Most talked predictions about the event industry
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Transcript of Most talked predictions about the event industry
11 MOST TALKED ABOUT PREDICTIONS FOR THE CONFERENCE AND EVENTSINDUSTRY FOR THE NEAR FUTURE
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11. DELEGATE SALES WILL CONTINUE TO BE
SQUEEZED DESPITE THE DEMAND FOR
FACE-TO-FACE EVENTS INCREASING
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1Budgets and time constraints will continue to exert pressure on the paying delegate, yet the effectiveness of doing business face-to-face will see demand for the channel continue to grow.
However the demand for face-to-face has an imbalance, in that it comes disproportionately from suppliers, which means sponsorship and exhibition (spex) money will continue to underwrite a lot of events.
So while demand for face-to-face will not diminish, the ability to charge delegates from the buy-side will continue to be put under immense pressure, unless they can be offered exceptional value - which leads to point 2.
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22. MEDIOCRE EVENTS WILL SUFFER MOST
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2To succeed at charging both sides of a market, events will need to display four main qualities:
Uniqueness - events will need to offer content and networking that genuinely cannot be found anywhere else.Experience - event organisers will need to invest more, not less, in the onsite experience. Those too focused on margins and penny-pinching will find themselves managing an event in terminal decline (even if they don't know it yet). Successful events will invest in a brand experience that can succeed for the long-term.
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2Flexibility - organisers need to embrace digital distribution channels and flexible event formats, rather than fight them. Delegates are demanding to engage with a brand on their terms, at times that suit them. Forcing them to only interact during a 2-day period at a set location is a sure-fire way to cut yourself off from thousands of potential customers and alienate your existing ones.Stickiness - The three above elements combined should create 'stickiness' which means returning delegates and a loyal base of core customers. These become the bedrock of a successful community, 365-days a year, which will be the engine for future growth and good word-of-mouth marketing amongst your industry audience.
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33. A SHIFT FROM SMALL CONFERENCES TO LSE'S OR
'WINNER TAKES ALL'
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3Smaller 'me-too' events will continue to disappear, as the bigger events build up further momentum and the pull of their gravity sucks up remaining sponsorship and delegate revenues.
In niche markets this may not equate to a Large Scale Event of tens-of-thousands, but it will leave room for only one winner.
This is classic marketplace economics being brought to bear on the conference industry.
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44. PUBLISHERS WILL CONTINUE TO ENCROACH ON CONFERENCE TERRITORY
- CONFERENCES WILL HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO FIGHT BACK
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4Traditional conference companies will continue to find their media partners encroaching on their territory and launching events because of their low barrier to entry, high margins and profitability.
To fend off this danger, conference companies will need to move into publisher territory and become more adept at the frequent production and dissemination of top quality outstanding content and industry news.
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4One major advantage conference companies have in this fight is a ready source of high value, high quality video content. Video is proven to be engaging and sought-after by business professionals, so conference companies will need to invest more in filming their events and their production value.
At some point in the near future it will become hard to find any pure-play publishing or conference companies, and the fight will be focused on mind-share of a particular industry, which should result in more advertising dollars and more delegate revenue for the winners.
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55. IT'S ALL ABOUT "COMMUNITY"
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5This fight for audience attention across all media is essentially about building up a community, rather than maintaining a purely transactional relationship which most traditional conference companies have had with their markets.
If you're not already chanting the "community" mantra - well this needs to be the key focus for all conference players - whether established or starting out.
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66. VIDEO WILL BECOME CENTRAL TO
MOST COMMUNITIES
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6Video has been proven time and again to be one of the most compelling and engaging media on the web, and given conferences are in the 'live events' game, they have multiple chances per year to cheaply create excellent video content.
Video gives conference companies the chance to show off the quality of their content, build up brand awareness, provide value to their prospective delegates and create an engaged audience (to name just a few of the benefits).
Conference companies will start to invest more in the medium and, assuming they have a solid distribution strategy, reap the benefits.
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77. MARKETING DEPARTMENTS NEED TO FOCUS ON
INBOUND MARKETING AND CONTENT
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7The cost and burden of generating fresh leads and registrations from traditional 'push' marketing will lead events organisers to:creating more of it
Work more closely with distribution channel partners to drive potential customers via "Pull / Inbound Marketing"
See how effective original, quality content is in building engagement with their customers and prospects, and they will therefore focus on
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Analyse the effectiveness of their communication channels and website conversion rates much more closely
Invest in marketing automation and metrics tools allowing trackable and measureable means to demonstrate the effectiveness (or not) of their event campaigns
See the importantance of mobile trafficand start to focus on mobile optimisation strategies
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88. PRODUCERS NEED TO FOCUS ON BECOMING
EDITORS
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8Producers will stop becoming just programme managers for their conferences, and will be expected to become industry experts, editors and content engines.
This means companies that try to have one producer churn out several conferences on unrelated topics will suffer, while those who hire up and let producers focus on a smaller number of tightly related events will start to win the fight to 'own communities'.
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99. OPERATIONS TEAMS NEED TO FOCUS ON
RISK MANAGEMENT & ONSITE EXPERIENCE
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9As delegate revenue remains under pressure, operations teams will find themselves in a bind.
Some will be unlucky and simply become risk managers, trying to cut costs here and there, going for the cheaper AV, lowest-band food option or 3* out-of-town hotel with no minimum spend or room block.
Others will be lucky, and tasked with creating truly unique, compelling onsite experiences that resonate with attendees (and spex clients).
The majority will be tasked with both, hence them being in a bind.
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1010. SALES TEAMS WILL BE TASKED WITH
SELLING MORE ANNUAL, MULTI-TOUCHPOINT
PACKAGES
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10While this is already happening, the pace will pick up, as clients demand more integrated solutions across offline and online properties, ideally sold to coincide with their annual budgets.
This is a very different approach to the typical sales cycle which had to fit in with the timing of conference cycles (not the clients) and deals were always done on a piecemeal, ad-hoc basis.
It will also mean developing a better knowledge of how digital publishing works so the value can be fully conveyed to clients.
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1111. PORTFOLIO DIRECTORS AND MD'S WILL NEED TO FOCUS
ON BRAND AND DATA INTEGRATIONS
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11Devolved power and the resulting silos/politics between teams are not uncommon amongst most major conference companies.
It will be the jobs of mid-to-senior management to shake this up and act as stronger product managers, shepherding and forging strong brands, and forcing more collaboration such as sharing of data where necessary. It will be a painful process, but completely necessary for them to survive and thrive against the backdrop of the other trends we'll start to see.
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In conclusion, the industry will continue to face many challenges, but it also has an enormous number of opportunities in front of it.
The key will be to avoid, in words of Peter Drucker “slaughtering tomorrow's opportunity on the altar of yesterday”.
CONCLUSION
Grabbing these opportunities and making the most of them is how we help conference organisers, exhibition companies, online communities and publishers.
Get in touch now:
@[email protected] brightbull.co.uk
BRIGHTBULL CATCHTALK@[email protected]
CatchTalk is a free-to-use, video content distribution platform designed especially for business event and conference organisers. You can host your videos on your own dedicated event page, with direct links to your social media profiles, websites and registration page.
We offer a great way to increase engagement, find new audiences and build new revenue streams with our optional ability to charge for your content.
Email us at [email protected] to learn more about how we can help you grow your audience.
BrightBull is a B2B marketing and design company with a special focus on the event and conference sector.
We advise entrepreneurs, CEO´s and managing directors of conference,
Exhibition companies and online communities on driving leads, visitors
delegates and revenue through inbound and content marketing.
BrightBull’s mission is to shake up the B2B and events environment through
inbound.
If you need to reinvigorate your event marketing, email Ricardo on
