(3 minute read)
There is so much buzz and so much positivity beaming out of everyone that I speak to for 2022. It really is truly awe inspiring to hear how excited everyone is to get back to live events no matter if they are organizers or brands that are looking to exhibit and attend. It truly goes to show you how effective face to face really is to the lead and demand generation for businesses.
As I peer and look into 2022, I can only imagine the wonders of technology that will be brought forth from companies outside of our illustrious association and event industry. These technologies will help us to blend and immerse ourselves from the digital and face to face. However, they will help drive even further engagement while we are at live events.
What I think I am most excited for is that brands as well as associations and events are looking to be better to put on better events to put on more experiential programs that are going to drive value not only dollars and cents.
While most talks and future looks into 2022 will be based around what technology will pop up to help us better events or better the processes of our associations, what I believe will happen the most is a continuation of mergers and acquisitions as well as new launches of events. These mergers and acquisitions will come in multiple forms through potential partnerships as well as complete buyouts of not only associations but of events that no longer exist because of the pandemic. These new launches will also come out of the loss of those events as well as the launch of new burgeoning industries that are being created because of well technology.
We will see many pop-up events offering richer experiences as well as smaller curated programs that drive value to the members and exhibitors of an organization. These smaller curated programs will be dominated by categorical and geographical characteristics of those members and exhibitors to further drive brand awareness and demand in those local regions. What this does is ultimately drive awareness to their large trade show.
Many brands and associations have streamlined their staff to operate very lean. This is something that was happening well before the pandemic as we began to see organizations bloat themselves with too many staff members. This is not me saying that jobs should be taken away, however it is me saying that specific roles for the organization need to be truly outlined and the value needs to be truly there for that position to be a position.
The rise of the 1099 and new entrepreneur popping up within the event industry because of the pandemic will slowly dwindle as those individuals jump back to the safety net of being part of a bigger brand. If these last two years have taught me anything of being an entrepreneur and owning and running your own business, is that you need to properly manage the ups and downs not only in your revenue generation but the emotional toil that owning your own business can take. Constantly working on your mental strength and realizing at the end of the day you need to take time for your own mental health is one of the biggest and greatest learnings I have had over these past two years.
What this means for 2022 is that mental health will no longer be a shy issue that can’t be talked about within brands and organizations. We will see organizations force mental health days. this is evident if you look at new job postings and look under their benefits you can see so many new brands offering mental health days once a quarter because they realize that a fresher mind can produce so much more for them. Gone are the days where brands and organizations will continue to drive and burnout their employees.
So, as I look to 2022, I can only see positivity and optimism as the world continues to reopen, businesses look to engage back to live events, the blend and immersion of the digital to the face to face will continue to help so many of us with our lead and demand generation to help the velocity of our pipeline growth.
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