With so many changes taking place in the events industry, making sure you understand the latest trends is a must. 2022 showed great promise by reintroducing in-person events and finding new ways to integrate technology and virtual components into the in-person event experience. While the event planning industry is expected to sustain this “new normal” in 2023, the following trends should be on your radar.
Inflation could have a far-reaching impact on events in 2023, as the costs of travel, lodging, and even food increase. In fact, the cost of business travel is set to significantly rise through 2023 and because hotels, airlines, and conference venues have increased their prices, conference attendance could likely decrease. Consider too that with less disposable income, attendees will be hindered in their ability to enjoy premium conference locations and therefore more hesitant to travel.
Budgets will continue to be out of alignment. During the pandemic, most event producers shifted to virtual event formats, which are usually less expensive to host. Unfortunately, most budgets in 2022 were set based on pandemic-level spend, and so as social distancing guidelines eased and in-person and hybrid events were again possible, funds to host events using these formats were insufficient. Many event planners and marketers are now fighting for pre-pandemic level budgets, but given inflation and layoffs, they may be unsuccessful.
Event spending is expected to increase by at least 83% according to the latest ICE report. However, the report warns this is not a testament to growing confidence in events, but rather to the cost of hosting events as inflation and the high price of materials, people, and fuel impact the industry. The question is whether events can be profitable despite the increased cost per attendee.
It’s no secret the workforce has drastically changed over the past 30 months, with remote teams taking center stage. Although remote work can be advantageous for many organizations, there are some areas of concern including Zoom fatigue, burnout, and declines in mental health. In fact, survey data suggests the mental health of employees is at an all-time low, with 31% of respondents indicating their mental health has declined over the past year.
To mimic an in-office experience, alleviate isolation, and enable distributed workers to stay better connected, many executives will consider pivoting their virtual event technology for wide-spread corporate use. Using the technology’s highly customized design features, organizations are able to recreate the exact layout and furnishings of their actual physical office in a virtual environment. From the corner office to the kitchen, employees can visit any room in their company’s headquarters or satellite offices at any time, moving through the space at will and utilizing a chat feature to communicate. The virtual environment can be used for events such as regularly scheduled department meetings and happy hours alike, with the benefit of also still being able to host traditional virtual and hybrid events such as webinars, user groups, and more.
Looking forward, remote or hybrid work formats will likely be the norm. Therefore, providing your employees with an online space to gather is a must. 6Connex can help you create an immersive office experience for your workforce by building a custom, branded virtual office with multiple break out rooms for scheduled activities or impromptu gatherings. We can also ensure your environment is a one-stop destination for more than meetings and includes portals to company calendars, important documents, sites, and departmental information – complete with permission-based access and security controls.
Employee well-being is also a central trend in 2023. With the prevalence of remote work and some of the negative byproducts just described, it’s important for event organizers to understand how to cater to attendees’ desires for wellness activities. The Global Wellness Institute projects a 21% annual growth rate for wellness tourism through 2025, which could mean savvy event planners will choose event venues near spas, thermal/mineral springs, and popular outdoor recreation sites to market the staycation value of their event. Event planners will also consider incorporating some of these elements into the event itself, such as serving locally sourced food and beverages or partnering with a spa to offer relaxation treatments, massage stations, meditation sessions, and/or team building activities.
Leverage technology to create activities that bring remote and hybrid teams together and foster camaraderie. For example, if you’re an HR department running a wellness challenge, you can utilize a virtual environment to announce competitions, showcase leaders, and announce contest winners. And if you’re an event organizer hosting an in-person event, you can implement an all-in-one event management platform to not only provide your attendees with headache-free onsite mobile apps for registration, contactless check-ins, and attendance, but also build an agenda that includes wellness breaks such as stretching or meditation sessions.
A cookie-less future is heading our way – and fast. Privacy concerns and evolving regulatory restrictions in the U.S. and other countries means lead generation strategies will change. Email marketing and online advertising will become more complicated to execute and therefore event marketing will take center stage, as events are one of the best ways to gather first-party data. According to Accenture, 83% of customers are comfortable sharing their data to create a more personalized event experience, and at the time an attendee registers for an event, they can submit important information: contact data, business data, and perhaps even product and vendor interest data. Then, given advancements in event technology such as digital badging, QR codes, and event apps, the attendee’s behavior throughout the event can be tracked: session attendance, booth visits, networking “matches,” and more. This data can uncover valuable insights and accelerate sales pipeline by quickly identifying potential leads and where they are in the buying cycle.
Events are a growing source of lead generation for sales and marketing, and therefore you’ll need to ensure your agendas feature engaging topics and activities. Support your efforts with a technology platform that already has engagement built-in. Look for solutions that include features such as matchmaking, AI content, gamification, and surveys and polls. Also, verify the technology can capture this behavior data for easy reporting to enable sales and marketing teams to quickly identify leads.
Sustainability will play a huge role in events. The events industry has a wide influence on the ecosystem, and the pandemic exposed many of the benefits of virtual and hybrid events, including sustainability. Now, more event attendees are sensitive to the adverse environmental effects of in-person events, such as waste, travel-related carbon emissions, and more. Businesses too will be looking for ways to align themselves with sustainable initiatives as a competitive differentiator. Therefore, event planners will want to make sure they don’t dissuade those who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint from attending an event by failing to provide a virtual event option.
In addition, Mark Bannister, Technical and Operations Director for Conference of the Parties, or COP26, notes there’s a lot of support to make the events industry more sustainable, and industry experts are expecting harder regulations regarding event sustainability. Research and Markets projects the size of the events industry will grow up to $1,552.9 billion by 2028, which means there will be a greater push towards requiring event planners to use sustainable venues, materials, and single-use packaging as well as towards reducing transportation, water, energy, and waste when creating events.
The largest environmental impact of in-person events stems from travel, which accounts for ~ 72% of total event emissions. Be sure to offer your audience attendance flexibility by creating hybrid events using advanced event technology. Furthermore, prioritize sustainability throughout your event. For example, consider asking your sponsors to sign a sustainability pledge to encourage best practices or require them to use QR codes for badge scans rather than print paper business cards.
The industry has had time to embrace the power of virtual event platforms, and popular virtual event features will remain in play at in-person events. Expect platforms to continue to innovate features and look for improvements in the following:
Personalization: Attendee personalization is one of the big benefits of virtual event platforms. New technologies will provide advanced personalization based on attendee behaviors and preferences including content, promotional offers, and even what color attendees see when they enter the space.
Engagement: These days, attendees want it all. This means personalized content, social media features, multi-track agendas, chatbots, live polls, gamification, virtual photo booths, avatars, and leaderboards - to name a few! And in 2023, event technology will continue to advance. Planners would be wise, therefore, to choose an event technology vendor on the forefront of these advancements, with a robust product roadmap and cutting edge features and functionality that empower planners to easily create unique, immersive, memorable events that keep attendees coming back.
It’s also important to note that engagement doesn’t just mean providing attendees with interactive experiences during the event, and in 2023, event planners will increase use of engagement features both before and after their event dates. Before an event, organizers will leverage technology to inform attendees about the agenda, speakers, and topics and even enable them to interact with other attendees. After the event, they’ll upload on-demand content and allow participants to continue exchanging information and building relationships.
What does this mean?
Turn to event technology to create event engagement and personalization and be sure to choose a platform that includes pre-event, in-event, and post-event engagement and personalization features and functionality. 6Connex has a team of customer experience managers to help you identify where you can easily create engagement and personalization touchpoints using our platform. For example, our event AI technology allows you to automatically connect attendees with like minded individuals for optimal networking. In addition, if you already have technology in your tech stack that you would like to use as part of your event strategy, we have an “Open Universe” platform that enables seamless integrations.
Per Meeting and Group Business magazine, “The in-person events market is set for its strongest year ever in 2023.” However, in-person events will adopt a more hybrid format and include virtual options to increase the event reach and provide a more immersive attendee experience. In fact, 78% of marketers on LinkedIn indicate they want to see in-person events take the lead, with some virtual elements. This should make attendees happy, as 41% of survey respondents indicated that in-person only event experiences don’t provide the insights they need
The flexibility of hybrid events can’t be denied. Hybrid events present a large menu, from which attendees can order any item in any category to satisfy their appetite. For example, if an attendee wants an in-person experience, he or she can attend in person. If he or she wants a virtual experience, he or she can attend virtually. And if an attendee wants to participate in networking sessions in-person but view technical presentations in the quiet of a hotel room, he or she can make that happen too.
With 6Connex technology, the choice and flexibility of a hybrid event extends well beyond the logistics of attendance. Participants can use AI match-making to network with peers in their same industry, or with their same title, or in their same country of origin. They can visit the booths of on-site and online sponsors alike, and they can do this at a time that’s convenient for them. And regardless of whether they’re on-site or off, they can participate in polls, engage in games and contests, and promote their experience via social media.
Traditionally, large-scale events and trade shows were usually held once a year, but companies are starting to get smart, looking for new ways to engage target audiences yearlong. By leveraging virtual event technology to provide smaller virtual events throughout the year, organizations can, for example, introduce new products and services as they are released or form communities that continuously interact with their brands. Another benefit is that smaller events are less costly to pull off, while still generating leads. Some event organizers believe they create a richer and more intimate experience for participants and note they will be adding “event series” or niche events to their event calendars in 2023 to better position their brands as thought leaders and accelerate marketing pipelines.
Avoid burnout while keeping attendees engaged by hosting multiple short events rather than one multi-day event. Look for perpetual environment technology such as 6Connex, which offers its customers one license to run and host multiple events from one control panel, no matter the format - in-person, hybrid, or virtual.
One of the hottest trends in the events industry is advancements in VR and AR, and against a backdrop of headlines regarding the metaverse, some event technology vendors have introduced this type of experience to their events in the form of virtual 3D environments that enable attendees to navigate a virtual event venue, interact with each other, and consume content. However, this technology is still complex and expensive and therefore not likely to really go mainstream for another few years. The Marketing Insider Group concurs and predicts the VR and AR industry will grow by 25% by 2025
Even though VR and AR technology isn’t mainstream, you can still turn to event technology providers to create VR- and AR-like experiences. 6Connex technology boasts several features that create 3D experiences – used by some of the most innovative brands today, including the Los Angeles Rams. And of course with our Open Universe, if you have AR and VR functionality at your disposal and would like to integrate it with your virtual environment, we can help.
While it’s important to deliver events that are sustainable and engaging, event planners also have to prioritize cybersecurity. A trend that won’t ever go out of style, protecting attendee data is key. Since 2020, there has been a 300% increase in cybercrimes according to the FBI. This means event planners will seek event technology providers with ISO 27001 certifications and verify the platforms they use include advanced security controls and settings that not only minimize exposure of personal data but also ensure data is accessed as intended, such as firewalls, two-factor authorization, VPN integration, and password managers.
Find a solution that takes your security seriously. 6Connex is ISO27001 certified, meaning we care about your data. In addition, we offer password protection and entitlement protection on our platform, providing you with the opportunity to give attendees specific access to some features and functionality and limiting privileges to others.
The right event technology platforms and engagement tools will help event organizers leverage 2023 trends to their advantage, making a huge difference in both the event planning and the attendee experience next year and beyond. Get in touch with 6Connex today to request a virtual event platform demo and experience how our event technology can help you create events that deliver lasting results.
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6Connex is the leading provider of in-person, hybrid, and virtual event technology for enterprises worldwide. Our cloud-based product portfolio includes in-person event apps, virtual venues, webinars, learning management, and more. Designed for corporations in need of engaging with communities in-person, virtually, or in a hybrid fashion.
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