Yahoo finance estimated the global events industry market to be around $886.99bn in 2020 and it is predicted it may reach $2,194.40bn by 2028, but what I want to know, has COVID shown people another way to experience, look at events and perhaps just cherry pick the ones actually worth going to?

When it comes to business events – networking, panels, keynotes, tradeshows, the list goes on, are they all worth attending in person, or is it actually more beneficial to virtually join some and focus your energy on fewer, but more important ones to yourself?

Virtual events

POV: It’s January 2020, you have got a few big events coming up this year that you are exhibiting at and attending to not only meet new people, but also for your brand awareness. You have just planned to host an event in March and the year looks to be shaping up nicely. Boom coronavirus hits the news, and suddenly within six weeks the country is put into a national lockdown.

Events are paused, postponed, and in some cases cancelled. Events are such a big part of the entrepreneurial world, so what does the industry do? Go virtual, and as much as some people didn't like these online events and did moan, virtual events were actually a saviour especially in the first lockdown.

Virtual events were a way for people to still learn, take in content from panels and keynotes on webinars, to be exposed to people they may not have heard of before, and for a lot they were a break and an escape from a very boring locked down life.

Admittedly, there were some flaws particularly when it came to networking, and wanting to meet people in mass. To me virtual networking, whether that be in a zoom breakout room or on some well-developed new platform, just was not the same than going up to people and making small talk or joining an already big group of people having a conversation before an event has started.

Arguably, some of the content produced in a virtual event format was of a higher-standard than before, with more people willing to present and speak when it is behind a screen, and a lot more people having more time available to share their knowledge, thoughts and opinions. People were taking in more, learning more, and businesses were benefitting from growing their community despite not being able to go out and meet new people.

However, being lockdown for a few months turned into longer. Lockdown one, turned into lockdown two and three and people become zoom fatigued. They were getting fed-up and craved being back with people in a corporate setting, standing around and making that small talk, they before had dreaded.

In-person events

I do not believe that before COVID people were sick of events, in business, especially in the startup world going out, meeting people and introducing yourself and your company to as many people as possible is a must (no matter what Steven Bartlett says).

People planned their year’s around trade shows, they looked for little intimate network and community events taking place on a weekday evening. Getting out there was part of the business ecosystem for them. And whilst there is definitely a desire to get back out there to events and start meeting people again, have we seen another side? Another world to events? Where you can on a Thursday evening, attend that panel event but whilst sat on your sofa, in your pyjama bottoms with a glass of wine in hand?

The bottom line is some events are not as desirable to go back to in-person as others.

What does this mean for the future of events?

I think it means a number of things, and of course it may differ from person to person and business to business, but the bottom line is some events will be better suited to making that trip out, and will provide you with more in person, but some will most likely attract a bigger audience offering virtual content – or atleast hybrid.

Events that provide worthwhile networking, where you want to build your brand and meet new people certainly have a place to stay, and those where you just want to take some notes down, learn something or relay information to people honestly have a place to be virtual, and I think people will thrive on them.

Speaking to Antonia Hellman Founder of Toucan a social video platform, she said it goes beyond just the past few years, and we have been seeing a trend over the past 10-20 years of increasingly more events and group interactions moving online. COVID-19 has obviously accelerated that trend by not only making it a necessity, but by spurring the creation and growth of the tools required to have well-rounded virtual event experiences.

For events that do want to give the hybrid approach a go, or even offer something a bit more when it comes to going virtual I think there is a number of platforms and software’s really taking this space on. For example, Toucan allows people to network, connect and speak to eachother as seamless as it would be going up to someone at an event, without the clumsiness and having the fun social aspect you can see different groups of people talking and join in when you want.

Antonia said: “We have observed that there is actually a massive opportunity, not just a response to a tragedy. We can now bring people together casually from all over the world, people can find others who share their same interests and actually get to know them - as opposed to just talk with them or send messages.

“The question of virtual vs. hybrid events is still up in the air right now. Nobody knows exactly what that is going to look like; however, what I can tell you is that there is going to be a real focus on community. The purpose of every event is to have attendees engage with the content. But as virtual events become more commonplace, we’re discovering that the most crucial component of success is actually that the attendees engage with each other. If you are organising an event and want it to have a long-lasting effect on those who attend, there is no better way to do that than by fostering genuine relationships.

“That way, people can go on to talk about the topic you are all interested for far longer than the duration of the event. And that’s where Toucan comes in. We are using principles of social psychology to build a platform for community networking that brings the feeling of joy that you get from interacting with others in person - without trying to recreate real life. We’re doing this because we believe that every event moving forward, regardless of whether it is virtual or hybrid, is going to have an unstructured, social networking component. Relationship building adds immense depth to any event. Plus, it will give people more of a reason to keep coming back over and over again.”

The future is exciting for the events industry, and although the sector has been shaken up – it will be nice to see some change, and see some people in person again!