market trends
Market Trends
The event industry is in a constant state of evolution and as such, pioneering strategies and concepts that are as successful as they are original is no easy task. The past few years has seen the rise—and proliferation—of social media and new tech tools, increased attention paid to engagement and new market segments, eco-friendly measures and sustainability, and bigger demands from event sponsors. Here are the trends event marketers are looking at right now.
Social Media & New Technology
Social media is now one of the most important tools planners and marketers can use to disseminate information about events, interact with attendees, solicit feedback, and create year-round engagement with a target audience. Additionally, new apps and emerging technology have made it easier for event and meeting planners to extend the life of their gatherings and even measure return on investment.
Going Green
Few trends have taken on as much momentum as making events more green and sustainable. And with organizations setting green meetings and events standards, it's really not a trend at all—it's here to stay.
Measuring R.O.I.
The effects of the recession remain—marketers and planners are more accountable to high-level management for every dollar spent, which makes proving return on investment (otherwise known as R.O.I.) increasingly important.
Building Engagement
Social media may be the most popular tool to engage customers right now, but event and meeting professionals are looking at additional ways to build buzz, interaction, and loyalty from the constituents of their gatherings. This trend is seen in custom hashtags for events, printed on napkins and cups. #theavamethod
Life Cycle of the Industry
The beauty of the event industry is that humans keep making more humans. In turn, those humans have weddings, birthdays and every kind of celebration you can imagine.
As event planners tend to begin their business simply and most likely, from their kitchen table. As they grow and become more successful, they need more sophisticated office procedures and applications to keep up with increased client load and savvy clients. Trusted pen and paper will never be replaced and is always a wonderful back up, however, as budgets and client lists grow, so does the need for transparent, secure platforms in order for clients to see where their money is being spent and progress on projects can be tracked.
AVA is at the fore-front of this technological advancement in transparent, secure cloud-based platforms and is dedicated to continuing to update services as they are needed.
Milestones
We have created the software platform, launched it at the National Conference of the Association of Bridal Consultants in November 2013. AVA has acquired 10 new clients.
We are currently in the BETA testing stage and will be there for approximately 10 months. We have worked several 'kinks' out of the system and are continuing improvement.
AVA was featured at the ABC Heartland Conference in St. Louis and gained valuable insight into planners' needs.
AVA plans to fully launch at the Wedding MBA in Las Vegas in October 2014