A Guide to the Changing Event Landscape in 2022
How will the return of face-to-face events impact the event mix in the new era?
It has been two years since the world changed from everything we have ever known when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It has been a challenging two years, to put it mildly, but there does seem to be light at the tunnel.
As the pandemic is becoming a regular part of daily life and restrictions are being lifted, this post explores what the new event landscape looks like in 2022 and beyond with some tips to ensure you make the most of the events you choose to support.
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What does event success look like?
Before we start to delve into the various event options in 2022, it’s important to establish what event success looks like in the new age. Success can be split into two areas: Quantitative and Qualitative measures.
Quantitative results focus on number-driven metrics such as the number of interactions, registrations/business cards, conversations, or attendees. These metrics can help deliver a CPL (cost per lead) measure which allows events to be benchmarked easily.
Qualitative results are harder to measure as it’s all about the quality of interactions such as conversations during a breakout or networking session, overall event experience and satisfaction. This is the harder one to measure but this is key to face-to-face events from an interaction point of view. An easy way to measure results qualitatively is through event feedback forms.
This next section will talk through the various types of events we have seen emerge over the last two years and some tips on how to make the most of them in 2022.
Digital-only events
As COVID-19 virtually eliminated in-person events, media vendors and events companies have had to adapt, and we saw a sharp rise in digital-only events. According to Veeva, pharmaceutical sponsored in-person events have declined by 75% so new virtual meeting spaces have been developed to enable business development, personal development and networking.
There are various forms of digital events including webinars, podcasts, virtual trade shows and lectures. Each event style has its pros and cons. The key with all digital events is that the content and topic must be tailored to an exact audience for it to be successful. Going too broad or too specific will impact the success of the event.
The main benefits of digital events include:
Easy to meet individual’s interest
Cheaper- no travel cost
Fast to connect
Levels the playing field for smaller companies
However, there is a lot of talk around digital fatigue and whether people are ‘zoomed off’. A recent CIPD update poll found that 8 out of 10 workers had experienced digital fatigue which is now a recognised state of physical and mental exhaustion driven from being cut off from colleagues, too much on-screen time and life-sapping Zoom meetings.
How do you make the most of a digital event?
1. Define your goals. What do you want to achieve from the digital event? Is it to meet 3 new people, get social media content or just to learn about a new technique or product that would be helpful in your role. Write these goals down at the start of the event.
2. To avoid the digital fatigue setting in, ensure that the digital event you attend is relevant to you. It sounds obvious but if you are going to sit and listen to speakers for an hour, it’s imperative that the topic fits your needs. Then spend some time pre-event to work out what you want to listen to, who the attendees are, schedule any networking meeting. The preparation upfront will help you get the most from the event.
3. Interact. Companies are now using more and more clever techniques to encourage audience participation so it isn’t just a two-hour lecture as this will cause digital fatigue. There are various polls, Q&As, interactive breakout rooms and even ice breaker challenges that are being used to keep engagement levels up. Make sure you take part!
4. Follow up. If you did meet the 3 people, make sure you follow up with them even if it’s only a LinkedIn invite.
5. Evaluate Looking at point 1, did you achieve the goals you set out pre-event? If not, what was the reason- was it the event or you? How can you improve for the next event?
See here for more information on the different types of digital events.
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Face-to-Face Events
In 2022, face to face events are coming back into the mix after an extended hiatus. As COVID 19 becomes more manageable to control, attendees now feel comfortable enough to start attending face to face events both locally and overseas.
The main issue with events now is that there must be a significant enough draw to warrant the time out of the office, the expense, and the added complications of travel we all now face in 2022. Therefore, the quality of the content is key in events going forwards. One thing that will be certain is that the attendees who are showing up in person are highly engaged, motivated, driven and ultimately ready to do business and are basically a qualified lead. Therefore, you might find that you can increase visibility, boost ROI, and gain more value from in-person events than ever before.
How can you make the most of your time at an in-person event?
According to Forbes, there are 5 key ways to optimise business at a face-to-face event:
1. Stay open to serendipitous meetings and attend all social networking events. Sometimes it’s those conversations over a glass of wine at a cocktail hour that will land you the deal so make sure you take advantage of the free bar!
2. Don’t write off old contacts. The pandemic has meant that businesses have had to change and adapt strategies and objectives so even a contact that may not have been fruitful in the past may now be ready to do a deal. Ensure you spend time reconnecting with old contacts.
3. Learn from your competitors - what are they doing? How have they adapted? Has their strategy shifted? What can you do differently?
4. Participate in workshops and breakout sessions. This is your time to take advantage of direct learning from the biggest names and experts in your field so use this time wisely. Ask questions, interact, and continue to learn and grow. The content at face-to-face events is going to be of the highest quality to encourage people to attend so use it to your advantage.
5. Make sure you follow up! Sounds obvious but it’s so easy to get bogged down in the day job once you return to your home office and then the momentum is lost. It’s imperative to keep in touch with the contacts you have made be it through regular email or phone communication or even meeting up at subsequent networking events. Don’t lose sight of your contacts, especially as every connection made at a show is in effect a qualified lead
Hybrid events
Since face-to-face events are so important and valuable, we know that digital events will never replace live events. It’s a fact of our new norm that not all previous attendees will be able or want to return to large scale events and therefore you need some alternative options to ensure you can still reach as many prospects as possible. This is where a hybrid event comes into play. This type of event has the best of both worlds- the human interaction of a face-to-face event whilst also being able to accommodate a global audience via a digital platform for people that couldn’t travel. They also allow a vast digital library of relevant content at the click of a button which allows the opportunity to personalise content for ongoing promotion and audience engagement.
The challenge with Hybrid events is that they need to be seamless across both in-person and digital in terms of attendee access, presentations and speakers, breakout sessions, invitations and mixing both elements of an event can be challenging. More time is required to ensure both the in-person and digital elements are seamlessly aligned. Ensure that you put in preparation time just as you would for digital events and face-to-face events.
To summarise, digital events are now a new norm. It is very unlikely that they will drop out of the picture soon so to get the most out of any digital event you need to ensure relevance and don’t be afraid to engage to get the maximum out of it. The key with any event, be it Digital, Hybrid or Face-to-Face, is to be engaged, motivated and driven and the results will follow. You get out what you will put in so go for it and enjoy the ride! Meet us at Pharmapack Europe, Interphex and CPhI Worldwide. Interested in meeting with us at a face-to-face event in 2022? Book your meeting now!
For more on strategic marketing approaches to shows and events in the pharmaceutical sectors, and how we can help you, visit our section on event support.