10 Key Take-Aways from ‘The Future of the Experience Economy’ Conference
On Wednesday 15th June we welcomed over 200 event professionals to ‘the Future of the Experience Economy,’ where they heard from 12 expert speakers and panellists.
If you didn’t have time to attend the event where we dove into the future of events and live experiences, then here are 10 key take-aways from the day!
Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO, Eventbrite
Julia opened up the future of the experience economy answering a fundamental question: as the world becomes ever more digital, will live experiences remain important?
The answer: more so than ever!
Why?
Because events give us a sense of belonging. They help us to connect with one another. To new ideas. To our future selves. “And that is something that is never going to be replaced by technology.”
So what role will technology have in shaping the future of live experiences? It’s there to enhance them, not replace them.
Julia also touched on 3 major trends that are actually accelerating the world’s demand for live experiences: shifting consumer attitudes; technology; and FOMO.
For more details on these trends and their impact on your events business, check out the full video by filling out your details on the right.
Brand, Loyalty and Consumer Expectations: How Events Will Evolve to Meet Future Demand
We had an all-star panel of some of the UK’s biggest event organisers for this talk:
- Chris Smith, Director, WOMAD Festival
- Tim Hunt, Head of Marketing, European Tour & Ryder Cup
- Damian Norman, Managing Director, Telegraph Events
- Victoria Archbold, Director of Sponsorship & Events, Hearst Magazines UK
- [Moderator] Marino Fresch, Director of Marketing UK & IE, Eventbrite
There were so many great insights and take-aways we can’t cover them all, but here are 3:
Take risks
Chris was keen to emphasise the need for forward-looking events to take risks, and even sometimes to deliver what their audiences don’t know they want. That’s the only way to break free from mainstream thinking and create revolutionary new experiences.
Ask the right questions
Both Tim and Damian spoke of the importance of staying close to attendees, but not without doing so strategically. Knowing why you’re asking questions, and making sure they’re the right ones, are essential to a proper understanding of customers that will allow events to flourish.
Use social media to amplify value
Victoria made the point that events don’t live in a bubble, and so they’re competing all the time for people’s attention. So why not use social media to help?
By incorporating a social media strategy into the heart of your events, you can reach new audiences, enhance the experience for those there, and amplify the value of the event for sponsors too.
Get the full panel insights and more actionable tips from these leaders by filling out the form to the right.
Threat, Opportunity or Irrelevant: How Will Technology Shape Real World Experiences?
Our next panel features some heavyweights from the world of technology:
- Renaud Visage, Co-Founder and CTO, Eventbrite
- Jonny Voon, Lead Technologist – IoT, Innovate UK
- Mária Rakušanová, Senior Product Marketing Manager & VR lead, Samsung Mobile
- Mikela Eskenazi, Senior Brand Partner, Blippar
- [Moderator] Mark Walker, Head of Content UK & IE, Eventbrite
Again, it was a panel packed full of interesting insights and visions for the future. Here’s a quick run-down of the key highlights.
Users will decide the future
Renaud answered the question about how we can speed up the adoption curve of new technologies with a great point of view: technology companies are enablers…but it’s up to organisers and consumers to shorten the adoption curve by using the technology and figuring out what they want to do with it.
In other words: leave it in their hands and users will decide the future.
Data
The value and utility of data was a point of consensus for the whole panel, but Jonny Voon was particularly passionate about it’s application for live experiences, panning a vision of the future where it can yield incredibly useful insights to organisers and improve the onsite experience for attendees.
Virtual and Augmented Reality are here already
Mikela and Maria, representing expertise from the worlds of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality respectively, highlighted the fact that these technologies are already being used to enhance events and live experiences, reeling off a list of examples.
Mikela also painted a picture for the next generation of AR that will be seamlessly blended with an attendee’s natural experience, enhancing it at a point of need; while Maria emphasised the incredible opportunity VR will offer to let people experience events who can’t currently get to them, making it less of a threat and much more a potential for growth.
Watch the full details on how organisers can adopt and leverage these exciting technological developments by downloading the full video now —>
Staying Connected in a Digital World: The Future of Experiential for Brands
The concluding panel of the day was focused on how brands can connect with their customers through live experiences. On the panel were some of the most innovative agencies in the UK:
- Jason Megson, Managing Director, George P. Johnson EMEA
- Adam Azor, SVP Integrated & Digital Marketing, Jack Morton Worldwide
- Jessica Hargreaves, Joint Managing Director, Pretty Green
- [Moderator] Mark Walker, Head of Content UK & IE, Eventbrite
- As with the previous panels, it’s hard to focus on just 3 key highlights when there was so much valuable discussion, but here goes…
Proving the ROI of live
During the panel we found out that Jess is leading the charge on building an industry model for proving the value of live experiences to brands, which will be an exciting development for all event organisers.
Jess – along with her fellow panellists – was also keen to emphasise the importance of not viewing events in isolation, or as a standalone tactic – but as more of a continuation of the whole brand experience.
Know your why
Jason was also a cheerleader for the need to understand why an event should exist in the first place.
Without a clear purpose, there’s very little chance that an event will really resonate with the target audience. So before jumping into ‘what’ or the ‘how,’ any event organiser needs to devote the time of understanding the ‘why.’
A model for innovation
Concluding the event, Adam provided a really useful model that organisers can use for helping them find the time (and budget) to innovate while not risking their existing success.
He spoke about the ’70-20-10’ model whereby events and brand should spend 70% of their time and budget on the repeatable aspects of events that they know work well and deliver ROI; 20% of the time testing out better ways to do things that already work; and 10% on completely new, innovative projects that could easily fail…but may well just be the next big thing for your event.