As we enter into the next decade, we look forward to supporting event managers as they drive to create amazing experiences that align with attendees’ expectations — and with their corporate goals.
Throughout the 2010’s, the event industry underwent massive change as technology evolved at an unprecedented rate. At Eventbase, we’ve seen mobile event apps move from digital guides, including our first event app, to incorporating innovative technologies like chatbots and personalized recommendations.
To help event managers prepare for the decade ahead, we’ve released our comprehensive annual event trends report highlighting areas of opportunity and growth.
Below is just a taste of what event managers can expect. To read the full report, download the free 2020 Event Trends ebook.
1. B2B brands will strive to be more interactive with attendees
To truly engage with attendees, corporate events will need to incorporate more hands-on, experiential elements. According to Sydny Lane, Senior Digital Project Manager at Agency EA, “there is a misconception that consumer events are more engaging and social than B2B events. Our clients understand that this doesn’t have to be the case. They actively seek out ways to do less talking at and more engagement with their attendees.”
2. Exhibitors will benefit from strategically designed floor plans
In 2020, we expect event managers to drive more traffic to sponsor booths and activations by strategically designing their event layouts. From placing the exhibition hall directly in front of the keynote arena to hosting happy hours on the trade show floor, exhibitors will play a greater role in the overall event experience.
3. Event sustainability is a shared mission
Every action counts — from relying on tap water instead of plastic bottles to encouraging the use of public transport to get around the event host city. By making sustainability a shared mission, event managers, sponsors, and attendees will all play a part in reducing the environmental impact of events.
4. Ensuring your event tech partners are enterprise-grade will be a priority
More departments are now involved in event tech procurement — IT, security teams, legal — and are looking at things like single sign-on to provide a seamless attendee experience across platforms while maintaining a backend that their security teams approve of. With the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) coming into effect in 2020, it’s critical to insure all of your event tech partners are enterprise-grade so your data security isn't compromised with poor integrations or weak data security measures of a third-party.
5. Incorporating experiential marketing will benefit your bottom line
Experiential marketing sponsorships have multiple buyer personas including event managers, brand managers, customer experience managers, and experiential agencies. These non-traditional event buyers have big ideas and bigger budgets, so they want more flexibility to activate their brand than a 10x10 booth space allows. Encourage these big ideas with a value-based selling approach and become a partner in bringing their activation to life.
6. Attendee personas will be used heavily to drive event strategy
Attendee personas, brought to life with event data, can help event managers prioritize the most efficient use of event budget and make a clear case to other stakeholders for why some things are important, and others are not. Share the personas widely so the executive and sales teams have intimate knowledge about attendees’ expectations as you’re preparing for your event.
7. Personalization will become even more data-driven
In 2020, there is an excellent opportunity to leverage event data to deliver a more curated event experience than ever before. The most powerful data-driven solutions are machine learning, automation, and recommendation engines — combined, these three technologies allow event managers to personalize at scale based on users’ actual behavior to provide recommendations that will help attendees make the most of their event time.
2020 will be a telling year for event technology as we see innovations like 5G come into play alongside further advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Read the full report of what to expect in 2020 beyond by downloading Event Trends 2020.
