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Events have long been a crucial part of the GTM strategy for many businesses, particularly in the B2B landscape. More than just an avenue for networking and building relationships, events offer companies an excellent opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership, educate customers, and even increase brand loyalty.
However, the event landscape has undergone a significant transformation in the last couple of years, mainly as a result of the pandemic. In 2020, in-person events almost disappeared entirely. In 2021, hybrid events began emerging as a popular way to replicate in-person interactions.
In the last couple of years, some teams jumped back into the “in-person” event landscape, while others shifted their attention to digital opportunities, hosting webinars and online interactions to improve accessibility and reduce costs. So, what’s in store for events in 2024?
Answering the question “Are events making a comeback in 2024?” is difficult, because they never fully disappeared in the first place. While the number of in-person events did drop as a result of the pandemic, events in general remained a crucial tool for collecting, engaging, and nurturing leads.
In 2022 and 2023, however, digital, virtual, and hybrid events seemed to gain an edge over the “in-person” event, conference, or expo. 73% of B2B leaders said they considered webinars to be the best way to get high-quality leads in 2023, and 9 in 10 event marketers said that their virtual or hybrid events were successful in achieving their business goals.
It makes sense when you consider the benefits that “digitised” events have to offer. Online, or virtual events are cheaper to host, run, and attend than their in-person counterparts. They’re also ideal for today’s evolving audience. After all, around 75% of B2B buyers say they prefer to shop online without interacting with salespeople or executives in person.
However, as the effects of the pandemic subside, there’s a good chance we’ll see a resurgence in face-to-face events this year, particularly in industries where there’s a greater demand to build human relationships with consumers. In the B2B world, 8 out of 10 businesses say they build stronger relationships with experts they meet in person.
Plus, a massive 47% of event marketers say that in-person events have the highest ROI, even when you consider the extra costs of running an in-person experience.
Whether virtual or in-person, it seems certain that events still play a role in the GTM strategy of many companies. However, there are some major trends that might shift how we experience these events in the years to come. Here are some of our predictions for what we can expect from the event landscape as we move into the years ahead.
One of the major ways the event landscape has changed in recent years is that people are no longer using events just to network, or learn about new products. They’re looking for genuinely engaging experiences, and they’re ignoring the standard “old-fashioned” events that fail to live up to expectations. There’s more competition for “attendees” in today’s world than ever before.
The number of events is increasing, particularly as pandemic restrictions wane, and the arrival of the “metaverse” and extended reality in the mainstream landscape means we have more ways to attend events than ever before. With this in mind, event hosts will need to focus on finding more ways to create truly unique, immersive, and “experiential” events for their attendees.
This will likely pave the way for the increased use of technology for in-person, virtual, and hybrid events. Not only will we see more companies embracing the opportunities offered by extended reality, but we’re likely to see more focus on using AI to create personalised experiences for attendees.
For instance, AI tools can already help visitors to customise their event experiences, by guiding them towards the right sessions and breakouts, based on their specific interests.
The impact of the pandemic on the event industry reduced the number of in-person events available to attend across multiple industries. However, it also prompted event hosts to focus more on ensuring the experiences they offered were accessible and inclusive to all individuals.
Forced to host more of their events online and through virtual platforms, leaders had to look at accessibility from a new perspective. Not only did this positively affect the experience offered by virtual events in the last couple of years, but it’s carrying over into the physical event world too.
For instance, many in-person events now include access to “hybrid” experiences for people who are unable to attend every speech or session. Companies are spending more time carefully selecting venues for accessibility and leveraging technologies like AI-driven closed captioning to ensure everyone can understand the information being revealed.
If in-person events continue to grow in popularity again throughout 2024, we can expect them to be more inclusive than ever before. Already, we’re seeing an influx in hybrid-ready venues throughout the event landscape, prepared to support everything from live streaming, from extended reality.
Finally, though virtual event options are giving companies a cheaper way to host experiences in 2024 and beyond, many organisations are still focusing on the value of the “in-person” event. Unfortunately, the cost of hosting an in-person event is increasing. Some studies suggest the average price a company will pay to host an event this year is up to 60% higher than it was in 2023.
The complex economy also means businesses have less money to spend on venues, catering, speakers, and event experiences. This all means if hosts want to attract customers to their events in 2024, they’ll need to take a strategic, data-driven approach to ensure they’re using their budget correctly.
Business leaders and event planners will need to leverage more analytical technology to ensure they can demonstrate a clear ROI for their event experiences. At the same time, they’ll need to be more granular about measuring the impact of their events. We might see an increase in the number of tools companies leverage to track things like engagement, conversion rates, and opportunities.
Fortunately, there are already various tools that can assist companies with their data-driven approach to event planning and optimisation. For instance, platforms like Arena offer behind-the-scenes insights into engagement at virtual events. Alternatively, at in-person events, wearable tech like wristbands, and facial recognition cameras could help to monitor engagement with physical content.
Ultimately, continued demand for unique, interactive, and engaging experiences suggests events will play a role in the GTM strategy for many businesses in 2024. However, the events we attend this year, and in the years ahead, could be very different to the ones we knew before the pandemic.
Events in 2024 will definitely continue to offer value, but they’ll need to be more strategic, more focused on experience, and more accessible than ever before. Additionally, business leaders and event planners will need to work closely together to ensure they’re creating the right types of events for their specific business goals, target audience, and budget.
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