As the event marketing industry changes, the professionals charged with organizing and executing events must evolve to meet the changing needs of its clients. With concepts like digital, hybrid, and Metaverse events all either part of the landscape or coming soon on an even larger scale, today’s event planners must look to the future to anticipate what groups will need and how best to make it happen.
Some of the skills that will be vital in the next few years include:
- Truly embracing technology – There really is an app for almost everything, and event planners need to be savvy in using them. As well, event planners need to be able to guide clients through various apps as these are likely to be part of their hotel stays, travel arrangements, and other event tasks.
- Understanding and utilizing data – Companies are expected to have answers, metrics, and hard facts when it comes to making decisions and evaluating effectiveness. Attendance alone is no longer the measure by which events are evaluated. Event planners need to know how to produce, capture, and track data throughout the entire event experience, and then be able to interpret those results for clients.
- Culturally oriented problem-solving – The world is truly getting smaller and that means people’s individual cultures and attitudes are overlapping and intersecting more than ever. To ensure the success of an event, planners will need to be aware of all possible cultural considerations, and work to create inclusive experiences for all involved. This may be as simple as translation services available, or it may be part of menu and entertainment planning as well.
- Strategic thinking – Having a good time is all well and good, but event marketing is serious business. Event planners will be called upon to apply their skills to bring people together and build brand relationships far beyond what happens in a ballroom or event venue. Working to create extensions of marketing and business goals will be paramount as key decision makers and business executives look to expand the abilities of their teams.
About the VIBE Agency: The VIBE Agency is a Miami-based award-winning full-service production agency that specializes in the creation and orchestration of live and virtual experiences for the corporate industry. The agency is forward-thinking and was recognized as one of the 50 top event companies by Special Events magazine in 2019 and 2020. Most recently, Valerie Bihet, founder of the VIBE was named a Smart Women in Meetings 2021 Hall of Fame honoree by Smartmeetings, for her consistent work advancing the industry. If it can’t be live, make it VIBE!
