While it seems business as usually for many corporate meetings and events, now with new COVID variants, threat of a potential surge this summer, testing plummeting worldwide as well as the impact the war on Ukraine may have on global events, the convention industry and corporate executives may need to rethink their event strategy for summer heading into fall says Joanna Pineda, CEO of Matrix Group International.
“As things change so rapidly executives need to have a plan of action to pivot accordingly for their meeting format whether it be a combination of in person, hybrid or fully virtual meetings or events. Not only has COVID affected how we conduct events, but the economy and the war in Ukraine coupled with the unknown is what really concerns corporate meeting planners and company executives. Our world has changed but that does not mean the content, connections as well as revenue needs to be impacted,” says Pineda.
As founder of Matrix Group Inc., a woman-owned and minority-owned company in the event technology platform space Pineda has had to pivot as well. Instead of laying off staff, Matrix Group was able to redirect staff who were otherwise on the bench, and actually hire new staff to accommodate demand for their newest platform BeSpeake. Joanna and her team created this event technology platform to meet the needs and demand for flexible virtual conferences for exhibitors and sponsors at the start of the pandemic in 2020. Matix Group wanted their platform to stand out by allowing participants to make real, lasting, meaningful connections between employees, teams members, clients and customers.
The event industry has been hit hard from COVID especially in early 2020 when events just stopped altogether. Organizations needed to be strategic and smarter about moving forward about how they conduct tradeshows and events. As COVID continues and as testing has dropped by 70 percent to 90 percent worldwide from the first to the second quarter of this year, having a plan in place is key and learning to adapt a flexible meeting/event strategy is most important now more than ever. Pineda says there are five key trends/strategies to adapt as organizations look to plan events for the next 6 months:
- Contingency planning – Have a plan to quickly go virtual or hybrid should conditions change. It’s key to also rely on vendor relationships to be able to react to changing conditions.
- Business as usual, but better – For organizations that are meeting in person, certain lessons and techniques such as enhanced sessions, community boards from hybrid meetings should carry over to the in-person experience.
- Different models of hybrid – Hybrid can take on many different forms and it’s here to stay as some segments continue to request virtual. With technology changing it is possible to blend the in person and virtual audiences.
- Engagement is key – Whether in person or virtual, industry conference, company-wide meeting, education conference, we need to make all sessions interesting and engaging, and we need engagement between attendees in between meetings.
- Create unique experience – As we go back in person or if we stay virtual, attendees are craving and expecting unique, high production experiences.
