Event technology platform Hopin presents four trends on engagement to keep in mind as the events industry navigates 2022:
- The return to in-person events is community-driven: The key to navigating the uncertainty is acknowledging possible challenges in advance and adopting a community-first approach to planning. To make the event experience successful, we must prioritise the community – we want them to feel safe, comfortable, and want to come back in the future. To do so, it’s best to adhere to guidelines including laying a strong foundation by establishing a set of rules your event team will stick to no matter what, building added health and safety measures into your budget, and proactively communicate plans to everyone in involved.
- Event marketers need to think small to win big: Event professionals are no stranger to the old adage, ‘go big or go home.’ We like to make it memorable by making a big splash –– tens of thousands of people onsite, multi-day conference programmes, celebrity appearances, big venues, and big-name entertainment headliners. For the most part, in 2022, they also won’t need to follow suit to make a big impact. When it comes to marketing, people want to feel something. That’s why intimate, emotionally evocative events will come out on top and emotional authenticity will be a cornerstone of in-person events.
- Authenticity is paramount for event communities: To keep up with the ever-changing dynamics, it’s important to recognise and respect individual identities and motivations by always putting people first. To nurture the event communities, the solution is authentic relationships and putting people first. Get to know your community by having 1:1 conversations to understand their needs and priorities.
- Your events strategy needs an engagement strategy: Engagement is at the heart of every community. For event professionals, it can feel like a difficult thing to get right. In fact, more than 40% of event organisers say engaging audiences has been their biggest challenge in 2021. According to Scott Gould, author of The Shape of Engagement comprises three psychological components that event professionals should keep in mind:
- Cognitive (the head), which involves how we think and process information and therefore what we know.
- Behavioural (the hands), which connects our thoughts to our behaviour, essentially what we do with what we know.
- Affective (the heart), which centres on the bonds we develop with people, things and ideas, and what we become.
The new year brings an opportunity to focus on engagement by rethinking traditional approaches, building authentic relationships, and being honest.
