Over the past two years, the events industry has been forced to go through some powerful transformations. On a dime we were expected to pivot from heavy-hitting in-person events to offering virtual experiences that required some out-of-the-box thinking.

Though 2021 finally saw a return of live events, each new Covid variant throws us a new curve ball. But if we’ve learned anything during the pandemic, it’s that prepared event planners can hit these curve balls out of the park.

With a new year upon us, let’s take a look at some of the event trends we see developing over the coming months.

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Event Trends to Keep an Eye On

Asynchronous Content Delivery

Whether you’re hosting an in-person, virtual or hybrid event, all can greatly benefit from the flexibility of asynchronous content delivery. While asynchronous experiences are still in their infancy stage, many industry experts are predicting this style of content delivery is the future of events.

What might this look like?

Think about offering remote attendees in different time zones dedicated live content or even on-demand content. Consider having your sales team use asynchronous video content to introduce warm trade show leads to more information about your product or service. This video content can be tailored to fit each prospect’s individual needs, making the typical sales experience far more personal.

Year-Round Engagement

In the past, event organizers would put all of their promotional eggs into one basket – the event itself. Once the event was done, it was, well, done. Sure, there may be a follow-up email or two. But life went on and planning began for the next major event.

Growing a business is all about making genuine connections with prospects and customers. One effective way of doing this is by engaging your community throughout the entire year. The latest event technology is making it easier than ever for businesses to stay connected and nurture relationships before and long after the event has ended.

Insights-Driven Engagement

Your event is only as good as the amount of engagement you provide attendees. At the end of the day, it will be insights-driven decisions that lead you to a more successful event program. By tracking metrics that suggest levels of engagement, you can better allocate time and resources, improving your event’s engagement moving forward.

Luckily, event technology has evolved significantly over the last decade. And the silver lining of the pandemic has been awesome event tech innovations just in the past two years. Be sure your tech partners provide the right metrics that will help you gather insights to help make the best possible decisions.

Quality Over Quantity

The old adage “less is more” has always made sense, but its wisdom rings particularly true in our modern world. On any given day, most of us are overwhelmed with the amount of content hurtling toward us. Whether it’s webinar invites, sales emails, newsletters we forgot we signed up for or updates from one of many online communities we’ve joined, we can’t pay attention to all of it.

Your event attendees feel this same way. Over the coming year, as you potentially continue to plan virtual events, think about how you can pare down the content you offer so attendees don’t feel overwhelmed. Every piece of content should have a purpose and lead your attendees on a very specific journey.

Speaking of virtual events, people have gotten used to them. While virtual will never offer the same level of engagement as in-person events, it sure does offer convenience. People will need a truly exceptional experience to prompt them to get on a plane and come to you. You may want to rethink your strategy over the coming year and put your time and effort into hosting fewer – but more impactful – live events.

A Greater Focus on Sustainability

Historically, the events industry has been incredibly wasteful. Think of all the single-use plastic, catering waste, single-use signage, and free merchandise that has, sadly, ended up in landfills over the decades.

In the coming years, more and more people will reject those brands who hurt the environment. This means event planners have got to start NOW to develop strategies to go greener in the future. Read our blog post on how corporate events can go green and get in touch with us should you need help hosting a sustainable event in 2022.

The Wrap

No one knows what the new year holds in store for us exactly. What we can tell you is, those event planners who design programs around asynchronous content delivery, lean into year-round engagement, rely on insights to drive engagement, think quality over quantity and commit to going green will see the most success in 2022 and beyond.

And if you could use a hand leveraging any of these new trends, please give us a shout!