everywhere and FPE expects it to move forward that way.
Remote presenters
Obviously, there was a learning curve when it came to distance presenters, but now we know how to do it as a market and as an industry. Presenters are now better at presenting virtually than ever before and we expect to see remote presenters stick to this new live environment. In the past, we were seeing presenters remotely only in emergencies, but from now on, presenters may want to be farther away because they have the means to do it at home. Presenters have their own sets of presenters so they can record at home, or they can go to a studio and re-record all of their content so that it looks professional and as if they are in an environment of live events. Not to mention, from the presenter’s point of view, they are now able to lower their price point but increase the volume because they will not need to travel that much.
These are the trends you can expect to stay around in the living environment!
We are so excited for the live events to come back and see what this new era will look like for our industry. That being said, these are the 5 trends that the FPE team expects to stick to virtual events and hybrid events. If you have any questions or want to talk about your upcoming events directly, contact us and talk to one of our representatives today!
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