Hybrid is the New Meeting Standard

As the event industry progresses, there will be an emergence of new technology. This will allow a combination of in person and remote guests to attend events.  We see convention centers using robotic cameras everywhere so that you can lower the cost of labor and actually give more of the your event spend to the venue and not to the subs vendors.  Additionally, there needs to be a back-up for technology (or more than one back-up) for when technology does not work.

The issue will be ensuring a high level of engagement. Those at home and doing remote conferences are tempted to multitask.  Organizers need to become “collaboration artists” so we are going to have to come up with whole new ways to digitize engagement techniques.

The creativity needed from planners to engage a full audience even has the attention of the C-suite. And these shared event spaces will become the gathering spots for all sorts of organizations to also leverage the new work-from-home community.

SMERF will Rebound First

SMERF business was first to rebound after the previous recession. That means, look in your local neighborhood for opportunities. These are the social events, the military events, the religious events and the fraternal events that will happen first.

Combine this with great outdoors and any space that involves venues that can maximize their outdoor space. We have seen great creativity, involving a turning an underpass into an outdoor ballroom.

The Future of Networking

The hub and spoke method allows venues to be connected so that you can have people all around the world that can connect and go to hotels and actually meet other people, but not have to travel. These network venues are going to be what we’re trying to do in events on a day-to-day basis. Imagine taking a hotel and having 10 people in a room to watch a presentation, but getting to know each other. It’s the intimacy that we’re actually trying to get in terms of our world.

Author David Adler is a former member of Cayuga Hospitality Consultants.

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