2022 was the year organizers truly had the freedom to choose how they hosted their events. The current situation drives our attention to the following question: will virtual events continue to be an integral part of all events in 2023?
Let’s dive into some predictions and analyze what the future holds for the event landscape.
What Will Define the Future of Virtual Events?
The Overall Transition to Online Platforms
According to a recent survey conducted by TrustRadius, 67% of companies are planning to invest in web conferencing software in the near future. This means that the demand for local and customized virtual events will be even higher in the coming days.
It’s easy to assume that the pandemic caused this boom in virtual events. However, it only accelerated an already upcoming trend. As companies gradually moved toward online events, they learned the various benefits involved.
These virtual event organizers are observing some of the clear advantages as follows:
- Higher participation, as more people can join from across regions and borders
- Improved targeting — ideal attendees can be recruited based on preferences
- Ease of access from the comforts of home
- More cost-effective and sustainable — eliminates travel cost, etc
- Real-time reports measuring ROIs and other event insights on a go
- Eco-friendly — eliminates plastic and carbon waste
Physical Events Will Come Back
With the business world evolving, event planners are also adapting to creative tools for running events in a competitive landscape. Technological advancements have paced up significantly in recent times, making many conventional ways obsolete.
Physical events are still often favorable in making connections and showcasing products in a real environment, but they come with their downsides. For example, renting a venue can be costly — event hosts usually have this on the top of their budget list. In doing so, they also have to consider the space limitations of the venue, as it doesn’t allow events to exceed its physical capacity for visitors.
On the flip side, participants also have to take their travel costs into account, which makes the overall experience challenging even if everything else is perfectly designed.
In a nutshell, companies end up spending too much money and effort in setting up an event — and only reaching too few people in the process.
Hybrid Events May Define the Future of Virtual Events
The phenomenon of hybrid events has gained rapid popularity. A survey of event professionals revealed that almost three-quarters (73%) of them are planning a hybrid event before the end of the year.
Even as physical events resume, online and hybrid methods will stay in place. Participants will have the opportunity to choose: either online or in-person. This will serve more flexibility and help in expanding the event’s reach. Event technology will most likely become a connecting platform between in-person and online attendees.
Today, events are seen as flag-bearers of providing value to sponsors. As the technology catches up, we may witness incredible growth in event sponsorships. As a result, the demand for virtual platforms will continue to increase, leading to greater quality-based competition among service providers. This will further shape the events industry, and bring continued innovation.
More People Will Attend Virtual Events Via Their Mobiles
These days, people use their smartphones as their primary devices. This is because they make things more convenient. Furthermore, most companies now have their own mobile apps. So, they’ll also prefer to attend online events using the relevant phone app. vFairs allows hosts to create exclusive event apps. Then, event attendees can simply register and log in without breaking out their laptops or PCs.
Takeaways
Since most agile businesses have adopted remote work, there’s a strong chance that virtual or hybrid will be preferred in 2023 as well. Now, people realize the advantages of virtual platforms and may not want to shift back to old ways.
So, virtual and hybrid events are very well the future of large-scale and even small-scale events.
Those are some of our speculations but we would love to hear about your thoughts on the future of virtual events.
