My Experiments with Virtual Events – Part 1
It’s been a year since the great Covid pandemic started in early 2020 and everyone in the world – including kindergarten kids – has now been exposed to a new experience in our lives – Virtual Events. Of course in the beginning of 2020, there was a sense of uncertainty on both sides – Organizers weren’t sure how to pull off ‘offline experiences’ in the online world and Consumers weren’t sure if they were eager and ready for ‘online renditions’ of offline experiences. Fast forward to 2021, the imminent has happened and it is here to stay!
Both the Organizers and Consumers experimented with virtual events, learnt how to optimize their ‘organizing’ & their ‘experiencing’ respectively and a ‘hybrid’ model has now emerged – which offers the best of both worlds to the organizers as well as consumers. Successful organizers have figured out a way to generate ‘hybrid’ revenue – that not only offsets the diminishing offline revenue but maximizes ‘online’ revenue. My base hypothesis for Organizers is that this ‘hybrid’ revenue will be more lucrative than standalone offline or online revenues. Consumers have built their own playbook where they are mixing physical events with virtual ones – experiencing more with lesser efforts! My base hypothesis for Consumers is that this hybrid ‘experience’ will be more convenient and exhilarating going forward.
Impact on Consumer and Organizational Behaviour (Research by University of Southern California)
People’s behaviour has changed and there is a profound reluctance to travel or to attend trade shows or any sort of event.
57% of respondents say they will continue to avoid large-crowd events
44% People will be hesitant to travel (to popular-crowded tourist spots)
Behavioural change went beyond individuals/consumers to impact the behaviour of (Event) Organizational decision making. Companies are engaging with the complex issues of planning for next fiscal years to follow, and they are re-evaluating their marketing and events budgets including whether to invest in Event Participation.
Illustrations of Popular Virtual Events (Other Than Those Covered By Me Below)
Canton Fair: The online version of the twice-yearly Canton Fair -- https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en/ - China's largest trade show -- posed challenges for both organizers and participants. Yet the virtual fair drew an estimated 20,000-plus exhibitors from industries ranging from machinery to household goods as well as trading companies
Faroe Islands Tour: https://www.remote-tourism.com/about-the-project - The Faroe Islands welcomed more than 700,000 ‘remote tourists’ via live video stream, demonstrating a new fledgling market for virtual travel
Lakme Fashion Week:https://www.lakmefashionweek.co.in/ - Lakmé Fashion Week went completely virtual for the 1st time ever to support the designers and artisans through a virtual showroom – connecting buyers and consumers to the beauty and fashion industry – and thereby creating demand for the growth of the industry. It also had a digitally-enabled showroom to direct customers to runway collections
Travis Scott Concert on Fortnite: https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/23/21233637/travis-scott-fortnite-concert-astronomical-live-report - Fortnite, which is powered by Epic, partnered with Travis Scott to give an in-game music performance, drawing more than 10 million people. Over 27.7 million players participated 45.8 million times across the 5 events to create a truly astronomical experience
When we look at the above Illustrations, we can easily decipher that there’s potential to go virtual for all kinds of events – Corporate, Travel, Fashion/Retail and Entertainment. I am certain there are many more, but let me now delve deeper into my own Experiments with the virtual avatars of Events.
Experiment 1: Entertainment – Tomorrowland 2021
Tomorrowland, as most of you may be aware, is one of the most renowned music festivals in the world. It is an epic event – with 2 editions a year spread over 2 weekends in Belgium – and probably features on the bucket list of most global youngsters (and EDM-discovering oldies like me). In 2018 & 2019, the physical event attendance maxed out at 400,000 people. Since the 2020 live edition was scrapped, Tomorrowland organizers decided to set a benchmark now for digital events. They partnered with stYpe to bring six 4K cameras and 38 virtual cameras to make a virtual world for over 1 million virtual festival-goers to party at home. To create the huge event the festival organizers put together 4 huge, green-screen studios around the world in Belgium, USA, Brazil, and Australia. From these spots they recorded artists including Katy Perry, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Steve Aoki, Eric Prydz, and many more to create a massive digital performance for each of them.
I personally benefitted from these quick wins of attending a world-class virtual musical festival, while ticking off an experience of a lifetime from my bucket list:
No calendar planning needed for all Family Members – Workplace, School, Parental Care
No Visa, Ticketing and Packing hassles for travel to Belgium
No local logistics planning – Travel, Lodging, Meals – within Belgium
Outright Money Savings (I only spent 20 Euros!)
No Crowd-related Issues – Lines, Hygiene, Location-Hopping for multiple Performances
Flexibility of Time – I could watch
Access to every Performance – Which is practically difficult to achieve in a Physical Event
To sum it up, this virtual event has now become a fond ‘family memory’ rather than an ‘individual wow’ moment. We were part of history (a feels good sentiment man)! Yes, I do hope to catch the physical edition someday soon as well, but this is a sure-shot ‘July’ weekend activity for our family every year now! Like that holiday we take every year…to our favourite place…
Experiment 2: Corporate – Cannes Lions Live
Cannes Lions, a five-day International Festival of Creativity, is the largest gathering in the creative marketing community. The five-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France. Each June, around 15,000 registered delegates from 90 countries visit the Festival to celebrate the best of creativity in brand communication, discuss industry issues, and network with one another. The week's activities include multiple award ceremonies as well as an opening and closing gala.
As a corporate professional working mostly on Marketing, CX and Digital initiatives over the years, Cannes Lions was probably on the ‘corporate’ bucket list of mine as an event to attend at least once before the conventional career ends. The pandemic made it possible to tick off this item last year, as organizers came out with a fully digital edition Cannes Lions ‘Live’ 2020 which I managed to attend exhaustively. And they have announced a fully digital version already for 2021. I am going to be twice lucky, this way!
Let me summarize how I greatly benefitted from the ‘virtual’ rendition of this prestigious ‘Corporate’ Event – in addition to the Travel, Logistics & Flexibility benefits I have already noted above for an ‘Entertainment’ category event:
No corporate approvals needed (Wow!)
Possible to attend every session – at my own pace and convenience – which is not possible in physical events with Parallel Sessions
Rich Content Experience (Presentations, Sponsor Content, Toolkits) – even on Panel Discussions – which is otherwise usually just a Talk Show
Content Access and Downloads-a-plenty from this year’s Thought Leaders as well as the humongous Cannes Repository
Learning & Development opportunity – with feel-good Certifications on various Marketing disciplines – like Creativity and Storytelling – by 42Courses
Access to global Peers and Leaders at a Click-of-a-Chat Button, which is otherwise an awkward physical hustle and nudge activity
Exhaustive Note-making and Synthesis of Content following it – which rarely happens in physical events as you are conflicted between the need to ‘mingle’ and to ‘learn’
My experience was so rich that I could actually compile a detailed narrative of what I saw and what I learnt in a detailed Blog post ‘Impressions That Clicked for Me’ here at: https://outsideinlens.blogspot.com/2020/07/cannes-lions-live-2020-impressions-that.html or here on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kedarbmehta_impressions-that-clicked-for-me-cannes-activity-6684071758565310464-4pTh/
Needless to say, I do hope to experience the grandeur and the buzz of the physical event in Cannes someday soon. But, I am surely calendaring the virtual ‘Live’ event between 21-25th of June this year.
In Conclusion
Many aspects of an Event Organization remain the same whether the event is physical or virtual. The virtual/digital editions of these marquee events obviously have a solid appeal and benefits for participants like me. However, the rigor and detailing in the planning, marketing, design and execution remain crucial. Success will always ultimately depend on whether you have successfully engaged with your audience. The 2 events that I have personally experienced and covered in this post have really gotten their Experience right! I am indeed looking forward to many more in the years to come!
References and Sources
1) Cannes Lions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannes_Lions_International_Festival_of_Creativity
2) Cannes Lions Live/Digital 2021: https://campaignme.com/cannes-lions-2021-to-run-as-a-fully-digital-experience/
3) Tomorrowland: https://routenote.com/blog/over-1-million-people-went-to-tomorrowland-online-this-year/
4) Lakme Fashion Week: https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/feature-lakm-fashion-week-goes-digital-for-the-first-time/362938
5) Ogilvy Paper and Conversations That Matter: A New Game for Virtual Events