The Future of Events is…

Event industries has dramatically changed by the pandemic towards digital. It is very likely that there will be no return to the event experience, we were used to before the Corona crisis. But what is a good digital event? How do deal with physical events after the global pandemic? And what are the skills we need to build in future event business? Stephen Rose, leading a global Corporate Event Organization with more than 50 people and Mirko Ross, Event Speaker and social Media Influencer are talking about the future of events.

Listen to their discussion:

If you can't listen, here is the transcription of the discussion:

Mirko Ross: With the pandemic, we've seen that the event landscape has totally changed. And now it's Stephen Rose and me, we had a long discussion about virtual events and the future in virtual events. There are a lot of experience from your side, Stephen. And now, we just want to share our discussion and outcome and our views. So welcome, Stephen.

Stephen Rose: Thank you. Mirko, I'm happy to share some learnings and ideas. Hopefully, a few of them will actually benefit our listeners from what we can tell you today.

Mirko Ross: And I would like to start with a topic, which is, it seems to be easy, but it's not so easy. It's the question: How do we categorize virtual events? What do you think?

Stephen Rose: In general, we all started with a very basic concept of putting up a camera and just basically digitizing what we have done in the real world, transmitting it and transforming it into zeros and ones, so computers can read it. But I think that's by far not enough. We need to rethink the whole beast, and talk about how we can digitalize events, in terms of creating a new category. Let me make an example of from another industry: Things like analog watches. Then some companies invented digital watches, which only had a digital display of thetime that you could read. But the real change actually happend when smartwatches came to the market. Suddenly, something like looking at a watch and finding out what time it is, was only one of the features. Other features have become more and more relevant. The question for me is, what does that mean for events?

Mirko Ross: I think we also need to rethink the key features of an event. And I like your example. Because to me, it's like with the smartphone as well, the same story, do we use the phone for conversations like telephone calls - or for what?

We have now opened the landscape, which is much broader. But we still haven't explored the whole possibilities.

Stephen Rose: I think we have now opened the landscape, which is much broader. But we still haven't explored the whole variety of possibilities. what I also like is, that we should have a look on more other digital services. How about the streaming, media and entertainment businesses and stuff like that? How do they work? What is their way to bring messages to the people? I think we have to learn from them.

Mirko Ross: We have to be aware that this is also the competition for events. This is all about awareness.

Stephen Rose: At the end of the day, it's not only awareness. Because the one thing is to gather someone as a participant or viewer - by the way, interesting discussion: Who is the target audience? Is it a viewer or participant? Can you actively participate? Again, at the end of the time, it's like, on the classic television, it's a battle for screen time, you could do so many other things instead of watching a virtual event. So, what is the key reason to attend…nd also stay?

Mirko Ross: That's a good topic. And this is leading to the technology side, isn't it? Because always people - from my impression - are starting with the technology.

 A fool with a tool stays a fool.

Stephen Rose: I always say, a fool with a tool stays a fool. So, we really have to look at tooling. And if it works for us. Maybe we have invented a tool in pre Corona times, because we thought every month we might maybe additionally to our real events also have a webcast. But nowadays, as we currently don't have the opportunity to meet in person at all, we will might have to look into completely different platforms and tools. What are your experiences here, Mirko?

Form follow function.

Mirko Ross: In my experience the tools are almost there, I don't miss any tool. It's just a question of the combination of tools. How do we combine tools? So if you if you look on events: it's built with building blocks, and what kinds of tools we are using? And then the question is always: form follows function. I mean, what do we want to achieve? If we know what we want to achieve... then we know what kind of tools we need to use.

Stephen Rose: The most asked question I get nearly on a daily basis. I want to do a virtual event, which platform should I use? And my answer to that is, well - ifyou want to go to Paris. There are different ways how to get there. You can take a plane which is quite fast and fairly expensive. But you could also walk it basically free of charge, but it will take you forever. So the question really is not about the tool, the platform, it's more about what is it that you want to achieve and how can you achieve it in the best possible way. And this is not a new challenge.

Mirko Ross: I think we can do it with experience and skill we have as well from the non-digital event world. The question is about what are the competences and skills? We see we now need for this, let's say for next generation type of digitalized events? 

End of the day, learning by doing is the best way how to speed up.

Stephen Rose: That's a very good question I've been thinking about that quite for a long time. Is project management, like we did it for the classical events and basically the same, then we have it for virtual events? I think in general; we have similar trades. Yes, you need a timeline, you need to understand who does what, but there is a completely new component. And that's obviously the digital side. You need to understand how digital works, to also be able to set up an event like this. Sometimes I think people are a little bit overwhelmed with the possibilities, maybe you'll fail, maybe you'll have an error. But at the end of the day learning by doing is the best way how to speed up.

Mirko Ross: This is a really high-level approach. I mean, adopt fast, fail fast, learn fast optimize. There is no general blueprint, how to make good virtual events, it's all a question about what type of organization it is, what type of audience, what are the aims and stuff like that. I don't believe in general blueprint programs at all.

Stephen Rose: Absolutely. And I mean, we also thought about, building up a comprehensive enabling program around virtual events, but we came to the conclusion that yes, we can train some basic skills, but only the experience actually makes the difference. We are now, right in the middle of finding out whether or not we need something like product owners, for our services, instead of just doing customized virtual events, like we did them in the past, basically defining a clear scope, and understanding the efforts that are behind these type of scopes.

Mirko Ross: Your daily business is now to make virtual events, my daily businesses to attend that virtual events, let's come to the format. What keeps our attention? What kind of events we are really thrilled, and we are not bored, switching off the camera and do other stuff? What kind of elements do we need?

Stephen Rose: There is no right or wrong here. And maybe we haven't found the final answer to this one yet. I'd actually like to pass that one back to you. Because you as a participant must say, what is the thing? What are the two or three things that you have experienced where you felt that this really catches the attention? And also keeps it?

Mirko Ross: First of all, let us for example, if we go to speakers and presenters, or it catches my attention, if the people don’t have the ability for storytelling and go for PowerPoint stuff: forget it. If they if they can tell a story, then it keeps my attention. And this is, I think, not so easy as a skill because you need to train people to do storytelling.

Involve your audience in the content creation. 

Stephen Rose: What I've experienced, which could be another tip to really get the attention: it's a good idea to also involve your audience in the content creation. For example, when you plan for an event, try to manage the expectation around building such an event e.g. by asking the attendees that you want to have, what is it that they would like to discuss during such an event. And obviously, that will lead to a higher identification with the content.

Mirko Ross: And you need to make a difference between pre-recorded screencasts or streaming events, or really life events. And to me, um, I prefer to attend to life events because of the possibility of interaction.

Stephen Rose: I agree. I mean, even if you could potentially also influence content live on the go. So basically, you, for example, have an opinion poll during a presentation. And based on the results of this opinion poll, the presentation or the discussion could go into a different direction. Suddenly the audience has things they can influence what happens there, and definitely that also increases the engagement.

Mirko Ross: And it's even important as well for the presenter, because the presenter doesn't see his audience that's completely different.

Stephen Rose: No applause. It's also important for the presenter to have this element just to get a feeling. Oh, there are people out there who are watching me.

Mirko Ross: Coming back to the question what is the business model and behind So what's changing?

The classical business models will definitely have to be re-thought. So generally speaking: just selling out square meters in defining your involvement and your business based on size, won't work in the virtual space.

Stephen Rose: Well, I think here we have to look at the business type you are in, in the event business, are you? For example, an association? Are you an event agency? Are you a tradeshow organization? Obviously, all of these have different business models. The classical business models will definitely have to be re-thought. So generally speaking: just selling out square meters in defining your involvement and your business based on size, won't work in the virtual space. We will definitely have to look more on to the impact side of things and what is it that you can change with such an event. Obviously, you have to tie that to your objectives: you want to create new business, create awareness, create a dialogue, want to maybe even start a new community? Based on that, your business model has also to adopt.

Mirko Ross: And to be honest, I had been a lot of disappointing experience from the past. When it's kind of classical players, let's say like fairs, trying now, the virtual platforms. Because they're still not rethink the business model. It's still a little bit tight on - like a catalog, or I'm selling online business cards or whatever. And if you look, from the digital companies who has who have already grown in that space, they have mostly different kinds of models. They are selling leads, they are selling contacts, screen time, how many people are attending on the platform, stuff like that. They are more on performance-based models, then let's say, this kind of pay only for the presence.

Instead of really looking at this as a customized, very individual, tailor-made virtual event solution, we have to look into what our standardized building blocks and platforms are that we can tie together.

Stephen Rose: Even as an internal service organization, we have to think about how we can price our services. There is a big uncertainty in this market, how much cost are involved in such an virtual event and how much, we need to budget for. And that's what we are trying to establish now that we build packages. So instead of really looking at this as a customized, very individual tailor-made virtual event solution, we have to look into what our standard building blocks and platforms are, that we can tie together. So basically to have a more customizable packages, more platform based product bundles, and then put the effort more into the content and inot the experience itself, instead of just the event and its platform.

Mirko Ross: And this is also leading into the timeframe. If we have a fair: it was a week. Of course, it was raising attention, then there was the fair, and then almost, it's over. I think so the question is, what can we do regarding this time frame? Where are the advantages? Or where can we get positive effects? Or what can we learn about timing?

Stephen Rose: That kind of brings me back to the question is a virtual event still an event? An event normally is timely framed around a certain topic.The digital opportunities obviously, show us that you can keep this content online, you could interact over time. So actually, an event can be a starting point for a journey and not the end of a journey. Just to make an example for the SPS this year, which had to be canceled due to the corona crisis, we are now working on a digital, virtual showroom type of concept, where we will host content not only for the times of the event, but also after the event, you can always come back you can have a dialogue with a product expert or with a sales guy. And potentially you could also play more than just one event on the same platform. You could come back and have 365 days of different meeting opportunities over time, instead of just looking at one or two days. . I think there are so many amazing possibilities to work with something like that, which can extend your reach.

 Mirko Ross: So what kind of team culture do we need?

If you have 10,000, people online and event, you better not crash. Do everything you can to secure your system to build a redundancy into the system.

Stephen Rose: I mean, culture is so not something that is defined by management, right culture is something that develops through the things that we do in our daily life. And I think therefore, we should more look into what are the key aspects to create a culture that we envy. I would say something like the three C's: it needs a lot of Courage and Creativity. And last but not least, it needs a lot of Collaboration because we need to step out of our silos and look left and right - what is already available? How can we leverage that know-how, and tie it together to something which is better than it was before. And only if you have the courage to try things out, you will find out what really works and what not. Nevertheless, and let's not underestimate that we also have to mitigate risks in that game. If you have 10,000, people online in an live event, you better not crash. Do everything you can to secure your system to build a redundancy into the system. At the end of the day, we need to enable and establish a flawless event. And we are immediately global!

How do we get people to, to learn to deal with that complexity? Complexity, which is new-let's not forget that most of the events are tied into communication activities. You are linked to social media, people are talking about it, you maybe even stream live into LinkedIn or into Twitter, there will be a discussion around your event, which you to follow and understand.

If you know what people are talking about your event, maybe also understand and learn more what can be done for the next.

A little piece of monitoring also needs to be set up. If you know what people are talking about your event, maybe also understand and learn more what can be done for the next. And to me, this is the most important part. And a lot of them are missing it. Because there's there is a lot of buzz around events, for example, on social media and stuff like that you can build but for that you need to understand the target audience and the customer journey.

 Mirko Ross: So how do we reach out to people?

If we want to reach people, we have to reach their hearts and minds. We need a bit of content that reaches their mind. But we need also some exciting, exciting experience to reach their hearts.

Stephen Rose: Well, I think when if we want to reach them, we have to reach their hearts and minds, right? We need a bit of content that reaches their mind. But we need also an , exciting experience to reach their hearts. And in many cases, that's where the planning goes wrong - right at the start, we think more about what is it that we want to send, instead of thinking about what is it that the listener or participant wants to hear. Based on how we would define success for the audience. If you tie it up from that end, I think you will be able to create even better experiences.

Mirko Ross: I think for that you need analytics, rather simple. It's like, if you take the hardcore Silicon Valley business models on streaming, for example, it's rather clear that there is a strong analytics in behind and learning it's like “oh, of the attention is going down if the audience interaction is going down”, what has been the reason on that certain moment on the event.

Stephen Rose: I think this is as well a learning that you can analyze the stuff if you have the right tools and the right people - then you can optimize and it all comes back to this: if you haven't defined what success means and what your objectives are and don't have the analytics to measure against that you will never know if this was a success or not.

 Mirko Ross: The event space has totally changed…

The more and more people would get used to it and will understand there is another way of collaborating and getting informed.

Stephen Rose: Well, I’m Nostradamus, so I can kind of share my ideas and share my thoughts,. Looking at the industry itself, I think in comparison to other industries, the event industry was not an industry that had a structural problem, which was exposed through Corona. Nevertheless, now that we are not able to meet and everything runs virtual audiences used to using virtual ,digital formats. behaviors change, the longer those virtual and hybrid events are out there, the more and more people will get used to it and will understand there is another way of collaborating and getting informed. Nevertheless, if we go further into the future, the demand for meeting in person will never go away. I even think it will rise again. But people will distinguish very clearly and will really want to understand why should I get on a plane and book a hotel and go to this event, what is the added value?

Hybrid is the future.

 So suddenly, an in-person event will become something like quality time and investment even more than in the past. There will be meetings again in person where we all come together. But there will also always be a digital component to that. The next thing is hybrid as hybrid is the future.

Mirko Ross: Yes, I miss as well divert the physical meetings, because to be honest, I was often in events just because of the physical meetings not so much because of the topics. But yes, we need maybe then to change also the type of this kind of physical events, because giving us more opportunity or bringing more opportunities for this kind of meeting. And as well, for the hybrid events. I mean, this was my dream ever, ever, ever, that event should be hybrid. If we are now stepping into hybrid events, everything is good, because then the crisis was just an amplification of the digital transformation at this point. And this is needed.

Hybrid really means to take the specifics of the virtual and the specifics of the physical and establish an event that works for both.

Stephen Rose: I think this is needed. But keep in mind that hybrid doesn't mean that you use the same event and create a digital twin of that same event with the exact same purpose and the exact same objectives and platforms. Hybrid really means to take the specifics of the virtual and the specifics of the physical and establish an event that works for both.

 Mirko Ross: I think we got almost all topics. We covered them. Thank you very much.

 Stephen Rose: Thank you, Mirko.