The latest insights from the ongoing 'Global Recovery Project' study programme from live events research specialists, Explori and UFI, the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry, supported by SISO, the Society for Independent Show Organizers highlights how the events business and its valuable delegates are continuing to adapt to the present environment.
The findings, comprising over 9,000 responses from 30 countries, have shown that whilst visitors and exhibitors overwhelmingly prefer live events, digital event elements (often called 'virtual') have a role to play in serving segments of the audience going forward. Around half of respondents have now experienced an online-only event in some format, with two thirds of exhibitors having spoken at a third-party event, or run their own online event. However, as of early Aug-2020, only 13% of exhibitors had paid to sponsor a third-party online event.
The research shows that both visitors and exhibitors rate live events more highly across almost all aspects. Networking is seen as a particular strength of live events, with 77% of exhibitors and 83% of visitors stating that face-to-face events were much better than online in this respect.
However, visitors do already recognise that online-only events offer a reduced cost of attending and are beginning to compete with face-to-face events in the quality of the content they can offer. More than half of visitors (52%) actually felt online-only events were as good as, if not better than live events in their content offering.
They are also driving interest with more than three quarters of visitors (79%) have at least some interest in attending a hybrid event as an online-only delegate. When asked to consider an event they had never attended before, they had a much higher interest in attending remotely compared to an event they were familiar with, due to the obvious time and cost benefits.
The findings underline the clear preference that people want to meet in person to do business, but at same time it shows there are areas where digital events need to evolve to become a permanent fixture in a hybrid future for the business events industry.
"Online and hybrid seem to have a complimentary role to play alongside live events. Not only will they give reassurance to visitors who are concerned about safety in the short term, but still want to connect with their community, but they may also have an important role to play in bringing new audiences to established events," explains Sophie Holt, global strategy director, Explori.
This could form part of a new customer preference "with online-only events acting as qualification and conversion tools for a flagship live event, or giving sponsors access to a totally new audience whose needs are better met by the virtual setting," adds Ms Holt.
Recent updates from UFI have illustrated the global hit that exhibitions and trade shows have suffered due to the Covid-19 pandemic with industry revenues for the first half of 2020 dropping by two thirds on average, compared with the same period last year. Looking at 2020 as a whole, the 25th edition of its Global Exhibition Barometer predicts that revenues will represent only:-44% of those from 2019 in Europe and North America,-39% in Asia-Pacific, -33% in Central and South America and -31% in the Middle East & Africa.
This has an obvious wider direct impact on the territories where exhibitions are held. The total output not produced - for the exhibition industry itself (venues, organisers, service providers) and for all the industries that benefit from participants' expenditure (accommodation, restaurants, transport) - is estimated to be a minimum of USD180 billion, according to UFI with North America (USD76 billion) and Europe (USD59 billion) the hardest hit regions.
Exhibitions are strong communication channels for companies to develop their business. The lack of exhibitions, combined with the fact that many international trade fairs have been postponed, has put a hold on contracts being drawn up between exhibitors and visitors because they meet at exhibitions, according to the barometer. "Based on current predictions a minimum of EUR260 billion of contracts were not signed, though some of them have hopefully just been delayed," it says.
"The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the exhibition industry is severe. Despite gradual reopening in many parts of the world, many companies in the exhibition industry face huge revenue drops and profit loss," says Kai Hattendorf, managing director and CEO at UFI.
The survey that underpins the global barometer findings also consider possible driving trends for the format of exhibitions in the coming years. Global results indicate that 57% of exhibition companies are confident that "Covid-19 confirms the value of face-to-face events", anticipating that the sector will bounce back quickly (19% "yes, for sure" and 38% "most probably"), but around a third (31%) are "not sure" and 12% are "not sure at all" or "disagree completely".
CHART - The Covid-19 pandemic could deliver permanent changes to the exhibition industry, but right now it is too early to say how much of a role digital platforms will play in the future mixSource: UFI Global Exhibition Barometer
More than half (56%) believe that there will be "less international 'physical' exhibitions, and overall, less participants" (13% "yes, for sure" and 44% "most probably"), and 25% are "not sure". A high majority of companies (82%) consider that there is "a push towards hybrid events, more digital elements at events" (30% "yes, for sure" and 52% "most probably"), but less than one in five (17%) agrees with "virtual events replacing physical events" (3% "yes, for sure" and 14% "most probably"), albeit 20% remain "not sure" and would influence the figures significantly based on their actions.
There is also a significant geographical differentiation in the views on virtual events replacing physical events, with stronger and opposing views from Europe, where 80% of companies disagree, whereas in North America 50% share the same view. Overall, there results indicate that, on average, companies consider that the transition of the exhibition industry is more than halfway for digitalisation (2.9 on a scale of 1-5), diversity (2.9) and sustainability (2.8).
Out of the three areas, digitalisation programmes are those where Covid-19 had the most impact ("strong" or "significant" for 60% of companies). It indicates that globally, every second company has increased their investments in that area. By comparison, investments have decreased or been stopped for 55% of companies in their programmes related to diversity, and 54% for those related to sustainability.