What does the future of events hold?

Necessity sure is the mother of inventions, & this old adage is justified by the way the whole world is quickly adapting to the challenge of COVID-19.

With the restrictions placed on the way humans connect & travel, many industries have had to take a step back & rethink the way things are done.

One such industry that has been impacted by the strain of COVID-19 in more ways than imaginable, in the event industry.

Arguably no other industry faced the challenges of COVID-19 better than the event industry, which pivoted from a physical, in-person bases operation to one in the virtual space pretty quickly & seamlessly.

One word that has crept out of the debris COVID-19 left behind in the event industry, is Virtual Events.

Virtual Events include virtual conferences, AGMs, trade shows, expos, Exhibitions, & a lot of other event types that have proceeded to the Virtual terrain in the past year.

However, this turn of the times underlines a lot of heavy technical stuff, much of which has got to do with event planners hankering to bring back the magic of live, in-person events to the virtual ones.

Technologies like AR, AI, VR, robotics, & high-end data analytics have all made an appearance in the event landscape all thanks to this need.

All these technologies, while still in their early stages of development, help towards creating an engaging, immersive event environment for attendees.

They help event planners & organizers create personalized, meaningful, & memorable event experiences for the participants, to further bridge the gap between physical, in-person events & virtual ones.

However, as the years change, so does the audience mindset, needs, & wants.

Virtual Events today are held much differently from how they used to be held before 2020, & will continue to be held differently once we are past 2021.

The current scenario concerning Virtual Events relies on the top 5 event industry trends that have given proven attendee engagement & satisfaction to event planners.

In this blog, we tell you these top 5 event industry trends that the future of Virtual Events holds.

1. Hybrid Events

Hybrid Events are starting to make waves now, but if you ask the event industry’s guess, they will be the superstar of the coming times.

Hybrid Events perfectly combine the physical, in-person events with the Virtual world, & provide attendees with an experience that’s the best of both worlds.

Hybrid Events are complete with AR, AI, VR, & other interactive data deployments to keep the audience engaged & focused, both in the virtual plane as well as the physical world.

Hybrid Events are also touted to be the lighthouse of the event industry when it comes to recentering the entire narrative of how events are supposed to be conducted in the future.

With AR, AI, & VR blurring the line between virtual & physical in the event landscape, Hybrid Events are the perfect way for event planners to provide their attendees with an event experience beyond any they have ever witnessed!

2. Artificial Intelligence(AI)

AI is slowly but surely taking over the whole world, one piece of revolutionary technology at a time.

In the coming years, AI will no longer be a technology talked about excitedly in terms of future developments, but something that will be ever-pervasive in the entire event industry.

Everything from ticketing, registration, vendor services, event management tools, & attendee experience management, will be taken care of by AI tools & services.

AI will not only reduce human workload during events but will also help seamlessly transport any & all kinds of events from the physical plane to the virtual.

Not just that, but AI can also decipher your attendees’ motives, professional histories, & any predilections easily, thus providing you with enough ammo to create personalized event experiences for them.

AI is also touted to lay the groundwork for what is being called conversational event platforms. These will basically provide attendees with enough flexibility to attend the Virtual/Hybrid Event at their own leisure time, & in whichever way, they wish to.

3. The Internet Of Things

IoT has already turned heads with the intricate application of connecting each & every internet-enabled device over a common, shared network.

The idea that all of the world’s internet-enabled devices will be interconnected with each other & share a common database has been the stuff of science fiction movies & novels up till now.

But in the coming years, IoT is slowly becoming a reality that is set to rule every industry, not excluding the event world.

From intelligent ‘touch buttons’ that will tell attendees when their next sessions will begin & in which direction they have to go for those, to AI-enabled ‘mood detectors’ during virtual events & conferences that tell event organizers about the attendees’ moods, AI is set to redesign the world of virtual events/conferences/trade shows/expos/exhibitions quite considerably.

4. Robotics

According to the International Federation of Robotics, the demand for service robots increased by a significant number in the last few years.

Especially between the years of 216 & 2019, service robots took over most of the menial jobs that humans undertook before that.

The same trend is sure to be seen in the event landscape as well, as robots are set to take over ticketing, registration, small during-event service tasks, & to overall take charge of ensuring a smooth & satisfactory attendee event experience.

With the introduction of robotics led services in Virtual/Hybrid Events, event organizers & planners have the option of utilizing human brains & the workforce for more important tasks like analyzing, sorting, & repurposing data, along with other things.

Robotics is also set to evolve, with the imminent introduction of AI-controlled robots that don’t need to be explicitly programmed or given instructions to.

This will save a lot of valuable human time, & undoubtedly lead to a better, more enriching, & smoother virtual event experience for attendees overall.

5. AR & VR deployments

We can’t possibly talk about successful Virtual/Hybrid Events without mentioning the role AR & VR play in those.

AR, or augmented reality as it’s called, helps bridge the gap between virtual & physical planes for event attendees.

AR takes the reality the attendees are experiencing, & transforms it into a more enjoyable, immersive, & detailed experience for them to soak in & remember.

Most companies & organizations in today’s time swear by AR deployments for their increased attendee engagement, satisfaction, & enjoyment rate, along with high attendee retention numbers, & an overall richer event experience.

While AR ‘augments’ the reality, VR transports attendees to an entirely different plane of existence & experience during Virtual/Hybrid Events & other deployments.

With effective VR deployments in your Virtual/Hybrid events, you can safely transport your attendees to a whole nother dimension of entertainment & let them enjoy the event from a vastly different perspective.

VR enabled gamification features, active platform orientation sessions, product/service explanations, & event tours, are all examples of activities that can make your attendee participation experience richer, better, & more memorable!

Liked what you read? Keep following this space & visit+follow us on Medium for more of such articles & blogs about the latest happenings & trends in the world of Virtual/Hybrid event technology.