On 25 March 2021, EventX held a webinar titled Event-Driven Growth In The Time of COVID. For just over an hour, three major players in Asia’s event industry provided invaluable insights on using events to drive growth in the aftermath of COVID-19.
It is now available to watch in full for FREE here!
Why We Held This Webinar
In the months that followed the arrival of the novel coronavirus to the world stage, brand marketers and event organizers searched high and low for effective methods to combat a difficult and unfamiliar environment while still delivering meaningful events to drive growth. It is exactly the discoveries that were made over this year of exploration and experimentation that we focused on in this webinar.
Hosted on the EventX platform and moderated by Rick Boost, Content Marketing Manager at EventX, the event drew over 200 live attendees and featured a discussion between a panel of experts that included Sum Wong, Co-Founder and CEO of EventX; Johnny Ng, Business Director at Morning Studio, SCMP; and Ricky Wong, Managing Director of GL events China.
Key Points
Sum Wong stated his belief in the versatility of virtual events, in that they allow brands of all kinds and sizes to host events of varied scale. He went on to point out the numerous advantages virtual and hybrid events have over their traditional counterparts, such as the ability to take events globally and do so with maximum efficiency of time. Sum Wong made clear however that hosting virtual events successfully still depends on organizers actually reminding their registered attendees about the event and providing regular updates. He was very positive about the future of virtual and hybrid mediums, saying that platforms would continue to evolve and adapt.
Ng came to the discussion from a different perspective, having created online content for some time and digital customer events for brand advertisers. He spoke on the importance of producing content for virtual events and finding creative methods to spark engagement with attendees prior to and during events. Ng encouraged organizers to learn about new platforms and tools and drew special attention to support features. Furthermore, he felt there needed to be a redefinition of what an attendee is, as many people consume content from after events, saying these should still be considered attendees.
Ricky Wong was very much the grounded realist of the talk, stating matter-of-factly that the pandemic had changed the very nature of the events business and that there was no going back to the days when traditional events ran unopposed. He did admit that traditional events had some unique strengths in terms of face-to-face emotional resonance but that digital events had their own benefits such as unlimited guest counts, and greater ROI. Ricky Wong’s main thesis was that each industry has differing requirements for the events they hold and the appropriateness for a traditional, hybrid, or virtual event will change because of that. He did feel that full-scale traditional exhibitions will still take time to return as caution was warranted.
You can watch the event in full below. Enjoy!
What’s Next?
During the webinar, audience members took part in several polls about their experiences running events during the pandemic. The results of these polls will soon be available in a white paper. In addition, you can read the results from our previous white paper on a Post-Covid Asia at this link.
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