Event horizons
Income from meetings and events has fallen precipitously in the last 18 months. Here Angela Guillemet, Executive Director of INCON Group and AMI expert contributor, accesses the new meetings landscape and where associations can find new sources of revenue.
Angela Guillemet
Angela Guillemet
The cost of virtual
Many associations think they just need to have the fancy technology, all the bells and whistles, and once they have their expensive platform the meeting will organise itself. But it’s not like that. A lot of associations are putting the money they save on food and beverage, for example, into technology, but there are other costs associated with online events that stand out – technical staff and marketing. To organise a very successful online meeting that kind of additional investment needs to be factored in. The platform costs are also incredibly varied depending on functionality - 2D or 3D, ease of navigation, some offer immersive experiences, others more customisable features. And there is something else to consider: hybrid meetings can be 30 per cent more expensive than virtual events, but it is not going to work if associations think they can just put a camera in a room and stream a few sessions. The virtual meeting environment has become so competitive that associations who do that might simply be pushed out of the way by other organisations.
Tiered registration fees
2020 saw lots of associations offering complimentary or nominal registration fees for virtual meetings and, at the end of the year, many of those organisations were asking, ‘what happened to our income?’. Free attendance is diminishing the value of the content and it is not sustainable financially. Associations must think about ‘value-based pricing’ for their virtual and hybrid meetings. The thinking here is the more the association invests in the meeting, the higher chance they have of success, of reaching new communities, having satisfied delegates, and, importantly, increasing revenues from registration fees or sponsorship. Free is not an option. Instead, associations should be thinking of different levels – an onsite fee, an off-site fee, and different add-ons fees.
Exhibitor and sponsor relationships
There is a huge issue around being able to demonstrate sponsor and exhibitor return on investment in virtual or hybrid settings. This has become very tricky. Simply reinventing the sponsor prospectus for virtual meetings is not working. There are three new features of the conversation associations should be having with exhibitors – and they pertain to data, year-long engagement, and the tailoring of sponsorship. From an exhibitor perspective, virtual meetings are providing a new opportunity to measure data, study buying behaviour, and reach new audiences. Associations should be looking for year-long engagement with their sponsors, which pushes beyond the standard gold, silver, and bronze packages, which were already starting to go out of date. But importantly, sponsors themselves need to change their approach to their target audience and have teams that are willing to invest in that year-long engagement. And finally, associations should be talking to their sponsors about their specific objectives and how the association can help to deliver them.
Extending the life cycle of events and contents
Extending the life cycle of a meeting to broaden reach should be one of the tools in your armour to generate additional revenues. And that means thinking about a year-long cycle of content that feeds into your meeting. There has been a lot of talk about Ted Talk, YouTube, Netflix. It is unclear how many associations can really publish that level of content, but that is where associations need to be thinking - beautifully produced videos with key topics of interest to their members and communities. Another factor to consider is extending networking to before, during, and after a meeting, which has a lot of value for delegates and sponsors. But, again, it is not just the technology that facilitates this. Associations need to work with their partners to better understand their delegates and create like-minded group to foster that kind of engagement and that kind of networking.
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