Eventtech Saves the Day, Manifest Restart, and the Competition Between Event Platforms Heats Up!

Welcome back to The Lookout! I hope you’re having a great week. We have been blown away by the feedback from last week’s eventtech ecosystem map. It’s been truly incredible to hear the reception from many of the platforms as well as many in the #eventprofs community. We’ve taken on all of the feedback received, and we can’t wait to release the next version of the ecosystem map! All in all, we’ve collected over 170 different platforms spanning all in one solutions, event marketing, event management, ticketing and more. What’s even better is that our team has been getting busy and hands-on with as many of these solutions as we can, so we can share our experience with them.

Stay tuned for the big picture landscape map of all the solutions to be released next week. And you can also stay on the lookout for updates to the map each quarter. This space is rapidly changing!

The PIRATEx team has been very busy putting together some of our initial productions for the year. We’ve also been on the road scouting different locations around Germany for studio setups and filling out our calendar. We have some exciting plans for the year ahead. And from the look at the news, the industry has also been on fire this week, with many new developments. Let me catch you up on the top stories!

My Top Reads:

Manifest Restart

Many of Germany’s largest event industry associations, spanning the worlds of business to entertainment came together to develop a manifest of how to begin large-scale, in person events again, safely. The “Manifest Restart” matrix includes a number of criteria that should be ensured by event organizers before events can begin again. The document is open for critique, and expresses the confidence of many in the industry to slowly restart events again in a safe manner this summer. 

• Manifest Restart: Konzept für die Zukunft der Veranstaltungswirtschaft [Cimunity] 
• Kommentar zum Manifest Restart des Forums Veranstaltungswirtschaft [Event Partner]

Learnings from over 400 Digital and Hybrid Events

 This recently released White Paper from Vok Dams brings together some of the experience of 439 digital and hybrid events from the past year. The study aimed to identify some of the key themes and outcomes from these events, and brought together event organizers, project managers and focus groups to realize some of the findings. Overall it is a great read, and highlights some important outcomes for participants– including the need to maintain autonomy, and the very short attention span in the digital environment as compared to the physical one. One key finding? Keep your online events a maximum of 4 hours to ensure participant attentiveness.  

• Digital Download of the study (free from Vok Dams)
• Learnings aus über 400 digitalen und hybriden Events | tw-media.com [TW Media]
• Erfolgsfaktoren hybrider und digitaler Events: Vok Dams veröffentlicht neues Whitepaper [Event Partner]

Eventtech to the rescue!

Such an awesome story this week as event tech platform CVent is being used to organize and facilitate the COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the US. I’ve really enjoyed hearing the great work done by many of the event and convention centers here in Germany being used for vaccine centers, but here’s the first time I’ve seen an eventtech being used in a similar way. It’s incredible to see the industry step up to fight the virus.

• Cvent Event Technology Helps Organize Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution [CVent]
•  University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) to use Cvent to help vaccinate 15,000 front line health workers [Eventech]

#EventTechnology:

• Event Technology Platform Hubilo Integrates Multilingual Feature for the European Market [Business Wire]
• Bizzabo Joins Adobe Exchange Partner Program To Enable Marketers To Run and Measure Virtual and Hybrid Events [Martech Series] 
• Event tech firm Banzai acquires Florida-based webinar platform Demio [Business Journal] 
• Meetingselect completes acquisition of German MICE Access [Conference and Meetings World]
• Socio Redefines Event Data & Analytics with the Launch of Data Dashboard [PR Web]
• Zoom’s New Face Filters Will Lighten Up Your Next Video Call [Review Geek]
• InEvent raises $2M for its virtual conference platform  [Yahoo Finance]

How to do it: 

• How Are Virtual Events Facilitating Community Building And Networking [Entrepreneur]
• Designing virtual events for the top, middle and bottom of the sales funnel: interview with Gerd De Bruycker, EMEA Marketing Director, Cisco [Event Planners Talk]
• Are Virtual Events Really More Inclusive? 4 Ways to Keep Accessibility Top of Mind [Event Manager Blog]
• 6 unterschätzte Tipps für gelungene Online-Meetings und virtuelle Events [UPLOAD Magazin]
• Seven Ways To Maximize The Impact Of Promotional Products For Virtual Events [Forbes]
• How to Approach a Virtual or Hybrid Event Like the Producer of a Movie or Broadway Show [Business 2 Community]
• Virtual exhibitions: how can we overcome the challenge of engaging a distracted delegate? [The Drum]
• 5 tips on running virtual events – DWP Digital [UK]

Not to be missed:

• Clubhouse for Events [Selected] 
• The Challenge of Virtualizing Trade Shows and Exhibit Halls [PCMA]
• Feiern bis zu einer Inzidenz von 200 – mit Tests und Immunitätsausweis [Tagesspiegel]
• Die richtige Dramaturgie im digitalen Event [Event Partner]
• E3 pushes forward with plans for a digital 2021 event [Video Games Chronicle]
• Meeting Allstars – The Interview [Prestige Events Magazine]
• Mark Shashoua: passion for disruption [Exhibition News]
• STB and partners to showcase reimagined experiences at March virtual event launch [Conference and Meetings World]
• 2021 Event Trends Guide [Endless]

That’s it for this edition of The Lookout!

Next week, stay tuned for some of our top learnings from our first events of 2021, and the big picture of the event tech ecosystem map! Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter to always be updated on the news from the online event world!