ew research conducted by LinkedIn says that the market for virtual events in the UK could be worth

£ 14bn ( USD $ 19.35bn ) a year .

The figure comes from a study of 200 B2B event organisers in the UK , which found that 72 % of businesses will maintain virtual events in the long term and 77 % are interested in organising hybrids .

Given that £ 31bn a year was spent on B2B events in the UK pre-pandemic , this suggests the market for virtual events could be worth up to £ 14bn a year .

Tom Pepper , head of Marketing Solutions UK , Ireland & Israel , said : “ The B2B events industry will not return the way we know it . Businesses are reflecting what their employees are demanding and that is less time travelling and spending time away from home . This means more virtual and hybrid events . And this research shows budgets are following suit .”

“ The big question for event organisers is what does a successful hybrid event look like ? As a new concept , there will be a period of trial and error as businesses find what works for them and participants .”

Below : Casey Winters , chief product officer at Eventbrite

vent platform Eventbrite has announced it is integrating further with Zoom , as the company bets on virtual and hybrid events . Eventbrite has redesigned its integration with the video calling platform , as it builds on the more than 1.4 million online experiences it facilitated last year . The company says it is now seven times faster to use Zoom in Eventbrite events than previously .

Casey Winters , chief product officer at Eventbrite ( pictured ), commented : “ Our focus through this pandemic - and beyond - is helping event organisers succeed and build audiences for all event formats .

“ Over the past 12 months , we ’ ve helped hundreds of thousands of event organisers reach new global audiences virtually , and create new revenue at a time when they needed it most . This deeper integration with Zoom will put event organisers in an even better position to offer interactive online experiences as part of a resurging live events landscape after this pandemic .”

he Centre for Exhibition Industry Research ( CEIR ) has released the second in its three-part Global

Virtual Event Trends series .

‘ Lessons Learned to Date and Technologies Used ’ collected results to open-ended questions about virtual events . The report was sponsored by virtual event platform Swapcard .

A statement from CEIR said : “ It has been a mad dash to secure services to make [ online ] events happen , with many market entrants responding and offering virtual event services . This report uncovers a crowded market of virtual event providers – over 100 vendors – vying for this high-demand market .”

CEIR vice-president of research Nancy Drapeau added : “ I am in awe of B2B exhibition organisers who took on the challenge and made virtual events a reality to serve their communities during this time of crisis .

“ I thank them for generously sharing their insights on what worked well and where they believe improvements are needed moving forward . This report offers peer learnings for executives searching for a resource for planning or to compare their notes on what worked well or not for their events .”