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Your Guide to Event Planning in 2022: What to Expect and What to Avoid

December 28, 2021 by Chinny Verana

Blog banner for the guide to event planning in 2022
Photo credit: Gabrielle Henderson

It’s almost 2022!

Time to say goodbye to 2021 and say hello to 2022. As organizations and event organizers gear up for the new year, it’s time to pick up the pace on your events. Your organization might be lining up your events already. And while it’s great to start early, knowing what lies ahead will help you be prepared and ready. After all, the year is still full of uncertainties.

So what can we expect from event planning in 2022?

Event trends for 2022

1. In-person events will be back, and online and hybrid events will be more common

In-person gatherings will make a major come-back this 2022. Since infection rates have declined, people are starting to physically gather together again. In-person events will be back with the observation of basic health protocols.

However, leading experts say that online and hybrid events will dominate the event industry this year. And this trend is not only expected for 2022. In a recent report by Gartner, “By 2024, in-person meetings will drop from 60% of enterprise meetings to 25%, driven by remote work and changing workforce demographics.”

Other factors are also involved like people adapting to consuming content online and the continuous threat of new virus variants.

What to do?

Identify the goals of your events and critically examine what’s best suited for your audience: in-person, virtual or hybrid. Evaluate your stakeholders [speakers, guests, attendees]: their demographics, preferences, and availability. Just because everyone is doing hybrid meetings doesn’t mean you should as well.

When you’re thinking of an intimate and exclusive meeting with speakers and participants coming from the same location, then you can opt to do an in-person gathering. Hybrid and purely virtual events work best for audiences that are geographically scattered.

2. Fewer workforce requirements

As hybrid events and online meetings are more likely to dominate, fewer people are needed for work. In a way, you can cut down costs for hiring staff and suppliers. You’ll still be needing a physical venue for your in-person and hybrid gatherings, but it wouldn’t be intended for a large crowd.

You need a platform for online streaming and other additional software like an event registration system that will allow both in-person and virtual participants to register. Automation is a necessity for event planning in 2022.

What to do?

When doing a hybrid setup, you need to engage two types of audience: virtual and live audience. This makes event design more complex. Invest in equipment that will help you maximize the type of platform you’ll be choosing.

3. More focused on health and safety

With the overwhelming effects of the pandemic, people have become more health-conscious. Safety has become one of the deciding factors attendees consider in an in-person event. So make sure that your event exercises best hygiene practices.

two young people talking with social distancing

A contactless process such as face recognition application upon entry would be a trend for post-COVID events. Event Smart supports contactless registration and check-in options. Manage registration, sell tickets, receive payments, collect registration data, send automated and personalized emails and manage admissions right on your event site. Minimize any contact during the event check-in by scanning the QR codes of participants. With Event Smart, you got it all.

What to do:

Keeping the safety of all your stakeholders will require you to be wise and flexible. How will the sessions go in keeping with social distancing? How will food and beverages be served? One thing you can do is precisely calculate the maximum capacity of the venue with the necessary distancing included. You can place markers in between seats.

To avoid contamination, buffets won’t be a popular choice. You can opt to serve pack lunches with disposable utensils and plates instead. It would lower any possibility of contamination and infection while saving time.

4. Small-scale meetings are preferred over single massive ones

More organizations will opt to conduct small-scale events rather than large-scale meetings. Micro events will promote inclusiveness and diversity. It allows the meeting to be more exclusive therefore more engaging since it would be more manageable.

What to do:

When you want to organize a more focused event, choosing multiple smaller events with a detailed event design is a great choice. Present the event goal clearly and design the program with in-between breaks. Eliminate fatigue and prevent people from feeling overwhelmed by giving them breaks in between sessions.

Planning a webinar? Check these 8 practical steps on how to host a webinar.

What You Need to Avoid

1. Having the pre-pandemic mindset

What’s the pre-pandemic mindset? It’s undermining the power of event technology, and not acquiring the new skill sets needed for a post-pandemic event design. It also pertains to not utilizing event data and trends and thinking that the upcoming in-person gatherings are the same as the “old normal” ones.

2. Compact and tight event design with no room for breaks

Face-to-face meetings can be quite exciting for everyone. While it might be in your best interest to deliver tight-packed information and content, all of the efforts will be wasted when attendants become overwhelmed and over fatigued.

And this is not only true for those attending in-person. There’s a higher risk for your online participants. Having to sit and listen all day will definitely drain your audience out.

3. Choosing the wrong event set-up for your audience

Following the trend is not always the right move. Again, everything is on a case-to-case basis. It doesn’t mean that a virtual meeting works for them, that it will also work for you.

4. Not defining measurements for event success

The greatest tragedy for any event is not being able to evaluate its success. Without proper key performance indicators (KPIs) at hand, you’ll be beating the thin air. What is it you wanted to achieve? Brand exposure? Customer engagement? How will you know if you hit your goal?

Use these fundraising KPIs to track your nonprofit’s success.

5. Being lax with time

Even before the pandemic, events are time-bounded. Organizers and speakers see to it that they handle time strictly. It is more so in the post-pandemic setting. With hybrids and online meetings, every second counts. You can easily lose an attendee if you don’t stick with your schedule.

Conclusion

In summary, in order to win in the post-pandemic game of event planning, you must keep in mind these 4 event trends:

  • In-person events will be back, and online and hybrid events will be more common
  • Fewer workforce requirements
  • More focused on health and safety
  • Small-scale meetings are preferred over single massive ones.

Avoid doing the following: having the pre-pandemic mindset, constructing a compact and tight event design with no room for breaks, choosing the wrong event set-up for your audience, not defining measurements for event success, and being lax with time.

The new year still poses new challenges for event organizers. Event design and management may continue to change but having a reliable event tool will help you stay on top of the game. Event software like Event Smart will help you become resilient to a constantly changing world by providing you services that continue to be relevant over time.

Manage your events with us. Start your free trial today.

Filed Under: Event Planning

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