The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd

The lack of in-person events because of the global pandemic drove buyers to virtual event formats but the world still needs handshakes!

My LinkedIn profile says an online convert since 2005 and as a business we have embraced technology for many years.

Like so many event businesses we pivoted to digital at the start of the pandemic and we’ve been successful for so many customers – delivering critical information to end users and leads to vendors.

But however hard we tried the engagement levels were nothing like at an in-person event.

We ran conferences, awards, roundtables, a charity Christmas Carol Concert and countless webinars – don’t get me wrong they worked and continue to work at delivering leads and generating awareness – but getting back to in-person events this year, our own events, and other peoples, reminded me why they work so well.

It’s the mutual commitment – Woody Allen said, "80 percent of success is just showing up" and at trade shows the buyers and sellers have both committed to ‘show up’.

And finally - in-person events help nurture prospective leads through your marketing funnel?but let’s not forget they can also provide hours of digital content for your social media feeds and your websites, opportunities for colleagues to get together, chance meetings and serendipitous collisions.