We ’ re getting a good make-over !
few years back , soon after I set up my business , I was fortunate enough to be invited to travel the world delivering a presentation I ’ d written called ‘ The Future is Live and Digital !’
I ’ ve always split the digital input for events into two camps : the functional and the fun . My presentation was full of amazing videos of fun digital applications that so many event tech companies are providing to our world – think virtual reality goggles and 3D holograms . It is fair to say that much of the digital talk and activity over the last year has been of the more functional type – the video calls and webinars , data forensics , digital solutions for Covid testing and so on .
Part of the debate has been the financial issues . Are the webinars generating significant revenue and profit , or is it just a communityserving , brand-building , content provision channel ? Whichever way , there is a general acceptance that after many years of being the most desirable of media sectors ( after digital ), and reaping the rewards of that , we must do more for our communities than offer a live event three days a year .
At the other end of the digital / analogue scale , I , like many industry players of my generation , have had a healthy dose of publishing experience throughout my career . Event organisers have spent many years disposing of magazine stables ( which most of us thought was the right thing to do ) only to find that , for pretty obvious reasons , the content platform provided by stables of magazines has allowed communities to be better served .
All of this spells good news for our industry . With events now dropping back into calendars , many people are asking the same questions : Will we see an immediate swing back to the selling of square metres and the marginalisation of digital activities ,
‘ The events sector was always the perfect bedfellow in an increasingly digital world , and that is never going to change ’
Above : Trevor Foley or will we be truly hybrid ? Will some event businesses actually deliver more digital than live events ? The answer to each of these questions is ‘ Yes ’, however , they will be a different size of ‘ Yes ’.
The reality is that the events sector was always the perfect bedfellow in an increasingly digital world , and that is never going to change .
Whether it is the human need to meet , the desire for experiences or the pent-up demand to get out , we can expect a roaring return of live events . Of course , there are challenges to overcome along the way … Government imposed restrictions , regulations , travel ‘ vaccination passport ’ issues , testing requirements ( short term ) and corporate policies on event attendance .
And , of course , greater digital plays , and a greater return to analogue content sources , is all good news for existing talent in the industry and for our ability to attract new talent . The need to serve our communities in different ways , to build subscription models , to deliver more content and the omnichannel approach will make our sector more attractive . All roles in the industry will be more rewarding . Marketers will have more routes to market and a greater commercial input . Sales professionals will definitely need to develop their skills to sell more than square metres and the event director will have a much wider brief .
Some people , the minority in my view , will continue to be nervous in public spaces but that is up to them if they don ’ t want live experiences in life . The majority will want to ‘ party ’, will value human interaction and all forms of events , even more than pre-Covid . Sharpening our act in the provision of live , digital content and omnichannel activities can only be a good thing for making our industry even more fun and rewarding to work in .
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 2 2021 47