Event Industry News

Top Ten forecasts for the events industry in 2010

By Rohit Talwar, CEO of Fast Future

The event industry has been hit hard by the current recession but, while it is not expected to return to strenght soon, all is not lost. The following are my top ten key developments I expect the industry to undergo next year:

1.    New Product Explosion – We will see a massive expansion of new event launches of varying sizes across multiple sectors. Ideas put on hold in 2009 are now being brought to market. Convention centres, venues and larger meeting planners could increasingly test the water by creating their own public and specialist events.

2.    Immerse Me – A number of exciting technology developments will make their way into live events to help create a more immersive delegate experience. Vendors and innovators are keen to showcase their offerings and so the price of bringing such technologies into an event is falling in many cases. Examples include virtual reality, 3D television, 4D experiences and touchable holograms. Augmented reality will also hit the street in the form of visors that provide a visual overlay of additional information on top of real world objects such as speakers and exhibition displays.

3.    Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dieing – The effects of the downturn will begin to bite. Big events for 2010 which were cancelled during the downturn may not be replaced and hesitant customers could continue to exert a downward pressure on price. We will see a wave of closures, mergers and acquisitions across the value chain as the industry landscape starts a shake out

4.    More, Shorter, Cheaper and Faster – While hopes for a full economic recovery are rising, expectations for further turbulence are also increasing. Businesses will be nervous and will look to events to drive opportunities. We expect to see a lot more corporate events being run of shorter duration to reduce the time attendees spend away from their desks. There could be lower budgets for each such event as marketing departments seek to stretch their resources. The notice period for these events is also likely to get ever-shorter as desperate last minute attempts are made to hit quarterly targets.

5.    Gone and Maybe Forgotten – 2009 saw a rash of events and exhibition cancellations – often at short notice. Despite hopes to the contrary, many will not return in 2010. Those involved in the value chain for those cancelled events will need to seek alternative opportunities to occupy unused human or physical capacity.

6.    Asia Goes for Gold – 2010 will see a number of Asian events expand their scale and target a more global visitor base. Governments will provide strong backing to help increase international visitor numbers, and fill the capacity of Asian airlines and the rapidly expanding airports that serve them. Asian businesses will also be on the lookout to acquire events, event owners, planners and convention centres in more developed markets.

7.    Shared Events – Non-competing corporations and associations could increasingly partner on their events. for example a pharmaceutical and IT company joining together to run their internal conferences in parallel at the same venue. Working together they can drive down rates with the venue. Food and beverage stations can be shared with staggered break and meal times to reduce set-up and take down costs. They may also reduce Audio Visual costs by having a single supplier with the same staging, and share keynote sessions and some skills training breakouts in order to cut speaker costs.

8.    Public Sector Retreat – The accumulated national debt of the G6 economies is expected to rise above 100% of their collective GDP in 2010. Cuts in public sector budgets are inevitable in many economies. The knock on effects for public sector events could be immense. However, there may be a short term spending frenzy before the current financial year ends as public sector organisations face the choice of ‘use it or lose it’ on any unspent budgets.

9.    Planners Under Pressure – With many corporations and events agencies making event planning staff redundant in the downturn, there are a number of new self-employed planners on the market competing for business. This will put further pressure on rates. In addition, many convention centres will look to build up their in-house planning teams so they can offer a broader service to win events business. Many will increase their efforts to compete directly with planners to secure an event from the end client, rather than hope for the planner’s request for a quotation.

10.  Free or Fantastic – Free online event promotion tools have helped drive a massive explosion in the number of events on offer. Most  are run in the evenings, often hosted in cheap or no cost alternative ‘venues’ donated by sponsors. Much like what happened to content providers on the web, competition and customer choice drives price down towards zero for these events unless you can provide truly ‘fantastic’ content for which customers are willing to pay. Instead the events become a tool for brand building, business promotion and contact generation. The lucky few may find sponsors.

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