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Contact UsIf The Old Events Model Is Broken – What Will Work In Its Place?
If you follow the #Eventprofs chat on Twitter for even a few days, you’ll quickly see that some of the smartest people in the world (not just the events world) are looking at how to use tools and new techniques to re-invent the events industry, in real time.
As a company that uses enabling technologies to execute solutions, take advantage of opportunities and solve problems, we’re big fans of industries and companies that have faced what the events industry is facing, figured out a way to ‘re-engineer’ themselves and grow to even greater heights.
Examples such as our client Domino’s Pizza and their “New Pizza” campaign, Amazon.com with their ‘never say quit’ attitude, Twitter with it’s significant outage issues early in its growth and others certainly have great lessons to learn from.
It’s also intriguing to watch an industry as it re-invents itself right in front of our eyes, much like what’s going on with the traditional media and newspaper industry, the venture capital markets, the auto and financial industry and so many others, today.
In his Writings About the Internet Blog, Clay Shirky provides some interesting insights from the newspaper industry that parallel the events industry of today in his post: “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”.
Below, excerpts from his article edited with an events focus (our edits in parenthesis).
“If the old model is broken, what will work in its place? . . . “To which the answer is: Nothing.
Nothing will work. There is no general model for (events) to replace the one the (economy, technology, social networking and the need for efficiencies) has broken.”
“With the old economics destroyed, old (events) practices perfected for an era of big budgets and marginal returns have to be replaced with those optimized for a new economic, social, cultural and technological era. It makes increasingly less sense even to talk about an (events) industry, because the core problem (events) solve — the incredible difficulty, complexity, and expense of (meeting people and engaging with other people) — has stopped being a problem.”
“When someone demands to be told how we are going to (revitalize the events industry), they are really demanding to be told:
- That we are not living through a revolution.
- That old systems won’t break before new systems are in place.
- That ancient social bargains aren’t in peril.
- That core institutions will be spared and that
- New methods of (meeting and engaging) will improve the previous practices rather than upend them.
In essence, they’re demanding to be lied to.
For the events industry to weather the current storm (which started at least a decade ago), learn the necessary lessons from it and to once again thrive, initiatives like “Keep America Meeting“, the flood of smart phones, or simple devices that don’t generate anything other than an electronic list, proximity without any Return on Action or worse yet, simply a map, are stop gap. They certainly won’t be enough.
Why?
Because the events industry won’t ever look like it once did.
- Improved ROIs, will have to be there.
- A focus on ROA (Return on Action) rather than proximity or expression of interests, will have to be there.
- Real engagement, will have to be there.
- Events will have to transform from 3 day ‘occasions’ to year-long face-to-face and virtual sources of opportunity and
- the costs, like drayage, shipping, outrageously priced services, etc . . . that’s all going to have to change.
Those that are ready to answer that call are what the future of the events industry will be. For those stuck in the ‘old way’, or for those driving so far ahead of the rest of the crowd that they can no longer be seen, the march of the dinosaur’s has already begun. Rather than a clarion call or siren’s song, what we’re hearing in the wind is our clients telling us that we’re going to have to be better for them and for the future of us.
With our focus on what the future holds and our experience implementing solutions to event industry issues, yes, we’ve got ideas (for instance, the BeLinker).
In our next series of posts we’ll be sharing what we’ve seen work in both the near term as well as for the long term future.
Watch this space for the series titled: “Fixing the Problem”.
And, if you’re interested in learning how to maximize your event ROI, reduce costs by up to 50% and produce a better event?
Contact BusyEvent CEO David Schenberg
eMail: dschenberg -at- busyevent -dot- com
Direct Phone: 888.788.4896 x111
Brian:
This is some very provocative thought and well worth the read.
What I think is interesting is that many meeting professionals and organizers are waiting for a meetings rebound. They expect things to return to normal the way they used to be and don’t realize that culture and society has changed.
I appreciate the way you’ve positioned this dilemma too by asking what will fit in its place.
What’s ironic is the continual rise of Unconferences where niche groups are creating their own meetings and events. Obviously, they are meeting a need that traditional conferences and meeting owners aren’t. Something is happening here and it would do all event professionals well to take notice.
Jeff, thanks for Tweeting this blog.
Brian, a very thoughtful post. Nothing more radical than trying to preserve the status quo!
In addition to “unconferences,” through in “hybrid conferences” and the “pressure” to lower registration fees and we find an environment for change. Agree with you and the challenge is that we don’t see clearly what the “new events” will look like. But, clearly, they won’t look like they have for the last 30-40 years.
Think change isn’t coming? Check out these two posts:
1) http://bit.ly/cKlRHL
2) http://bit.ly/9TtxhN
Steve
As hard as we have been hit in the event industry, there is something to be said about the excitement of change. Those who sit back and wait for change to come will not survive. We at Tempo Live Events are having fun thinking outside the box, gaining new clients and making cool event relationships along the way! Looking forward to reading more of your series “Fixing the Problem” Thanks, Brian!