Many of us are eager for normal life to return. For working professionals, part of that normalcy consists of business travel and attending meetings and events in person. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — nothing can replace face-to-face relationship building. After 1.5 years of Covid restrictions, handshakes, warm hugs from familiar faces, those classic elevator pitches and the awkward small talk at networking events are all parts of the business travel experiences we miss.
However, before the pandemic, attending an in-person meeting, conference, tradeshow or industry event would typically require transportation, lodging, and meals, in addition to the often lofty registration fee. This tower of expenses quickly dissolves organizations’ annual travel budgets.
Because there are significant savings attributed to virtual meetings, we believe virtual and hybrid events — which bring greater flexibility to location-bound business events — are here to stay. Thanks to this new trend, organizers have an incredible opportunity to expand their reach by engaging with attendees from across the globe.
Engagement continues to be top of mind for meeting planners who have always battled with programming vs. distractions. Keeping the remote portion of your audience engaged virtually is even more challenging.
As the economic landscape continues to recover, budgets will be top of mind for leadership. Virtual attendance offers a budget-friendly alternative to accessing the same valuable content while eliminating direct costs related to business travel. This also allows you to stay home and tend to other commitments.
When faced with choosing where to spend your time and your budget, attendees will need to be selective and may need to limit attendance to a few key in-person events each year, while attending the rest virtually.
As events begin to resume, organizers will be fighting for your attention (and budgets!). Drawing attendees in has never been more critical, and you’ll want to be sure to win over your guests! Focus on quality educational topics and valuable content, but planners should not lose sight of the other event elements that draw in attendees such as entertainment, inspiring or motivational keynote speakers, appealing locations, and ease-of-access. Place a solid effort on publicly defining your value proposition as your attendees will need to deliver a strong business case when obtaining approval for in-person attendance.
As a planner, you can drive additional value by providing attendees with access to an event library with online access to all speaker presentations and session recordings.
Your key to success with any event is ensuring each of your attendees' time is well-spent. Your audience should walk away feeling more educated, having a few more solid connections or resources in their network, and leave with positive memories of their experience, regardless of if it’s in-person, virtual or hybrid.
While we encourage readers to do their due diligence in sourcing the right virtual event platforms for their needs, we’ve provided a short list below of some options for your consideration (in no particular order).
If you’re planning your organization’s first hybrid event, you’ll find many similarities between an in-person event. M&E professionals will need to:
Determining which events you should host in-person, virtually, or as hybrid events — as well as which events your business travelers should attend in-person or remotely — are decisions that should be driven by data.
If you’re ready to take a deep dive into your organization’s corporate travel patterns so you can make more effective, cost-saving plans for your company-hosted events and travel program, contact Traxo today. As the industry leader in business travel data aggregation, we can ensure you never have to make decisions about business travel with partial information again.