Tiby Kuruvila, the global CEO of eventplus.io, shared his outlook on the future of the event industry following the pandemic. His opinion piece was featured on Mash Media, a leading print/online medium focusing on the event landscape. The following article shares key points from his opinion piece. 

The Rebirth of the Event Industry

The event industry took a big hit following the pandemic, resulting in the global shutdown of many events. Since it was physically impossible to bring the organizers, exhibitors, and visitors under the same roof during the outbreak, we witnessed mass cancellation of events. According to online sources, during the peak pandemic, the event industry lost around $17bn. 

As time went by, the event sector too began to adapt to the situation. With cloud-based conference tools and platforms, the event professionals began to experiment with virtual events, resulting in the continuation of the event business. But the innovation in the event landscape does not end here. By combining physical and virtual events through the hybrid model, the event business is now scaling high. 

Hybrid Events- Revolutionizing the Event Landscape

Hybrid events are possibly going to be the next big thing in the event business. The fact that around 58% of businesses prefer the hybrid model proves that the hybrid events aren’t going anywhere. 

To build engaging and successful hybrid events, the event platforms are now integrated with smart features and effectively utilize leading technologies like IoT, Cloud, AI, Machine Learning, and Big Data Analytics. 

Enhancing Event Strategy with Hybrid Events

Every event professional should make hybrid events part of their marketing strategy. The hybrid model gives you the following opportunities. 

• Scale your reach and attendance rates
• Create more engagement in the events
• The hybrid model is flexible and gives the audience a choice to decide upon how they wish to participate
• Keep the marketing activity alive by sharing bits of the Livestream for future events promotion
• The scalability factor of the hybrid model brings more ROIs
• Realize visitor interests through matchmaking data. Look into booth traffic rates and accordingly plan future events

Smart Hybrid Events- What to Expect

The latest technologies have enabled the hybrid event market to expand incredibly.  A feature-rich event platform can redefine the hybrid event culture. The endless possibilities offered by hybrid events make it a favourite among event professionals. Let’s see a glimpse of what true hybrid events can offer. 

For physical events, the visitors will be asked to install custom, event-branded apps on their smartphones, and along with smart sensors installed at numerous booths, they can be offered customized, proximity-based experiences, brilliant networking, event heat-maps, and on-site navigation features. To ensure the safety of the visitors in physical booths, features like contact tracing and crowd management can also be promoted on the premises. 

Zero-contact smart kiosks check-ins, with quick facial recognition and temperature scans, online brochures, e-ticketing, and AI-powered matchmaking features will become part of true hybrid events.

Quality visitor experience across multiple channels, with tools for scaling visitor engagement, will refine the event performance. Real-time analytics will shed insights into visitor behaviour and will help in planning future events. 

Conclusion

The true purpose of hybrid events should be the digital transformation of the event sector. By leveraging the latest technology innovations, the hybrid event should be every bit ready to offer the next generation experience for the organizers, exhibitors, and visitors.  

eventplus, a leading hybrid platform, promotes hassle-free event creation and management, by offering state-of-the-art features. To learn more about the product, visit eventplus.io