At the end of 2020, OrangeDoor held a series of discussions and interviews with business leaders across a diverse range of industries for its ‘Events Industry Barometer’ Report.
Based on the feedback from these conversations, broader market trends and OrangeDoor’s own extensive experience, here are some key points on delivering events in a world determined by COVID-19.
Hyper-local and ultra-connected
A cautious move back to ‘hyper-local’ small, intimate, face-to-face events in the second half of 2021 will bring together the best of the virtual and ‘real’ world to maximise budget and reach, while minimising risk.
Kindness, community, and collaboration
Remote working has built a collaborative spirit to work together and supportively on creative solutions to the challenges faced.
An agency squared
Change in the traditional heavy weighting given to event managers towards a fair weighting for communications experts, digital design and technical expertise in a more digitally-led events world.
It’s all about the context not just the content
Brands have had the opportunity to re-evaluate why they hold events and reshaped the format, key drivers, KPIs and ambitions to focus on the needs of the event participants.
There is no normal
The pandemic accelerated the seismic cultural change the industry was already experiencing and the time is now to embrace the opportunity and create.
On purpose
Being forced to re-evaluate and rethink the foundations of business is creating a more purposeful approach – from defining values and principles to the way business is conducted, budgets are allocated and suppliers and employees are engaged.
A seat at the strategic table
The inability to consistently gain or hold a seat at the client’s ‘strategic table’ has fundamentally changed in 2020 with clients now asking how to keep the momentum going.
A sustained commitment over time
The move to more environmentally sustainable events has shifted from finding sustainable ways to trim excess to reshaping the event and merging the best of what we had with the best of what we have.
Creativity as currency
Creativity, traditionally focused on the experience of the attendee and the design and conceptual elements will see a much greater emphasis on strategic creativity not just experiential creativity.
Empowerment
Younger digital natives, empowered by the respect given to their voice and knowledge when they were called on to fill knowledge gaps, will continue to be valued enhancing employee participation and productivity and quicker recovery.
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