Event marketing is on the rebound following a nearly complete shutdown during the pandemic and its aftermath of staffing shortages, resource gaps and budget cuts. The question for event marketing and operations leads is how to recover and grow revenue and attendee numbers with less. District Marketing and Bear Analytics recently hosted a webinar to discuss strategy and tactics for attendee acquisition gains. Here are some of our key tips and takeaways.

Read the Tea Leaves

You’ll find tons of metrics and insights reported across all the virtual event marketing platforms you use. They can help paint an overall picture of your virtual event’s success, but some are much more telling than others when it comes to event evaluation.

Navigating this deluge of data at every stage of your virtual event marketing campaign can be challenging. In this blog, we’ll explain how to measure the success of a virtual event using just a few powerful key performance indicators.

Our words matter. We often use them at our events or in our teams to communicate ideas, convey passion, express creativity, articulate intelligence, radiate confidence and exude wit. But choose the wrong ones, and you’ll become the insensitive event staff or coworker.  

Assuming you don’t want to be that person, let’s explore some commonly used words at trade shows and conferences, or phrases that are either past their expiration, culturally appropriated or downright offensive, and what you can say instead to demonstrate your intellect, wit and inclusivity!  

As the leader of an event and experiential marketing agency, the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic was one of, if not the, most challenging time for myself and our business—not only because we had to rethink our industry’s entire model of in-person events, but also because I had to make some incredibly difficult decisions regarding our employees. Namely, we faced the unfortunate reality that we needed to downsize and furlough a number of our team.

Today’s event attendees are less driven by product than they are by purpose. For instance, 85% of people around the world are making more sustainable purchases. As a result, 83% of organizations are taking sustainability into account when planning events.

Let’s play a game. Close your eyes. I am going to say a word. Tell me the first thing that pops into your head. "Inclusivity." Go! 

We create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data globally—every single day. In this digital age, data is currency, with stored data growing five times faster than the world economy. As information changes hands faster than ever, event organizers must prioritize data security and legal compliance. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the event industry has seen a complete 180 in operations, with in-person events being forced to move to virtual in response to safety protocols. And now, hybrid events are catching on as a way to provide the best of both worlds. With these changes, event managers are turning to new tools and event software to ease the often quick transition and offer the best overall experience for their audiences. 

Event organizers are taking the sustainability movement more seriously than ever before. That decision is good business. So is engaging with stakeholders.

In mid-April, the Events Industry Council is expected to release a refresh of its Sustainable Event Standards for the industry. Event organizers should take up the EIC SES, make meaningful changes now and be on the side of right.

As we enter year three of a global pandemic that upends plans from one minute to the next, marketing events remain a highly challenging endeavor. We thought vaccines would bring us back to normal by 2022, but once again, we find ourselves resetting our expectations about event outcomes at this moment. Maybe we won’t see the pre-2020 crowds just yet, but they’re coming, and maybe we do need virtual aspects of our events as much as we value the in-person connections.