Maritz Global Events Blog

Maritz Global Events Talked Trends at IMEX America


In this blog series, we’ll recap some of the important trends we were talking about at IMEX America last month 

Trend #1:

Post-Pandemic Attendees: What Do They Look Like Now?

Our audiences are changing. Our attendees have become accustomed to living life on their own terms and are more comfortable communicating their boundaries. Do we as an industry fight this, or do we embrace this new era?

At Maritz Global Events, we are ready to embrace this shift. Our Enterprise Vice President, Brand, Experience and Innovation Ecosystems, Greg Bogue, is the creative mind behind this forward thinking and shares this perspective:

“Events used to be something done to you. Then they were done for you. Now they’re done with you. In the future they’ll be done by you – the guest.”

 

We believe the pandemic created a shift in how many of us value our time. This shift has caused a chain reaction in our industry, empowering attendees to feel more control of their own time. The event designer's role, now more than ever, is to create the right kind of environment that helps our attendees be comfortable and successful.  

At this year’s NEXT&, our Maritz Global Events signature event, we put our attendees squarely in the driver’s seat to drive content and experiences. How? Of course, we listened carefully to post-event feedback in 2021, but we also implemented the following:    

  • Attendees chose from six meta trends during registration which were used to design their content and experience. 
  • Our clients were encouraged to “take over” during their customized half-day session called Futurecast. The set-up felt like a living room, with seating groups of five, and guests were encouraged to move around.   
  • We recorded a general session in advance and sent the recording to attendees before they arrived. This took away the standard live general session. 

A few other insights and questions to consider when designing an event: 

  • Don’t do the things you can easily do when the group is apart. 
  • We are in a unique time – and it’s a great time to experiment with new ideas. 
  • How can we make events more of an “attraction”? 
  • How can we create truly transformational events?  
  • How can we disrupt our thinking and change how we design events moving forward?  
  • How do we insert humanity into our events?  

Is your curiosity piqued? We’d love to work with you on your next event. Connect with our team here


 



comments
0