Some Thoughts on the State of Business Events (2020)

Predictions about event trends for 2020 are abound right now. EventMB has a great article listing 100 event trends they see transforming the industry. Great resource, but quite a handful, I must warn you.  

As we start gearing up for 2020, I wanted to take a step back and look at where we are at fundamentally in the business events industry, and hopefully come to a conclusion as to what will always remain true even for the years ahead. 

Here are some thoughts that I have on the current state of business events: 

1. Business events formats have not changed in decades. 

The way trade shows are run today is pretty much the same as what used to happen decades ago. The business model has not changed much either. It is still  mostly about selling exhibition space to exhibitors. The format of business meetings have not change much either. Most of the meetings are still about people sitting down, listening to a speaker and almost struggling to pay attention. 

Is it not time for these to be disrupted?

2. Physical data is more valuable than digital data. But it’s getting lost.

We have been talking a lot about big data in the events world. But there’s a whole category of data that we have been missing all along. In fact, in most cases we are simply not even capturing it. And that’s called: Physical Data. 

Physical Data is  about actual interactions that happen in the physical world. E.g.: people meeting with each other, people collecting name cards and brochures, people sitting down at a session and listening to a speaker. Today, we are not capturing this data and instead we are focusing solely on Digital Data. This is a huge loss. Physical data provides us with the essential ingredients to build an accurate behavioural profile of your attendees. In fact, physical data is far more valuable than digital data. You can fill up a false information in a survey form. But, if you leave a room five minutes into a session and don’t come back again, what does that speak of your interest in the speaker or the topic? And what kind of information we can infer from this simple act and use it down the road to better curate content for that attendee?

3. Business events still generate way too much paper waste.

To be fair, event organisers, venues, hotels and suppliers are now upping the game to make events more sustainable. Sustainability is a hot trend right now. However, a typical trade show with 150 exhibiting companies still result in at least 3 tonnes of wasted paper! And that’s coming from exhibitors! In this day and age, companies are still printing brochures. And what really happens to these brochures? Is it fair to say that 90+% of all printed brochures go to waste? Then, why are we still printing them? Why not conduct events with a complete ban on printed brochures?

4. People will always continue to want to go to physical events. 

The naysayers have predicted the end of conference era, while others foresee the death of trade shows since they do not seem to bring the same level of ROI compared to other marketing channels. 

In spite of all the revolution that’s happening in the digital information world, live experiences are still what people crave and want to pay for. You can today get unlimited access to music online for less than $10 / month. And yet people are still prepared to fork out over 20 times that amount to go for a concert. Why? 

Likewise, even though TED makes all of its content free, people are still prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to attend TED live. Why?

Nothing beats live experiences. Nothing still beat face to face. And that ain’t gonna change. 

Physical business events are here to stay. 

That probably will never ever change. 

If you’re interested in finding out more, I’ve actually written more detailed articles on each of these thoughts on GEVME’s blog. 

I’d love to hear what you think.