If we say that event trends after 2020, 2021, and 2022 have evolved drastically, that wouldn’t be wrong. Our planning and strategies to plan events have changed. As event planners and event creators, we need to keep up with new trends and changes. For example, the event industry has drastically shifted from in-person to virtual & hybrid. And in recent times, back to in-person events.
New event trends of 2023 have broadened our market, global reach, and how people sell their event tickets online.
In addition, event trends are evolving with the lingering impact of Covid-19, safety concerns, climate change, tech evolution, and developments in the political scenario. Let us know what and how event managers can grow their business with the new event trends of 2023.
The Trend of In-person Events is sneaking back!
When we researched through the AllEvents datasheet, we observed that the concept of revenge eventing is real! The trend toward in-person events is growing, and it’s not just because people want to be around each other more. It’s also because event organizers see more success than ever before.
Honestly, you can’t beat the energy, connection, and opportunities for collaboration that happen when you get together in person with people who share your passions and goals. And when you do it over cocktails (or coffee), it’s just plain fun!
So what does all of this mean?
The world has lost the offline touch, but in-person events are coming back with a punch!
Hybrid and Virtual Events are saturating
Let’s face it! Hybrid and Virtual events are the new normal.
Virtual Events
Technology changed the events industry upside down, and virtual events became necessary with the spread of some virus that gave us trouble. But virtual events are here to stay. It has provided an immense opportunity to expand globally by triggering event communities when they market events online.
As per the study, there was an increase of 55% in virtual audience engagement. Luckily, with virtual event software, hosting events online has become unique and accessible. Therefore, align your strategies and goals with online events and plan successful events by incorporating unique virtual event ideas.
Hybrid Events
Event professionals and planners believe hybrid events will stay for very long. Hybrid events combine the best of digital and at-venue event experiences. Event planners and professionals are still experimenting with meetings, concerts, events, seminars, workshops, and other such events.
The audience has shared experiences of both online and in-person events. As a result, event planners and managers can cut their costs and operating expenses by organizing hybrid events. In addition, innovative hybrid event ideas and methods are available to organize events on a low budget.
Now the decision is up to event planners on how they want their events to be. Depending upon the size of the event, location, and audience preference, event planners can make their decision.
Seasonal Event Trends in Upcoming Year
People Search for Trends. If your event lies among those seasonal event trends, then it is a high chance that you can sell more event tickets on AllEvents. Here are some of the top recurring seasonal event trends of 2023 and how you can sell more tickets with them:
- Fourth July
- Fall Festival
- Halloween
- Thanksgiving
- Christmas
- New Year
Micro Event Trends in 2023
Micro events are gaining popularity day by day. They are minor events and small gatherings. As micro-events have a small number of attendees, it makes them effective and interactive. In addition, micro-events are beneficial in making connections and networking.
Such small have significant impacts. Micro-events provide more flexibility and make your attendees feel valued—micro-events give a wonderful experience to the attendees. Your guests get comfortable in the small gathering and create their own experience. Another benefit of micro-events is that you find a lot of diversity in small groups, and it’s easier to implement event promotion ideas.
For instance, meetings and conferences are being held in a micro-hybrid mode. It gives each employee and staff opinions, which was not possible in large gatherings.
Group Events
Group events are the new thing. During the lockdown, people worldwide watch movies and series together from hundreds of miles away. They played games, watched games, hosted karaoke sessions, cooking classes, and whatnot.
Now, attendees are more comfortable in hybrid events or virtual events. Event managers should come up with tremendous implications and should make at home experience of virtual attendees extraordinary. This will lead to an increased event success rate.
For example, an online tap dance or salsa dance event is quite an exciting group event. People from around the world can attend your dance events online. All you need is a dance instructor, a vast space for at-venue attendees, and a widescreen for virtual audiences. If there are many attendees, the session can be divided into small groups, and it can be made fun and happening.
The 3S’ for Events
Safety, Security, and Sustainability are more essential than ever. After the covid 19 pandemic, social distancing and health became the main concern. And after all the activities shifting digitally, cyber security became important for people worldwide.
Safety Protocols for Hybrid and In-Person Events
People are now more cautious about safety and sustainability. Hygiene and safety is the first thing that audiences look at in any event venue now. Event organizers have to protect their event attendees by encouraging social distancing, sanitizing hands, and wearing a mask.
With the new event trends, event organizers have to take care of the safety concerns of the attendees. Keep temperature-checking booths, sanitizers, wearing masks, social distancing, first aid kits, and emergency ambulances ready at the event venue.
Event managers must have strict policies and protocols regarding attendees’ safety included in their checklists. For example, early arrivals for the venue events should be arranged, and all event attendees must have health checkups. For social distancing, For more security, gates should be closed.
Event organizers can also encourage staying at home by creating hybrid events.
Security for Virtual Events
As we move forward with technology and virtual events, data security is one of the major concerns for virtual attendees. As a result, it has become one of the important aspects for event planners to protect their attendees from cyber threats.
Participants give valuable information to the event managers and connect to the events via personal laptops and gadgets. However, it is the responsibility of event professionals to protect their attendees from data breaches and keeping their information private.
How can you protect your virtual attendees?
- Individual links for each attendee to track activities and data related to each participant.
- Introduce a code of conduct by implementing terms and conditions to maintain online decorum.
- Password protects your online event entry. Be aware of who you are allowing in the event and monitor their actions and activities.
- Use an event platform to sell tickets where your data remains safe.
To ensure data security, event planners need to build a firewall to protect their customer’s information. Again, there are sourcing supplies available and event tech platforms providing web security surety. Such event providers help them navigate through the cybersecurity process depending on the event size, audience attendance, customer registration links, approve or deny options, and good encryptions.
Sustainability
It’s the generation of millennials. This generation supports green and eco-friendly systems. As a result, sustainable events have gotten massive attention from the past few years.
All the event organizers are supportive of sustainability. Event planners are offering reusable event products, eco-friendly goodies and gift bags, and others. Event venues are also decorated with eco-friendly products and reusable decor.
For instance, at Tokyo Olympics 2020, event planners used recycled metals and electronics to make medals and cardboard boxes to make beds for the players. Such innovative and trendy ideas on saving the environment help event organizers get more attention from audiences. It also acts as a magnet to get more attendees.
Event Ticketing Trends in 2022
The event industry trends have seen changes in ticketing as well. Offline ticketing and payment became obsolete with time. Due to safety reasons and attendees’ conveniences, event planning trends included the following in ticketing:
- Digital Payment
- Digital tickets
- QR Codes
- Digital invites- RSVPs, email invites
Contactless ticketing is a new event trend. The year 2023 is a completely tech-savvy year. Event technology trends are taking over the event venue, ticketing, streaming, and every other event operation.
Multiple platforms make ticketing jobs easy for event makers and also convenient for the attendees. Event planners don’t have to worry about connecting to merchants or any other third party. Ticketing platforms take care of all the intermediaries.
AllEvents is one of the popular ticketing platforms. You can explore ticketing features here and use marketing tools to sell more tickets… Also, you have a great opportunity to increase your revenue with ticketing platforms.
Contact Less and Digital Registrations
With the use of advanced technology, contactless registrations are very trendy and safe for 2023 events. Wearable or contactless registrations are a safe way to return to in-person registrations. Wristbands, badges, and QR codes provide a great way of touchless registrations.
You can also generate a QR Code for a Google Form and streamline the event registration by sharing the code on posters, promotional content, etc.
The digital world has led us to digital payments, digital registrations, and whatnot. Everything is now shifting online and digital. This also provides the advantage of tracking crowds and maintaining the mass at the venue.
People are getting more aware of how their footprints are affecting the environment. So, looking at people’s consciousness of the environment, we must say that in 2022 trending events, sustainability is playing a significant role.
Event Date and Time
Now, this is something you need to pay little attention to. Event professionals should plan their events on the right day, date, and time. Some days get maximum footfall at the event at a particular time of the day.
For example, organizing your event on weekdays might not get more attendees at your events. It also depends on the type of event you are managing. For example, a karaoke or poetry night event can be organized on weekdays, but a large concert cannot be arranged on weekdays. Maximum events are set on weekends or holidays.
Informative Event Page
An information page is required for all the companies. Event professionals must have an informative page, website, event caption, or blog where audiences can get information regarding the events. A page or website must to created to solve customer queries and FAQs. Give all the descriptions about your event like when, where, at what time, duration of each activity, who will be the guests at your event, ticket price, payment methods, and other small details.
Events Venue
As we know, hybrid is the future; we need to gear up for the same. As per the study, 71% of attendees want to attend hybrid events even when the world gets back to its normal live events.
A new high-tech venue is the demand of the hour. Venues must have high internet speed, and big screens for online attendees and at-venue attendees. In addition, the settings should be done in a way where offline and online attendees can interact with each other.
Tech Trends For Event Planners
The events industry has raised bars by providing hybrid event options to its attendees. While some event planners are still thinking about the hybrid model, many event planners took the first movers’ advantage.
New methods and tools have the potential to make your event go trending. 2022 event trends include major changes in technology. There are platforms available as per the size of the audience. If your event is small, you can choose a platform that allows a limited number of online audiences, and if your event is more extensive, use a medium that will enable a large number of audiences.
Almost every event manager and software has made their platform available for hybrid events. Event planners are experimenting with new software and websites to reach their audiences globally. Experimenting with apps and new software will let you know which one suits your event the best.
Broadcasting Quality
With events shifting online, initially, the world faced troubles with networking. Now various websites and software are giving the best quality. You cannot stream from one camera anymore. When you have an online event, you need to broadcast through an excellent medium to reach your audience. If your broadcasting is not supportive or shows blurry videos, then the effectiveness of your event is ruined because of bad quality.
Many websites provide high-quality broadcasting, multiple options like video sharing, screen sharing, notes sections, recording options, and such. It enhances the experience for your attendees and makes the online event more happening for them.
3D and Live Event Streaming
Technology has made everything possible. Even when you are attending events from home or any remote place, you can have the live venue’s overall view and in-personal touch. 3D streaming is getting popular for a better online experience.
Live streaming apps are ruling the virtual events. it allows creating hype and solid buzz for the events. Live streaming apps enable users to comment, share, and like. It gives an interactive platform to the users and the event host.
Audio Attendance
With the increasing use of digital platforms, there is an increase in online fatigue as well. There’s a new event planning trend that is audio-only.
Tech-savvy world came up with an innovative audio-only arrangement. This may look a bit odd, but it is an option added by the event organizers for the convenience of their attendees.
Participants or speakers or any person who is a part of the event are attending it while doing some other task. Well, people are multitasking while attending events. So here, we have the concept of portability and a relaxed environment for all the participants.
Podcasts are getting quite popular in an audio-only event. There are times when your attendees miss out on event attending opportunities just because of time constraints. Audio only allows attendees to listen to the speaker at any time and anywhere.
Even the pre-recorded sessions are making their way in event planning trends. Speakers can record their sessions and publish them on websites.
Such online events allow a new way of ticketing. A person can purchase a ticket for podcasts or pre-recorded sessions and listen to them.
Connect To Target Audience Through Interpreters
Bots and Interpreters are not new, but in 2022, event trends they are taking over. Event technology trends are playing a crucial role in the event industry is moving forwards with event planning trends.
To reach a wider audience, even professionals and the target audience must understand each other. Providing content in multiple languages increases your reach globally.
The translation is available on all digital platforms, and it allows event managers to bridge the communication gap with the attendees. Such features enable your international participants to understand the content easily.
For more, event managers can also provide their audio content in multiple languages based on their target audience and the regions they are organizing their events.
Tech Operational Events
Even marriages were conducted online during the lockdown. Can you believe it? So then, why not the formal and casual events?
Earlier, people around the world were against too much use of technology. But after the pandemic, due to safety concerns and traveling constraints, people became comfortable with the digital world.
Live events came to play. With the use of advanced technology, event professionals started live streaming their events. It created more participation and attendees engagement, and know-how attendees feel about your events.
A study showed that there was a 10% increase in the ROI when event professionals started live streaming their events. Now, social media apps like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube offer live-streaming features.
For example, Apple launches its products in live conferences. Apple launch events grab massive attention. People around the world attend Apple live events.
Upskilling With 2022 Trends
Event professionals have to keep up with the demand of the audiences. After all, you need more people to know about your events and to attend your events. As an event planner, you need to be dynamic and keep with the changes in the industry. But how do you keep yourself updated with event trends?
Now, event professionals are getting certified courses to make their events better and effective. Accredited courses are helping event professionals to stay organized, relevant, and updated with the event trends. Such courses help event planners understand the market, teach them to use the digital platforms effectively, manage events, and learn how to use new technology.
Many institutes are offering courses like event management, event production, and technical meetings. There is a high increase in meetings and events online, making it necessary for event planners to stay connected with event trends. It helps them develop and level up their event planning skills.
Data-Driven Methods
So how do you measure the success of your events? How do you safeguard your future events?
Event planners are thinking of long-term planning. People around the world want options for hybrid events. So event planners are planning events that avail both the options of online attendance and in-person events.
To start planning for future events, you need accurate information on the customer’s expectations, whether the event will be successful, how to execute the event, the size of the attendees, and other key information to plan events. And the planning can only take place when you are loaded with past, present, and future data.
Data-driven methods are making work easy for event planners. Technology is shaping how event planners can organize events smarter and simultaneously make the experience of the future better for the attendees. The best way to ensure the success of future events is with the help of data collection.
Data is valuable for event planners to improve their future events, get innovative, understand people’s perspectives, and other valuable information to create brand awareness and upscale their registrations.
Why is Data Collection Important?
Feedbacks:
Online surveys, event management software, attendees’ engagement tools, and online feedback forms are some of the ways to collect data. Event planners use the collected data to make their event operations effective and use their full efficiency to ensure success.
Sponsors:
Your event sponsors and stakeholders admire you when you are loaded with data. With accurate data, you can be sure about the budget and requirements for the event.
For example, your sponsors will like to know the success ratio of your past and future events. They may want to know the potential leads, existing customers, and other such information. It is crucial to present the correct data and accurate information to your sponsors and stakeholders to find event sponsorship.
Increase ROI:
Data presents customer’s insights wants from the event. From registration, marketing promotion, and lead scanning, event planners can get the probability of the event attendance. One can target customers with the use of collected data. With the event lifecycle data, marketers can understand customers’ behavior and kick off their sales and registrations.
Event planners can collect data personally from individual customers, measure the popular aspects and least popular aspects of their events, and work to improve them. It gives a deeper understanding of customer behavior and what segments your attendees enjoy the most in your events.
New Priorities- Network, Engage & Deliver Content
With the evolution in event trends in 2022, there are things to focus on while organizing events. The emphasis should be laid on the following in the respective hierarchy.
- Networking
- Entertainment/ Engagement
- Content Quality
Evolution in Networking and Building Community
As per the study, almost 70% of event professionals faced challenges while networking. Event planners believed it was more difficult to network in the virtual world.
Let us make you aware of networking and building community in the digital world. It is effortless to connect and network online. Event managers are emphasizing this event trend in 2022.
Here is the list of things you can do to create community and networking,
- Host events on specific topics related to the target category.
- Be data-driven- collect information of all the participants for the diversity.
- Keep the participants engaged with your brand.
- Keep in constant touch with all the members.
- Be updated with their taste, interests, and latest event trends.
- Excite and hype them with creative content.
Facebook and LinkedIn are two social media that are helping event planners to build community and networks. Building communities are a great way of creating meaningful connections. It offers a way to target your audience and reach more people through it. Such communities are impactful as it gives a sense of belonging and make deeper connections.
Engaging attendees in the community with quality content. It allows interacting with your attendees one on one, which makes your audience comfortable. It will enable your attendees to interact with each other, which opens the door for more opportunities.
Networking is like word of mouth for online and hybrid events. To build better connections, event managers are using email marketing as well. Personalized email marketing and newsletters are another way of making solid bonds with your clients and customers.
Event Engagement Trends For Online, In-person & Hybrid Events
We all know how difficult it is to keep audience engagement alive and high during the event. And now, with the online mode, attendees quickly get distracted. So it is crucial to grab the audience’s attention from the start of the event.
Here are some event engagement ideas to keep your event happening.
Discounts and Offers
Ticket Discounts:
Who doesn’t love offers and discounts? Discounts and offers attract more audiences. Early bird discounts, blunk discounts, and limited offer discounts are some attractive offers you can provide to your audience. Bulk ticket purchases or advance ticket purchase offers can trigger your registrations to a new high.
Gift bags:
For any event, gifts are always a good idea for event engagement. Give your attendees gifts that go with the theme of your event so that your guest can use them during the event. Your goodies must be thoughtful so it reminds your guest about your event and brand name even after the event.
Giveaways:
For an online audience, engagement giveaways are one of the best options. It engages your target audience as well as generates more leads. Giveaways spread at rapid speed and work as word of mouth. It engages people around the world. It has no geographical barriers and no time constraints. As a result, it gets more audience attention.
For instance, if you have a concert coming ahead, you can do a ticket giveaway. Ask your audience to share about your event, tag their friends, and you will give free tickets to three lucky winners.
Social Media Promotion
You really can’t undervalue promoting events on social media because it harbors massive public attention.
Quiz:
Quiz and puzzles are fun ways of entertainment. A small quiz or puzzle is suitable for brainstorming. A small quiz can refresh the audience and keep their energies high. The quiz boosts their confidence and increases audience participation in the event.
For example, if you are having a baking event. Keep quiz contest in that you can ask questions related to baking and desserts.
Selfie Contest:
To create online buzz for your event, a selfie contest is a great way. Ask your participants to take a selfie at your event and post it on their social media. Ask them to tag you in their posts, and this will increase your reach.
For example, if you want to organize a selfie contest at your venue, create a selfie booth. Ask your attendees to click a picture in the photo booth, tag your event, and mention the event’s location. This will drive more people to your event. In the end, the one with the most likes and comments will win the contest.
Hashtags:
Start event trends with hashtags. Hashtags are crucial when you are creating buzz via social media. Mostly hashtags get you trending on Twitter. Sometimes people don’t follow accounts on social media, but they do follow trendy hashtags. So use the correct hashtags and reach your target audience.
Interactive In-Between Event Entertainment
Stand-up Comedy:
Of course, you want your audience to have huge smiles on their face throughout the event. And what is better than a stand-up. Add a stand-up session in the middle of your event schedule. Then, when you see the energy of your audience going down, add a quick comedy session. Humor is the best way of keeping distraction at bay.
Drop a mic:
Give the mic in the hands of your audience. You can spontaneously add a karaoke session during the event. Let your audience sing and jam in your event. You don’t need to hire a famous personality to sing. Karaoke keeps the boredom away and your audience happy. Let your audience show their talents.
Content Quality
Content quality plays a crucial role in making your event successful. Your content must be engaging for the audience. Content is vital for online meetings and events as your audience is connected through a digital medium. If your content quality is good, your attendees will constantly focus on the event. All your subjects should capture the purpose of your event.
For example, if you are organizing a conference, make sure the flow of the conference is in sync. From the introduction to the presentation to the conclusion, everything should be in a perfect timeline.
Experiment and Execute Best Event Trends and Ideas
So here you have all the latest event planning trends of 2022. We assure you that 2022 is going to be the year of experimenting with the technology.
Thinking outside of the box. Get creative with your marketing campaigns. Get organized and updated with digital marketing. We have entered the world of technology, and there is no coming back from it. In the event industry, we need to upgrade ourselves with technology and trends continuously.
Create a platform where you can provide all-in-one solutions. Create an online presence of your brand, and reach your audience and make the event experience easy and safe for them. Let people know about your latest events, future events, update them about everything, and keep track of everything in real-time.
Abhishek is a content marketer who specializes in ticketing and event trends happening throughout the globe. He feels that event marketers should easily find the information they need.
Hence, he is responsible enough to gather information and deliver the relevant guidelines to planners throughout the event industry.