Event & Exhibiting Show: Virtual v Live Events

Event & Exhibiting Show: Virtual v Live Events

Arriving at 1.30pm on the Thursday, the show seemed pretty quiet. I was later informed, by a reliable source, that I’d missed the midday rush and that the day had achieved double attendee’s on the previous year. The general feeling from the event organisers was that the show had been a real success and that the brand specific seminar ‘s of the Friday would deliver even higher visitors stats.

I was a little disappointed with the lack of creativity in the way that companies were exhibiting themselves. Being new to the industry, perhaps my glasses are of the rose tinted variety, but I was hoping to see a little more flare.... a bit of pizzazz.

I attended two of The Event Magazine seminars and found the talk on virtual events incredibly interesting and informative but more of that later.

The busiest stand, by far, was The Event Magazine’s. With plenty of seating, a buzzy atmosphere and free flowing ice cold Kronenberg’s, it was the obvious choice and a welcome rest stop at end to the day. I took the opportunity to network and met a number of interesting people and so was glad I pushed my way onto the stand.

So back to the virtual events seminar..... In short, VE’s were being championed as an “add on” as opposed to a replacement of live events, but some thought provoking stats were delivered which have been ringing in my ears ever since [paraphrasing]:-

1) Virtual events have the ability to capture 90% of the 70% of delegates who sign up for but do not attend exhibitions

2) CEO’s will spend up to 2.5 hours in a virtual conference / exhibition

3) Delegates attending a virtual conference will often be less inhibited than in a live environment

4) And most worryingly, HP saw almost three times the return for every pound spent in a virtual environment than a live event

So does this mean the live event is dead? I think not. No matter how “convenient” our lives become, with virtual experiences replacing face-to-face, real, interactions (think facebook for socialising, Tesco online for grocery shopping, twitter for talking), there is still a very basic human need to interact face-to-face. If you’ve worked from home for long periods of time you’ll understand exactly what I mean.

No matter how realistic our virtual worlds become, we need to remember that we utilise technology to enhance our lives, no to take it over.

After all, people buy from people and no matter how many connections we have on linked in, or followers on twitter, the people we are most likely to do business with, and spend time with, are those people we see face-to-face.