In-Person and Virtual Marketing Events: What to Expect in 2021 And Beyond

While most event marketing leaders pride themselves on being creative, flexible, and able to tackle any roadblock, the last year tested the limits for many. With other executive leaders looking to you for answers and your marketing team looking for guidance, it required a bit of balancing to fully transition from in-person events to an entirely virtual strategic approach.

Now that things are getting ‘back to normal’ and in-person events are on the horizon again, what will this look like for event marketing teams? Here we’ll take a look at a few ways in-person and virtual marketing events will change – and continue to evolve – in 2021 and beyond: 

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• The emergence of hybrid events

The last year or so of going fully remote has changed many things for the better in the event marketing world. Virtual events give marketers much more flexibility and transparency into the results and outcomes of their events. So, it stands to reason that as in-person events come back into the fold, virtual event elements will still be a critical part of event marketing strategy. This could mean anything from adding more virtual options to large-scale conferences to including more virtual networking options for your customers throughout the year.

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• Smaller (or more spread out) in-person events

Although social distancing guidelines are relaxing, people will still be cautious about crowds and groups, especially in a corporate setting. For in-person marketing events this year, be ready for smaller event sizes or more spread-out meeting areas. While this may mean you won’t bring your entire marketing team to a conference, it could result in your team having a larger booth space to spread out in.

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• More local and/or regional events

Another thing to be aware of this year is the focus (or lack thereof) on travel. Virtual events homed in on the fact that teams don’t need to travel to get work done and that many marketers can make just as big of an impact with virtual event tools. As such, event marketing leaders should be on the lookout for more local and/or regional marketing events for their teams to attend this year. 

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• A continued rise of virtual meeting tools

And, finally, it’s essential to realize that virtual marketing events won’t be going anywhere quite yet. Luckily, technology has caught up with the needs of event marketing teams over the last year, and the tools are there to make it easier to accomplish virtual event marketing goals. Throughout 2021, your marketing leadership team should look to this new technology to continue to glean data and strategic insights from your virtual marketing events and then use this information to help inform your overall event marketing strategy.

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Build a holistic picture of your marketing events with Circa

Event marketing is typically a big-budget item for many marketing teams. There has traditionally been a lack of insight into the ROI and results of this marketing channel. With Circa, your executive team can have a fully transparent look at event engagement, attendee insights, and sales next steps from your virtual and in-person marketing events.

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