Has the Pandemic Changed Live Events Forever?

Written By Frederick A. Hasney IV

By Frederick A. Hasney IV

Over the course of the last year, there has been a significant shift from in-person interactions to online. With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting nearly every business sector, companies have had to restructure how they conduct meetings, engage with clients, and host events. Specifically focusing on live events, this industry has had to completely reconsider how it is that they will conduct business with people being under quarantines and social distancing restrictions. Many major events, including SXSW and Google I/O, have been forced to cancel all together due to the immense task of shifting an entire event onto an online format with an extremely tight time constraint. While it has been a long, arduous journey, the transition process has gone into effect for many businesses, and their innovations have led to a serious opportunity for this industry to grow in the future. With this in mind, this article will cover the transition of the meetings and event industry to a virtual format as well as attempt to answer the question: Has the global pandemic changed live events forever?

The Rise of the Virtual Format

While for many people it may seem as though the transition to the virtual format only began when the coronavirus pandemic arose last March, this is not completely true given the technological advancements that companies have been working on for the last decade or more. Look at companies like Skype, which has been around since 2003, and Mumble, which have built their businesses around providing online voice chat to customers to connect with friends, family, and co-workers. These companies laid the groundwork for the meetings and event industry to reenvision how interactions with their consumers could function. In addition, using online platforms allows for a far greater reach and spread of media content to people across the country and world. Continuing through time, the creation of streamable video and audio content has completely eliminated many of the limitations that had been tied to the virtual format by many users and businesses. Now, plenty of companies have chosen to utilize online content exclusively as a way to incorporate more people in conferences, company events, and product reveals. This is the exact approach that the video game company Nintendo took when they decided to hold a virtual event called Nintendo Direct every quarter to showcase upcoming titles and products to consumers without having to organize an actual in-person event. Furthermore, major technology conferences, such as PAX and E3, realized that in-person attendance at their events was decreasing due to people being able to gain all of the information online without actually being there, so these event companies began to transition to a model that includes virtual passes to the conference’s panels and presentation. These shifts in business models reflect the changing of how people consume and collect information in our digital era.

Beyond company events, the live event industry that focuses on entertainment has also been largely transitioning over the last decade. In 2015, the NBA launched their VR Seats program that allows fans of the sport to buy courtside tickets that could be used to view the game through a VR headset. This innovation completely changes how a fan watches a basketball game since they are capable of getting a lot of the sights and sounds of an in-person experience from the comfort of their home. Additionally, social media platforms having incorporated streaming functionality, such as Instagram Live and Periscope, changes how events can be broadcasted to hundreds of thousands of people. At any given concert, you can see countless people streaming their experience to their followers allowing those people to get second-hand access to the event. Overall, the transition to the virtual format for live events has been a progressing process that has gotten more popular as technologies continue to advance.

Live Events during the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic put a serious halt on the ability to host any sort of live events from concerts to sports events. Due to this, the meetings and event industry understood that it was necessary to pivot quickly to preserve their businesses and assets. There were two significant areas of concern for these companies: viewership and engagement. How were they going to create digital content for a virtual setting that enticed people to not only watch the content but also participate in an engaging manner with the content. The primary solution was found in the reliance on various virtual event platforms that were specifically built for these use cases. For professional settings, companies chose to take advantage of platforms like GoToWebinar and OnlineEvent, which have features that allow for breakout rooms, polls, pre-recorded content, and much more. This level of functionality gave a lot of businesses the necessary tools to continue common workplace practices from home as well as open up new means to engagement that were not possible before. Statistically, it was found that there was an increase of nearly 1,100% in business and professional events online events taking place from April 2019 to April 2020 based on research conducted by Everbrite. With this significant shift to professional events taking place in a virtual format, it is highly likely that many of these companies found a number of techniques and benefits that they will utilize moving forward.

As for the live entertainment industry, all of their revenue was based on selling tickets and having people attend in person. With this becoming impossible to achieve, this industry became stranded, and many companies faced severe economic losses in the first and second quarters of 2020 due to plummeting stock prices and a complete lack of revenue. The solution came in the form of virtual live events where consumers could purchase tickets to view live entertainment remotely. While this was nothing new for certain forms of entertainment, the music industry was in desperate need of a fix to their problems. Apps like ViewStub and MomentHouse provide this relief by creating a platform where touring artists were able to put on live shows for audiences and collect all of the ticket revenue. For MomentHouse, they even allowed artists the ability to integrate merchandise sales as well as accepted global payment methods in order to open the door to worldwide audiences at once. In general, the pandemic initially took a significant toll on the live event industry; however, through ingenuity and innovation, these companies were able to transition their businesses into the virtual format.

The Future of Digital Live Events

With vaccination rates increasing and states loosening their restrictions, the ability for in-person events to start back up is becoming more and more likely with each day that passes. Yet, given the business strategies and the level of investments that have been seen over the last year, a lot of the technologies and capabilities related to virtual platforms are bound to stay relevant. In most cases, it seems that businesses are going to attempt to incorporate elements of both in-person and online to expand their reach into prospective consumers. While it does not seem that the pandemic has completely shifted all facets of the live events industry to be virtual, it would be a serious mistake to assume that this industry would neglect the technologies that they have been developing for almost two decades now. Furthering this, the usage rates of social media platforms, especially in younger demographics, continues to rise meaning that companies will look to actively expand into these areas; moreover, it was shown that social media had a positive impact on people while they were isolated, so the live events industry will most likely look to keep taking advantage of this. All things considered, the virtual format for live events has opened up countless possibilities for companies and advertisers to create content that can be consumed from the comfort of a user’s home. For further information on this topic, check out our other blog post on the effects of the pandemic on live events, and if you are looking to transition your business onto virtual platforms check out our blog post on the best methods and strategies to create digital live events.

Sources:

Frederick A. Hasney IV
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