Whether you love or hate organizing events, here’s some news for you:
You already know virtual events will never completely replace in-person events because people need people. Technology simply cannot replace the human connection we ultimately need. It’s why people will go back to working together physically, why our children will go back to school, and why in-person events will be normal once again.
But there will be changes. Over the past 12 months, we at HelloPurple have kept our ear to the ground and took a long look into the research about the fundamental shift of event management.
What we’ve learned is that the shift in the events industry is not going to be from in-person to virtual: it’s going to be a shift from out-sourced to in-house. Those results also show events are moving to single day focus rather than overnight. They will also be smaller and more regional or locally targeted, and they’re going to be planned in-house by people just like you.
Lastly, we learned a typical administrative professional – the type of role you play – will plan, or now plans, 3 to 5 events a year, and this number is expected to go up.
This new norm begs some questions. How long does it take you to plan a single event today? What are the aspects of event planning you love versus those that make you pull your hair in frustration? What are your current sources of inspiration and information?
You may have noticed how every event requires at least 5 different vendors, and for each vendor-type the best outcome is to get at least 3 different proposals. That adds up to 15 people you might need to talk to, call, negotiate, read and talk through their proposal, fine tune…I’m getting tired just writing it all down.
It’s time to start thinking about how to make your event planning process easier while still maintaining your standards of creating the highest-quality events.
