A Busy Week for the Online Events Industry!
Welcome back to The Lookout! Another Friday, another chance to catch up with the world of online events before diving into your well-deserved weekend! But remember, don’t drink and dive.
But random thought first: have interior designers been making a whole lot more money with a potential new branch called “video call background composition”? If I happened to have found a new business model feel free to use it, no credits needed.
All jokes aside, you might want to pimp your video call backgrounds for 2021 because just like everybody who’s in quarantine – online events aren’t going anywhere. That’s only one of many outcomes I took from EventMB’s “The Future of the Event Industry” conference this week. More on this below.
Other than that this week has been exciting for our PIRATEx product team as we had our first production of 2021 – and it was a biggie! We also had some Deep Dive recordings and have been working on the eventtech landscape launch. – “Huh? Didn’t you announce it last week already? I want the landscape!” – I know, I’m sorry but we keep getting tool suggestions so the launch is being postponed to next week (hopefully). So stay tuned!
What happened this week:
EventMB’s The Future of the Event Industry: 2021 Outlook
On Tuesday EventMB once again held their well-known conference on the future of events. But rather than looking into a virtual glass ball, they invited some of the greatest minds the experience economy has to offer. The agenda touched upon the future of some of the most pressing topics of today’s event industry. Personally, I liked the chilled but on-point opening by EventMB’s Editor in Chief Julius Solaris who then followed that up with an excellent short panel with Ruud Janssen (Founder of Event Design Collective) and Joe Pine (Author of The Experience Economy). Those 40 minutes alone gave me great insights and food for thought on what’s likely to and what should happen in 2021’s world of events. Want a recap? Then go check out EventMB’s twitter to see the beautifully illustrated content!
2020 Bizbash Event Style Award
Like every year Bizbash honored various events that are best in class in their corresponding categories with the 2020 Bizbash Event Style Award. This time, obviously, the event was held remotely. But it did not only award online events – the categories were: Live & Virtual Events & Experiences, Live events & Experiences, People’s choice, Best events of the decade, & Virtual events & experiences. Although I would consider a four-hour online award show almost too long, Bizbash kept a pleasant dynamic thanks to a mix of formats, two great emcees, well-presented case-studies in an interview format, and things like a yoga session, a mixology class, and a live concert at the end. Chapeau to Bizbash for a well-thought-out and entertaining event!
Top reads this week
This week, I’ll keep it short & sweet and only share with you my top 6 reads of the week. From canceled Carnival parades in Germany to an Art Festival with AR Technology in Canada, and also the launch of a new event tech platform, the event world was busy this week!
- How Event Planners Can Leverage Gaming to Engage Online Audiences [EventMB]
- Google Meet adding emoji reactions, low bandwidth improvements [9to5Google]
- Germany’s scaled-down coronavirus Carnival [DW]
- Event sector come together with artists, athletes, activists and politicians for Green Recovery [Event Industry News]
- This Art Festival Is Using AR Technology to Create a COVID-Safe Experience [BizBash]
- Event technologist cohort announces new product delivering event data transparency and digital global events wallet [Event Industry News]
News from the PIRATE HQ
As I’m writing this (and also as I’m sending this out), we’re in the middle of our first big online event production for 2021 – the BIOFACH / VIVANESS eSPECIAL 2021! This is a massive undertaking with over 1.500 exhibitors and well over 10.000 participants. And, as you can imagine, it’s not easy going – but what event can say that about itself right?
Anyway, we can’t wait for the successful completion of this and a gigantic kudos goes out to our production team behind it!
That’s it for this edition of The Lookout. What do you think about this new and shorter format? Do you like it? Let me know! Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our weekly newsletter to always be updated on the news from the online event world!
The Lookout Newsletter #13
Written by:
Felix Josephi
PIRATEx Managing Director
