TRENDS REPORT
B2B Events in
"The Future of B2B Events in 2023” presents perspectives from over 100 event leaders, marketers and seasoned event planners, who have been at the frontlines and have the perfect vantage point to help plan for 2023.
We hope this report acts as a guide while you put the finishing touches for your 2023 events strategy.
Looking back at 2022
With so much happening at once, 2022, if anything, served as a great teacher in the form of experience. It was a transformative year for event marketers, where the focus was on trying to get in-person events back on track, experimentation with different formats, and leveraging technology in the best way possible.
Events have transformed from being just a branding vehicle to a core channel which drives pipeline and revenue for businesses. Events cannot be a one-off thing - they require consistent commitment of time, resources and dollars.
The cluttered event space and prevailing webinar fatigue have created a challenging ecosystem for event marketers when it comes to improving their event visibility and attendee turnout.
2022 was dominated by a fragmented event tech stack. Multiple point solutions across the event lifecycle were the norm rather than exception.
There is a healthy appetite among people to try out new things. While the comeback of the community aspect in events is a very welcome respite from virtual burnout, all event formats have come to their own and continue to bring unique benefits to the table.
Here’s looking at you, 2023
With 2023 knocking on our doors, the playground is open to a whole lot of challenges, but also a whole lot of possibilities. Event marketers can now leverage the best of all event formats in order to combat economic pressures and ever-evolving attendee preferences.
B2B marketers are likely to run smaller events that offer more personalization and value to the attendee while keeping costs in check. Hybrid events will see curated and limited in-person attendees. Value-driven virtual events may be the go-to approach.
With optimization on everyone’s radar, there is great scope for event tech players to help marketers replace multiple tools and data silos by unifying their event tech stack into one platform for better planning, execution and followup.
There is growing demand among marketers for a detailed attendee insights that can help them track attendee activity across events and allow them to build personalized after-event campaigns.
Where hybrid events required a plethora of tech support, event platforms will make it much easier to manage multiple speakers, attendees and sessions across physical and virtual spaces.
With shrinking attention spans, attendees are looking for immersive experiences that offer them bite-sized and tactical takeaways rather than broad strokes of knowledge. They will be focused on takeaways - and events and webinars will have to deliver on that.
Unless you have something demonstrably of value to share, marketers will face the dual challenges of poor registration and sub-optimal attendee turnout. The only way to get out of this rut is to consistently deliver high-quality engagement and content with every webinar.
Three tactical tips to help you get started
This hybrid event checklist is all yours.
We’re ready for you!
As we address and overcome existing challenges, 2023 will present its own set of obstacles. But as you already know, history informs us about the future, and it is with this information that event warriors will turn obstacles into opportunities.
“Quality will trump quantity even more. While frameworks and philosophy sharing will be useful, showing proprietary data and outputs will be a difference-maker.”
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