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| Sobering: Prior to the pandemic, business travel made up as much as 75% of airlines’ profits. But, a Bloomberg survey of 45 major global companies found
that 84% expect to scale back business travel after the pandemic. |
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| Ready for the Conversation? |
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We’ve been living — and debating — virtual, hybrid, and IRL events for nearly 2 years now. The answer is probably the same as Mac vs. PC debate: no right answer. But we’re going to spend some time at our next VEG MeetUp hashing out the pros and cons. Here’s a laundry list of things to engage your neurons ahead of time.
- Cost savings – Virtual meetings are getting more expensive to produce (bandwidth, professional video crews, lighting, analytics, etc.), but the companies that attend live events are saving millions on T&E budgets on flights or hotels.
- Environmental impact – Less air travel means less CO2 emissions. Less physical exhibit booths save on wasteful materials. But face the facts. Virtual events consume energy, too.
- Reach – On average companies are expressing serious growth in the number of people reached by hosting virtual events, but whether they are the right people matters too.
- Faster turnaround – Without the need to rent event space and do a physical build out, your content is likely to be more timely.
- Personalized Data – Activity data is much more easily obtained from a digital format, but physical events have collected data that they can use to personalize experiences, too.
- Long-Tail Value – Socialization of media gathered from virtual events have become part of its DNA. Physical events need to make better use of video assets.
- Revenue – This is the big one. Companies that made large investments in virtual events, ON24 for example, did extremely well in the early pandemic but now reports of customers not renewing are surfacing and the stock is down
considerably. And market leaders like Hubilo and Swapcard are talking hybrid talk. The ability to monetize a physical event is, thus far, well proven and higher than virtual.
- Socialization and Engagement – There’s nothing like a hallway meeting or a drink after a conference to cement a bond between attendees. Quick one-on-ones in the virtual world are still awkward much of the time. Virtual conferences rely on only a limited set of senses which makes them harder to read.
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News is flowing out of this year’s Zoomtopia faster than I can take notes. In the first 15 minutes, I’m watching real-time language transcription, multiple translations, a sign language interpreter,
and crystal clear video and audio. I’ve seen Zoom’s new shared whiteboard, a virtual and mixed reality partnership with Facebook, and a ton of planned collaborative efforts with Slack, Box, Google Docs iand others. Much of the focus (like this Huddle view seen above) is on collaboration for remote workers. I’m impressed on how much they’ve
accomplished, and with such purpose, this year. |
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| Facebook’s Fight For Your Face |
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| First, it was Oculus. The VR headset has been fairly successful in recruiting a generation of VR aficionados. And now it’s RayBan Stories. Much more innocuous, these fashion-forward sunglasses created by RayBan and Facebook let you take photos, record video, answer phone calls, and play music and podcasts. All without pulling out your mobile phone and all integrated with a Facebook view. |
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They’ll set you back $299 and their nod to “audience consent” is an LED light that lights up to let people know you’re capturing them. For more info here’s the NYT review and Joanna Stern’s first-person face-on review from the WSJ.
Fun aside: 2013, When Google built Google Glass (cost was $1800 and they looked super dorky), I created my own poor man’s answer called Faux Glass just to show that you could look like the cool kids for $19.99. Here’s a photo of my invention taken with my colleague Fred Fishkin. Can you tell which one of us is real and which one is Faux. Should I resurrect my invention with Faux Facebook? |
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Don’t Be Greenwashed
According to the University of Michigan, virtual conferences can generate drastically lower emissions than in-person gatherings. The university included a case study of a virtual conference they said produced 66 times less
greenhouse gas emissions than an in-person gathering in San Francisco would have. But that doesn’t mean they’re not using any energy. Lights, cameras, action, and lots of streaming all use their fair share, albeit drastically lower amounts of energy. |
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Overstating the Obvious, Coddle Your Sponsors
This is kind of a “duh” moment, but with so many balls to juggle in event preparation, sponsors are sometimes relegated to background noise. Here are some suggestions
from TSNN on how to get your sponsors in the limelight without pandering. |
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| Livestreaming is The Golden Ticket
If live-streaming is part of your app, you're in good shape according to App Annie’s latest survey. |
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Is the Party Over?
Epic Games is shutting down HouseParty next month, its mobile video social network that it launched in 2019. It enjoyed rabid success during the pandemic
lockdowns but is less important to Epic now that it deploys video chat in its other products. Will Clubhouse, the audio equivalent, be the next post-pandemic fail? Numbers are falling for both those who attend sessions and new downloads. What was a novel gift during the pandemic may be an oversaturated, overcrowded gathering that's lost some of its cachet. |
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Count Us In
Roblox is getting a Twenty One Pilots concert experience. It's the second major
concert for the platform after Lil Nas X partied with avatars last November. Watch and learn. Think of it as a metaverse tour for the new album Scaled and Icy (which, incidentally is an anagram for Clancy is Dead, the protagonist of their last album. |
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| Join our community. |
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| Welcome to our newest members Cadmium and Touchcast.
Stay safe, stay engaged, and keep your options open. |
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