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(Photo; As I read 2022 Event Trends Report, I was expecting to see text about the trends that were big in 2022. I am interested in events and work in the field, which is why I chose the report. As events also have to follow the trends as well as create them, I was interested what the trends were in 2022. I think it’s important to look back what the trends were, especially as trends often circle around. Instead, the text was mostly talking about COVID, digitalization and what would happen in 2022 and forward. Very different from my expectations. Now that in 2023 events are being held more and more in person again, the talk about digitalization caught my eye.
As I mentioned, I work in an event industry and I’ve been part of a production team for music festivals. I have experience pre- and post-covid and I didn’t see a huge change in organizing the events, besides of course the health and safety regulations. The writers on the report talk a lot about digitalization helping with event organizations. Their example was conferences. Digitalization and pre-recordings of speeches help the attendees out, as people can choose what they want to watch in person and what from online. Some events have multiple activities going on at the same time so with recordings, people can see everything they want. From my point of view, if you need to record your events for later use for customers to be able to enjoy everything, isn’t the event poorly organized?
Is digitalization for the best of us?
I remember when the lock-downs during COVID came and with them came the online events and concerts as well. Online events also were a success, but for me, nothing beats seeing and hearing things in-person. Of course, you can see better from the screen as cameras can go closer and you are fully comfortable seeing everything without having to leave the house, but the feel isn’t the same. You can’t feel the music vibrate through your body, the blinding lights of the show or the excitement of queuing to the venue.
Of course, as I also study online, I agree this is digitalization is very convenient. When I mentioned that I didn’t see a lot of differences in organizing the festivals, most of our planning with people outside of our office happens either online via online meetings, e-mails, text messages or phone calls. But what happens if we start holding more and more events online? On one hand, we might get more personal service, but on the other hand, wouldn’t we stop seeing people as humans without any interaction? The point that got imprinted in my mind was the prediction that in 10 to 20 years, digitalization will have the same effect as globalization has had for the past 20 years. Wondering how global the world has become, what happens if we stay home online on the same level? Why is avoiding human contact becoming a trend? To me, it’s worrisome.
In the future on the work field, I wish to bring people happiness in person. We are already too antisocial; we don’t need to go further down that road by moving absolutely everything online. Maybe in the future, in my opinion, it would be better to host hybrid events as they tried during COVID, best of both worlds. It’s also on many cases easy income for the companies as well.
In the end, I feel like the report shocked me how much digitalization was praised on the text. It is amazing what technology can do, but I learned how much different my opinion was from the report. I think I need to learn more about digitalization to work with it as a friend, not an enemy.
Reference;
2022 Event Trends Report