I agree with the American inventor Charles Kettering who once said: “My interest is in the future, because I am going to spend the rest of my life there”.
However, I am NOT the sort of person who usually likes to make future predictions … or has ever been to a fortune-teller … or that even believes in horoscopes (but that’s Taurus for you, we’re all TOTALLY sceptical) … but when it comes to the business events industry, I like to consider myself to be someone who is ahead of their time.
Granted, it’s only by three or four minutes … but I feel this qualifies me to publish a list of predictions for how I see our industry emerging from the other side of this whole pandemic experience.
I predict you will find what I have to say interesting … even entertaining. But, if you don’t, I guess that means my predicting skills AREN’T as great as I thought. In which case, disregard everything I write from here down.
LIST OF PREDICTIONS
1. THERE WILL BE LESS FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS
2. DESPITE PREDICTION 1, THERE WILL BE MORE FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS
3. REMOTE PRESENTING WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN LIVE CONFERENCES
4. THERE WILL BE A SLIGHTLY-DELAYED BOOM IN DOMESTIC CONFERENCING
5. THE VIEW FROM THE STAGE WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT
6. EXHIBITIONS WILL REQUIRE A MORE CREATIVE APPROACH
7. PEOPLE WILL QUICKLY FORGET SOME THINGS … BUT THEY SHOULDN’T
8. OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA WILL CHANGE
9. THE FUTURE OF FUTURISTS IS … HARD TO PREDICT
Let’s go through them.
PREDICTION 1:
THERE WILL BE LESS FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS
Remember back in February this year … when ‘Zooming’ was merely the name of the Chinese Figure Skater who won the 2009 Asian Games?*
By mid-May, Zooming had become a generic verb. We ALL were doing it, for social contact and for work meetings. Even my 78-year-old mother who calls it “The Zoom” was doing it.
Whilst not everyone was doing it well …
… we discovered that, on the whole, for meetings that traditionally had people physically gathering in a boardroom, they worked pretty well remotely.
I think that, after isolation measures cease, businesses will continue to hold many of these meetings via Zoom (and similar software) … and this will be one of the more delightful outcomes of the pandemic: the amount of time we will spend travelling to and attending client meetings, committee meetings and the like will be dramatically reduced.
Which means that the total amount of time we spend discovering that most of these meetings were completely unnecessary will also fall.
*This is absolutely true, although the name is usually transliterated as Xu Ming.
PREDICTION 2:
THERE WILL BE MORE FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS
However, I do NOT see this booming Zooming trend applying to larger-scale business meetings (ie. more traditional corporate training gatherings, such as conferences, congresses, symposia and PD Days etc).
Sure, many clients have delivered their 2020 event remotely and some will continue to do so in 2021 to keep costs down and social-distances up … but organisations will seek to go live-and-in-person because there are TWO VITAL ELEMENTS that real-life conference offer that you can’t get close to replicating at virtual events:
1. There is a far superior quantity and quality of learning delivered
2. The wide-ranging benefits delegates receive from being among others (such as increased focus, variety of views, discussion opportunities, networking, learning and motivation)
I could write at length about the huge importance of these two elements in:
- delivering conference outcomes, and
- helping delegates emerge from the other side of an event a more confident and competent member of their organisation or industry
but I won’t, as it’s not the focus of this article.
Just take it as a well-established fact that live events can deliver education and messaging far more effectively than virtual ones … and people thrive in many different ways when they are amongst other people.
Besides which, and maybe this is just me, but I find it a little hard to take things completely seriously when I’m staring at a screen that makes it look like I’m appearing in the opening credits of The Brady Bunch (or, for larger groups, The Muppet Show). And trust me … now that you’ve read this, on all future Zoom meetings you, will never be able to UN-see it.
Here’s a more extensive list of the benefits of real-world meetings over virtual meetings:
A SHORT LIST OF THE MAIN BENEFITS DELEGATES RECEIVE AT REAL-WORLD CONFERENCES THAT THEY CAN’T READILY GET AT A VIRTUAL ONE
Valuable connections made via peer-to-peer networking (often in the evening with a drink in hand)
Hands-on experiences
The help that audience reactions provide to the learning process (for example, the energy lift that applause offers, the focussing of attention that laughter delivers etc)
The assistance and feeling of rapport that delegates get from eye contact with the speaker
The excitement and energy that comes from being part of a crowd (think the hum in a theatre just before the lights go down) and how that helps focus attention
The delivery, by speakers, of emotion (which is a powerful learning tool)
The fundamental assistance that being out of the office, away from familiar surroundings, that being at a conference provides.
PREDICTION 3:
REMOTE PRESENTING WILL PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN LIVE CONFERENCES
Whilst I outlined the limitations of taking entire conferences on-line in my last prediction, I’ve also written in past articles about the value of creating a conference program with many varied segments and presentation styles.
To create the best educational experience for delegates, a conference day should consist of a mix of single-person presentations, panel session, audience Q&A, group discussions, breakout groups and anything else that varies the look, sound, shape and feel of the information being communicated.
Having one of the presentations in a conference day delivered via Zoom ticks that box very nicely.
Before Coronavirus, having a speaker beamed in remotely was clunky and uncomfortable ... for the presenter AND the delegates.
Now, however, we have passed over the threshold of acceptability, so using a remote speaker is far less of a risk. In fact, a virtual speaker can help events in two ways:
1. They give it access speakers who can’t physically attend.
2. Without the need to fly, accommodate and feed a speaker, an event may be able to afford one that was previously, all-up, too expensive to engage.
So, I DO see technology like Zoom playing an important and exciting part in future real world conferences.
PREDICTION 4:
THERE WILL BE A SLIGHTLY-DELAYED BOOM IN DOMESTIC CONFERENCING
With the switch back to face-to-face gatherings … and off-shore destinations being off-limits for quite some time … we will eventually see a healthy demand for events in domestic destinations.
“Yay!” for all the local suppliers who are struggling through these Barren Isolated Times!! They will deserve this boost in activity.
PREDICTION 5:
THE VIEW FROM THE STAGE WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT
I can’t wait to get back on a stage a speak to real people. But I AM prepared to be a little shocked by what I see.
1.Firstly, it will be faces other than those of my wife and kids. I’ll have to get used to that.
2. Secondly, the delegates will all have face masks.
And, as time moves on, society will judge us as much on our Mask Wear as they do our clothes. For example, these will be acceptable:
And these will be acceptable:
Whilst this one will not:
And this creates a HUUUGE opportunity for conference sponsors. There will be enormous competition to be the Face Mask Supporter at next year’s conference.
Is there a better way to ensure your name will be on everybody’s lips???
3. Thirdly, gone will be the days of conference rooms packed with people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder-to-shoulder. The seating will be significantly spaced out, and I see two reasons for this:
a. Social distancing requirements, and
b. This extended self-isolation will have extended delegates’ waistlines! I know what I’m talking about. My new Marketing Promo will be featuring the words, “Now featuring 10% more Darren!”
4. And, fourthly, since I anticipate that table centrepieces will feature dispensers of hand-sanitizer, I fear that we have reached the end of the days of bowls of mints on our conference table.
That’s right, folks. I am predicting Ar-Mint-Geddon. The Apoc-Eclipse. The Day of Atone-Mintie. The Final Judge-Mentos.
PREDICTION 6:
EXHIBITIONS WILL REQUIRE A MORE CREATIVE APPROACH
Whilst conferences can reinvent themselves to conform with most Coronavirus requirements, I feel that Exhibitions may have to be even more inventive with their solutions.
The biggest challenge as I see it is that, traditionally sponsors try and create stands that attract the most people … but in this new normal, a stand with lots of people at it may actually be considered UNATTRACTIVE.
I predict that Exhibitions will become WORMHOLES OF EXISTENTIAL IRONY as the less attractive a stand is, the more attractive that stand becomes.
I’m also sad at the realisation that we may also have seen the last of all those free schmontzes and chuchkes being dispensed at sponsors’ booths (like stress balls and water bottles).
This might not sound overly important to you but, to me, it means I’ll have to buy my kids REAL birthday presents this year.
PREDICTION 7:
PEOPLE WILL QUICKLY FORGET SOME THINGS … BUT THEY SHOULDN’T
Human beings can be very good at discarding painful and difficult memories. That’s why I can’t remember anything that happened in my adolescent years.
But there are some things that I hope we always remember from our generation’s global pandemic:
1. THE WAY OUR SOCIETY ROSE TO THE OCCASION
I can only speak on behalf of us here in Australia, but it has been incredibly uplifting to see the way the general population here has, as a whole:
- Accepted that this is WAY above politics, and had faith in the government’s decision-making
- Trusted the advice of the medical experts more than the nutbags on Facebook
- Put their individual rights to one side and pumped up their level of care and concern for the elderly and vulnerable
In other words, we group-decided to be a country that did what was best for society, even though that meant taking quite a hit on a household level.
Sure, there have been a few hiccups along the way (30-minute haircuts, anyone??!!) but wouldn’t you rather have a few cases of hiccups than thousands of COVID 19 deaths?
I hope that we, our politicians and our industry always remember what an incredible difference we made by putting the well-being of the group ahead of our own.
2. THE HUMOUR
Whilst this has been the most serious challenge to confront our society for almost eighty years … and many of us have lost a lot … jobs, financial security, businesses and social interactions … we did not lose our sense of humour.
Even whilst simultaneously going through the various versions of the five stages of grieving we were sending memes (I’ve collected some of the better ones here https://www.dipresents.com.au/covid-19-memes-to-make-you-laugh ), dressing up to throw the garbage out and generally looking on the bright side of life.
I hope we always take that approach. Humour is the spoonful of sugar that helps us take even the harshest of medicines.
3. THOSE WHO LIFTED US UP
I hope we remember the people who have tried to help us keep our chins up throughout. These include people like:
- Captain Tom Moore in the UK, whose 100 laps of his garden in the weeks leading up to his 100th birthday raised over $60 million dollars for charity
- Or Noam Cartozo, a French Comedian who runs a daily trivia quiz for his neighbourhood (people in odd numbered buildings form one team, those in even numbers are their opponents)
- the thousands upon thousands of others who performed their own acts of kindness or community with the sole aim being to show people that, despite the isolation, they weren’t going through this alone.
- The many people who have offered to run free-of-charge webinars to upskill a workforce that found itself with time on their hands
- Our industry colleagues who understood from a business perspective, that everyone needed to be flexible. I had a couple of clients who, when they rang to tell me their event had been postponed, insisted I send through an invoice for some kind of deposit, just so I had a source of cash flow to get me through these months.
And, also, a big shout out Down Under to our Events Industry media who have been miraculously producing regular updates featuring positive news … even though very little that was happening was either positive or news.
4. THOSE WHO TRIED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE
On the flip side, let’s also not forget those who looked to make money from others during the crisis … such as the venues who played hardball with clients who were forced to cancel.
Or the service providers in our industry who, as soon as the crisis unfolded, rebranded themselves as Coronavirus/Pandemic/Isolation/Virtual experts … based purely on their ability to insert the appropriate COVID 19-related word into their marketing fluff.
There were some who were genuinely Coronavirus-ready, such as AV providers who were able to make isolation studios available, … but there were also (for example) a whole range of corporate speakers who seemed to, overnight, become experts in a field that even the REAL experts were still trying to understand.
How qualified they actually were to speak about the specific new circumstances we were facing is, of course, debatable … but am I the only one who found it pretty distasteful and revealing that some people’s response to our industry collapsing was, “How can I make money while that’s happening?”
Yes. Let’s not forget them, either.
PREDICTION 8:
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA WILL CHANGE
Could there be a larger elephant … or, more appropriately panda … in the room at the moment?
Without going into whether you believe that China was upfront and did it all it could to prevent the worldwide spread of (yet another) dangerous strain of disease, it will be a tough sell to hold an international conference in China or Hong Kong any time soon (which really saddens me, as I absolutely love having events in Hong Kong).
I’m not sure what needs to happen for the world to regain confidence in the processes China has in place to prevent, contain and report the next viral outbreak but, just like the Great War of 1914-1918 was supposed to be the “War to End All Wars” … and wasn’t … this pandemic is not likely to be the last one we see, either.
PREDICTION 9:
THE FUTURE OF FUTURISTS IS … HARD TO PREDICT
And so, to my final prediction.
I know this could sound a little ironic in an article claiming to look into the future, but I predict that business futurists will become a thing of the past.
I want to be careful here, as some speakers who talk about the future in their presentations are NOT Futurists, and are exempt from this prophecy.
For example, people like Michael McQueen and Bernard Salt, who provide so much more than vague future predictions.
So, how can you tell which speakers are Futurists? There are two tell-tale signs as I see it:
1. Somewhere in their presentation they show footage of a robot doing a backflip, and
2. At some point they quote Charles Darwin on the survival of a species depending on them being quick to change.
Over the past couple of years I’ve heard a good number of futurists speak at events and they never mentioned the word “Pandemic” and what that would mean for business.
When a group of people who claim to be able to help businesses prepare for the future miss the single most important, impactful and inconvenient event of this century, then it’s time to ask some questions.
Whilst this might sound a little harsh, don’t feel sorry for the futurist, folks.
Since they are all familiar with the importance of needing to change quickly in order to survive, I’m sure they’ll be fine.
CONCLUSION
I hope this article has either prepared you a little for the new normal … or entertained you for a few minutes in the now (or, best case, a combination of both).
However, given the extreme amount of change we’ve already had to adapt to in an extremely brief amount of time, I have no doubt that we will all adapt in one way or another to what lies ahead (and I believe there is far more good than bad in the future for the events industry).
As for my future … well … even in a normal year it is hard to predict where and how much I’ll be MCing or speaking … but I can tell you one thing with confidence:
My next article will either be a celebration of how correct my predictions in THIS article have been … or a humble explanation of all the things I got wrong.
Until then, stay safe and stay healthy.