Will (or won't) tech save the events industry?
After 30 years of organizing hundreds of events (from small conferences to massive festivals or trade shows), I continue to ask myself this question.?
Will tech save events and make them more productive, easy to measure, fun, and engaging? Or will tech continue to be a marginal part of our industry?
Of course, I have my own opinions. I continuously deploy capital and time in event tech deals. However, I also constantly organize and participate in actual events and deal with event tech companies as part of these events.?
When I exited my joint venture with Reed Exhibitions in 2008, I was able to dedicate more time to venture capital and started?Vesuvio Ventures. Believe it or not, we will celebrate our fifteenth anniversary in April of this year (I will further discuss this topic in April when I analyze some learnings involved with this journey).?
My investment thesis for Vesuvio Ventures when I started was centered around investing time and money in backing outstanding tech entrepreneurs building software solutions for events, marketing, education, and media. Fifteen years later, my thesis is the same, but now I'm working more with corporations, VC, and PE firms and joining later-stage deals where I can help founders with their growth and exit plans. I have never raised a fund and do not plan to do so at any time in the near future. I only co-invest my own capital with other angels, VCs, and PE that I admire. I continue to learn from them and hopefully add value as a co-investor and advisor.?
Of course, event tech was close to my heart because of my previous life experience as an event organizer. I was convinced back then (and still am) that tech should play a critical role in the live events industry. Since then,?I co-wrote two books on this subject?and?hosted the Business of Events Masterclass, invested in 15+ event tech deals, and learned some valuable (and tough) lessons.?
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It's surprising how marginal tech is for the live events industry, even today. Even after Covid and the virtual events revolution - and years after the famous (and accurate)?"software is eating the world"?blog post - tech continues to be a minimal piece of the live events industry's revenue and a small part of the industry's value proposition.?That's probably why many PEs and VCs are still interested in the event tech category. They believe that events are still one of the few massive industries still waiting for a significant "digital revolution."?And they are right. But, and this is a big but, they also need to understand the complexity of the events industry and why there are only a few unicorns in the space.?
Events are complex to produce and organize. Organizers are not easy customers when they need to engage with tech solutions. The whole experience of a live event happens onsite, live, and mostly face-to-face if it's a B2B event. These characteristics bring significant challenges when connecting digital and face-to-face so that customers and organizers can extract value from their digital engagement. Each live event category (trade shows, conferences, corporate events, sports, festivals, etc.) uses tech differently. We are starting to see significant improvements in each of these sectors. Still, only some event tech players achieved substantial traction to attract investments or M&A from big tech players like Apple, Microsoft, Google, and similar companies at that scale. Nevertheless, billions of dollars have been deployed in thousands of event tech startups during the last decade, and Covid generated some crazy valuations during the previous three years.?Tech valuations are generally adjusting, and event tech is no exception. Tech layoffs are everywhere, and event tech is no exception. Is event tech dead? Absolutely not! Is event tech going to save the live events industry? Probably not, but it should certainly help.?
Event leaders (finally) understand that tech is part of the solution and not part of the problem. All those billions of dollars invested in the event tech category backing great founders have generated fantastic software solutions helping event organizers with many specific needs and concerns they need to fix and improve for their customers. When tech investments are appropriately made, events can generate significant savings, increase revenues, and provide value to all stakeholders. We are starting a new phase where event tech is part of the conversation and a relevant investment line for event organizers, and I can only see this trend growing in the future.?
In summary, my current answer to my initial question today is "maybe." Still, if you are involved in any capacity in the live events industry and not paying attention to the event tech category, you are making a big mistake. Tech drives innovation, and innovation will be the essence of our industry to create a relevant marketing tool for our customers. That's why I will continue to pay attention to event tech and do my best to help visionary founders who are fixing complex problems.?
As always, curious to hear your thoughts. Feel free to share your comments here or DM me directly.?
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1 年Great question and great points as usual. Good products will definitely add a lot of value to the industry, technology is too great of a term, and can include bad products. See the apps in the events industry, the overuse of VR, the 400 carbon copy platforms... and so on. And as correctly Robert Weissman was saying, they need to add value to the bottom line as well. Otherwise, we just do tech for the sake of doing tech, o because there is another "trend" in the startup industry.
Interesting read Marco! How about the combination of data insights and experiential tech being the next step for events ??
Impact oriented business leader in the Media, Events & Information industry ◆ Connecting strategy with execution ◆ Leveraging technology to create opportunities for growth & transformation
1 年I think the headline is a bit of clickbait IMO.? It leads with a false premise and presumes the industry needs to be saved. Then it offers a false dichotomy in the solution - event tech will save it or it won't. What about other solutions to save the industry? Any solution depends on what it is being saved from?? I’m curious in nature so I clicked knowing full well that the event industry is one of the oldest commercial activities in human kind. It has been around since 3000 BCE in the form of bazars and faires and has been evolving ever since.? Turns out the article is really about how event technology has not disrupted the event industry to a degree that say the publishing print industry was disrupted and therefore PE and VC money guys are still waiting on a ‘digital revolution’ in the event industry.???[See comment for part 2]
Dealmaker and EU Lobbyist
1 年Thank you Marco for sharing, fully agree with you. In my opinion live events can increase customers satisfaction, reach and efectiveness of their live events with the smart use and integration of event tech. More difficult question is how and when that will happen. Believe that each event organizer will have its own approach to this topic. Definitely with more Y and Z generation becoming decision makers and our customers (visitors/exhibitors) event industry will have to fulfill the expectations of such tech driven market.
More time Protecting the Streets for Police and less time Documenting behind a Desk via CLIPr Generative AI.
1 年I’d say that new Event Tech selectively enhances Events when and where it’s most valued, and needed, when it’s priced right. While Events do need continuous improvement they don’t need saving since the category is alive and well enough. When New Tech arrives, ideally it does existing stuff better faster and cheaper but other times it does new stuff that you didn’t even know that you needed, because you didn’t know that it was possible and that it was actually reasonably priced. Then things becomes really magical once you can’t imagine life without the New Tech.