3 emerging trends post pandemic impacting the event industry (& how you overcome it!)

It’s no great secret…

The events industry (like many others) took a beating over the last few years with the pandemic.??

There was a lot of uncertainty coming out of the lockdown on how the industry would bounce back and if face to face events would ever be as strong as it once was.

Consumer confidence was low, and everyone was being extremely cautious.

But face to face events ARE back!

In a report released by Cvent, conducted by Censuswide in April 2023, the findings were 76% of event professionals planned to increase their volume of events compared to the previous year.? 58% of these being face to face events.

But with that said, there are some new trends that event organisers are having to manage, which will impact the way we do events moving into the immediate future.

In this article I address 3 trends that have emerged post pandemic impacting the event industry and what you can do as an event organizer to help you overcome it.?

1. Technology overload – as a result of the pandemic, a wide range of new technologies emerged as a mean to be able to continue doing business.? The result of this means there are so many different technology options available for how we can deliver events and it can be overwhelming (and expensive) to know what technology you should be using.??

How to overcome it - the best way to rise above the overwhelm when it comes to “which tech is the best tech for your event” is to do your research.? Be clear about what you are trying to achieve from your event and then look at the technology available that is the right fit to support the outcome.? It means that you will need to build in longer lead times in your planning, but it will pay off when you have the right solution at your fingertips.

1. Rising costs and lower budgets – we all have felt the pinch of increased cost of living. The same can be said for the event industry. Labour, infrastructure like AV and venues, catering – it is all going up. And traditionally, prior to COVID, the events industry used to sit pretty stable across those cost year on year.? With this increase, coupled with organisations having less budget for marketing activities like events, this strikes a really hard balance for event organisers.

How to overcome it – this comes down to communication and education with your clients/stakeholders.? Your clients/stakeholders need to understand the current climate, why costs have gone up and resetting their expectation about how far their budget is going to go.? Focus on the areas that your attendees will spend the most time and priorities your budgets in that area.

1. Event Resourcing – during the pandemic, the event industry was put under a lot of pressure, companies had to let people go as the work wasn’t there.? This meant that a lot of the industry’s talent left events altogether to find alternative employment.? Now that in-person events are back, companies are struggling with resources to cover the work as well as the right level of skills and experience which has impacted the quality of service across the industry.

How to overcome it – ensure that you over communicate vs under communicate. Make sure that you provide context and details about your event so that even the less experienced staff know what you expect from them.? Have thorough paperwork in place and provide this to those who require so everyone is working ‘from the same page’ (pardon the pun) {laughing face emoji}. This is your opportunity to provide some quality guidance and mentorship and develop those leadership skills.

The impacts of the pandemic on the event industry are not all doom and gloom ??

With the right mindset, what you could see as challenges is actually a great opportunity to leverage your experience, be open and curious to new ways of working and stand out as an adopter of the new trends emerging because of it.

What trends have you noticed post pandemic that have had an impact on what you do?

Comment below and let me know ??

If you are looking for new ideas to take your event from good to great, comment below with the word ‘EVENTS’ and let’s have a chat about how I can help?????