As a meeting planner and Destination Management Company owner, I have been struggling since March 2020, as all of us have, to quickly adapt to the new (temporary) normal of the event and travelling industry.
Most of my business has either been cancelled or postponed to 2021/22 or has turned to “virtual”.
Let me explain. We specialize in reward programs by the way of team traveling to unique places, with unique programs, sales kickoffs and destination conferences. Needless to say that in every single word of the above description, there is a strike out, a complete and full stop of activity because of COVID-19 (team traveling, destination conferences, F2F events in general).
So how have we adapted? Survived? Well for one thing, we are a sound company, whose scalable structure has been able to maintain low operative costs, without impacting customer service, or vendors relationship. But this is not enough. Resilience is for a good part of our continued efforts to bring our clients solutions that are viable for everyone. But there is also hope, hope that we will remember as a community, what it is to really be “together” and that we will revert to “travel” to cement this “togetherness”.
Naturally, virtual events have become the most obvious temporarily fix to the current health situation across the globe.
So as a meeting planner, we did what we do best, we scouted “virtual venues” and platforms to best suit the need of our clients and to give their sponsors and exhibitors the same freedom to communicate as if they were doing so F2F in an exhibition hall, or a hotel meeting space area.
Then we had to make sure speakers were given tools to either pre-record their sessions or go LIVE (with all the tech issues that can arise from this type of settings).
And we had to mix all the ingredients and create the glue and the chemistry that holds the whole event together, the same way we would plan the logistics of everything for a F2F event (marketing campaign, swag creation and design + implementation, weekly meetings with speakers, coaching for sponsors for the virtual booth etc. etc..).
So, what’s so different between a virtual and a F2F event, really? And isn’t it a better model for the future anyway?
Virtual events are more cost effective or so one would think (no hotel rooms, no meals, no transportation), leave (slightly) less carbon footprint (no travel), require less time away from base for attendees and speakers, and less costs to expense with their companies or from their own pocket. Wow, this is ideal for the organizers, sponsors and attendees, really!
Wait… Not so fast…
The success of a conference is really noted by its ROI. How many of the attendees are going to use the products marketed at the conference. Lead generation and transformation is the wholly grail for organizers.
Will lead generation be different during a virtual event than a F2F event? What are the fundamental differences between virtual and F2F that might impact lead generation and transformation?
It is too early to pull data from large virtual events, but based on simple psychology, it is easy to see that direct human contact and human interaction holds an additional emotional force that virtual events can’t compete with. During virtual events it is easy for an attendee to dismiss any interaction, and miss on those emotional cues and attachment that will make them go with one product from another.
Let me explain.
You are invited to a conference or a sales kickoff in Cape Town, South Africa, or in Lima Peru or in Marrakesh, Morocco or Paris, France… Instantaneously your emotional intelligence will affect your choices, because you will have a “Total Recall” of all senses when it’s time to make a choice, implement it and make it durable.
In virtual reality, this “Total Recall” does not really exist. You are not emotionally attached to anything and there are very few parts associated with the memory of a session delivered by a speaker other than the content itself of the session. And thus, there will be very little to no emotional association or attachment with any product or any speaker.
On the long term, “Total Recall” stays with you with more or less accuracy, but it does stick around! (don’t you remember a special smell, a special taste, a special sound and immediately attach it to a place and/or an action?)
Virtual events will not give your audience this powerful tool to remember you by. And thus, it seems like virtual events will leave you with a less long-lasting impact with possibly less potential for ROI, because they will not necessarily associated with a pleasant memory rich in all 5 sense-recalls.
It would be interesting to create studies on the subject, I am sure there will be. In the meantime, I think it is safe to say that the savings companies can make today with virtual events (if any savings as some virtual events can also cost a lot of money with a total interactive platform), do not guarantee an equal or better ROI than F2F events.
So while we are here to help our clients set up and manage their virtual events, during this pandemic situation, we are also here to remind them that after the “virtual era” it is important to remember what makes us human and what really matters for any community, and company to strive for: sharing ideas, smiles, and emotions with the real world and the diversity of our planet for a long lasting impact.
Remember we said that virtual events are better because they leave a smaller carbon footprint…well maybe, but what about the loss for all the small vendors and businesses around the world. What about the sustainable farmer in Morocco who used to supply the local hotel or restaurant where your attendees could stay or have dinner, who can no longer sustain his family. What about the responsible driver in Peru who will not take you from the airport to your hotel and won’t be able to send her kids to a good school anymore? What about the conservationists in South Africa who fight poaching every day in the Pilanesberg Reserve and counts on eco-tourism money to fund their efforts, a program your attendees could do as a side excursion to your conference? What about all this? THIS is the real disaster footprint, that virtual events will leave in the long term everywhere on the planet if the model continues as it is.
The future will tell, but I believe that F2F events and travelling will be back because the world economy needs it, because we, as social human beings, need it. We will certainly be more conscious of how sustainable events should be but REALITY will always beat VIRTUAL, every time!
So, remember when we were travelers? The same way we are here for you now, to help you create and manage your temporary virtual events, when you are ready to travel again and have your teams and client reconnect with the real world, dare to be different, reach out to us, and chose iTEAM-DMC: We’ll Make it Happen!