Are event organisers still planning to use hybrid and virtual events in the postpandemic world ? Yes , this is never going away . I think every event that we do in a face-to-face environment these days will have a hybrid element . There have been seismic changes to how people want to engage and interact ; some are keen to have that in-person experience , while others prefer to be remote and have on-demand options . We ’ re seeing a blend of that , with one day in-person and the next as a virtual experience . It ’ s an expectation from the attendee to have that ability to choose whether they attend . From a corporate perspective , companies will need to have that flexibility for their internal and external audiences .

The interesting thing is that virtual events have been cheaper . Especially for corporate internal kick offs and sales meetings because they ’ re not having to make anybody travel , with additional expenses to pay . Plus , there ’ re no venue or catering costs .

I also think that most organisations now have a platform that they ’ re licensing , so there ’ s no additional setup fees . It ’ s just using what they already have and what they ’ re comfortable with . That took a long time to get to , but a lot of the big corporates now have two or three platforms that they prefer to use . The minute you go back to face-to-face , your budgets need to significantly increase , with hybrid being two different experiences .

That ’ s the educational thing for me , is getting clients to understand that hybrid doesn ’ t mean that everybody has the same experience . We have so many clients saying ‘ we want everyone to have the same experience ’. That ’ s just not going to happen , you must treat them as two separate events and treat those two audiences as separate . You must make sure you ’ re handling them individually , and

that is essentially two different events .

On-demand features are essential . Even if you were to go to a face-to-face event , there is an expectation from attendees to have access to online content . Whether or not you ’ re streaming live from an event , there should be an expectation that you are recording everything . With the added uncertainty of whether people can travel to the in-person experience , you need to be prepared with virtual as a contingency .

The cost of hybrid makes it prohibitive to some people and at that point they ’ ll just stick with virtual for a while . The bigger events will likely have a hybrid element .

Are event organisers currently finding recruitment into the industry an issue ? Absolutely . The industry was massively impacted by the pandemic and as there are more enquiries for in-person events , across the board it seems to be hugely challenging to find the talent .

With all the short-term planning from clients , you ’ re just reacting , and everything needs to be done quickly as the event ’ s only six weeks away . You can ’ t recruit quick enough . It ’ s finding that balance of getting new work to grow and support your team and clients . It ’ s tricky and it seems to be the same across many global

“ The minute you go back to face-to-face , your budgets need to significantly increase , with hybrid being two different experiences .”

Left : Charlee Gough

agencies , with hundreds of vacancies available across the industry .

How has sustainability changed the nature of event organising since COP26 ? To be totally honest I don ’ t think it ’ s had much impact at present , as we haven ’ t gone back to everybody flying around the world to attend events . What it has done is given the industry more opportunities to talk to clients about ways to be sustainable and inclusive .

When they do think about coming back to in-person , that ’ s where we can see more of that positive change being discussed and implemented . That ’ s not to say that virtual events don ’ t have a carbon footprint and need to be more accessible , but we can look at the wider impact of events holistically . We were involved in COP26 , and we ’ re passionate about the World Charter that we signed . With shorter lead times to events , ensuring sustainable practices are becoming more challenging .

However , we ’ re seeing requests from our association clients , who usually have much longer lead times to their events , wanting to have impact reports done . Where possible we always encourage this and for best sustainable practices to be scoped out . For us all to reach those SDGs , we need to work together and have a long-term holistic mindset .