Last year, me and other industry industry professionals were asked by Eventbrite to provide an event industry trend, opportunity or challenge that will be affecting the industry this year. It was a challenging question as in my mind there are plenty of them to highlight. However after a long consideration I decided to pinpoint one of the major ones:

B2B Marketing recently published its 2014 Content Benchmarking report, and summarised the key points in an infographic which sparked our imagination, so we put together our top takeaways as digestible, actionable insights.

List updated: August 2016

Almost every time I speak to event industry leaders about reinvigorating their event marketing, the topic of online communities comes up, followed by the question: how are the big players in events driving online engagement with their communities?

I have now sat in a room with too many small event company owners and CEO’s who are somewhere between intensely and mildly frustrated by the performance of their sales teams, to not share some ways towards sustainable improved results and mental health

In challenging economic times, the B2B events experience must consist of a whole lot more than a good excuse to escape the office. We know that delegate budgets are being squeezed and employees have little time to spare, and in the context of this environment, it is likely that mediocre events will fail.

It’s not news that delegate sales are declining. In fact, I think it’s safe to say, that for B2B event marketers it’s one of our biggest headaches. But, don’t worry, this is not a ‘woe is me’ blog it’s all about adopting some PMA (positive mental attitude) and focusing on the benefits of face-to-face. Let’s take the bull by the horns and address the delegate sales squeeze…

In a recent blog post we discussed the importance of inbound content for B2B event marketers. Of all the many strands of online content marketers have at their disposal, video is perhaps the most compelling and engaging. It is also a firm favourite amongst B2B audiences.

The conference and events industry are scratching their heads about what they can do to drive delegate attendance, conference ticket sales and in general how they can achieve sexier marketing.

As discussed in the first blog in this series, contemporary customers are looking for more than a purely transactional relationship with your brand – they want to interact with you. It's true. Part of that relies on creating interesting and consistent content for your audience to engage with (blogs, videos, interviews, ebooks, photos) but, as an extension to your inbound marketing for events, it also involves building a community. Establishing a community will help retain customer loyalty amongst the glut of event marketing competitors all clamouring for attention, as well as attract the "right" kind of new customer. A community is a two-way conversation. A living, breathing thing that's interactive and social. Ok so there will always be some bystanders in the crowd that just watch and listen - but many will also participate and share, which is where the community weapon really plays out.   

Having spent time at Confex last month I couldn’t help thinking again – is there a big opportunity waiting to be grabbed by the Exhibition companies?

The events and conference industry has kicked off to a nice buoyant start this year and we're seeing lots of enthusiasm and commitment for change. We set out to identify the most talked about key trends, predictions and insights that have the conference and events industry buzzing and will most likely impact your business in the not too distant future (if not already!). 

This is one of those questions that has a multitude of answers but based on my own experience, Conference and Exhibition companies can specifically start with 6 areas of focus in order to make a step change in their top line performance: I’ve been out talking to bosses of small and medium size conference companies lately about their most pressing challenges and, if I was to distil things down to the one most common question, it is, in essence “how do we sell more stuff?”! 

What is currently happening in the conference and events industry? 

Where are we heading?

Well, like any other fast-growing and successful industry, this is always the topic of conversation when we meet with industry folk or overhear the banter at conference industry events. Every director of a conference, event or exhibition company is asking these questions and it's clear that anyone not thinking ahead will surely be left behind. As successful as the events industry is, nobody can afford to be complacent especially in this entrepreneurial, digital era. 

So we have partnered with CatchTalk.TV (formerly known as Xavy) to bring you precisely that. The most talked about predictions for the conferences and events industry in the near future.