Ah, 2020. The year that began with a tumultuous first quarter for the events industry wrapped up its final quarter with multiple vectors and opportunities for sustainable growth. But is the industry even aware?
Virtual events and hybrid events have uncovered layers of data and evolving trends that, when plugged into solid sales and marketing automation pipelines, will yield future events that can withstand the most unthinkable circumstances.
Bizzabo’s streaming events platform is just one source of key data that all event producers and planners should be studying moving into the first quarter of 2021:
There's no doubt that virtual events have a high (54%) lead-attendee conversion rate but are the events sustainable? The industry expects that events budgets will shrink for 2021 but sees no end in sight for virtual events as a staple for future engagement.
Education and customer retention are reported as top reasons for pivoting to virtual, but under 40% of those events' producers state that it's easy to find qualified speakers.
Hybrid events are the golden goose with over 97% of event producers expecting this format to reign supreme throughout the year. Not at all unexpectedly, over 50% of corporate executives plan to move to hybrid events -- permanently.
While 65% of B2B marketers plan on moving allocating future budget to virtual/hybrid events, an additional 68% rely on in-person events for building connections.