One of the many huge ramifications from pandemic lockdowns has been the advent of large physical conferences converted to virtual conferences. This has been especially true for enterprise software events. Box CEO Aaron Levie says that their annual conference last week held entirely virtual saw higher engagement with customers and much lower costs than last years San Francisco event held at Moscone Center.
CEOs around the country and the world are debating whether they should abandon expensive physical conferences altogether once the pandemic restrictions are lifted.
Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, discussed this new reality, asking the question, how does this look in the future when you can actually have physical conferences? Do you still rely on a virtual first environment or do you have a bit of a hybrid conference?:
Box Virtual Conference Last Week Was A Huge Success
We did just have our virtual conference last week. We saw somewhere between four and five times the scale of registrations that we would normally see in one of our physical conferences. We saw higher engagement in a lot of areas than normally we would see. Overall, great levels of attendance and engagement on our keynotes and product updates. Certainly, as you can imagine, a much lower cost and much easier way to get this content out to our customers.
There are a lot of benefits to a virtual conference. We’re able to hit demographics of our customer base who previously wouldn’t have been able to fly out to San Francisco and come to Moscone for a two or three-day conference. There are real benefits of the scale of impact of customers we can interact with and engage with. There is a difference in terms of being able to have conversations one-on-one with customers. So it’s a different experience from that standpoint. But we were able to make do with the environment of having to move to virtual.
Now we’re really asking the question, how does this look in the future when you can actually have physical conferences? Maybe it’s next year or maybe it’s the year after. Do you still rely on a virtual first environment? Do you have a bit of a hybrid conference? These are some open questions that the industry’s going to have to ask. But overall, we were very happy with the success of the event.
On Friday, Aug. 6, 2020, Change to Win showed how events and trade shows are done in 2020 with their first virtual conference. The event was a project of Purple Virtual, a division of Purple Exhibits whose mission is to redefine the future of networking through a virtual reality experience.
From beginning to end, Change to Win was a blast. Many expressed their anticipation for the event by counting down its kickoff time on LinkedIn as early as 3 weeks in advance; and once it began, there were consistent laughs and smiles around the screen.
People are socially deprived, and Suzanne Spaner, a Change to Win Host and Owner of Meeting Matchmakers, knew that when designing the event. Spaner said, “Taking action and moving into the virtual space has proved to be exactly what attendees are craving right now. The need for connection is real. We made that happen for people in the PurpleVirtual world.” On top of being enjoyable, the event was also informative.
After the live show was over, Itzy Holczler, the Co-Owner of Purple Exhibits, was able to reflect on the experience. “Every challenge is an opportunity. Was really hard on me that the event industry went down 100%. But I knew that this is an opportunity, now people are open to new ideas…” He continued, “Yesterday, we really proved that people are extremely happy to be part of history…” When asked what we can expect from the future of Change to Win, Holczler responded, “Next time we’ll focus more on the tradeshow. I was pretty nervous for that part, and this seemed to work out best.” Outside of being known as the Purple Guy, Holczler is professionally known as a trade show booth expert.
Real People: The Speakers
Officially from their website, it takes creativity, flexibility, positivity and persistence to see business success following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Change to Win’s seasoned fleet of speakers had experience to add.
Following the live show, Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang, speaker and Founder of Classroom Without Walls, left impressed. “Change to Win is not your average online conference. It is engaging, personal, interactive and fun. It is the closest that you can get to an in-person conference. I love how my avatar can shake hands with other avatars, how we can clap for speakers, or just chill and hang out at the beach. I have never attended or spoken at an online conference that has all of these powerful features, that are usually only available through in-person events. I am honored to be a speaker at Change to Win. It is disrupting how events are done.”
Real Networking: Is this the key to business success post-COVID?
Here I am navigating through the conference in virtual reality, Friday, Aug. 6, 2020. Purple Exhibits specializes in event booths. Image: Brian Wallace
Toby Goldstein said, “Many look forward to the day of an event, however at #change2win magic occurred before, during and after. Its purpose was served. Many changed to win, thanks to the #change2win event. Deals were made. Conversations were had and much is in the works thanks to the vision of the Virtual Purple Exhibits.”
Holczler’s business partner Moshe Kaufman stated, “Love the way it’s asked, validating the fact that our whole industry was destroyed. After this event, I feel like new times are coming to this space. I saw people’s excitement and enthusiasm. After being locked out for so long, people are so open and willing to work together to bring this idea to life.” Similarly to Itsy Holczler’s future plans, Kaufman said, “For next time, I would save more time for the trade show and networking part. I find that people are most desperate for this part. Any online event offers speeches, but this kind of networking is something else.”
From Susan Westwater and Scot Westwater, “Change to Win was an incredible experience for us. We always appreciate opportunities to share our knowledge on voice but really felt the virtual platform was as close as we could get to networking in-person when that isn’t truly possible right now. Hats off to itsy, Suzanne and the whole Purple Exhibit team for making this event happen.”
Can Virtual Events Change Lives?
Brian Wallace, David Stanton, and Ira Zlotowitz attending Itzy Holczler’s Change to Win presentation, Friday Aug. 6, 2020. Partners included Bite-Size Workshops, Meeting Matchmakers, Purple Exhibits, and Solvv. Image: Brian Wallace
After COVID-19, virtual events may be the future. As an attendee myself, the event was groundbreaking. I’ve never met with real-life people through virtual means, and everything happened so easily. When speakers were finished, there were booths to roam through, requiring real-life actions to navigate through. In a business that relies on these interactions, but they’ve been halted due to COVID-19, this was a phenomenal experience.
Other attendees felt personal to the event, as well. Chris Giuseppini, a participant, said, “The Change 2 Win conference in the purple virtual world did something other conference platforms could not. No one person was on a pedestal to speak, and you could walk up to a crowd and leave it walking away with someone to have a private conversation with as if it were real life. If you’re nervous about meeting people in real life, you get the benefits of being in pajamas, hiding behind the protection of an avatar, shielding you from social anxiety.”
The event also was well-received by participant Chana Miller, who said, “I thought it was a great event. I especially Loved the diversity of the speakers and attendees. The idea of hosting a virtual event in an actual virtual world is needed now more than ever. I commend the creators of this event for their innovation and forward thinking. Can’t wait for the next one.”
All in all, Change to Win proved that the coronavirus doesn’t have to put a stop to your business. Check out for changetowin.live for more updates on future business conference meetups.
Tech giants reel in millions per year through big conferences, but COVID-19 has dramatically changed the global business event industry. As a result, business gatherings are going virtual. While industry experts are unsure whether or not the era of big conferences has ended, many have begun to embrace the concept of virtual summits. In fact, experts predict that video – including web conferencing – will account for over 80% of all Internet traffic by 2021. The remaining question is: what will the future of business gatherings look like post-COVID?
The global event industry is worth $1.5 billion; and businesses typically generate more than $1 trillion in direct spending each year. This includes airfare, hotel stays, dining, and transportation. However, canceled and rescheduled conferences are causing businesses to lose heaping amounts of cash. The lost attendance fees for those who haven’t gone virtual is one thing to take into account, but businesses are also losing money they’ve spent to put on their events.
For example, a business event’s budget is typically broken down into 4 categories. On average, businesses allocate 20% of their budget for venue coverage, 20% of their budget for catering, another 20% for equipment, and less than 5% for speaker fees and program creation. All of this money goes down the drain when a conference is canceled. Here’s how that looks on a financial level.
When Google canceled its annual Mountain View, CA I/O conference, they lost $20 million of current assets. The I/0 conference is streamed to 530 events worldwide, and welcomed 7,000 in-person guests in 2019. When the 2020 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was canceled because of COVID-19, the Entertainment Software Association lost $75 million in direct assets. In 2019, the gaming organization welcomed 66,100 attendees, and the exhibition typically takes place in Los Angeles, CA.
On a larger scale, South by Southwest (SXSW) lost $350 million in sitting reserves. The annual conglomeration is held in Austin, Texas, and met with a crowd of 280,000 in 2019. By the same token, $480 million was lost after the Mobile World Congress (MWC) was canceled out of protection from COVID-19. The annual trade show welcomed 109,700 in 2019 and is held in Barcelona, Spain.
On a smaller scale, ILostMyGig.com has verified $4,285,037 in losses across local businesses as a result of canceled conferences and events. The website began tracking local business losses after SXSW’s massive loss went viral. The services fueling these numbers include caterers, photographers, musicians, film crews, and more. However, these numbers don’t include losses related to: profits for the business’ hosting each event, attendees’ spending at local shops and attractions, or business generated from networking at events.
Even when the massive losses are taken into account, organizations have an alternative with virtual conferences. In fact, attendees are seeming to enjoy virtual conferences. 40% of Americans were unable to cover an unexpected charge of $400, so traveling to conferences and events is often challenging for attendees. Virtual summits eliminate travel costs, lodging, and the price of admission.
Saying this, it’s still unknown if virtual summits will thrive after the pandemic is over. Local conferences could provide a better alternative. For more information on the future of virtual conferences, read more below.
