GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 48 - December 2020

GPWA Poll When do you think the first LIVE, post-COVID industry conference will take place? newcustomeroffer Public Member I can’t see much happening in any setting until the sum- mer next year and, as we saw this year, rules are relaxed a little as people spend more time outside. However, I expect there will be baby steps at first and with a vaccine of some kind hopefully rolling out by then. drifter8 Private Member End of 2022 definitely. We all have seen what happened when people were able and open to travel the world. Once they came back to their home countries, BAM the second wave exploded. Even the beginning of 2023 is realistic. Christiaan Private Member Probably in 2022. Maybe if vaccines start to be available in Q2 of 2021, people will be able to start with events again in 2021, but real conferences with many interna- tional people I think we will have to wait till 2022. Q3 of 2021 Q3 of 2022 Q4 of 2021 Q1 of 2022 Q2 of 2022 36 % 23 % 18 % 14 % 9 % us might look like. I’m going to hit delete, and there goes your chance to make a sale or get an intro to the person you really need. A NEW ERA FOR US ALL If it is any comfort to you, remember that we are all in this similar position. Nobody really knows how to properly network in a virtual space just yet. This is what we all have to learn. Event organizers will also be looking to discover what works, so give feedback so that these digital events can improve and provide the results as intended. This is new territory for us all. Just as we are adapting to the “new normal” of our wider lives, we must adapt to these changes within our industry. Youneed to accept digital events as a new normal for the foreseeable future because it’s uncertain when physical events may resume again. In themeantimewe just can’t continue to “pause” orwait for the “oldnorm” to resume, because it just might not ! VIRTUAL EVENTS: THE NEW REALITY G P W A t i m e s . o r g 26