The events industry is constantly reinventing itself to keep pace with changes in its environment, especially given the health situation we are currently experiencing… The events industry has therefore had to come up with new levers, new subjects and new methods to respect its primary functions: creating links, bringing people together and communicating.
And what if these conditions were an accelerating factor towards a positive evolution of the sector?
Let’s take a look at the major event trends for 2021-2022.
Digitizing events
Today, there are a host of tools available to help you stay connected and keep in touch whenever and wherever you want. However, it’s not so simple for business events.
While digital tools offer participants the opportunity to get together easily and cost-effectively, one question remains unanswered: how do you create interaction and keep attention at a distance? It’s not enough to broadcast an event via a streaming platform, but rather to rethink the event itself: speakers, communication strategy, content, broadcasting tools, break times…
This reflection is essential: if the conference is boring, all you have to do is close the tab and leave the event. It has therefore become essential to ensure that content is attractive and stimulates exchange and interaction.
But don’t panic! The digitization of the event industry means that remote events are becoming more and more like face-to-face events, thanks to engaging and realistic tools. For example, tools such as Meetyoo can recreate trade shows, with exhibitors on hand to chat live with visitors.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Many customers are sensitive to the impact of brands on the environment or their health. It is therefore important for companies to adopt transparent communications on this subject. This concern is reflected in customers’ relationships with their brands.
Minimizing waste, creating jobs, producing locally, calculating carbon footprints, producing green energy… Ecology has become central to both individuals and businesses.
In response to this growing demand for transparency, many companies want to raise awareness among their employees and customers by communicating their various commitments.
But how do you reconcile event planning and ecology? In the choice of subject and speakers, by opting for eco-responsible communication objects, by choosing decorations made from reusable materials (wood, plants, cardboard…), by recovering waste or even by installing energy self-sufficient technical services that will have no environmental impact.
Personal development
As we’ve all seen, the theme of personal development has been in vogue for several years now. There are numerous communication media dealing with the subject, as well as mobile applications… Events are also a very interesting tool for conveying these messages.
Personal development is an individual approach initiated by a person wishing to take charge of his or her well-being and establish a balance between personal and professional life. It’s a path that enables each individual to become aware of their strengths and develop them, but also to learn to accept their weaknesses while working on them.
Well-being at work is a priority in the corporate world. 62% of employees and 75% of employers perceive work first and foremost as a source of fulfillment before being a source of constraint(Cegos barometer 2018).
And the advantage of this topic for an event is that it can be associated with the world of work in a variety of ways. For example, by organizing a meditation class when participants arrive, offering a theater workshop to develop self-confidence, or offering a skills assessment in the form of a game…
Small-event
Those most motivated to re-organize face-to-face meetings will surely have to adopt a more “intimate” mode of event. In these times of epidemic, small-scale events are a popular alternative. They make it easier to manage the constraints associated with Covid-19. The aim is to organize smaller events, with reassuring numbers.
The good news with this type of event is that it pushes organizers out of their comfort zone, and thus opens up new possibilities. Not to mention the fact that small-event events encourage exchanges and thus facilitate the creation of bonds between participants.
Event agencies are not lacking in imagination, offering their customers modular surfaces or surprising spaces such as four-seater egg gondolas, intimate rooftops or even dinners in greenhouses…
In conclusion, today’s health context and technological offering certainly allow us to look at events in a different light. Companies, like agencies, are constantly adapting. But, of course, there’s no substitute for the physical contact that makes these encounters so special. As we emerge from the crisis, we need to find a new balance between these different modes of intervention.