The State of Events
How will COVID-19 change the event industry?
A black swan event often comes with a crisis. The great uncertainties make forecasting the future close to impossible, but we thought we'd give it a try. We asked altogether 497 event professionals based in Northern Europe how they see the future of events. All in all they had planned 4973 events between March and May 2020, which were forced to be cancelled, postponed or re-created online.
The event industry changed in a few days
Will this black swan kill the event industry? Probably not. However, in short-term we need to understand and adapt to the current situation to succeed. Many companies have been forced to pivot their event strategy to cope with the current situation.
In the beginning of February, 2020 the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was one the first major B2B events to cancel due to COVID-19, and after that we have seen a domino effect, as well as country restrictions to prohibit events with over 500, 50, and now 10 participants. It’s obvious that companies, big and small in various types of industries, which have events as a cornerstone touchpoint, need to rethink the way they do things in order to not lose against the virus.
During the period between March and May 2020, all in all 4973 events were planned by the respondents. The large number, 4973 events, emphasises the importance of events as part of companies' business and marketing strategies.
