January proved to be the cruelest month as it tested every event's resiliency. Some stayed virtual, some went live, others went hybrid, Everyone learned important lessons.

Join us for this special session where we'll unpack the stories behind the events we've all been living with. Featured speakers include Jim Louderback (Viacom), Mary Ann Pierce (MAP Digital), Marin Porter (Sports Video Group), Sharon Weisman (Powerstation), and Jeff Joseph (SIIA). Breakout sessions on Twine will take a deeper dive into special areas of interest

Who Should Attend: Journalists, exhibitors, event planners, platform vendors, virtual tool vendors, and all stakeholders in the future of events.

Get in touch with Robin@robinraskin.com if you’d like to share an event experience.

Predictions

Job of the year: Community builder. Whether it’s a brand, an event, an association or other, your challenge will be to create a 365-day-a-year engagement. Hopefully, we will tamp down on the snark and ramp up the clever as community builders get to work to restore civility to online groups. 

When best content matters, virtual wins. Superstars are willing to spend an hour talking to an audience from the comfort of their own homes. Getting them to schlep across the country for three days: less enticing. VentureBeat expounds. 

The metaverse goes mainstream, fast. The day after Christmas saw a crazy upswing in the purchase of virtual reality headsets and VR apps. It’s a “crossing the chasm” year. Headsets are the new rose-colored glasses. But for businesses, the next 6 months of the Metaverse will be mostly for after-parties, not meetings. Until we get more accustomed to the space, our habits and expectations need time to adjust.

Live events will become healthier, more intimate, and pricier. Think yoga classes, spa retreats, desert boot camps, and unique experiences. Physical events will need to include memorable bonding experiences.

Sustainability becomes mandatory. Question every piece of paper, wood, or airline flight your company consumes. In-person events generally require a significant amount of energy, but they’ll step up their environmental efforts with digital brochures, QR codes, less printed material, and repurposed booths. 

Pay attention to geography. Outdoor and warmer locations will win for live-event destinations this year. Most destinations will continue to “tech-up” just like these have. The bar will rise.

News to Use

• Our Technical Editor Alfred Poor offers speaker training for online presentations. Free.
• The Virtual Events Institute has partnered with us to offer an 11-module training class with a certification. Truly invaluable for event planners and there’s a hefty discount for the VEG community.
• We’re also working closely with the Community Leaders Institute which offers product reviews, templates, and more. We’ll be exhibiting at their spring event. 
• Meet Hour, an attractive video conferencing platform, is offering a 97% discount on its pro plan. Good until Jan 20th.
• Hear from CIOs, CTOs, and other C-level and senior execs on data and AI strategies at the Future of Work Summit on January 12, 2022.
• What is a hybrid event? OnN24 has a neat overview of this messy landscape.
• Elementary? Maybe, but it bears repeating. Improve your slide decks following these rules.

The Hybrid Two Step

Zoom acquired assets from Liminal, a startup event production company based largely on the Zoom SDK. Liminal ‘s ZoomISO and ZoomOSC support improved production options like individual video outputs and enhanced sound controls in Zoom meetings. These features allow companies to create higher-quality productions than your average Zoom call. Thinking ahead to true hybrid events.

Status Quo

A few of the best new stats come from MarketingTech:

• The virtual events sector is valued at $78 billion in 2019 and is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 23.2% from 2020 to 2027, strongly suggesting this is anything but a temporary phenomenon.

• Data from the UK and Ireland shows 72% of businesses will be maintaining virtual events in the long term, while 77% are interested in organizing hybrid events. It’s anticipated that just 32% of events will be fully in-person.

According to a recent study by LinkedIn, 45% of future B2B events will be completely virtual. 

Finding Clarity

Kaltura surveyed 1,250 organizers and attendees of events. It’s increasingly clear that in-person and virtual will take a Robert Frost (two paths diverge) approach.

39% of in-person attendees go to an event to build relationships. For virtual event-goers building relationships ranked third with 15% of attendees’ votes. Meanwhile, 28% of digital attendees opted for chats and collaboration as key selling points, but only 9% reported making one or more connections while attending.

The data suggest that registration and attendance data alone aren’t indicative of much. But once people show up for a digital event, they are likely to return for future events. (Just keep the sessions short and the conference length to a few hours.) The biggest drop when measuring registration, attendance, and engagement comes between registration and getting to the event. Once people carve out time to attend and actually show up, there’s little dropoff in engagement.

The Outliers: The investor community can’t wait to get back to in-person events. Only 11% of their forecasted events for 2022 will be virtual. Two martini lunches don’t die easily. 

Welcome to new VEG Members Rooom, MeetingPlay, Twine, and VII Events. You’ll be hearing lots from them in the coming months.