The meetings and events industry has been turned on its head over the past months as the world has reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virtual events have been the go-to solution for most, with zoom calls and webinars taking the place of many of our in-person meetings. In the realm of larger conferences and events, there is a smorgasbord of technologies available that offer more complex functions like breakout rooms, tradeshow booths and networking opportunities. All this change has made for a very steep learning curve for many event organizers and for the industry in general.

Was the meetings and events industry lagging behind?

Many industry commentators have suggested that the world of meetings and events was lagging behind related verticals such as television and music in embracing the new technologies of the digital age. TV and music giants like Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and Spotify have been on the rise for the past two decades, yet the meetings and events world remained largely unchanged, with the standard of general sessions, plenaries and breakouts still firmly in place. Yes, we had flirted with live streaming and using holograms for virtual meeting attendance, but essentially events were the same as they have been for decades. And then 2020 arrived. And everything has changed.

A decade of evolution in one year?

Many are estimating that the COVID-19 Pandemic has forced the meetings and events industry to undertake a decade of evolution in just one year. There has just been no other option in 2020 but to find another way to connect people and to keep the industry moving forward. Sadly, many in the industry have not been able to keep up with the blistering pace of this change. But conversely, many companies have flourished, and new technologies have come to the fore so rapidly that it is almost impossible to keep up with what is on offer. 

Virtual events or Digital experiences?

As we settle into the rhythm of ‘virtual events’, most of us are still longing for the time when we can get back to meeting in-person. But it cannot be denied that we are discovering some exciting benefits of this new digital way of connecting.  There are many elements of virtual events that we may decide to hold onto as in-person events restart, giving rise to a whole new ‘hybrid’ event format where in-person and digital content is combined. But term ‘virtual’ implies that it is ‘not the real thing’ and is in some way ‘lesser than’ the ‘real’ experience. It is time to evolve the language we are using to describe this new mode of connecting. In many cases, what we are offering is a ‘digital experience’, not just a ‘virtual’ version of what the live experience would have been like.  

The rise of the digital experience

Digital experiences are not the poor cousin of the in-person experience. They are complete experiences and have the flexibility of being live or on-demand.  A digital experience may include physical interaction for some components or for some participants, and purely digital for others. It may include a variety of channels of communication including chat, social media, pre-recorded digital content, and live interactions. The possibilities are endless, and the benefits are many, including larger audiences, increased accessibility and more diverse audiences just to name a few.

What does the future hold?

It is now clear that this new kind of experience is not going to go away when the threat of COVID-19 subsides. As much as many event planners would like to see our industry go back to ‘normal’, that is now like telling people we need to go back to only watching live television or listening to music on cd’s. The digital experience is here to stay, and as we look forward to the months and years ahead, we are moving into an exciting new phase of connecting people, sharing ideas and changing the world in ways that we only dreamed of a year ago.

Contact Huddle today to discuss your meetings and events requirements. benefits of this new digital way of connectingbenefits of this new digital way of connecting