The disruption in 2020 during Covid-19 has fundamentally altered the corporate landscape, and virtual events have emerged as one of the great global success stories. Virtual events are becoming more than just a substitute for conventional live events; they are also the catalyst for a fresh approach to expanding audience reach and enhancing audience engagement. Such events typically have 29% higher attendance rates and are easier to plan financially and in terms of time. Additionally, organisers can record KPIs like the total number of visitors, the average visitor time, the sessions that were viewed, etc.
High growth market: GrandView Research estimates that the market for virtual events was worth USD114.2 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21.4% from 2022 to 2030 to reach USD657.0 billion
Source: GrandView Research
Overall demand primarily driven by increasing acceptability by event professionals, rising investments by S&MBs and technological growth
- Increase investments in virtual events tech: According to Bizzabo’s Event Outlook report, 93% of event professionals intend to spend in virtual events going forward. As a result, future virtual conferences and events will significantly advance in terms of cybersecurity, virtual networking, and event enjoyment.
- Virtual event platforms have been widely adopted by small and medium-sized organisations for event marketing, access management, outsourcing and analytics, and social media development.
- Other elements that are anticipated to contribute to the global market’s expansion include:
- Increasing adoption of virtual event platforms in the healthcare industry to conduct medical conferences and seminars
- Rising demand for VR and AR technologies across business
- Growing digitalization and increase in the work-from-home policy
As virtual events continue to rise, companies are working on different initiatives to make them interactive for the audience. Some of the recent trends in the area are:
Technology Trends
- Rising deployment of unified communication as a service (UCaaS): The UCaaS market was valued at USD 17.57 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 35.75 billion by 2030. The adoption of UCaaS solutions, platforms, and services is particularly encouraged by the continued roll-out of 5G data networks and the cloud-specific network function virtualization (NFV) and multi-access edge computing (MEC) capabilities offered by 5G technology for scalable and self-healing networks.
- Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) gain traction: AR allows participants to experience computer-generated attractions, like the ground-breaking Pokémon Go app. It sparks curiosity and improves interaction between event goers and brands. Contrarily, VR enables visitors to enter a 3D world. These days, virtual conferences, expos, and social events all feature this technology.
- Projection mapping: Projection mapping is a technique designed to turn objects into display-worthy visuals. For virtual events, projection mapping improves the material, which boosts engagement. Leading brands’ attempts at customization and storytelling are strengthened by this emerging trend.
- Virtual event business is embracing artificial intelligence (AI): AI is now used by businesses to improve personalisation efforts and gather real-time attendee data. Businesses can utilise this information to track consumer preferences, behaviours, and actions in order to better tailor their content.
Operational Trends
- Gamification and interactive entertainment: Per an article Markletic, 59% of event organizers have gamification strategies to improve audience engagement. This has led to increased audience engagement, maximizing learning for the audience, and increased ROI.
- Hyper-personalization is becoming a norm: Event marketers will continue to focus on giving attendees a personalised experience. This will be especially evident in post-event follow-ups, as businesses give guests customised content based on the interests they learned about during the event. It is simple to share pertinent material with them during a follow-up because executive reports from the event can identify which user engaged with what content there.
- Virtual event monetization picks up: In 2021, only 9% of virtual events were paid affairs, and the average cost of virtual event tickets was only 20% that of physical event tickets. However, the trend is reversing and organizers are finding ways to monetize virtual events. Music industry seems to be making some advancement here.
- Spotify had announced working on a feature to connect artists with their fans through ticketed live music events.
- eMusic, the company behind the first online store for MP3 downloads, announced a partnership with 7digital Partner (B2B end-to-end digital music solutions) to launch eMusicLive, a virtual concert and monetization platform.
Covid-19 accelerated the disruption in the music events
When majority of music festivals, events / concerts, big or small, were cancelled during Covid-19, increased amount of technology came into play. The biggest concert of 2020 took place inside a video game. The publisher of the game, Epic Games Inc., hosted a live event that attracted 27 million players to “Fortnite.” A number of virtual concerts are also happening in the Metaverse, with some of the biggest music performers, including The Weekend and Travis Scott, performing there.
Music events to become more hybrid in the coming future: According to the live streaming music research, 71% of performers and 68% of attendees concur that livestreaming will play a big role in the future of the music industry. Leading promoter Live Nation said that it would outfit more than 60 of its live physical music venues in the US with livestreaming technology after purchasing livestreaming platform company Veeps in 2021. This presents an indicative sign that music events will become more hybrid in the future.
Additionally, Mike Schabel, CEO of the video technology start-up Kiswe, says “We are most excited about “hybrid events,” where the audience isn’t just in-person, or just virtual, or just watching on TV, or just in a theatre, but all of the above and at the same time.”
As a conclusion, the demand and investment in digitalization of events will continue to rise driven by improved technology and operational optimization for increased monetary returns. Eventually, events will move to a more hybrid format to reach more audience.
Sources:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/virtual-events-market
https://myanywhere.co.uk/7-benefits-of-virtual-events
https://www.amp-events.com/blog/9-trends-in-virtual-events
https://qz.com/2106817/the-hybrid-future-of-conferences-concerts-and-sporting-events
