In three short years the world has seen more changes and impacts than most of us have seen in our lifetime!

A lot has been written post covid about how things have changed and will continue to change. However, perhaps the biggest change is how we communicate, how we consume news and information and how we stay in touch. The biggest shift has been to social media!

The longer term effect of these changes on Business Events is still evolving.

Social media gained an even greater strength as a preferred medium during covid. With people locked down, traditional media such as print had no one down the shops buying (overlay with the early myths of covid spreading via surfaces), newspapers and magazines had no option other than to pivot online even more than they were already doing and clearly the majority of traditional media have not fully recovered.

When television leveraged the fear factor with daily reports on covid numbers and various politicians fronting the media, many turned to the various pay/streaming options to get some variety and to escape the barrage of dire news.

Radio has also encountered new competitors from online music platforms to podcasts.

As a result of the above people turned to social media for news, to share stories and family milestones etc.

Today traditional media is fragmenting and ratings have changed so much that media buying it is an art form in itself.

We also saw face to face meetings, conferences and expos being replaced with Zoom, Microsoft teams and a mix of online event programs.

It has panned out that this was one of our best sales tools as people became frustrated and craved to get back to their “tribe” and meet face to face.

What has changed now is how we promote our events via social media. Platforms (and our screens) have become cluttered, making cutting through difficult.

The push to online events was seen by some as a threat to live events. I now don’t believe that will be an issue as the basic human craving to meet in person would appear to have been given a global lift as many didn’t realise how much they wanted to connect with their tribes until it was taken away from them.

That said, live streaming allows international presenters to appear without the huge travel costs and risks of being unable to attend due to health or changed travel plans. Live streaming should now need seen as a value add to conferences and events rather than a replacement.

Social media is here to stay and how Business Events use it will be one of the big things to shape the future, will it be friend or foe, I can’t see face to face human interaction ever being replaced but stranger things have happened !