Despite the fact that virtual events have become the in-thing in the business events sector globally, most stakeholders such as visitors and exhibitors still prefer live events. This was revealed by a research commissioned by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) supported by the Society for Independent Show Organisers (SISO), whose findings were released on 27 August.
The research, which is part of the “Global Recovery Project,” research was carried out by British market research company, Explori with over 9 000 respondents from 30 countries.
According to a statement issued by UFI week, an increase in respondents’ experience with virtual events was noted.
“Around half of the respondents have now experienced an online-only event in some format, with two-thirds of exhibitors having spoken at a third party event, or run their own online event. As of early August, only 13 percent of exhibitors had paid to sponsor a third-party online event,” read part of the statement.
Notwithstanding the increased exposure to and experience with virtual events, the research established that visitors and exhibitors still regarded live events more highly than virtual ones because of the benefits such as opportunities for networking.
“Both visitors and exhibitors rate live events more highly across almost all aspects. Networking is seen as a particular strength of live events, with 77 percent of exhibitors and 83 percent of visitors stating that face-to-face events were much better than online in this respect,” said UFI in the statement.
Over three-quarters of visitors expressed interest in attending a hybrid event.
“79 percent of visitors have at least some interest in attending a hybrid event as an online-only delegate. When asked to consider an event they had never attended before, they had a much higher interest in attending remotely compared to an event they were familiar with,” the statement said.
The statement quoted UFI Chief Executive Officer, Kai Hattendorf who summarised the research findings as follows:
“This global survey delivers key insights to organizers as they plan ahead. It underlines the clear preference that people want to meet in person to do business. At the same time, it gives a clear roadmap for areas where digital events need to evolve to become a permanent fixture in a hybrid future for the business events industry.”
Explori Global Strategy Director, Sophie Holt described the present role of virtual events as that of standing in for live events during the coronavirus pandemic and complementing in-person events when the pandemic is over.
“Online and hybrid seem to have a complementary role to play alongside live events. Not only will they give reassurance to visitors who are concerned about safety in the short term, but still want to connect with their community, but they may also have an important role to play in bringing new audiences to established events. This could form part of the customer journey, with online-only events acting as qualification and conversion tools for a flagship live event, or giving sponsors access to a totally new audience whose needs are better met by the virtual setting,” Holt said.
“We will be conducting a further phase of research in the near future to further understand the sentiments of visitors and exhibitors, including their views on different aspects of the digital event formats,”