Leveraging a digitised experience to start engaging attendees as soon as they are registered for an event. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/Anton Gvozdikov
Event technology provider Cvent recently hosted a webinar looking at
how event professionals can maximise their total event programme in
2023, while the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA)
looked at the digital event trends likely to impact the industry next
year.
In-purpose meetings anchor a more digitised event programme.
Organisations
are going to invest more time in 2023 in repurposing a lot of the
content from in-person events, and getting this in front of larger,
virtual audiences, in order to maintain levels of engagement, according
to Mike Dietrich, vice president of marketing at Cvent.
But integration is key to exploit the value that digital brings to
events. PCMA, in an article recently published in Forbes, says hybrid
events will be impacted by transformative technologies such as
artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), virtual and
augmented reality (VR/AR), cloud computing, blockchain, and super-fast
network protocols like 5G.
Engage digital guests straight after they have registered for an event.
Don’t
wait until closer to the event to remind registrants about it – get to
know them in the weeks before the event has started and look at ways to
leverage a digitised experience. Dietrich suggests building
speaker/session hype with teasers or webisodes within a portal and
recommending additional content.
“Many
of us are accustomed to sending out reminder emails – do this with a
video”, he says. “We did this for one event and 40% of the engagement
happened pre-event.” This is also the time when you are likely to access
the richest data possible on delegates, as they are building their
agendas and scheduling appointments.
Virtual versus face-to-face: how do you decide which format to use?
Cvent’s Dietrich says people are still experimenting but the choice of
which format to use ultimately goes back to event goals. “Organisations
are taking a purposeful view – if the event is about sharing information
or broadcasting, you may consider doing this virtually,” he says.
“If the event requires more hands-on training, or it’s a VIP event –
those are the elements shaping decisions. Costs and sustainability are
important too – organisations may also start to look at online events
because they want to make the event programme more ESG-led.
Interest in virtual events remains well above pre-pandemic levels.
This
is down to several factors, including a greater ability to collect data
about attendees, gaining increased reach and attendance and being able
to support events across different locations. Referencing the Forbes
article, PCMA says the emphasis in 2023 will be on creating an
‘immersive customer experience’. It points to how, while price point and
quality play a part in choosing the goods and services consumers spend
their money on, the keywords for 2023 are immersion and interactivity.
This could include experiences using the metaverse.