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Insights on events, technology, and the future of gathering
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Insights on events, technology, and the future of gathering
Quick answer: In 2020, events went almost entirely virtual everywhere except China – and far exceeded expectations. Bigger and more diverse audiences, on-demand content, easier access to senior speakers and lower costs convinced many organizers to stay virtual into 2021, with hybrid events emerging as the long-term winner.
Slashed travel budgets mean many events will stay virtual in 2021
Hybrid events are the real winner, not virtual versus on-site
Content matters, but interaction now defines the event experience
2020, an extraordinary year, saw suffering, bravery, restrictions on freedom, product shortages and business transformation. No area of business was more impacted than events, which became almost entirely virtual everywhere except China. We believe most events will remain virtual in the first half of 2021 as well, and probably for longer than that, however quickly and successfully vaccines are deployed. Let’s try and understand why.
Imagine back in 2019 some brave soul announcing their major event was going to be staged completely virtually. People would have reacted with a mixture of shock and laughter: “That can never work!”, “What does virtual even mean?” and “You’ll never find sponsors for that!”. But in 2020 event planners suddenly realized they had no choice but to go virtual, and many went ahead with deep skepticism, asking, “Will anyone log on?”, “Will the tech work?” and “Do we have any chance to inspire rather than bore?”. Imagine the surprise – and relief – felt among people who realized they could still have a career in events when these
Many aspects of virtual events proved better than their real-world counterparts:
Audiences can be much bigger: one event on Canapii ended up having 10 times more attendees than its previous in-person version.
By recording sessions, customers can watch content at a time to suit them – perhaps on an exercise bike or even in the bath!
Signposting content as “popular” or “most viewed” drives people to watch sessions they would previously not have considered of interest.
Events can be held open for weeks, so word can spread and people can register after the event to catch up on what they missed.
The audience is more diverse: virtual events are more accessible because they don’t involve travelling away from the family, corporate budget restrictions or seniority barriers. Events on Canapii have seen many more registrations from women, and many more countries represented than before.
CEOs and other senior speakers are more likely to participate – it is far easier to commit to a 30-minute video session than to fly around the world to a particular location.
The reduction in travel has helped many companies reduce their carbon footprint.
Last, but not least, virtual events cost less.
Even if COVID-19 is totally defeated, the first decision for an event organizer in the future will be whether to stay virtual or go in-person. A large proportion of events will continue virtually, for all the reasons above, and we expect the fear of travel and large crowds to remain with people for months if not years to come. But there is a bigger reason why in-person events will take longer to recover than many expect: the annual budgeting process. Companies in all sectors have conducted an unplanned experiment this year, to find out how much their businesses would suffer if they slashed their travel budgets to almost zero. Most have been amazed to discover their businesses did not suffer at all, with some even arguing their executives have become more productive as they are not wasting time travelling.
Most budgeting processes start by looking at where money was spent last year. If the travel budget was close to zero in 2020, then every dollar added to it becomes a number to be taken off the projected profit line. We expect many companies to relax their travel budgets a little, but the overall number will remain at 20% to 40% of where it had been in 2019. That reduction will have a knock-on effect on sponsorship of in-person events, as few companies will be prepared to sponsor an activity they cannot afford to send people to attend.
Other questions many companies will ponder are, “What value is there in being altogether in the office?”, “Did not having a staff party affect morale?” and “Did we, or will we, lose customers if we do not visit them?” Smart executives will keep a close eye on their competition too, which will lead to a herd mentality – “We are going to restart XYZ because our competitor is already doing that again”, or just as likely, “We are not going to do this, because the competition isn’t.”
Most people know they have missed something in 2020. Perhaps we can describe it loosely as “happiness”, with mental health a major concern. But happiness is a difficult metric for organizations to measure and, therefore, hard to set a budget against. Successful leaders will be defined by the decisions they make on these topics in 2021.
Virtual versus on-site is not a competition. The future will include a mixture of in-person and virtual events, but most will be hybrid, where some attend in person and others remotely. Think of an event that used to fly an audience of 2,000 to Las Vegas: now, you might invite the top 50 executives to a luxury dinner before running the main event virtually.
The secret is an event platform that joins the two concepts. Remote attendees should be able to pose questions to a presenter appearing in person on the main stage. Meetings should be schedulable so three people are directed to a hotel room with a screen, camera and microphone while a fourth person joins remotely. You can even put on a 5km run along the beachfront for those attending in person, while other runners take part remotely with their times recorded by the event app. And you will never miss an important keynote again, as keynotes are routinely broadcast live and remain available for playback within the app. The hybrid future will keep events accessible to all – women and men, rich and poor, young and old, from anywhere in the world and in any language.
Content is vital, but the event experience now goes beyond it. Virtual events produce a treasure trove of data, which means the Canapii team has been learning fast about what works and what doesn’t. Competition for people’s time is high – after all, Netflix and Disney+ are literally just a click away – so presentations need to be shorter, get straight to the point and say something the audience has not heard before.
Organizers must not simply repeat what they do at a live event within a virtual platform. At a large live event, filling a ballroom and getting everybody seated can take 10 minutes or more, so many live events begin with a short show or music act to create atmosphere and act as a buffer before the headline speaker. Repeating this in a virtual event is simply silly: if the person sitting at home wants to listen to some music, they turn on Spotify. When virtual, get to the point quickly!
Content is important, but so is creating interaction, and that is where we have innovated fastest this year. Canapii creates many touchpoints for attendees to interact: emoticons are fun, comments are informative, polls give feedback and chats create relationships. Organizers have also had remarkable success with the notify feature, which pings every attendee – or a subgroup – with little messages such as “New session added at 3pm” or “Prize draw happening in Session B today”. Virtual events also need to switch quickly from a live stream to breakout sessions and back again: users can select their own sessions, organizers can assign groups, and random 10-minute networking groups or a one-click “let’s meet now” button keep conversations flowing.
It is becoming a cliché to say COVID-19 has driven more innovation than would have happened in 10 years, but in the world of events this is certainly true. We are inspired by every event we host and every piece of feedback we receive, and with many customers selecting their event platform two or three months in advance, we already have a large program of events booked on Canapii for Q1 2021.
COVID-19 left event planners with no choice: in-person gatherings were restricted almost everywhere except China, so events moved online. Despite deep initial skepticism, most virtual events far exceeded expectations.
Bigger audiences – one event on Canapii drew 10 times more attendees than its previous in-person version – plus on-demand recordings, more diverse and accessible audiences, easier participation from senior speakers, a smaller carbon footprint and lower costs.
A hybrid event is one where some attendees take part in person and others join remotely, connected through a single event platform so both groups can watch sessions, ask questions and network together.
Because of the annual budgeting process. Travel budgets were slashed to almost zero in 2020 and most businesses did not suffer, so we expect 2021 travel budgets to return at only 20% to 40% of 2019 levels – with a knock-on effect on sponsorship of in-person events.
With shorter, sharper presentations and constant interaction: emoticons, comments, polls, chats, notify messages, breakout sessions, random networking groups and a one-click “let’s meet now” button.
Planning a virtual or hybrid event? See how Canapii connects in-person and remote audiences by requesting a demo today.