A little over a year ago, we published a blog post outlining seasonality and trends in the event industry, based on data in our Airtable database from 2016-2018. Insights included that fall was overwhelmingly the most popular time of year for conferences and March through May is when we typically secure the most speaking opportunities for our clients.
For 2019, we turned our attention to geography to confirm what we suspected—New York and San Francisco were the most popular cities for hosting events.
Then 2020 happened and we all know how that turned out. We didn’t need to make another year-over-year graph to show the many ways the live events space was impacted—we lived it! But throughout the uncertainty, we’ve witnessed an entire industry reinvent itself, embrace virtual, and learn lessons that have positioned us for greater success in 2021—and that’s what we want to talk about today.
2021 Trends
We know that events will continue to be affected by COVID-19; here’s how they’re adapting.
Hybrid Events = Greater Accessibility: In 2020, we placed speakers at more than 400 virtual events. We know virtual is here to stay, but we’re also seeing more organizers go for a hybrid approach, offering their content in both digital and in-person formats. We anticipate this being a popular option post-vaccine, giving attendees who are able to travel an opportunity to do so, while continuing to provide a digital experience that ensures content is available to all.
Content Changes: The experience of sitting in a dark auditorium, conference badge around your neck and complimentary coffee in hand, is completely different than opening your laptop, finding your unique attendee link and settling in at your kitchen table, while pets/kids/weather/the apocalypse continues around you. Video fatigue is real, and we’re seeing event organizers getting creative to combat this by coming up with new session formats, decreasing talk times, and crowdsourcing content.
Ongoing Online Series: Sure, webinars existed before 2020, but like podcasts, last year is when they began to shine brighter than ever. In lieu of hosting one annual, tentpole event, we’re seeing a lot of organizations opt instead for a recurring online event series. There’s a lot of benefits here—more opportunities to extend invitations to speakers, more date/time options for attendees with limited schedules, and recorded content that lives on and can continue to be shared. With the increase in content and capacity for connection, expect this to continue long after in-person events return.
Which trends are you most excited about? Comment or let us know!