Feature
As the industry moved
towards a new reality
of virtual engagement,
a panel comprised of
Stephan Forseilles, head
of technology and digital
transformation at Easyfairs;
James Samuel, portfolio
director at Clarion and Rob
Nathan, group marketing
director at Media loggedon
to share best practice,
challenges and concerns.
Dr Kuldip Sandhu,
principal digital
transformation consultant at
Innovative Quality Solutions
also appeared on-line to
share his recommendations.
The panel started off by
discussing the challenges of
rapid transformation from
live to virtual, including
the types of available
technologies and the
required production values.
Forseilles said: “Video,
sound, different content
sources from different
places, mixing everything -
it’s all super important.”
He believes virtual events
need to be produced like
TV shows and this is “a skill
we must learn or acquire
if we want to do things
professionally and keep our
audiences engaged.”
Samuel agreed, stating that
“production is arguably more
important in a digital world
than its live counterpart.”
He wants to “create digital
events that will become
part of the new normal
and offer added value and
opportunities for the market
they serve … with or without
a pandemic.”
To do this, Samuel says
we should be sensitive
to exhibitors and their
problems but consider the
Transition
to Virtual
During the UK lockdown, James Morgan hosted a
virtual discussion to assess how companies were
adapting to new ways of working
need to create new revenue
streams to safeguard
businesses for the future.
With the challenges in
mind, the panel went on to
discuss what solutions their
organisations had adopted.
Media 10 had conducted
research into clients’ event
objectives. Importantly, the
company had also looked
at how to monetise those
objectives.
Nathan stated that, “on the
B2C side we have curated
a mixture of e-commerce
solutions along with
engagement to increase
social followings.”
Media 10 has used this
pause in live events to ‘reset
our offering to clients”,
turning the business from
a “granular operation into
more of a client solutions
business.”
So what can the industry
learn from these discussions?
The panel was asked to
recommend actions that
would make the transition to
virtual more engaging.
For Samuel it was about
relevance. “Understanding
your market is key,” he said.
Forseilles sees industry
co-operation as important.
He said: “As an industry, we
must share our experiences.
It’s not a matter of
competition, it’s a matter
of survival for events as a
valid marketing and business
channel. Besides travel and
tourism, I don’t think there
are any other industries
that have been placed into
question as much as ours”.
Finally, Nathan reinforced
the need for innovation. He
said: “Organisers should be
thinking about moving away
from the vertical of pure
events and serving content
all year that is relevant,
scalable and commercial;
from webinars to podcasts
to e-commerce to news
platforms, there has never
been a better time to press
the reset button.”
Kuldip Sandhu agreed that
the new normal requires a
reinvention of the traditional
business model with the
hosting and organising
of events in a new hybrid
model.
He opined that the hybrid
model requires a number of
key considerations so the
right tools and capabilities
are developed.
These include:
» Customer engagement
must be at the core of the
digital environment to
cater for clients’ needs pre,
during and post events
» Platforms must be ‘easy to
use’ so that everyone can
be involved leading to a
greater ROI
» Reliability of the digital
platform i.e. a Cloud
platform
» The platform should have
streaming tools integrated,
with the ability to stream
regionally and locally
» Any choice should
support CRM, campaign
management and event
management systems/
software integration
» The platform should be
experiential, marketing
friendly with the ability
to create personalised and
adaptive experiences
» Finally, the platform
should be able to offer a
matchmaking function
with 1-1 voice and video
calls between organisers,
sponsors, exhibitors and
visitors.
40 — September