3 reasons events shouldn’t return to in-person only

With the announcement by the CDC last week of changes to masking guidelines, and similar reductions in Covid restrictions elsewhere such as the UK in the last couple of weeks, it seems that more so than at any time in the last two years there is an opportunity to return to "normal".

When it comes to events and other forms of experience driven engagement, through a great deal of adversity there has been a tremendous upskilling in terms of producing digital first events, and diversification in terms of what sorts of engagement we see as part of the events landscape.

While returning to the pre-March 2020 normal might be high on some people's priorities we should not be hasty. Organizations have adapted to a new way of doing things, and teams have developed new skills and approaches that help to be successful in this new landscape.

However, there are three big external reasons why a more balanced approach might be ideal.

Equitable access

Ensuring that everyone in our potential audience has equal opportunity for access to an experience should be important to all organizations and organizers. This needs cuts across different situations where an individual may be limited in their ability to attend an in-person experience for a number of reasons or a mix of many. These could include location, disability status, childcare or other dependent care arrangements, financial status, or local cultural norms, among many others.

While virtual access is not a silver bullet that equalizes the landscape for everyone, it is certainly helpful and research has shown that it does increase the diversity of those who can attend. To immediately close doors that we have successfully opened in the last couple of years due to the reducing Covid risk would be extremely unfortunate, both for those who have been underrepresented previously as attendees, and for the richness of the events overall.

Climate responsibility

Delegates traveling from all over. Display booths built once and largely turned to waste days later. Bags full of promotional items no one really needs. No one has to look very far to see how negatively impactful in-person events can be on our environment.

According to UK non-profit The Company of Biologists, the typical conference attendee produces 177kg of carbon emissions per day along with over 2lbs of waste that goes to landfill. This is versus the 2020 US average of 38kg of carbon emissions per person per day.

The case for virtual events, hybrid events with smaller in-person footprints, or connected localized hub events that reduce travel and single venue dependency all make sense as aids to reduce the climate impact of events.

Mitigating future risk

It's not just global pandemics that shutter events and in-person experiences. On a more localized level from weather emergencies, to transportation strikes, to terrorism, there are myriad issues that can impact events from the smallest to largest.

Whereas for many organizations having solid plans to mitigate these truly unpredictable issues with solutions that enable events to continue has not been a high priority, Covid has been an issue long-term enough to enable organizations to devote resources to delivering quality experiences in a situation with venues that are closed and attendees scattered. These approaches and tools are equally valuable for non-pandemic related emergencies in the future.

So, if the tools to switch an event to virtual at short notice will always live in our back pockets, how likely is it that the opportunity to deliver a hybrid experience will always be with us as a result?

Conclusion

Every situation for planning and delivering events or other experiences, either for businesses or socially will be different, so there is never going to be one set of solutions that can work for everything. However, no matter what you are planning, these three considerations should probably feature somewhere and might be the reason to choose to continue to be virtual or add a hybrid option rather than jumping back into in-person all the time with both feet right now.

Title image: Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash