During micebook’s most recent ‘Talks’ session, EMA chair, Richard Waddington said the industry can expect a “massive movement to virtual and online platforms.”
The session, which took place on 23 April, found UK agency leaders perceive 2020 as a ‘write-off for live events.”
In the two weeks since the last micebook agency leaders’ virtual meeting, agency directors and owners had gone from being hopeful that they might still be able to deliver some live events towards the end of this year, to now most, if not all business postpone to 2021 or cancel.
Waddington added that many corporates cannot foresee live events happening until there is a vaccine for this COVID-19 virus and people start travelling again. “What is now starting to lead people’s thinking and strategy for this year and going into next year is virtual events.
“When they can start to introduce a live element to those events, they will do so, and that will be the growth of the hybrid event. There is a massive movement to virtual and online platforms.”
However, the session highlighted the event agencies that have only focused on live events and don’t have experience in delivering virtual events.
In addition, some event agencies explained they did not want to change their business model away from live events to virtual events, as was the case for Unicorn Events which recently ceased operation.
Hannah Luffman, founder of Unicorn Events explained her decision at the session. “We were a live experience agency and we realised that if we were going to battle through this period, we would have to pivot to something virtual. But we didn’t have the experience or credentials to do it and were coming up against lots of agencies that had done it before.”
The session also offered struggling agencies advice on mergers, acquisitions and partnerships and warned against seeing them as a “knight in shining armour.”
“The Covid crisis shouldn’t be the only reason for selling,” said a session participant.
“You need to think about the value you have to add, and it’s all about relationships. There is a lot of time and energy in chemistry meetings, which is difficult in the current situation, before you even start to think about due diligence. It’s a long process.”
However, many smaller agencies said they were looking at partnerships with virtual event specialists to enable them to offer those services to their clients quickly.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
