Continued Uncertainty Underlines the Permanence of Virtual
Back in April, when Zoom was a novelty, toilet rolls in short supply and anxiety at an all-time high many of us perhaps felt that the shift to joining webinars, group zoom discussions, and attending virtual events may be just a temporary thing. Panic would subside, a vaccine would be found and normality would resume by the autumn. So too it seems did many event organisers who have subsequently had to move their events yet again into the spring.
So alas, with continued uncertainty, increasing R numbers and general confusion (at least from the UK government, well they are consistent I suppose) suggests that virtual events are not going to be a temporary thing.
In the UK, new government rules again seem to have put the kibosh on a live business event return. This is hard for all of us and the B2B event industry to stomach, particularly when the government seem to be encouraging on us all to get back to work, to go out and eat (isn’t a full restaurant a gathering of more than 6 people?) and get back to business. But for some strange reason business events are still not happening.
However, this does underline that virtual events will be a permanent fixture, whether we like them or not.
Of course, I would say that particularly as next month we run our second FuturePrint Virtual Summit! But despite my obvious bias, virtual does offer something live events cannot match both right now, and also in the future.
Virtual is inclusive. For example, Summits in the business and political world are by their very design exclusive. They position themselves as important gatherings that only strategic level people are invited to attend. Often the barriers to attendance are huge when you factor in the cost of travel, the prestigious hotel rooms, a hefty delegate fee, and they come at the cost of the most precious commodity of all. Time.
Virtual rides roughshod over those rules. It democratises events. It enables both senior people and the next generation of leaders to partake, to debate, present, connect and learn. Easily. Whenever it is convenient. Surely this is exactly what the internet is all about! The last FuturePrint Virtual Summit achieved an attendance from a much younger demographic and a more balanced gender representation from over 65 different countries!!
And it, therefore, helps to provide access to helpful insight and knowledge and this is something we are excited about. The more people are equipped with helpful and inspiring information, the better the industry will be.
But with a virtual event, and this also goes for a live event, content remains regal. In many ways, the delivery of content at a virtual event is far more unforgiving than a live event. Frankly, if a session is boring or irrelevant then delegates will exit the session as it does not require them to form an awkward and apologetic excuse. It’s brutal! And presenting at home in front of your computer just isn’t the same as it is on a stage in front of a crowd. It’s not as natural to perform or connect.
A virtual event does not follow a chronological or linear schedule either. People dip in and out when they want. At our last summit loads of sessions were consumed after the event. While the event dates and schedule are obviously important, there is equal value in after event viewing.
As a result, a speaker securing the traditionally viewed best time slot isn’t as essential. It’s not as important because if you have something useful and interesting to say then people will find your session, whenever it is scheduled.
Our second summit features over 120 speakers, taking part in 80 different sessions across 5 days. It’s become a big project! And we have over 30 content partners supporting the event giving talks on their new technology from industrial, wide format, packaging and commercial print. And complimenting this tech fest we have printers, designers, analysts, consultants and experts making up an even better, more rounded, future-focused and inspiring event this time around.
Day 1 is Young Guns in Print, a whole day of content focused on and by younger leaders in printing led by our colleague Karis Copp.
Day 2 Industrial Print and is opened by Jonas Ridderstråle the co-author of Funky Business and the rest of the day features some great content with an emphasis on industrial print technology.
Day 3 is wide format and begins with a session delivered by the popular Steve Lister on retail transformation. Following Steve are analysts but also other tech leaders, designers and print service providers.
Day 4 is focused on packaging. Featuring insight and analysis and tech innovation for printing in packaging experiencing radical change right now, we have a number of exciting new tech to inform you of plus a cast of insightful speakers from packaging and print.
Day 5 is commercial print and is led and hosted by Brendan Perring of the IPIA. We have some great new content and new stories, tech and analysis and printers featuring on this day. Check-in on the website and watch it build!
Intersecting each day at 1 pm (BST) we have a networking session where visitors can network and connect with content partners, speakers and the professionals. With one per day this promises to be a great virtual networking platform.
My Co-Founder Frazer Chesterman and I are now busy putting the final touches on the programme ready to go live later this week, so if you’d like to be notified then leave your email address on the website. Or email me here.
We hope to see you there!
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