Virtual and hybrid events have matured and evolved a great deal over the last couple of years, and they will keep connecting us long after the pandemic is over. Even as businesses move into pandemic recovery, events and conferences—a more than trillion-dollar industry—will largely remain virtual or hybrid for some time. Professional event planners will need to find virtual event solutions that provide a great attendee experience and are highly customizable.

There’s a certain energy on a trade show floor that is wildly thrilling.

Live event production is still feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Event professionals have had to explore other kinds of touchpoints since 2020. One such option has been drive-in events, providing a unique, convenient and memorable way to engage attendees from the safety and comfort of their own car.  

Creating a safe and successful drive-in event during a pandemic is not the easiest thing to do. These three strategies can ensure your drive-in event is a smooth ride.

1. Plan around local guidelines and regulations. 

There’s an interesting debate raging at the moment. It’s focused on whether hybrid events are here to stay or if the world will merely return to business as usual and resume in-person events.

It’s an important conversation as the “return to normal” continues running up against new COVID variants, but the decision doesn’t need to be a binary one.

Even as in-person events make a comeback, companies can and should include a virtual component in their events. It’s a relatively easy—and cost-effective—way to “upsize” smaller events into larger ones that reach more people.

Today’s marketing teams are focused on engaging with the thousands of prospects and customers in their contact databases to generate awareness. Once you have that prospect engaged, the next step for any customer in their journey is education.  

Customers need to evaluate the companies they want to work with. That process includes attending trade shows, corporate events, webinars, one-to-one meetings, sales meetings, expert meetings and executive meetings. But sessions are where prospects learn more about a product and specific use-cases.

Humans love to measure things and put names to them. We create measurements for individuals such as IQ and EQ as well as organizational maturities of all kinds. So, it only makes sense to add one more to this ever-growing list of quantification: data maturity. An event organization’s data maturity is the level of the staff’s understanding, adoption and utilization of available data to guide decision making, ideation, product development and procedural improvements. It may just be one of the single most important measures you can assess.

Open your calendar on any given day, and chances are good that it looks nearly identical to the day before: chock full of video meetings and conferences. Meeting after meeting can be taxing enough, but those held in the digital realm are leading to a phenomenon known as “Zoom fatigue.” 

It comes as no surprise that the past year has significantly slowed down group and business travel. While digital platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have proven an effective mode of keeping in touch, there is no replacing an in-person conversation. We all have an inherent desire to travel, explore and feel connected. With more than half of the U.S.

In the past several weeks, I have traveled to several cities across the U.S. for different-sized trade shows and industry meetings. As a frequent business traveler pre-pandemic – at least a few times a month – I will tell you that traveling right now is simply not quite the same as it used to be in more ways than one.

In short – PACK YOUR PATIENCE – and realize that everyone, and I mean everyone, is doing the best that they can in a challenging environment.  

“Become comfortable with permanent uncertainty.” ~ Unknown

Since March 2020, your lives as planners, show managers and suppliers have been nothing short of topsy-turvy. For many seasoned event professionals, the last 19 months are new to someone whose planning cycle is three to five years in the future. 

While many are touting a “new normal,” what is that exactly? And how do you pivot when your local, state or federal government changes direction with COVID-19 guidelines or mandates? One guiding principle is to stay calm and always make safety a top priority.