2022 Event Industry Predictions: What We Got Wrong

As we say goodbye to 2022, the event industry finds itself in an interesting place. Thankfully, it’s remarkably more hopeful than 12 months ago, when Covid was canceling the early event dates off the calendar and throwing venues into disarray. The pandemic feels very distant. But the past years have shown us anything can happen. International organizations and central banks have forecasted an uncertain new year, with talks of recession, contagion, and staffing crises. Who knows what shall come? As event producers and organizers it pays to be agile and resilient.

In that vein, it would be remiss to let the year pass by without looking back a little bit to learn from our mistakes as we go forward into 2023.

Humbly, I share some of my top event miscalculations of 2022:

• Hybrid events. We invested heavily in hybrid. Learning best practices, testing software, and developing concept plans. Even producing a webinar series. Not many clients were interested.  No matter how we tried to make them appealing, clients’ minds tended to focus on towards on-location, or all digital formats, with little cross-over between audiences. I don’t think it was a wasted effort though– there will be a time for hybrid events, but maybe not just yet.
• Eventtech tools. We continued exploring and engaging with eventtech platforms and new tools as we’ve done continually since the digital turn at the start of the pandemic. Not only did a majority of these offerings not interest me, but they also didn’t interest many of our clients either. Clients doing digital events increasingly went for white-labeled products, or bespoke web and landing page setups for their events, skipping event platforms altogether. We ended up creating a lot of landing pages and websites for client events this year. Should I have expected we’d be doing so many I’d have planned better– as they tend to be a bit more costly for us as an agency than we usually budget for (in time and team power).
• The perfect location. Finding the right venue in 2022 was much, much more difficult than ever before. There’s been a bit of a goldilocks scenario with location scouting this year for clients and upcoming events. When returning on-location– the experience needs to be elevated– like nothing attendees have experienced before. We’ve spent more time than ever venue scouting locations this year, and sometimes we’ve come up short. The location has also been the reason for winning, and in some unfortunate cases, losing and passing on some projects– even beyond the concept or content. I anticipate this challenge to continue into the new year as participants remain selective over the events they attend. I’ve found that the perfect venue, doesn’t always exist. If that’s the case– stop looking for it and make it yourself. Here’s a call to get more creative with your event spaces, and build more novelty into the familiar spaces to shift expectations and create the unexpected.
• Sustainability (a sad one). I truly believe that event organizers have a responsibility to produce events with a lower carbon footprint, and that make a lighter impact on the planet. But this enthusiasm does not always extend to the client side. We found it hard to balance these efforts with client desires for lots of single-use printed objects that will be used for one day only. Advocating better for both will be a plan for 2023.

With an industry as fast-moving and unexpected as this one, you’re bound to make some miscalculations, no matter how close you’re following things. It’s how you react that matters. What do you think about my 2022 missteps? What do you think is in store for 2023?

Here’s what I’ve been catching up on:

The Events Industry

VentureBeat
CES 2023 is targeting 100K attendees and millions of square feet of booths
The tech press is eagerly awaiting CES in Las Vegas next week, and the event industry will be watching just as eagerly. CES is a bellwether for the industry, and the 2023 edition looks to be a true return to form, bigger and bolder than ever.

Thurgauer Zeitung
Weinfelden: «Inhaus» und «die50plus» fallen erneut ins Wasser
While the fair industry has seen a big upswing since the summer of 2022, not all fairs have fared equally well. Exhibitions targeting b2c attendees have experienced some challenges and examples such as this– delays for these shows until 2024 due to low exhibitor turnout.

Digital Event Technologies

MarTech Series
Events.com Secures $100M Capital Investment from Global Emerging Markets (GEM) to Accelerate Global Expansion and Growth
It’s been a minute since we’ve seen anything close to a funding announcement for eventtech– so this is some eplosive news. There’s apparently still money and opportunity for robust eventtech solutions, especially in emerging markets as Events.com announces a new funding round to spur growth overseas.

Trade Show News
Grip Launches Innovate Tool to Help Event Organizers Monetize Buyer-Supplier Meetings and Boost ROI
One of the most challenging parts of a digital trade show? Matchmaking and point of sale. Eventtech platform Grip has developed a new feature to smooth those pain points, allowing interested parties to connect with greater efficiency to make sales directly on the digital exhibition hall.

MarTech Series
The Rise of “Zoomers”: How Digital Engagement Platforms Have Changed The Business World
The digital turn for the event industry is here to stay, no question about it. But digital events have grown to complement physical and on-location events, taking an accepted supporting role in the event calendar. “Zoomers” captures those who genuinely prefer attending events online, comprising a growing part of the business public.

How to do it

BizBash
16 Cool Event Ideas You May Have Missed From Spotify, Mercedes-Benz, Variety, and More
In 2023? Immersion will be everything. Here are some stellar ideas to inspire your next event, that will get you in the mood to plan something extraordinary. I’m taken by the Mercedes – Avatar mashup.

Event Partner
Datenverarbeitung bei Events
Data processing at events – where do you stand legally as an organizer? Just because you don’t know the ins and outs, it doesn’t mean it’s a grey area. Just as participant data is collected, it must be handled appropriately. Here’s a comprehensive primer on how to keep your business in the clear.

Everything Experiential
Post Pandemic ‘Desperation’ For Reality Is Driving Brands Towards Experiential Marketing
2023 may be a perfect year for event planners to capitalize on their live communication strategy by partnering with brands to execute immersive brand events. The drive for authentic experiences has created an opportunity for event organizers to craft bespoke experiences for audiences onsite, everywhere.

MeetingsNet
If Your Venue Dumps Your Event, Have a Concessions List Ready
Perfect venue? Not so fast. Your perfect venue can fall through at the most inopportune time. It doesn’t have to be a disaster, You’ll have to think on your feet. Here’s what you need to do to be prepared to turn this heartbreak around.

Don’t miss it

Conference News
Putting a price on value
With new methods of measurement and standardization for the event industry, there’s never been a greater rush to quantify metrics around attendee and participant value. But it’s also worth examining the value that can’t easily be measured. Not all values can be calculated in figures. So it’s worth taking a deeper look at what value means to your attendees and understanding its true worth.

Exhibition World
Perfect economic storm a test as event planners urged to co-operate and contingency plan
What’s on the horizon in 2023? Recession, according to the International Monetary Fund. No sweat for event organizers, argues this opinion piece, as the past pandemic years have made the industry more robust and vital than ever.

Exhibition World
Getting back to full health
The trade fair and exhibition industry has weathered quite the storm since the onset of Covid-19. Is 2023 the year the MICE industry returns to full steam? It’s more than ready, argues this opinion piece, looking over some of the latest trends and what’s to come for the sector in the new year.

Closing thoughts­

That’s it for this week’s edition of The Lookout! Very best from me and the PIRATEx team and a fruitful 2023 to you and yours!

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The Lookout Newsletter #73

Written by:
Felix Josephi
PIRATEx Managing Director