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2 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER, BUT WE ALSO NEED A PLAN 4 This report is brought to you by EventMB Studio.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOUR BUSINESS? 9

EventMB Studio is a boutique content marketing service
How Events Can Happen During the Pandemic 10
that produces top quality digital content assets for
The Path for Growth: M&A, New Verticals, and Geo-Cloning in the New World 12
market leaders in the event and hospitality industry.
Protecting Your Event Business from the Crisis 15

The Future of Event Crisis Communication 17 Get in touch with our Sales team at eventmbsales@
THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY 19 skift.com for a free consultation.
The Future of Destinations: Virtual to Reality 20
EventMB Studio is powered by EventMB.com, the
The Future of Food and Beverage 22
most influential website in the meeting and event
The Future of Event Security 24
industry. Founded in 2007, EventMB has been widely
VIRTUAL AND HYBRID EVENTS 2 6
referenced as the go-to resource for innovative event
The Business of Virtual and Hybrid Events in 2021 and Beyond 27 professionals wanting to learn more about trends in
The Future of Event Engagement 29 the event planning industry.
Monetizing Virtual and Hybrid Events 31

Bringing Human Connection to a Virtual Event 33

EventMB releases industry reports and intelligence
about event technology, social media, and
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH 35
engagement at events.
The Future of Sustainability 36

The Future of Diversity and Inclusion 38 Thousands of event professionals have downloaded
CMP CREDITS 40 EventMB’s free reports at https://www.
40
eventmanagerblog.com.
DISCLAIMER

3 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER,
BUT WE ALSO NEED A PLAN

The idea for The Future of the Event Industry came from a sense that we’ve passed a turning point. When the
JULIUS SOLARIS
coronavirus crisis started a few months back, the industry responded to a situation nobody could have predicted
Editor, EventMB - a Skift Brand
with incredible unity. We heard messages of support and incredible stories about exhibition centers turned into
hospitals and entire event planning companies repurposing themselves to support everybody. We really rallied
together.

It seems that we’ve passed that moment. Now that we’re deep into the crisis and feeling the impact, we need a
plan of action.

Many of our friends and colleagues have been furloughed or laid off. Businesses are shutting down. Stories of
valor and hope have given way to a more tragic variety.

As much as we want to keep a positive outlook — and event professionals are positive people by nature — it’s time
to take that positivity and translate it into an action plan for surviving the next few challenging months. We need to
make sure we are well-positioned to come out ahead in the safest and most successful way possible.

The Future of the Event Industry is about strategy, content, and action.

4 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

Impact on the Industry We also asked specifically how event planners were impacted in June. If you add
the furloughs to those who were laid off, almost 20 percent of the industry was
WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR LAST EVENT? out of work — a humongous number. There are a lot of people in pain right now
and suffering economically.

But while lots of businesses are feeling the impact, many event planning
companies and agencies are still there going forward in the sample year (which
is an international sample).

In terms of how planners handled their events when the situation came to a
HOW HAS YOUR COMPANY BEEN
head, the industry was pretty evenly split between cancellation, postponement, IMPACTED BY THE PANDEMIC?
and pivoting to virtual.

The postponement indicates the optimism of March. Many assumed we

would get back to business. A lot of people postponed their events to August
or July. Now, we’re seeing those events postponed again, pivoted to virtual —
sometimes, unfortunately, canceled.

That is why a plan is paramount right now. We don’t know for how long this
Impact on Event Planners
could go on, or for how long businesses will survive without planning live
HOW HAVE YOU PERSONALLY BEEN events.
IMPACTED BY THE PANDEMIC?
Virtual is great. It’s a very inclusive continuity tool for everybody. But what
about the large number of suppliers to the industry who are cut off from
virtual? Some have successfully pivoted, but the crisis has produced an
extremely difficult market.

5 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

When Are We Going Back?

When we asked the question in March, the outlook was much more positive with,
about a third of planners estimating that events would be back on by the third
quarter. We saw a lot of optimism for a fourth quarter return as well.
WHEN ARE YOU PLANNING
TO GO BACK TO LIVE EVENTS?
WHEN DO YOU EXPECT TO GO BACK TO BUSINESS?

Now we have to consider cases and outbreaks everywhere — the US, Europe,
Asia Pacific, the rest of the world. Things are changing on a daily basis. If we
were to ask the same question today, we would surely have a different answer.
It’s also worth noting that business audiences have different implications than
consumer audiences. Consumer events are actually happening right now in
Europe and in the US as well.
But the risk of hosting a live event between now and September is still very high.
A comeback is unlikely even for October through December. Depending on how
things evolve, a proper comeback could happen by January, 2021, but it will hinge
on testing. It probably is not going to look like what we were used to, but at least
we can anticipate something closer to a viable comeback.

6 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

What’s the Biggest Challenge?
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE FOR
RESUMING EVENTS?
Safety. At 45 percent, the biggest concern is safety. Whenever we do decide
to go ahead, we will be taking a gamble, potentially at the expense of our
attendees. Despite the security measures, there remains a human concern.
We are in the business of taking care of attendees.
But there is also a business concern. The legal implications of being at the center
of an outbreak are not defined yet, but we have seen some lawsuits coming in.
Logistics. Then there are physical distancing logistics. Events often
operate on very tight margins, and introducing a stream of physical distancing
measures (especially if not supported by our venues) is going to have an
incredible impact on our event budgets.
7 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
Travel limitations. Travel limitations are obviously another significant
concern, even though traveling seems to be coming back slowly. Nevertheless,
business audiences could be very impacted.
Capacity. Capacity is a major issue. If events are asked to operate at 20
percent, how can we break even? Is it even worth it to host them? At that
capacity, what is the advantage over virtual?
Expense. Particularly considering a lower capacity, many fixed costs like
the venue will be compounded by the additional costs of implementing all
the safety measures required to make attendees feel safe at the event, which
further undermines any event ROI.
What Signals Are Planners Watching?

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING WOULD MAKE YOU FEEL WHAT WILL EVENTS LOOK LIKE?
MOST AT EASE ABOUT PLANNING PHYSICAL EVENTS? In the meantime, we must determine what events are possible in the
short term. We spoke to epidemiologist Brian Labus to determine
what events might look like:

Smaller in size. The density of attendees is key, so smaller in

numbers is the way to go. The more people we have, the more risk we add.

Local. Keeping things local is the key to limiting the risk to the
community spread in one area. By inviting people from outside a local
We also asked what would make planners at ease in terms of going back to
community, you are compounding whatever level of risk exists where
business, and the prospect of a vaccine is by far the most favored option for feeling
you live with the level of community spread in other places people are
safe again. Feeling safe is what we need to focus on right now as an industry.
coming from. Having a local event also helps to limit the potential impact

However, the most undervalued item is effective, real time viral testing. A vaccine of an outbreak.

might be a long way off, whereas mastering the logistics around testing could enable
Short. Multi-day events add a layer of complexity, especially if you
us to potentially navigate event safety with relative certainty. At the moment, there
are using a strategy that involves monitoring the status of those in
are many challenges, but we shouldn’t ignore this avenue.
attendance. You can test people before they get to your event, but you

Testing logistics could pave the way for event bubbles, which follow the same have no control over what they do when they go back to their hotel, which

concept as social bubbles. Event bubbles would be temporary spaces of relative compromises your control over the level of risk.

security in which all the inhabitants are Covid-negative.

Lower capacity. We have to make sure people remain physically
We’ve seen something similar in the US with the NBA, which tested all the players distanced at all times, and that there is movement from room to room to

and strictly controlled their movements and access to others. With more robust prevent any potential virus from building up in the ambient air wherever

short-turnaround testing, the same could be applicable on the short term for a single- attendees spend a prolonged period of time.

day event.

8 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO
YOUR BUSINESS?

9 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 HOW EVENTS CAN HAPPEN
DURING THE PANDEMIC
BRIAN LABUS, PHD, What data is most useful in
monitoring how the pandemic is
MPH, REHS spreading?
Epidemiologist and Assistant Professor, UNLV
The first thing is not to get caught up in day-over-
day changes. Things happen that make the number
of lab results spike — it was really busy the day
before, or a testing site was closed. The numbers
that give me the best insight are the hospitalization
numbers. Unfortunately there’s a delay between
when people are infected and when they’re
hospitalized, and you still can’t look at day-over-day
changes. We look at a seven-day moving average.
The other number that can be useful is the percent
of people tested who are positive; the higher that
number, the less control we have over the disease.
Deaths always get a lot of attention,
but they basically reflect what
happened with hospitalizations a
week or two before.
10
What measures can we put in place to
make events happen safely?
Start by thinking about density: Who’s
going to be there and how closely are
they going to be packed together?
If you keep that in mind as a guiding principle, you
can increase the distance between people and
decrease the risk of transmission.
Nationwide mandates for everyone to wear a
mask are also key. That’s not going to protect you,
but it’s going to protect the people around you.
That’s important because about half the people
with this disease are infectious without knowing
it. Temperature checks have varying degrees of
success. On campus, we’re using an app that asks
health screening questions to make sure everyone
is aware of the symptoms.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
A popular post on social media showed three bracelets
used at an event: a red one for “no contact,” a yellow
one for “fist bumps,” and a green one for “high fives
and hugs.” What are your thoughts on this approach)
I think if I saw somebody show up at my event with a
green bracelet, that would be a reason to tell them to
leave.

If you’re running up and hugging people and spending a lot of time in close
contact, that’s where the real risk of transmission comes in. I would love to
see everybody wearing a red bracelet.

Can rapid testing and the bubble model be a game

changer for the industry?
It could potentially allow for a safer event. Something to keep in mind is that
rapid tests have about a 20 to 30 percent false negative rate. The reason the
NBA and the NHL bubbles work is because they are controlling every minute
of those people’s day. That model doesn’t work well for a one or two day
event. You’re not going to have somebody show up a week in advance to be
tested. You’re not going to control their behavior at the event, or after they
leave and go back to their hotel room.

If the rapid test gets better, that would give us more information about
who’s positive and negative. That’s not a bad way to approach it, but nothing
will ever completely eliminate risk.

Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -

chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

11 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE PATH FOR GROWTH: M&A,
NEW VERTICALS, AND GEO-
CLONING IN THE NEW WORLD
RAFAT ALI Do you anticipate more mergers
and acquisitions (M&A) in the fourth
CEO, Skift
quarter? Are event brands in trouble,
or is this a good opportunity for
growth?
Rachel Wimberley: Are our event brands in trouble? I
think that most event companies right now could be
considered “distressed” in some way, shape, or form.
Does that create opportunities? Yes. But there is
a distinction between distressed in the sense that
RACHEL WIMBERLEY the company had a bad 2020, and distressed in the
EVP of Business Development, US for Tarsus Group
sense that a struggling company went into 2020,
which has just made it even worse.
Any company we look to acquire would have to be
in a strong position, but where organic growth is not
likely in 2020, our focus will continue to be on M&A.
Rafat, how do you see the role of
events in 2021 for media companies
ALEX ROTH specifically?
Group Director of Strategy & Business Planning, Rafat Ali: Media publishers have that 365 day
Informa PLC touchpoint to the customer. Our physical events are
12
shot, but that gives us an advantage in virtual events
that event only companies may or may not have.
Do you think that diversifying in
terms of geography is a good strategy,
and is that something Informa is
concentrating on?
Alex Roth: Having geographical diversification is useful
and it helps you to continue to operate when there
are challenges elsewhere, but our strategy around
diversification or portfolio optimization is much broader
than geography. It involves quite a number of dimensions.
Verticals. What verticals you’re in or what verticals
you serve. There are some verticals that are cyclical
and counter cyclical, and there are some verticals that
will be more robust in a Covid environment. So what
verticals you’re in matter.
Format. I think that conferences are more
susceptible than trade shows. I think knowledge events
are more susceptible than networking events. And so
having the right mix of formats is useful.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
Revenue. A revenue mix is important. Informa is a large events business,
but a third of our revenues are subscription-related services with media and
research products. So having a mix of revenue is important.
Prioritization. Certain things are useful just to de-risk — events that are
market leaders in a period like this. Where you’re going to make differential
investments into different parts of your portfolio, you’re going to invest in the
market leaders rather than the followers.
Time of year. Being able to diversify across time of year is important.
Domestic or international market. The United States is a large
market, but actually it’s largely a domestic market — as is Brazil, as is mainland
China. And the mix of domestic markets versus international markets is a good
way to protect and optimize the portfolio.
So having a mix across all of those dimensions is what we’re doing to make
sure that we’ve got a business that’s both sufficiently prepared for challenge,
but also positioned for growth when the markets return.
Given the recommendation that events be small and local,
what role do you see geo-cloning playing going forward?
Rachel Wimberley: I think it depends on the brand and the market. Certain
brands will make sense to take into different markets, perhaps overseas, or
if you have a big annual event, to break it up into regional events. It really just
depends on what the customers will support.
Alex: I’m very much on the same page as Rachel, actually. I think that in a Covid
environment, locality becomes more important but your ability to be successful
locally is going to really depend on the strength of your brand and the databases.
13
Rafat: I think one of the challenges now in a virtual world is that, to do geo-cloning
right, you have to build local infrastructure and local vendor networks in different
parts of the world. That’s how it works. In a virtual world, obviously everything is shut.
Rachel: For companies with a big global footprint, I think a big thing is more
collaboration outside of ourselves, whether it be with another for-profit or an
association. If we’re able to take an association brand into a global market
because we happen to have an office in Thailand, or if we’re able to launch
something somewhere else by partnering with another company and taking in
one of their brands — those are the kinds of conversations we were having a little
bit before, but have become a much bigger, wider open door now.
Is there a role for virtual events going forward?
Alex: The Covid has forced events to move faster in product innovation around
digital. Events businesses are actually sitting on top of enormous amounts of
data that let them understand the relationships, the matchmaking with data
enrichment, the purchasing patterns, and with predictive analytics, the purchasing
intent. As a result, the role that they play in marketing services or supply chain
facilitation can actually be quite considerable.
I actually think that the market value associated with that revenue is
extraordinarily high. So in terms of using this crisis as a catalyst for moving into
those types of services that create enormous value — that’s really where I think
we need to be prioritizing attention and investment.
Rachel: It’s an interesting proposition to switch large-scale exhibitions into a virtual
environment and still have the same ROI around that. We are certainly doing that.
We’ve seen success even before Covid within our medical division particularly, with
the demand for online learning programs going through the roof.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
There will certainly be hybrid components to every show that we do next year,
but we’ll see how that holds going into the following year. Many events are
seeing huge jumps in attendance, so they’re seeing attendees that they haven’t
seen before, and even new exhibitors — many of them from overseas who may
not otherwise have come to an event in the US.
over year and the other beat attendance numbers year over year. The health and
safety measures were very well done, everyone followed them. There was no
problem whatsoever, and there have been many successful shows in China and
now other places throughout Southeast Asia. So there is a light at the end of the
tunnel and, and I’m happy to be able to see it.

But there’s no ‘one size fits all’ around them. It depends on the brand, the show,
the audience , and how they’re constructed. We’ll see how some of them do,
but none are meant to be a replacement for the live event going forward.

What signals are you watching for a live events comeback?

Rafat: I’m looking at when I can take my first flight somewhere. I think that
would be a sign of us doing something right.

We are rearranging our whole company around a subscriber first model, and
subscriptions and recurring revenue will also play a role in virtual events. If
2021 remains a fully virtual world in terms of events, we would want to launch
a subscription service for that content. It would be interesting to see if there’s
uptake or other companies doing experimentations with it.

Alex: There are four things Julius that I’m thinking about.
1. The balance sheet, and securing the balance sheet.
2. The cost structure, making sure that our cash burn is under control.
3. Partnerships and strategic verticals. There was some discussion earlier
about partnerships in lieu of deploying cash or equity and, in fact, we’re
doing precisely that.
4. Data much along the lines of what I was speaking to before.

Rachel: In January, all events in China all shut down. Two weeks ago, we ran Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
two very large exhibitions in Shenzhen, one of which had 80% retention year chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

14 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 PROTECTING YOUR EVENT
BUSINESS FROM THE CRISIS
What, what are some of the things
ANDREW ROBY
you’ve done to keep business going?
Event Planner, Andy Roby Events
We’re trying to be creative, trying to occupy our
time, and really trying not to be stagnant while still
moving forward, even though the events industry is
largely still at a standstill.
In terms of the cashflow, my priority is focusing on
my fixed and variable costs. Your fixed costs are your
mortgage for your office space, the costs associated
with your company vehicles, etc. Your variables may be
things like gas for those vehicles. I’ve tried to focus on
the fixed costs and remove as many of those variable
costs as possible — things I know I can live without.
For fixed costs, I’ve asked to either go into a
forbearance, which is a pause of all payments to be
picked back up in the future, or to at least postpone
them or break up how those payments are made.
Another thing I have focused on is to offer past
and current clients discounts. It’s easier for us to
15
retain existing or previous clients than it is to obtain
new clients, and that’s proven. Discounts allow me
to bring in cash flow that I don’t have, and I’m not
working as hard to get brand new clients
We’ve also had to be a little bit more aggressive when it
comes to asking for payments on time and also enforcing
penalties and any interest tacked onto late payments. We
have to increase the amount of cashflow versus money
that we’re waiting on because we have people to pay.
ness owner, we also have to be transparent with our
team. If the target for this month is making $20,000
so that I can pay employees, that’s the goal. If we
exceed that then great.
It seems like everyone is looking for
collaborative opportunities. Has that
changed the way you look at your
competition?
Yes, and actually, I recommend mergers. Now is the
time to focus on who you can merge with, even if it’s an
actual merging of two companies to create a new entity.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
I would definitely pursue that if I knew it was going to allow me to stay in business.

If you are a smaller company and you know of a bigger company that
is operating but may not have, for instance, enough staffing to be
able to execute these events, why not be a subcontractor? They’re
still making money, you’re still making money, but you’re still open for
business. The term for these kinds of competitors-turned-partners is
“competamates.” If we talk about community over competition,
let’s really delve into how effective that can be for us to stay in business

Given that we depend on the cash collected for future

conferences, how can we effectively enforce our refund
policies, especially for future bookings that can’t happen
anymore?
My recommendation is to have a perfect onboarding session with each client
and make sure your policy and contract are solid. Clearly communicate what you
will and will not provide as a refund. Many people assume that a refund will be
provided, especially for hotels. Everyone has that schedule: 90 days out, 180 days
out, this is how much we can give you.

Then limit how much work you’re actually doing for that client until you get into
stages. For instance, only schedule a month’s worth of work so the amount of
work your doing lines up with what they have paid. If they have a project a year out,
literally split up your tasks within that 12 month period and charge them per month.

If you have that conversation with your clients, they will understand that this is Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens
work that has been completed, and it’s not just money sitting in the bank.

16 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF EVENT CRISIS
COMMUNICATION

In terms of event planning, what entire organization and figure out what the
ALEX PL AXEN
should we have in place to be ready risks are and what could potentially happen if
VP of Experience Strategy, Nifty Method
to manage a crisis effectively? something goes wrong. All events are different
Marketing & Events
From an event planning perspective, it’s important
and are at risk of different things. Crisis
to understand that a crisis communications plan is
communications is not a fill-in-the-blank
very different from a crisis management plan, and it
template.
involves a lot of different people. Your marketing team
2. Escalation Framework. If something
is going to be on the front lines of this plan, so they
happens, how could this impact you, and what do
should be part of the process of building the plan.
you need to communicate to your stakeholders?
Understanding the escalation framework and
I find it helpful to view crisis communications
what level crisis you’re dealing with (stage one,
as organizational strategic marketing and
stage two, etc.) and what that looks like will
communications. It’s imperative that we understand
make it much easier to execute a plan.
how to get buy-in from our employees, since a lot of
marketers do not know that crisis communications 3. Crisis Communications Process.
is part of their job. So what does that entail? Determine the steps that you’ll take to execute
the crisis communications.

1. Crisis Risk Assessment. The first 4. Self Review. These plans are not set in
thing you need to do is sit down with your stone and need to be reviewed on a regular basis.

17 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

Could you guide us through the process of crisis
management?
The five phases of a crisis are as follows:

1. Alert. Take a look at your internal modalities and alert your team as to
what is occurring.

2. Assess. Get your team together and identify what stage crisis this is.
3. Activate. Activate your plan by looking at the holding statements in
your plan, identifying whether there are accusations, additional tasks,
external modalities, etc. and determining how and to whom you’re going
to communicate.

4. Administer. Execute the plan until you determine the crisis is over.
5. Adjourn. Conclude your communications campaign and begin self
review.

If you’re not doing all five of these things, mistakes start to happen because
you’re missing certain things.

If you’ve been conveying a message of safety and

precaution in all of your marketing materials, how
transparently do you need to communicate that your
event was not deemed safe enough to continue?
The reality is that we’re living in a time where trust needs to be earned. A
lot of trust was lost when events were cancelled and postponed. The more
transparent you can be, the better. If, for example, your event is deemed unsafe
and you have to cancel or postpone it, share that. It’s going to take a lot more
Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
effort to earn your attendees’ trust back if you lose it than it will to make sure chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens
you don’t lose it in the first place.

18 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF
THE INDUSTRY

19 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF DESTINATIONS:
VIRTUAL TO REALITY
DEBORAH COHEN, CMP How has Discover Puerto Rico tried
Director of M&C Marketing,
to engage the community of meeting
Discover Puerto Rico planners?
Deborah Cohen: Puerto Rico is known for having
amazing coffee, so we thought, what better way
to show our support for event planners than to
send a care package of Puerto Rican coffee? Then
our digital team swiftly developed what we call
virtual vacations, with everything from a tour of our
rainforest to classes in salsa dancing, mixology,
and our local cuisine. We also partnered with PCMA
to offer a series of live yoga sessions from the
VA N E S S A F I G U E R OA
beach. We gave our audience an escape from their
Destination Support Services Director,
Discover Puerto Rico home office, at the same time helping out local
businesses.
Can you tell us a little bit about what
Puerto Rico is doing for health and
safety?
Deborah: Puerto Rico is taking stringent
precautions to safeguard not only our residents,
20
but our visitors. We were the first US territory
to implement a curfew. Our airport was the first
to utilize thermographic cameras. The Puerto
Rico Convention Center is in the process of
implementing ASM Global’s VenueShield program
and earning GBAC’s Star Facility Accreditation. In
addition, we have island-specific certification seals
for our hotels and venues.
Our website has the most up-to-date information:
We have our health advisory, our travel advisory, and
some easy-to-read infographics for both meeting
planners and visitors.
Do you have any tips for meeting
planners who want to experience
Puerto Rico virtually?
Vanessa Figueroa: Discover Puerto Rico recently
partnered with Travefy, an interactive itinerary
management tool that allows customized agendas.
It includes geo-mapping and flight trackers. We’re
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
also launching virtual destination experiences so you can immerse yourself AD

in our beautiful visuals, feel our music and our culture, and then connect with
hotel partners who can explain their safety protocols. The convention center
has developed 360° videos tours.

What are you doing to facilitate the industry’s return to

live events
Deborah: We feel planners are going to need our marketing support more than
ever, particularly with the growth of virtual platforms and hybrid meetings. To
that end, we’re working on a plug-and-play idea with our convention center.
Additionally, many of our hotel partners are really open to being flexible with
attrition and with contracts.

Vanessa: Reinforcing trust has always been crucial for us. We’ve met with
hotel partners, DMC tour operators, and venues to understand all their safety
protocols, ensuring we have the right information for planners.

Why should planners pick Puerto Rico for their next

destination?
Deborah: You can get an international feel without needing a passport! Travel
is different than it was a few months ago. You don’t even have to change your
cell phone plan. With all the architecture and music you feel like you’re a world
away, but it’s very close.

21 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF FOOD AND
BEVERAGE

ample hand washing and sanitation opportunities,

LENNY TAL ARICO
Director of Sales, Blueprint Studios
How can we guarantee that our
attendees enjoy refreshments safely including possible portable hand washing stations
and what should we have in place as you go into an establishment.
and in order to do this?
I don’t think there are any guarantees, but I do
Ultimately, it boils down to behavior modification
believe that there are steps that anyone operating in
for attendees and employees in food service
that arena need to take.
environments. Behavioral change requires that we
lead by example, it requires clear instructions and
Take a step back and look at what the mission is.
consistency. Most of us have already experienced
Rethink food and beverage. Retrain employees to
some level of this in our daily lives, whether it’s at a
become the standard bearers for new processes
store or restaurant.
and procedures.

Clearly social distancing is going to be imperative,

Your attendee flow will have to make sure that you
spacing people out or creating barricades that allow
have ample egress, that there are clearly marked
people to be in segmented spaces.
areas to denote the way to food service, out of
food service, to the bar, etc. Those floor plans are
Another thing that comes into play is the retooling
certainly going to change in a catering environment.
of your specific products and the delivery process.
Keep the environment safe with cleaning and
We’ve all been realizing that the grazing is gone.
ventilation. Those environments have to have
The buffets of the past are not happening now.

22 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

We’re going to see a bit of a shift to what we call the QSR model, or ‘quick
service restaurant,’ in which you can walk up to a designated area, place an
order, identify what it is, and the person on the other side is preparing that
food and beverage to be picked up possibly at the end of a line.

What role do you see technology playing in F&B

safety?
Conference apps can play a role. Attendees can pre-select early in the day,
and that helps the catering team in the kitchens to know how many of
those need to be prepared in advance, while the attendee feels as though
they have had the ability to curate their own menu. The quality and the
consistency when delivering that is going to be a key factor. There’s always
been resistance from customers with regard to prepackaged foods

There’s going to be more touchless / contactless payment. I don’t think that

we’re going to see lines at the bars; what we will continue to see are people
preparing in advance, “this is what we will serve,” whether that’s pre-poured
beverages or specialty cocktails.

Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -

chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

23 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF EVENT
SECURITY
STEVEN ADELMAN What security concerns should event
Head of Adelman Law Group, PLLC
planners keep in mind, both during
the pandemic and in the longer
term?
All of the things that were security concerns
before the first week of March remain security
concerns. Bad guys with AR-15 style assault rifles,
people bringing in prohibited items — whether
it’s prohibited food, drink, weapons, drugs — all
that stuff remains a security concern, even
during Covid-19, and obviously it will remain so
afterwards. Now, however, we have new rules, rules
that we should have social distancing and wear
a face covering, and it turns out we don’t enforce
those very well.
One of the things that lawyers will often tell you
is that if you make a rule, you have
to enforce it because your rule sets
your standard of care. It says, “Here is our
24
promise.” And then if you don’t enforce your own
rule, you have made a promise and then broken
your own promise. In the world of security, if you
have a rule and then allow people to violate it all
over the place, that just shows that all of your rules
are toothless. It will become apparent that you’re
not prepared to enforce other security rules.
What if people who refuse to wear
a mask insist that your rules are a
violation of their rights?
If somebody doesn’t want to wear
a face covering because of some
nonsensical liberty interests — “I have
a right to infect everybody else” — I’m
a lawyer telling you here: No, that’s not
a thing.
Likewise, there are restrictions on where you
can carry guns, knives, drugs, alcohol. It’s not
true that there’s a liberty interest in violating
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
your rules, especially if you’re a privately operated space, but even public
accommodations can enforce rule mechanisms.

If an event organizer makes a rule and an attendee

signs a contract agreeing to follow that rule, is the
attendee then liable for adhering to the contract? Or is
the event organizer liable for ensuring compliance?
This contract almost always would be a waiver of liability. The bad news
is that waivers of liability are not strictly enforceable as a matter of law.
Waivers of liability are comprised of three things: offer, acceptance, and
consideration. However, because they are not freely bargained, they’re
take-it-or-leave-it propositions. They’re a special type of contract called
adhesion contracts, which are not freely bargained and are therefore very
much disfavored as a matter of both law and public policy. We like people to
negotiate freely. When somebody agrees to a waiver of liability, they’re not
giving up all of their rights. Certainly they’re not giving up the right to sue.
What they are doing, however, is saying, “Yes, I was given notice of a certain
risk.” And then the risk is whatever the waiver of liability says it is.

How would you recommend approaching liability

waivers?
Why not just tell them what the risk is, and then give them a hyperlink to the
website for the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World
Health Organization, or Johns Hopkins University? Rather than something
that you can’t enforce, just tell them how to not get sick.

Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -

chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

25 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 VIRTUAL AND HYBRID EVENTS

26 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE BUSINESS OF VIRTUAL
AND HYBRID EVENTS IN 2021
AND BEYOND
How do you see demand for virtual experiences. Virtual is often spoken about as a stopgap,
event platforms evolving after the and I think solely virtual events may not last, but digital
massive growth they’ve experienced
PIERRE METRAILLER over the last few months?
experiences are here to stay.
CEO, SpotMe
I’ve learned not to make predictions, but there are a In terms of the different aspects of virtual
couple data points that offer some insight into the event platforms, what’s working and what’s
not?
ongoing demand for virtual event tech. One of our
What works and what I recommend to everyone is to go
customers, for example, estimates that they will
and try new formats.
spend less than a quarter of their 2019 meetings
1. Alternate between live and on-demand. 60
and events budget this year (not counting the cost
percent of our customers are extending digital
of cancellations), and their revenue actually grew by
experiences by releasing on-demand content prior
4 percent. While I still think in-person is better, the to the live moments.
industry is going to have to consider the financial
2. Keep changing the pace and the size of the group.
impact of virtual and think about what we can do with
Go from plenary to abstracts, to breakout, to shop,
online and digital events.
to one-to-one.

Another data point I wanted to share is that out of the
hundreds of customers that we’ve delivered events
for in the last few months, close to 30 percent
have now entered annual agreements
because they believe 2021 is going to
have a very strong digital component.
We’re seeing investments being made in digital
3. Challenge people with ideas and recommendations
on what they should attend and who they should
connect with, and give them the tools to do it.
At the end of the day, I think we all have three things to
achieve when it comes to digital: higher attendance rates, less
drop-off, and higher engagement. I think that’s what every
platform should be focusing on and helping people to do.

27 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 AD
Should people try to translate live experiences to virtual?
Or should they focus just on what virtual has to offer?
Bringing every element that you have in-person into virtual doesn’t work. So as
you’re trying to create digital experiences, think from scratch.
Don’t try to translate one-to-one. Think about how businesses like Amazon, for
example, do e-commerce — they don’t try to reproduce the in-person shopping
experience. It’s just a website that works very well and does the job for the
consumers who want to buy stuff.

What will the event technology stack look like for hybrid
events? What tools will we need?
Execution today is still very demanding and complex, which presents an opportunity
for disruption. If you can create software to simplify it, that’s going to be a huge
opportunity to produce virtual events. Everything around video streaming is also key.
With hybrid, you have people in the room along with thousands or tens of thousands
of remote attendees, and you have to make sure everything is in sync. Right now the
tech for this doesn’t really exist.

Regarding the stack itself, we need to consider integration. One thing that hybrid
means for planners is that they have to think more like digital marketers. What we’re
seeing now is that people are going omni-channel. This means that the engagement
is going to be year round — in-person, digital, or mobile. You’ll have what we call
a system of record (a CRM like Salesforce) and a system of engagement (digital
experience apps and websites), which will help you maximize attendance rates,
minimize drop-off, and effectively engage attendees. These tools are converging
toward a marketing stack that’s going to bypass the traditional events stack.
The advice I give to event planners is to go and take a
digital marketing certification, because that’s the best
thing you can do right now.

28 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF EVENT
ENGAGEMENT
COREY MCCARTHY What is the role of apps in the virtual
Chief Marketing Officer, Socio
event revolution?
Event apps are really the foundation for any virtual
event. When you take a look at a webinar on its
own, it has no engagement, and an event landing
page has no networking. Without networking and
engagement, it really isn’t an event.
Event platforms are really what powers
engagement, allowing attendees to
connect, chat, compete in gamification,
and interact with virtual content in real
time as well as following the event.
When an event on a streaming service ends, there
isn’t any place for the attendees to go to continue the
conversation. Apps and platforms really fill that void
and allow organizers and sponsors the opportunity to
continually engage with attendees even after the event.
Multi-device access points are also where the app
and event platforms really shine. Attendees have
29
the ability to interact interchangeably between their
mobile devices and their computers, and it goes a
long way to enhance the attendee experience.
Can you share some best practices
on what works for your clients when
engaging attendees?
Start with strategy: Why are you hosting the event?
What are the KPIs that you’re looking to hit?
Then get into event design. You’ll need to think
about the entire attendee experience. When you
launch your event, will you jump right into your
content, or are you going to evoke some sort of
‘cool factor’? For our own virtual events, we put up
a welcome slide with some cool music while we’re
waiting for people to enter, along with a question to
get the chat going and get people engaged.
Leveling up your production quality is key. Think of
it kind of like television production — there should
be some sort of storyline and journey that makes
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
your attendees want to stay through the end. Having a professional MC or AD
host is a must, as they really become the event guide, leading attendees from
moment to moment and keeping their attention.

I recommend mixing up the format with multiple speakers and multiple media
combinations like pre-recorded sessions and live conversations. Give attendees
actionable points that they can walk away with and use in their daily lives.

Gamification is effective at hooking attendees and keeping their attention

through the duration of your event, and polls and surveys are really great ways
to transition from session to session. Pull attendees further in with a Q&A, and
make sure to call them out by name. Keep an eye out for the live chat and bring
up points that add value into the conversation.

Sign off is another important part of virtual events that a lot of organizers are
missing right now. Before you sign off, add some music and ask another question
for people to answer as they exit. At the end of the day, it’s all about creating
moments of delight, keeping them engaged, and leaving them wanting more.

What does the future look like? How will we use

engagement apps once we go back to live events?
One thing that I think is safe to say about the future of events is that it will be
virtual for quite some time, and when we go back to live, it will be hybrid — possibly
indefinitely — because of the extended reach and inclusivity that virtual events bring.

I think that engagement from apps will play a critical role in tying together not
only virtual attendees to the live event, but live attendees back to their virtual
colleagues. No matter what the future of events looks like, I think that event
platforms and apps will not only be the foundation, but they will be the glue
that really brings everybody together in a meaningful way.

30 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 MONETIZING VIRTUAL AND
HYBRID EVENTS
WILLIAM THOMSON What are the revenue opportunities
for virtual events?
MD, Gallus Events
There’s definitely a space for free events in the
digital world as there is in the physical world, but
there also has to be a space for paid events in the
virtual space.
We’ve got to move towards paid, towards revenue.
This event is free to attend, but it’s still making
money because you’ve got sponsors. If you’re
a membership organization and people pay a
subscription fee, your event has been paid for.
If you’re running an event and you’re getting a
thousand leads in six month’s time, they will
generate revenue and it’s earning money.
The point is that a free to attend
event is not the same as one in which
you’re not making money, and it’s a
perception that we’ve got to get over.
31
How should you price your virtual
event?
When we started these in 2017, we knew people
would come if it was free, but we didn’t think we were
going to peak. We explained to our subscribers that
we would run a virtual event for 50 quid, but that we’d
have to raise 6,000£ or 7,000£ first. We crowdsourced
the first event, raising six grand within five days. That
became 8,000£, and the money coming in told us that
people trusted us to deliver this content.
We set the price low, but we wanted to bring people into
our pipeline. The point was not to make money from
ticket sales, but to get them in and upsell them our
online training courses and our more expensive events.
Set your pricing at a level where it
doesn’t constitute a barrier to entry,
but make sure you’ve got a ticketing
system so you are able to offer more for
people who want to pay more.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
We also had a tiering system, which is something I recommend. Have a low
price that gets everyone in, then have a price that’s a little bit higher and offer
more content, more connections. A year and a half ago, we decided to charge
our enterprise fee and we just decided on 1,000£. We sold six. For our little
event with 500 attendees, we made 6,000£ just from selling six tickets.

With so much competition in the virtual event space,

how do you establish those barriers to entry for other
event planners? Is it just the pricing or is there more to
it?
Businesses that will succeed are those that come from a community and
are able to build trust in their content or connections. In the virtual world,
there are lower barriers to entry and people look to authoritative sources to
provide the best content. Even if an event is free, if the content is rubbish,
you won’t want to connect with anyone who’s there. You’re not going to
come back.

Think about what you offer stakeholders, be they

sponsors, exhibitors, or attendees. Not “how do we
replicate our physical event and the virtual space,” but
“how do we think about value?”

Think about how Netflix put the customer first and completely changed the
business model. That’s what event businesses have to do: focus on the
value they can deliver to the customers. Thinking about how to replicate
my 150 stand theater online is where people make mistakes, and those
businesses are not going to be around much longer. Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

32 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 BRINGING HUMAN CONNECTION
TO A VIRTUAL EVENT

ALON ALROY How does your company help assistance with speaker prep or event-day support,

Co-Founder, Chief of Customers & Strategy,

planners manage virtual events? we offer a wide range of services to fit every event
Bizzabo Bizzabo provides the technology needed to manage need.
event programs from end to end. Coupled with our
in-house professional services, event planners can What should planners should do to
keep virtual audiences engaged?
flawlessly execute any virtual event — from small
People attend events because they want to meet
interactive events to highly-produced presentations
new people, experience, and learn. Technology
for large audiences globally.
will need to play a key role in bridging that gap in a
virtual environment and deliver on the attendees’
While we offer a virtual solution that works out-of-
expectations.
the-box as a fully embedded player with on-demand
capabilities, it can also integrate with external
Content should resonate and enrich attendee
video solutions like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype,
knowledge. Event planners can tackle this
Google Hangouts, Vimeo, and YouTube, you name
by designing tracks for specific audiences or
it—giving organizers the flexibility of working with
empowering them to personalize their schedules.
the technology of their choice.
From the virtual speaker and exhibitor side, event
planners should evaluate how technology delivers
Our virtual production services team can be an
a delightful experience that sets partners up for
extension for event teams that need additional
success.
support to execute their virtual events. Whether it’s

33 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

Another big challenge for event planners is bringing the sense of in person AD
connection to a virtual environment. For example, at our virtual event, (Almost)
IN-PERSON, we had video questions submitted by attendees and played them
live during sessions for speakers to discuss. This brought a human touch to

Create impactful
the typical chat Q&A and created impactful moments for those attendees.

What can planners do to facilitate lucrative

connections at their virtual event?
Virtual events allow us to broaden our reach and draw in larger audiences.
virtual experiences
When done correctly, online networking sessions can be deliberate and
integrated well into the virtual experience. Through moderation and
management, these networking sessions can help drive attendee engagement
and connections. Bizzabo provides a service called Interact, an interaction-
focused solution that functions as an intimate dinner table or workshop.

While reinventing networking for a virtual audience presents a challenge,

there’s also an upside – meeting new people virtually isn’t limited to physical
venues. Looking forward, we also expect a hybrid events world will allow in-
person attendees and virtual attendees to meaningfully connect. In fact, our
reporting shows that the majority (68 percent) of event marketers believe a
hybrid solution that can manage both in-person and virtual events will play a
key role in 2020 and 2021 event strategies.
The Event Success Platform
Virtual In-Person Hybrid

Learn More

34 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 AN OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH

35 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY


S H AWN A M C K I N L EY
Principal, Clear Current Consulting
36
THE FUTURE OF
SUSTAINABILITY
How does the shift toward online
events relate to sustainability?
Firstly, these formats help us to reduce inequality
and improve access. Maybe there were barriers
that we didn’t see before that we can now reduce.
The other piece of the puzzle is simply the fact that
these formats have the lowest carbon impact.
For an in-person event of international
scale, the carbon impact tends to be a
minimum of a thousand kilograms of
climate pollution per person. Online
formats can be as small as the single
digits, under 10 kilograms per person.
To put that in more relatable terms, that’s a
difference of two barrels of oil worth of emissions.
We don’t want this as our only event format going
forward, but it helps us to think more strategically
about when it is important to meet in person and
when it is feasible to meet online.
How do you think sustainability at in-
person events will be different post-
pandemic?
We’re going to find hyper localization in our events.
It’s come as a result of a very difficult time where
global supply chains are disrupted. The positive
side effect of that is we’re sourcing our food more
locally than ever before.
Solid waste is another area. The event industry has
been doing a lot to reduce our waste, but now we’re
being told that we have to use more disposable
products and PPE than ever before. If we want to
continue prioritizing zero waste, we will have to be
creative in how we manage those processes.
The other piece is the use of more chemicals for
sanitizing. It shouldn’t compromise the health of
workers using them on a daily basis. Do they have
access to the least toxic, effective options? Do they
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY
have the training and equipment required to use them safely and reduce
their risk of chemical exposure?

If a planner can only do a few things to be more

sustainable, what should they prioritize?
I have a top five list of priorities because planning was already
complicated enough.

5. Be vigilant about waste and safe disposal. Typically for things like
masks and gloves, that means incineration. It’s going to be harder to
keep waste out of the landfill because a lot of recycling programs are
being limited. The pandemic has very little bearing on the other four
priorities.

4. Choose a venue or a hotel that has some type of sustainability

credential: a Green Key rating, a LEED-certified building, an ISO
management system.

3. Look at the food we serve: eliminate air-freighted food, move away

from beef, serve more chicken and sustainable seafood, and expand
plant-based menus.

2. When you get back to meeting again, choose a destination and a

location that uses clean energy.

1. The number one priority: do what you can to reduce airlift. Explore
virtual models, and when you need the in-person experience, look for
the destination that’s closest to your attendees.

There are tools online that look at your attendees’ locations and Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
calculate the air travel distance to different destinations. chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

37 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 THE FUTURE OF DIVERSITY
AND INCLUSION

ASHANTI BENTIL-DHUE How can teams create an inclusive How can event teams and planners
leverage their supply chain to be more
Co-Founder, Diversity Ally culture within the events industry?
diverse and inclusive?
This really is about mindset. We need to think of
Even in the planning stages, companies, planners,
it as more of an underutilized resource. When we
and organizers have quite a lot of leeway as to who
think about our businesses and companies, we
it is they choose to use as a supplier. There’s a lot of
often identify areas that we can get more benefit
autonomy and decision making power in this area.
and profit from. And that really is the case when
it comes to diversity and inclusion. So we need
You can choose to actively look for diverse suppliers
to have a really optimistic, resilient, and forward
— that could be in the form of a business, AV
thinking approach in terms of the industry’s image,
production company, caterer, etc. Companies that
people, and culture.
are owned by Black, Asian, or disabled founders,
for example, or companies that have a really strong
Regarding culture specifically, it’s about really
ethos when it comes to inclusion. This is an easy,
ensuring that, from the top down, everybody is
quick win that companies can look at when it comes
making sure that people feel happy, safe, included,
to becoming more diverse and inclusive holistically
and valued in the workplace. When we talk about
via their supply chain.
culture, we’re talking about the attitudes, ideas,
beliefs, and overall vibe that we bring to work with
us — the vibe that we create at our events.

38 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

What are the key principles of inclusive marketing?
An important consideration here is the way we choose to market our
events, or even job posts. For example, do we use nontraditional job boards,
communities, and networks? Do we ensure that the language that we use
in our job descriptions is inclusive, appealing, and inviting and does not
alienate potential candidates? Do we make sure that the imagery we use on
our websites and in our event marketing materials really reflects the wider
community and society that we live in?

Simply put: Think about who we serve. Who are we trying to attract? Who are
our clients? Who do we want to be a part of our events? Then attempt to make
sure there’s a reflection of that in our marketing imagery, and also in the way
we choose to market our jobs.

How can you secure top-down support within your

organization?
In order to drive growth in this industry on a global basis, we need to be
thinking in a more diverse and inclusive way.

If we take the approach that this is a business performance

metric and an underutilized resource — not a problem that
needs to be solved — that will make the process much
easier.

When it’s packaged and presented in that manner, along with the moral,
financial, and reputational risk cases, it usually helps executives and senior Live graphic recording by Chris Shipton - liveillustration.co.uk -
management start to understand and lend their buy in to the stakeholders chris@liveillustration.co.uk - Twitter: @livepens

within the company who are trying to activate diversity initiatives.

39 THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY

 CMP CREDITS
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40
DISCLAIMER
This report is based on the content in our July 30
event, The Future of the Event Industry.
While this resource has been sponsored, the
contents are completely unbiased.
If you wish to sponsor our future publications or
receive sponsorship opportunity notifications, get
in touch with Carmen Boscolo at cb@skift.com.
THE FUTURE OF THE EVENT INDUSTRY