EVENT TRENDS THAT GAINED PROMINENCE IN 2021

Different modes of attendance

Virtual events hosted exclusively online allow for attendees to participate in the comfort of their own homes. This creates a more safe, intimate, and personal experience. They provide a myriad of benefits to both attendees and event organisers. These include worldwide access, increased attendance, higher return on investment, better lead retrieval, reduced travel costs, among many others. Virtual events shifting to the forefront have allowed many to experience their perks and it has become clear that they are here to stay.

Hybrid events create a unique, shared experience for both on-site and remote participants. They give attendees the choice of whether they want to attend physically or virtually. This allows a tailored experience, customised to their preferred mode of attendance and individual schedule. Without giving up the physical component, they also harness the unique benefits that a virtual format would garner. These include increased scalability, bridging geological barriers, reduced travel cost, among others. This mode of attendance has also been gaining traction and is now more mainstream than ever before.

Multilingual capabilities

The interconnectedness and bridging across geological barriers enabled by virtual and hybrid events often creates the need to cater for a multilingual audience. Luckily, today adding multilingual capabilities to events is as streamlined and simple as it has ever been. Through remote interpretation solutions, event organisers can easily connect their live event with high quality interpreters, working anywhere around the globe. Interpretation is carried out live and audio is streamed back to attendees in whichever languages are required. Around the world, remote interpretation is being integrated with virtual, in-person and hybrid events, expanding their ability to cater to diverse, multilingual audiences.

A focus on safety

Given the presence of the global pandemic, increased attention is being paid to facilitating a safe and responsible in-person event experience. Safety signage has become very prominent. This includes physical distancing guides as well as encouragement to wash hands, wear masks, and stay home if feeling unwell. Sanitation resources are a must, this includes hand sanitisation stations and ensuring there is somewhere for attendees to wash their hands. Pre-entry health screenings are becoming increasingly popular to deliver an added level of safety to events. These can include thermal vision screening cameras for a contactless process of attendee temperature screening. Another popular form of pre-entry screening is check in tools. They have become unanimous among in person events due to their ability to help track and monitor spread if it does occur.