Last week, we were excited to be joined by Michael Arp of Bright AV and Liesl Perez of Hubilo to talk about data and its impact on events. This session explored the current state of the events industry and how the pandemic has changed the game for events going forward.
Want to jump to get the down-low from the session? Here are the highlights:
There are more tools available than ever before to put on an immersive and engaging event. The implications of this shift in event tech capability have resulted in a handful of very important positive externalities:
Data gathering is way up – the average virtual or hybrid event is gathering 5-10x as much engagement data vs. their live events counterparts. Of course, the collection of more data puts a premium on the impetus to do something with that data.
Surveys and focus groups were the dominant tools of the past, now that insight generation is more real-time, has a higher level of granularity, and is not beholden to the sample size of your audience. It means that measurement is getting more accurate and customer sentiments are getting more granular. Read: learn more of the right stuff to do, faster…
Let’s get into it. Audience engagement can be measured more granular than ever. This means that event organizers can measure at the track and session level, which sessions perform best, recruit and retain which audience segments the most effectively, and have the longest tail for on-demand consumption. None of this was possible pre-pandemic.
‘Nice to have’ measurement is now ‘MUST HAVE’ measurement as content differentiation and personalization requests become heightened. Your audience is likely in a “more of the right” content consumption appetite.
As the value of event-generated data goes up, so does the responsibility for clear and transparent data ownership and privacy guidelines. As event organizers, the generally accepted practice, is that you are the data OWNERS. To get started, ask yourself the following questions:
There has never been a time in the event industry when data generation around content has been so prolific. The resulting opportunity is clear – organizers can understand what content is performant and which is underperforming at a greater level of specificity. However, with new opportunities comes new roles and responsibilities for event organizer teams.
For example, who’s role is it to understand session and audience engagement. Arguably the greatest gain area during the pandemic has been this ability to pinpoint audience trends across tracks, sessions, and to learn which cohorts or personas prefer what content.
The counterbalance to this rush to virtual in 2020, has meant that competition for eyeballs is higher than ever. We’ve all experienced content fatigue, which puts a premium on CONTENT DISCOVERY. How is your audience finding content? How easy are you making it for them?
Knock knock…enter personalization. The end goal of personalization is “discovering” the content for the end experiencer as part of the marketing or promotional cycle. This will undoubtedly change the paradigm around program design and speaker selection as data-driven decisions will dominate content selection in the future.
Lastly, we’re going to be entering the age when virtual/digital event content analytics will assist in designing the “back in the ballroom” content. Michael suggested that we’re already seeing this as organizers are focusing on “shorter- more concise sessions of heightened relevance”
Personalization adoption is an evolution, and the earlier you start, the earlier you’ll start to see a material impact on your event goals. A few of the key objectives we are hearing from clients include the ability to:
Dig in for the full session, we break down the current and future state of data in events with a smart and fun group of speakers.
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