Goodbye to the good old days
Kim Myhre of Xdesigned.com on why the events business needs to embrace change and ‘build forward better’ - not back.
Kim Myhre
Kim Myhre
You often hear people talk about the ‘good old days’ like things were so much better back then. But you’ve got to wonder, were things that much better in the past, or is our fear of the future playing tricks with our memory?
We tend to wear rose-tinted glasses when remembering the past, and nowhere is this truer than in the events business. Faced with the challenges of the past few years, I’ve witnessed normally unflappable event planners almost tearfully reminiscing about how amazing live events were and desperately hoping for their return soon. Build Back Better has become a popular industry mantra.
It seems like the forced absence of live events has somehow sugar-coated memories of them, made hearts and minds even more convinced of their importance, and strengthened resolve that they will not be replaced by other experiences, like virtual events, or even hybrid events, but must ‘build back’ to their traditional live, face-to-face format.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
While Covid has accelerated change, it is not the root cause of challenges faced by the events industry. Anyone who has been involved in events over the last decade knows that it was only a matter of time before changing audiences and emerging experience technologies would change everything. Covid or not.
Without going into the specific negatives of live events like the cost, inconvenience, environmental impact, overcrowding and less than compelling content, there is no denying that the needs of event audiences have changed and will continue to change, and this means that live events as we remember them must now change too.
"It would be foolish for the events industry not to realise that the forces of major change are here."
New generation
A new generation of digital-native audiences has emerged. Needs and preferences have changed; new event technologies and the digitalisation of experience have created new expectations and new opportunities for event designers.
Today, most of us already live in a ‘hybrid’ world that is partly live and partly online. We shop live and online, network live and online, drive with satnav, we read, entertain ourselves and learn online.
Now that we are able to meet live again, will attendees want the same disconnected events of the past or will they want the excitement of new more connected, technology enhanced, content-rich experiences now possible in a hybrid event format that reflects the way they experience the world?
It would be foolish for the events industry not to realise that the forces of major change are here, and they will transform the future of how we design and deliver live experiences.
Sure, we will always want to meet face to face. We’re only human. But as an industry we also need to acknowledge that virtual and hybrid events will offer really innovative experiences and positive benefits.
Let’s face it, online events can reach larger, more diverse audiences, at lower costs, offer extraordinary content experiences, over more flexible periods of time, are more environmentally sustainable, and generate better insights into audience behaviour than live events ever could.
Now, as we are on the precipice of a period of transformation in the events business, we need to embrace innovation, not wish for the good old days.
Those event organisers who long to ‘build back’ to the past, now need to recognise that times have changed. The benefits of, and our increasing expertise in, online experiences will re-invent the traditional live event format forever and emerging technologies will continue to transform and enhance brand experiences in ways that we cannot yet imagine.
So rather than long for the past, let’s consider the possibility that if we focus on designing event experiences that seamlessly merge digital and live moments, playing to the strengths of each, we can enhance and ultimately transform the way we will all experience the future.
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