Chamath Palihapitiya, the 2021 King of Spacs and Silicon Valley sage, doesn’t need my events anymore. He’s got his own very popular podcast, among other ways to reach his fans.
Same with the VCs that lead Andreesen Horowitz—they have podcasts and go direct to their audiences almost nightly with shows on Clubhouse.
For B2B conference organizers that have brought innovation and ideas to audiences via the on-stage musings of the tech elite or other hot speaker categories, some bad news: Content may still be queen, but the B2B conference stage is no longer her only, or favorite, castle.
And it’s not just the celebrity keynote speakers that are going direct. During the pandemic, solution providers that are historically event sponsors and exhibitors pivoted to hosting their own Webinars, LinkedIn videos, or Clubhouse dinner parties as a way to connect with audiences. It seems everyone is a content creator these days, and audiences have many more options on how to acquire the learning they’re looking for.
To say content has been commoditized is already a cliche. It’s also true. And this doesn’t even get into the question of what portion of headline speakers will want to appear virtually even when events resume in person and the potentially diminished value of that.
So where does that leave B2B conference organizers looking into the future of the franchise? Take stock, and get ready to pivot again.
“Mediocre content is a commodity,” says Marco Giberti, events and event tech entrepreneur and investor, and co-author of Reinventing Live. “Quality, curated content is going to become more relevant.”
There are a few areas where conference organizers can maintain a competitive value proposition. Senior executives at industry incumbent firms aren’t going direct with nearly the same zeal as their challenger counterparts. So the CEO of a big bank, retailer or healthcare organization may still be looking for the right platform to get her message out, or at least to the same extent they were pre-pandemic. And audiences will still want to hear what the industry leaders are thinking.
Other events can lean in on original content where their organization has a value-added product to offer. Think Gartner with its analysts and research, or even Bloomberg with its journalists.
Market-leading events may also maintain the cachet they’ve long enjoyed (until their brand is disrupted by a challenger).
Aaron Klein, the CEO of SaaS company Riskalyze, has moved to producing his own engaging direct-to-customer content. In the past two weeks he’s released a slick, five minute newsreel on LinkedIn and held a dinner party on ClubHouse. Still, Klein says, when events return in person, Riskalyze will be there, because of the ROI the firm gets from being at the best events in the market is high. Likely many other partners will feel the same way.
But don’t let a dead-cat bounce lull you into complacency. These are exciting times in the events industry, as engagement with audiences become omni-channel, facilitated interactions become a driving force, and content differentiation becomes an even greater challenge.
Five years from now, organizers that spent 2021 waiting for things to “get back to normal” will be the Blockbusters and Kodaks of our industry.