The place of creative industries in the event of tomorrow
By Angelina Condassa - Communication manager Plaine Images
The coronavirus crisis has turned our ways of thinking and organizing events. Teams meetings replaced our unforeseen points around the coffee machine and we were able to experiment with new formats such as VR concerts, virtual salons, car webinars or zoom escape games.
The Plaine Images had also redesigned its event program: podcasts , webinars , online replays on Youtube ... But our team also took advantage of this time to imagine our offers from tomorrow! Because, we are not going to lie, we need to find ourselves in three dimensions, as before (or almost).
But what will the event of tomorrow look like? Will the virtual disappear? And what place will the creative industries take?
A non-negligible and unexpected impact
The health crisis that we have been going through for more than a year now has affected all sectors of activity; The event has not escaped and is even one of the most vulnerable, with losses estimated at 15 billion euros .
However, the sector has experienced "insolent growth" since the early 2010s. The GL Events is a flagship example; French company that has become an international actor with 950 million turnover. In 2018 French Event Booster , the 1st French incubator dedicated to the actors of the Eventtech was born and the first promotion with. But the unexpected arrival of the coronavirus swept everything away in its path. Closure of reception places, health standards and physical distancing, rise in telework which has led to the drop in internal events of companies ... The event sector, sometimes perceived as too anchored to what it knows , has had one Make a crucial choice: sink or adapt.
The Digital and Virtual Age
The digital transformation of the sector has been strongly accelerated by the situation. Faced with these new constraints, digitalization appeared as an obvious solution.
Some already existing companies have changed their offer in this sense and have been able to develop very quickly. Moreover, the largest fundraising in the sector took place on December 2, 2020, in the midst of a health crisis. Bizzabo , first supplier of technological solutions dedicated to physical events, joined Kaltura to launch an online event platform from March 2020. Result: $ 138 million was lifted. Today, the solution offers all physical events to have their digital version.
Other companies have taken advantage of the crisis to be born, by proposing concrete solutions to urgent problems. And at this point, the “CO” strategy was essential. Like King Arthur who brought together knights around a round table in order to lead the quest for the Grail, which could appear as "the beginnings of collective intelligence" , some structures have gathered to imagine these solutions . This is the case, for example, of the Saloon (which allows you to create online events), created in less than a week by three SMEs: Plezi, Livestorm and CRISP.
More ecological, economical and inclusive online events
These are the major advantages offered by digital events, because "the dematerialized versions emerge the events of the temporal or logistical constraints inherent in the physical".
The question of CSR and commitment was strongly accelerated by the crisis. An online event will be more ecological because it will generate less displacements of goods and people, less pollution due to the creation of sets and less issues related to catering for example. A study carried out after the virtual climate summit (100% virtual event over 8 days) has shown that the equivalent in tons of CO2 could have been divided by 15 in comparison with a physical version.
They are also more economical from a financial and temporal point of view. Today, agencies believe that it takes about two to three weeks only to organize a digital event, against several months for an event in face -to -face.
More inclusiveness finally for audiences. Indeed, the language barrier can be easily broken with subtitles, the contents are available in replay for those who have not been able to free themselves, and the question of the access price is important. If we take the example of the GDC of San Francisco, an Access to exhibitions on the 100% digital version of 2020 was between $ 99 and $ 149, against $ 349 for the 2022 edition which will take place in face -to -face ; And this without counting the additional transport costs, housing, food, etc.
Online events therefore have many advantages and respond, more broadly, to strong social issues.
But the essence of events is "the promise of a meeting"
Lassiness, need to meet, lack of envy ... The 100% digital model was just a dressing. The figures and returns of CES 2021 demonstrate this: a drop of more than 60% of the number of visitors over the 4 days of the show, more than half of exhibitors less compared to the previous edition with large absent like Google And Amazon, and an online platform whose user experience has been qualified as "deplorable".
Event is a story of human connection, exchanges, meetings. Like Aristotle and then Montesquieu defended him, man is a social animal · Ble. In his work "The meeting, a philosophy", Charles Pépin in turn evokes the "relational nature of the human animal". Since all the disciplines, man has been made to physically meet others.
How to imagine the event of tomorrow? And what will it look like?
Despite the negative points that we can find on online events, everything is not to be discarded. On the contrary, it will be necessary for the players in the sector to use the good sides of the digital to invent the event of tomorrow, which will therefore be different from that of 3 years ago. The risk today for the sector is to want to return to the world "before" and to succumb to what is called "the Einstellung effect". In other words, head for a reassuring and controlled model, but which will not be effective; "When experience is the enemy of innovation".
It is also here that the power of the collective will surface. Innovation, as we saw with the example of Saloon, comes by associating with other actors to find solutions together.
It is to bet that the future of events will be based on several points.
First of all, hybridization or phygitalization.
The advantages of digital, which we were talking about earlier, being in accordance with the evolution of the company (more responsible, ethical), this model will be kept. But it will appear more in addition to a physical event, which has become a need for both businesses and public.
Fragmentation will be an important point to facilitate accessibility.
“exploded” events will multiply. Whether from a health, inclusive or ecological point of view, micro-events dispersed throughout the territory offer more possibilities. Instead of organizing a large agreement bringing together 20,000 people, 10 agreements of 2,000 participants will be able to take place in 10 different places.
The immersive experience at the heart of the challenges of tomorrow.
Bringing an experience to the visitor was already a crucial point of the "before" events, in order to overcome the "constraints of reality" . Today, all professionals agree that to make an impression, you have to be different and therefore bet on experience. In this sense, immersion has a place of choice to plunge the target into its universe, make it adhere to an idea, involve it more in the moment, and above all anchor the event in its memory. The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes has understood this and has created its virtual extension: Cannes Virtual Events . A solution to provide added value to physical events and revive events in this first -class business destination. Created in partnership with Laval Virtual , this is a first in the congress and fairs industry.
What place for creative industries in all of this?
Creative industries have a lot to gain and will have to bet on the cross industry in order to establish themselves as innovative actors.
In the world of video games, we were able to attend during the confinements at the arrival of brands on games like Animal Crossing and Fortnite. The development of Twitch is also to be monitored, with more and more events that take place there, such as the Z Event . Finally, gamification is developing more and more with solutions that have adapted to telework in particular, and which aims to promote the commitment of participants (a point undermined by digital events). We talked in particular about gamification and CSR lately with Alexandre Duarte, co-founder of Fidbak , gamification solution for companies.
Audiovisual will surely be one of the most demanded sectors. Video captures to upload the replays of events thereafter to the sets equipped for events broadcast live, the image has an ever stronger sense. But it is the audio that developed the most during the crisis, and on which it will be necessary to bet. Less consumer of data, it is a low-tech tool that seduces, evidenced by the success of podcasts or clubhouses. Besides, you can find here a podcast program devoted to the events of events: "The show must go on" (#inception).
Immersion being an important axis of the event of tomorrow, immersive technologies of course have a place of choice. 360 ° mapping, hologram, geodetic dome, virtual reality headset, augmented reality application ... There are many options when we talk about AR/VR/XR. One of the most publicized examples of recent months is the Atelier des Lumières , which has hosted many exhibitions, but also corporate events. The PwC's Future Forecast report announces that global spending will reach 150 billion euros by 2023.
To organize your corporate event at the Plaine Images, and call on our companies specializing in creative industries, we meet our dedicated page. (Besides, we are preparing a rather nice event for 2022, stay connected ...)
Finally, and as Denis Rame, director of the event at Paris Society, said here , "The issue of experience, pleasure and interaction is key in our way of understanding events at 'future ".
