Most Virtual Events Are Not Actually Events

📺 Many of the virtual events we’re seeing today are really pre-recorded broadcasts. Pre-recorded means canned. Canned means inauthentic. Inauthentic means not real. And something that’s not real can’t be an 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 at all.

🤝 What makes an event worth attending is the energy (chi) of attendees learning together, mingling, and doing the same thing. The screwups, unplanned moments, and thousands of decisions that participants make in nanoseconds.

❌ 🎥 If more than 10% — maybe even less (?) — of an event is pre-recorded, it’s not an event and certainly not live.

🛍 The rapid expansion of virtual events threatens to lead us down a dangerous path toward automation. If that happens, rather than providing meaningful experiences on an online platform, virtual events like conventions and conferences are on a slippery slope to becoming systematized marketing campaigns, or worse, long infomercials.

🎬 In the process, #eventprofs may be forced to focus on the wrong metrics and pulled too far to the marketing side, instead of serving many business interests at once. Hoteliers will care more about A/V than the event’s design and flow.

🗣 We must remind ourselves that events are about bringing people together and fostering a sense of belonging. If they’re not doing that, what’s the point?