Happy New Year! We made it through 2020. We're excited that you are here with us and wish you a steady and productive year as we transition to the new world we live in.
Now that we got through 2020, we were contemplating whether we should put our yearly blog of our Top 5 Event Trends for the year. We went back and read our 2020 blog and oh how things have changed. Nevertheless, as human's we are great at adapting, evolving and wait for it, the p word, pivot and we still wanted to do it.
One of the trends from 2020 still stands and has been pushed further due to COVID and the demand in virtual and hybrid events. Our 'Short, Sharp and Sweet', trend emphasised that presentations will get shorter and unless presenters and speakers are great storyteller's, delegates and attendees will prefer it to be short, sharp and sweet.
Short – No more than 30mins
Sharp – To the point with solid content
Sweet – Charming or funny
Without further ado, here are our Top 5 Event Trends for 2021.
1. The rise of interactive virtual events
We've gone through the phase of having zoom fatigue, trying to recreate our live events in the virtual world and even getting frustrated at asking questions to the speakers. We have now reached a consensus and understanding that virtual events are here to stay and we want to make it more interactive. It is super exciting when you get it right and we were able to showcase this at a live virtual summit in September last year with Growth Gen. A summit that was targeted towards small business and was super engaging from start to finish. Companies and organisations will be looking at new ways of engaging with their attendees including;
Customised and interactive event platforms. (Spaces is an Australian based company that does some amazing work around custom platforms for your virtual event)
More meeting style virtual events with mandatory presence of the attendee to switch-on the camera and interact at the event.
Engaging virtual event tools including gamification and input into the event journey.
2. Health and safety is the key
As we hold on to the medical gods to get a vaccine to Australia and have guaranteed protection from COVID, health and safety measures and tools will keep evolving at Hybrid or Face-to-Face events this year. More than just protecting us from the obvious, health and safety measures have now changed for good and we need to adapt to them. We mentioned tools such as Indoor Wayfinding, an app that will get you to a preferred booth exhibitions in one of our previous blog. Event registration platforms will start integrating the checkin process for COVID and smart masks for better interaction face-to-face. The key here is removing the awkwardness around these measures. communicating really well for attendees and creating a great atmosphere by making it open and approachable.
3. The rise of smaller and intimate events
COVID Safe event with the Sydney Hills Business Chamber.
This will be key to continue connecting and keeping the engagement for staff, stakeholders and clients. COVID will still limit us from having large events and if we want to still connect face-to-face, we'll need to organise small and intimate events if Hybrid or Virtual are not an option. Christmas parties, workshops and team building activities will gain good traction and momentum with smaller corporate events.
4. Working towards a hybrid ready venue
In order to cater towards the demand of Hybrid Events, venues will renovate rooms to turn them into studios and make their spaces cater better for video production teams to come in and create better experiences for Hybrid events. Hybrid events are the future of events and we'll see improved experiences through better connectivity for AV equipment, better floor plans that integrate with the AV production team and don't take away from the live event experience for the attendees in the room. More access to screens and stages around the room to cut between shots for the virtual aspect of the event.
5. A conscious effort towards sustainable events
COVID has pushed events to become more sustainable with the significant increase in virtual and hybrid events. The impact that events had on the environment was significant and the industry was always looking at ways of reducing the impact. With travel, rental cars and hotel expenses playing a big part in both the environment and cost of running an event, there will be a conscious effort to taking into consideration to host more Hybrid and Virtual events this year.
For more details on how to host a virtual or hybrid event in 2021, contact our team today on info@iconcorpevents.com.