B2B Events Marketing in 2024 | In-person vs. Online | One or the Other or Both?

Directors Club has been designing, marketing, and delivering events for business communities since 2007, when we were known as Directors Dining Club.

Over the past 17 years we have seen the rise of digital event formats and platforms including webinars, video roundtables, virtual trade shows, Linkedin Live, podcasts and more. New innovations in the event-tech and collaboration spaces are constant.

Today, pretty much all the functionality of in-person events can be replicated and delivered online, with many additional delegate-experience features unique to digital platforms.

The only thing that cannot be replicated online is the physical proximity of human beings and the delegate experience of the venue.

Therefore, the fact that in-person events still exist, must mean that delegates, facilitators, and sponsors place a premium on human proximity and the venue experience.

Directors Club added webinars to its roster in 2010 and evolved them into online roundtables in 2015. But all the while demand remained strong for in-person Leaders Dinners and Breakfasts held at five-star Central London venues.

Online roundtables helped us weather the pandemic lockdowns and the work-from-home trend thereafter.

Post-pandemic, demand from our partners to meet in-person was immediate, but the delegates were slow to return to the office and socialising in groups.

Motivating delegates to attend in-person gatherings was the challenge we were presented with. Our answer was to create not just business events but social occasions. Black-tie Leaders Dinners were a hit with our members and partners (see the cover photo above).

There have been lasting behaviour and lifestyle changes resulting from the pandemic. Today, delegates are less likely to travel far to attend events. Over 50% of our delegates for a Central London breakfast event live or work within a mile of the venue. Over 90% live or work within 15 miles of the venue.

New working patterns have impacted the willingness and availability to attend in-person events.

If Directors Club only organised in-person activities in Central London, we would at best be only serving members within the M25.

However, another consequence of the pandemic was the mass uptake and acceptance of video conferencing as a means of business communication and collaboration. Directors Club video roundtables - in particular our Breakfast Business School offering - are our highest growth format, delivering reach and geographic diversity that is now not achievable with in-person activities alone.

When our partners ask our advice regarding the location and format of events, we now advise they locate their in-person event at the heart of the biggest cluster of target organisations, and then hold an online version to include all those located outside that geographic cluster, or those who do not wish to attend an in-person activity.

Be aware, the proportion of target delegates who now do not wish to attend in-person events is growing. Finding new ways to engage this population is our next challenge!

As Directors Club expands geographically, the need to use technologies to imaginatively engage and serve our members will become more real. Black-tie dinners at the Grand hotels of the Capital may remain our flagship offering, but a significant and growing proportion of future member engagement is likely to be online via ever more sophisticated collaboration platforms.

Engaging businesspeople in this AI-powered, work-from-anywhere era requires agility and constant awareness of changing expectations, habits, and behaviours.

Directors Club membership is by invitation.

You can enquire about sponsor and partnership opportunities via the contact form on directorsclub.world or email [email protected].