What ’ s New 07
LinkedIn study puts £ 14bn valuation on B2B virtual events
According to research by LinkedIn , 45 % of future B2B events will be completely virtual , valuing the digital events sector at around £ 14bn .
The survey of 200 B2B event organisers in the UK and Ireland found that 72 % of businesses will maintain virtual events in the longterm and 77 % are interested in going hybrid . In fact , businesses ’ future event mix will be 32 % physical , 45 % virtual and 23 % hybrid .
Budgets are expected to reflect this change immediately as investment in virtual events will be three-times more than physical ones in the next 12 months . The research also finds that a third of event budgets ( 29 %) will be spent on virtual platforms in 2021 .
When asked why they plan to continue organising virtual events , the top responses included that they ’ re pandemic-proof , cost effective and they give global access to content without travel .
The majority of event organisers ( 88 %) arranged a virtual event , webinar or online talk last year .
Data from Linkedin ’ s own platform shows that LinkedIn Live streams have increased over 400 % year-on-year and LinkedIn Live broadcaster has increased nearly 500 %. In December 2020 , 12,000 events were hosted each week with a combined half a million attendees . Some 81 % of organisers say virtual events provided opportunities that would not have had otherwise .
Bizzabo buys x . ai matchmaking tech
US-based events platform Bizzabo has acquired AI scheduling and matchmaking engine , x . ai .
The x . ai technology allows delegates to meet and connect with the right people at the right time with instantaneous and contextual scheduling . Its powerful AI infrastructure proactively recommends people to meet with and sessions to attend , creating highly-curated experiences .
Bizzabo founder and CEO Eran Ben-Shushan said : “ As we look to the future of events , this acquisition will enable every stakeholder to maximise their event success by engaging with the most relevant content and people . Partners will be able to more deeply engage with their target audiences , attendees can schedule meetings at the click of a button , and organisers will see exponential ROI with personalised contextual matchmaking that recommends curated content and connections for their attendees .
Zoom Events plans Summer launch
Zoom will roll-out a new platform dedicated to events this summer as the video meetings app looks to future-proof its business by targeting the virtual conference and consumer events market .
Zoom Events will allow planners to produce ticketed live events of any size , while combining the functions of the company ’ s meetings , chat and video webinar services .
Organisers will be able to customise ticketing and registration and control access and billing from one platform . Zoom Events will also provide analytics on elements such as registration , attendance and revenue .