What’s up with events this year?
That’s the question we aim to answer in our annual report, An Outlook on Events. The answer is always “a lot,” but we dig deeper.
In 2021’s inaugural report, we found an events industry adapting to a once-in-a-lifetime disruption with resiliency. Event marketers were swiftly shifting to virtual while remaining optimistic for a return to normalcy.
A full return to normalcy didn’t quite happen, but things moved in the right direction. Some teams even found a small window of time to host in-person events before Omicron pulled many back to virtual.
And now, it’s 2022. Budgets are increasing. People are anxious to attend events. And marketers are planning to host more events (both in person and virtual) than they did last year. In short, events are poised for a rebound.
With that in mind, let’s look at three of the biggest trends we can anticipate this year, based on our late 2021 survey responses from event professionals.
Explore even more data and insights for event marketing in 2022 by downloading the full report →
Even when restrictions on in-person events eased in 2021, most companies continued hosting virtual events. Why? Because they work. In our survey, 55% of event organizers said virtual events were more effective than they anticipated.
Looking ahead at this year, 46% said they expect to host more virtual events in 2022 than they did in 2021. Virtual events are becoming a permanent part of the event mix. And there are a number of reasons why they work so well.
All of this means that almost everyone is running virtual events. At the same time, people are experiencing virtual fatigue more than ever before. This means standing out from your competitors with engaging, ultra-relevant content will be a must for virtual events this year.
The pandemic may have caused in-person events to go away, but it didn’t cause business goals to go away. That’s why companies have relied on virtual events: to stay connected with their audiences and continue to reach their goals.
And one of the most common (and important) goals we hear: an event’s impact on revenue. In fact, 43% of survey respondents said they measure event success by revenue impact, indicating that event marketers will place a stronger emphasis on driving real, measurable business results this year.
One of the biggest reasons for this goes right back to the budget. Marketers know that lobbying for bigger budgets and more resources is a lot easier when they can effectively measure event performance. When they can clearly show the number of opportunities generated by an event or the pipeline influenced, it’s much easier to get approval for more money, more events, or more headcount.
Despite rising event budgets and an ongoing embrace of virtual and hybrid events, most companies are still using the same event technology they had in place before the pandemic.
Think about that for a minute.
Virtual events are hugely popular now. They’ve become critical for most businesses. Yet 67% of survey respondents are using tools that were never meant to host anything more than a basic webinar with zero attendee interaction.
With engagement being such an important factor for hosting meaningful, successful virtual events this year, marketing teams have to invest in better event technology. In fact, the second-biggest challenge we heard in the survey is combatting virtual event fatigue. New, immersive event technology can support teams looking to overcome this challenge.
Learn more about what’s in store for events in 2022 by downloading the full report →
