The so-called virtual revolution that took place during the height of the pandemic may be over, but despite the return to in-person events and the overall slowdown of virtual, the events industry is holding onto many pandemic-era learnings — including the importance of digital channels to reach their audiences.
Event tech provider ExpoPlatform recently released its 2023 Event Tech Forecast, which underscores this trend. Most notably, it found that 55 percent of event organizers expect their digital revenues to increase or significantly increase over the next 12 months, while less than five percent believe it will decrease.
More specifically, just about half of eventprofs expect between 10 and 29 percent of their overall annual revenue to come from digital, which represents an increase of more than 10 percent compared to ExpoPlatform’s last report in July 2022. Just under a fifth of respondents expect digital to represent over 50 percent of their annual revenue for 2023.
When asked about the biggest opportunities for event tech to develop, the most commonly cited response was community nurturing (64 percent), followed by proving exhibitor ROI and digital monetization (both 50 percent). These are, of course, existing features and capabilities marketed by event tech platforms, but these findings demonstrate that there is still room for improvement when it comes to meeting organizers’ needs.
Indeed, achieving a good ROI for exhibitors was noted by 55 percent of eventprofs as one of the key challenges they face in 2023 — and was the number one challenge in the last edition of the report — along with integration between suppliers and a lack of skilled resource. The top challenge this time around was a seamless experience across platforms (or lack thereof), which won out at 59 percent. This will therefore be another key area for development for event tech platforms over the next few months.
The most popular event tech feature currently being leveraged by event organizers are event mobile apps, AI matchmaking, lead retrieval, interactive floorplan, and a 365 community and marketplace.
“The events industry is going through a digital renaissance, with participants in live shows now expecting their experiences to be fuelled by technology,” said Conor Riordan, content editor at ExpoPlatform. “These findings reveal that organizers too are seeing this as crucial to their business models as a way to increase revenue [and] reach and improve offerings.”