Digitization on the fly (IMHO)

The Corona pandemic has forced the events industry to make radical changes on the fly. There will be no going back to the time before.

 [IMHO = In My Humble Opinion.

For a long time, digitization in the event industry proceeded at a rather leisurely pace. And there are good reasons for this. Digital solutions also have to be absolutely robust and reliable before they are suitable for use in the event environment. And for a long time, that was not the case. WiFi was considered the epitome of unreliability just a few years ago. Data connections were chronically slow and all connected devices and services were suspected of only being stable if they were lucky.

In the meantime, a lot has happened in this area and digital infrastructures can be provided in a highly resilient and absolutely reliable manner. Internet and WiFi solutions are no longer just a nice-to-have service for guests, but the foundation for event services that promise organizers completely new possibilities and guests a whole new event experience.

Unfortunately, digital solutions have not been able to completely shake off their once negative image for a long time. It looked as if everyone in the industry was waiting for the first one to take the plunge. But then the Covid 19 pandemic hit in 2020 and the entire industry was suddenly under pressure. Digitization was suddenly no longer just a topic to be experimented with a bit at best, but became a lifeline overnight. Above all, livestreaming.

Concepts were tried out and expanded or discarded in a rush. Streaming suddenly became part of people's everyday lives, and the event industry jumped at this not-so-new opportunity. In some cases, there were hasty attempts to transfer proven concepts from face-to-face events one-to-one to the Internet. All too often, the slogan was: "What the heck, it's only online".

The demand for digitization is high

But of course, participants also have high expectations in front of the screen. These are shaped by classic TV shows and successful online formats, such as "TED Talks," against which online events must be measured. And of course, high-quality productions are only created through the interaction of several trades that are experts in their field - and that also costs money.

The good news is: after a little over a year, generally accepted standards seem to be slowly establishing themselves. "Best practice, so to speak. And once thrown in at the deep end, fewer and fewer event organizers are afraid of new concepts and alternative, digital approaches to previous solutions. Instead, the advantages are now also becoming apparent. Central data availability, synchronization of information in real time, automation and, of course, a rapprochement with the habits of participants for whom digital services in the private sphere have long been part of the norm.

And if there is an opportunity to be identified in the Corona crisis alongside all the dramatic cuts, it is that our industry may succeed in making a quantum leap in terms of digitization that might otherwise have taken at least another 10 years or more.

Digital formats are more than a transitional solution

What will remain, apart from the painful memories of the Corona crisis, is the starting signal for a paradigm shift that will indeed pose challenges for us event organizers, project managers and trades, but will also make our lives easier thanks to modern, digital event services.

Hybrid events, to which people can connect digitally (as an alternative to attending on site), are becoming completely normal and are also opening up new areas of business. After all, there's no such thing as "sold out" on the Internet, and it also helps people who can't actually attend the event for health reasons or because they have to travel long distances.

It will become a matter of course that we orient ourselves at events with a suitable app, inform ourselves and interact with the program on stage. Parts of the back office will be connected decentrally via the Internet to save tiring travel days.

The event technology for this is ready. Of necessity, we have all tried out new concepts in recent months. We at Eventnet have been committed to the digitalization of the event industry since 2013. And we are looking forward to the time when events can once again take place as usual and yet in a completely different way. With digital concepts that we can implement together with the many players in our industry, for our mutual customers.

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