Trendy events in 2021
Article is about how the year 2021 will look like for events in this pandemic time. What are the main trends (EventMB, 2020)? Why I chose this article is because I work in event business in Finland, for the biggest event company Tapaus. So I was a little bit of curious how they saw event trends changing etc.
I´ve seen it from 2020 until now very closely. And now since year 2021 is behind, it was nice to read that did those trends appear?
Article is also very good for tourism students to realize how vulnerable this industry is and how it also affects to tourism business (for example conference/exhibition travelers, hotel bookings etc)
Key messages
Article from EventMB tells us key messages of event trends for year 2021. For example safety will come first in every event, virtual events are still going on and here to stay, hybrid events are the future, maybe more audio experiences than watching the screen and what about new fun which is not alcohol in events etc (EventMB, 2020 p. 6-29.)
Safety
I agreed most of the parts for example safety issues. All of those mentioned matters are true (masks, social distance, sanitation, ventilation etc) and are taken under consideration in every event type (virtual, hybrid, live, exhibition). We, in Tapaus, make for example an covid-19 risk analysis everytime for every event.
Comparing to year 2020 and 2021 onsite testings and vaccine passports are common and probably here to stay for longer period.
Virtual Events
About virtual events – 2021 was all about virtual. Almost every planned event was turned to virtual or some were already planned from beginning. In article they said that quite few people were making money from virtuals (EventMB, 2020) but in Finland quite many event companies succeed. Many of them has own studio for virtual shows and also platforms are pretty good in these days. Biggest technical companies like Creative Technology Finland (former known as Bright Finland) are doing good progress for example with the platforms.
What I agreed most with virtuals are that content has to be very well planned and that really happened 2021. People are tired to watch the screens anymore but as some of the events are going to be virtual from now on, the content has to be attractive and more like a tv-show.
Hybrid
Hybrid is the future says the article (EventMB,2020, p. 15). That seemed to be true in 2020 and we all thought it will be “the thing” in 2021. But it wasn´t, at least not in Finland. Pandemic although wasn´t in a such a good position and it affected to events that they mostly stayed in totally virtual. EventMB`s article had good insights how hybrid is a good thing. Like environmental impact – why travel anymore thousands of kilometres to a 2-hour conference? One of my customers had a hybrid event and after event they thought it would be nice to reorganize it every second year as a hybrid but they also want to keep it as live event too. Article tells us about how hybrid event should look like (EventMB, 2020, p.15). Those claims are so true for example about the content. In hybrid event you have to consider two audiences. One behind the screen and one as live.
Hybrid events should be like ice-hockey games on tv: some ice-hockey (matter) and on a break you´ll have a game studio with discussion etc (entertainment, matter). For example when hybrid live audience is on a break, behind the screen audience shouldn’t just be left there, they´ll have that game studio experience instead.
Observations and learning
As it is really easy to comment now about year 2021 because it is behind us. We know how it went.
Main results were actually assumed trends for 2021. Article wasn´t totally wrong about trends. Some of them were of course easy to assume that it will go as in year 2020 (like safety) but hybrids were not so huge thing, at least not in Finland.
Learning from article was a quite low for me because I already work in that industry. But new thing for me was audio experience that I haven´t even considered before. It´s not so trendy in Finland yet or will it ever be?
References
EventMB, 2020. 10 Event Trends for 2021. Viitattu 21.1.2021 https://www.eventmanagerblog.com/10-event-trends