Navigating the Covid 19 Sea Change in Industry Conferences & Events Globally

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Article | Navigating the Covid-19 Sea Change in Industry Conferences

Covid 19 has sent conference suppliers into a pickle!

From EI’s recent research with conference suppliers across the B2B events landscape it is clear that Covid 19 has sent many into a quandary. The question on everyone’s lips being ‘when will things be back to normal!?!’. These are clearly unchartered waters for conference suppliers and planning for the future is tough. Some suppliers are banking on a return to normal in the second half of the year; others are adapting quickly to adjust their offerings to either pure virtual forums or ‘hybrid’ gatherings which will combine both virtual and face to face elements. This short article offers some light on which suppliers are leading the charge in moving to virtual gatherings as well as offer our independent view on what the future might hold.

What does the future hold?

It is EI’s view that, pending the arrival of a vaccine for Covid-19, social distancing measures will be in place around the globe and corporates are likely to have restricted travel policies as well as heightened caution as to where their employees engage in face to face activity. For the foreseeable future, the conference world will consist of either pure virtual events or hybrid forums which means conference suppliers need to act fast in onboarding or building the right technology for their industry gatherings, and work out how to offer an attractive proposition to delegates and sponsors.

Suppliers Included in this Article

Scheduled Opportunities

Collision
Institutional Investor
MIT Sloan School of Management
MarketForce Live
Retail Week
Incisive Media

Moving to Virtual | A Snapshot of Some Scheduled Opportunities

Notable Scheduled Activities

Suppliers vary in their ability to produce and use high-quality live video, yet these third-party events are essential for corporates to share their vision and strategy, address urgent issues and continue to nurture relationships.

Retail Week differ in offering a week-long exclusive content in lieu of a traditional virtual event
MIT and Incisive are replicating their established industry meet-ups also in virtual and hybrid formats
Institutional Investor offer a number of thematic-based engagements
Collision and Marketforce are providing a direct swtich to virtual platforms to maintain reach into its traditional key audience.

List of Activity

Incisive Media

Investment Week Virtual Select 9th June.

Retail Week

15th June: Be Inspired Virtual Conference

Collision

23rd June: Collision from Home

Institutional Investor

30th April: Managing a Long-Term Strategic Asset Allocation with the Short-Term Impulse to Rebalance
6th May: Keeping Your Balance in A Crisis: Challenges and Opportunities for Fixed Income and Credit Investors
14th May: ESG and the Post COVID-19 World
20th May: Equities: Markets are Fearful, Should Long-term Investors be Greedy?

MIT

19th May: MIT Sloan CIO Symposium

MarketForce Live

30th June: MoneyLIVE: Digital Banking

Navigating the Covid-19 Sea Change in B2B Industry Conferences

EI View

In order to survive this Covid 19 crisis it is going to be essential that conference suppliers embrace this new world of virtual engagement. Our research shows this is happening and it will gather more speed over the coming weeks and months. B2B Marketers need to adapt too. In the absence of face to face forums virtual industry conferences are going to fast track their way to being a key element of any corporate's communications and marketing strategy for the immediate future. Sponsors will need to start to truly understand the proposition offering and how best to use these forums to their advantage. With change comes opportunity!