BOTTOM LINE
Covid-19’s disruption of the event and trade show industry leaves planners scrambling to build online attendance — and profits — to weather the storm.
10/31/20 | Reposted from Puget Sound Business Journal
Education is key to the North American Veterinary Community’s annual trade show, but in-person learning in the Covid-19 era has gone to the dogs.
The Orlando, Florida-based group instead has gone virtual, at least partially, to keep options open for vets interested in the latest industry techniques, studies, and products. The organization isn’t alone, as event planners and trade shows have scrambled to stay relevant with an array of online offerings to offset the evisceration of what was a high-volume, high-margin business.
All of which creates a challenge of pandemic proportions.
A recent survey by Northstar Meetings Group, a Secaucus, New Jersey-based provider of online event services and research, found that 68% of meeting planners were holding at least half their events as hybrid or online only. Those figures do not account for the thousands of major conferences and trade shows that have been canceled outright because of coronavirus. Nor do they highlight the fact that, according to event experts interviewed for this story, profits from online events have been elusive to date. (READ SCRAMBLING TO BUILD ONLIVE ATTENDANCE)
SOURCE: By Richard Bilbao Digital Producer/Senior Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal