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AIM High: Rethinking the role and delivery of events · Two in Twenty

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to another episode of AIM High, the podcast for marketers in investment management.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Twink Field.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the CEO of White Marble Marketing and Director of the Association of Investment Marketers.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: In today's podcast, we are talking about events, rethinking the role and delivery of events.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Clearly, it's been an area that's been absolutely hammered by working from home, and we've seen a lot of people pivoting to sort of more digital delivery.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we can expect digital to play a bigger role going forward and hybrid solutions.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So to talk through all of this, we've got John Roses with us, who is uh an independent event marketing consultant who previously uh spent 10 years at PIMCO, and as well as um Amy Calvert, who um is the director of 1331 Events, both highly experienced in uh running events and and helping clients think strategically around this position in the marketing mix.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: So over to them.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you both Amy and John for joining me today.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: It is uh great to uh to chat to you about events, and I think you know it's clearly an area that's taken a bit of a hit in this um remote working world.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it would be really great if you could each introduce yourselves, a little bit of your experience, and and I guess maybe just some opening comments on you know the shakeup that we've seen in in this industry.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um maybe Amy, if I come to you first.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, hi.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I run my own events agency, 1331 events, um, supporting marketing teams who don't have um who don't have event expertise in-house with the strategy and logistics around their events.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: So a mix of um so all corporate staff, but a mix of conferences, seminars, some fundraising events, um, and any other sort of business, business corporate events that they might want to be doing.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_02: Brilliant, thank you.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: John, and you?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um I uh um I'm an event marketing consultant based in London.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh most of my career has really been in the asset management industry.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, for the last 10 years, I was a senior member of the marketing team at PIMCO.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was responsible for the European um events and multimedia functions.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, before that, I was a director at Impel Communications, which is an event management agency whose clients included Fidelity, Schroeder, AXA, MG, Aviva, just to name a few.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And on day-to-day, I work with senior stakeholders to define strategy, uh, develop messaging and manage production of live marketing projects throughout the UK and Europe and the rest of the world.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh I guess that also very much includes uh the virtual uh or hybrid uh events, conference calls, webinars, and uh streaming uh events as such.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: So two bona fide experts to get stuck into this subject matter then.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um so so maybe John, if I stay with you for a sec, um do you want to give your thoughts on what you've seen in the industry and and how it's adapting?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I guess you know, the kind of a lasting change that you may you may see uh for for events in in our market.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so the last few months really have been uh quite uh quite a shakeup.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's uh it's been the pivot to digital.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that uh everyone will have heard that uh that term numerous uh times.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but the pivot to digital is not new.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually been something that has uh gradually been uh growing over the last several years.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, since uh 2016, we've probably seen uh about a 22% growth annually of a uh an acceleration towards doing more digital events.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but somehow in the last few months it does feel like for many companies it's been a scramble to uh to make this a reality.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um I uh yeah, I think for uh particularly marketers, it's been uh a scramble where digital events have not been something that's been on the foreground, possibly something that has been secondary to uh live events.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for a lot of suppliers as well, particularly those whose uh primary business um has been producing live uh face-to-face events, uh their business has completely fallen away.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of companies seem to have looked to diversify whether that is going to uh to digital, uh, incorporating some of the technologies that are there, uh, or whether that has been possibly looking for new ways uh to find revenue streams.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so it's uh it's really been um a change that um that everyone has uh has observed.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think another thing that we probably will have seen is uh far more of a convergence between what has typically been this uh this professional persona that quite often in video and in uh webcasts has been uh portrayed.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um people have gone to filming from home, and it's been acceptable to see senior executives filming um something within their own home environment.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there seems to have been this convergence between uh professional and personal messaging, which has been uh interesting because we've certainly gotten to know something about the character of the individuals that we're speaking to, and I think that is something probably uh will stay.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, really interesting.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, do you is that something that you're seeing and sort of broadly across you know the work that you're doing with clients as well?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um absolutely, absolutely.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And we've we've had we've had clients who have you know never never run digital events before, who have been forced into it.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think sort of as a as an industry, it's a sort of 70 billion pound annual industry to the UK, sort of with 700,000 jobs, um, and the industry has literally suddenly come to a complete standstill.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think this will it will change it forever.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously, as as John mentioned, digital has always been in the background and now it's very much in the foreground.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think what we will see going forwards is is yes, that those companies who have never had to pivot to running digital events who were now doing them quite successfully, others who were sort of scampering to catch up in the background.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we're seeing a lot of new technology platforms coming to the fore, which are trying to recreate sort of everything about a live event but in a virtual space.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think it's a sort of massive opportunity for for technology to really take a step forward and for people to sort of make make the best use of it.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think we're seeing a lot of a lot of success.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and as John said, you're seeing sort of the very human side of people who are you know presenting from home with kids and dogs and everything in the background.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then at the same time, obviously, people still trying to put out you know very professional events and and really make people think a lot more about the content that's that they're putting out because you know a digital event needs to be 100% much more engaging than you know, perhaps you might have got away with a live event.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's that's uh you know a real takeaway from all of this, that it's making people think much more strategically about the events that they want to run.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And absolutely, and I wonder then I it's a great, it's a great thing, isn't it, that actually finally the industry is is is being more human to your point, having more character, maybe more accessible, um, and that sort of put us into that um sort of an uncomfortable position where we've actually um then responded by being better communicators weirdly.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um not hiding behind um sort of corporate veneer, maybe in the same way that we used to.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um so just just on that, you know, I guess the opportunity that you were starting to talk about the Amy around and and John, actually, the how we reinvigorate these events, the sort of technology that we're gonna, you know, that we're bringing into play, better engagement, thinking more strategically.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: What are some examples of how you see that actually playing out in in reality?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Who'd like to take that first?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want me to take that?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Go for it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I mean, I think sort of as I as I said earlier, I think I think we will see, I think this is kind of the end of running events for the sake of running an event.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think I think um sort of the the digital space, obviously, that's where everybody is at the moment.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: And so I think if you want to run a successful event and have an audience engaged and involved and enjoying it, I think you need to, I think you really need to sort of step up the game in terms of a strategy around it, A, to make sure you're gonna get a return on your investment, but B also to make sure that you have engagement from the audience.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think that will that's gonna become increasingly important.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, uh, so I uh I think uh it's absolutely right.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh strategy is where it's all got to come back to, and uh I think there is a danger of just uh translating the event strategy that was there before and then just turn it into digital.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: It actually needs a complete rethink.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think uh really at the moment that's a real opportunity for marketing managers to consider uh how events fit within their strategy and digital events and webinars or video uh do not do the same thing as live events, they all bring something different to uh to the table.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think this is going to be the end of live events uh as such, but it is a real opportunity to consider all the tools that are in the toolbox and how best uh to use them to actually reach the clients.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, figure out what the client actually needs.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, probably there's an enormous amount of reassurance that is needed uh at the moment uh because um yeah, there's a lot of talk about the economy um yeah shrinking, uh, about uh businesses, uh large industry names that might not be around in six or 12 months time because they just haven't been able to uh to cope with the costs um of uh shutting down the business for a prolonged period of time.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh rethinking exactly how um how we reach clients um and how to reassure them is essential.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it's also really uh um important to consider from your own business perspective what is it that you actually need to do as a priority um you know going forward, and uh what is it that you can uniquely do with digital uh events?
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um there may be a whole new level of engagement that is possible because actually it's acceptable to chat with each other, um, which is something that actually you would never do in a live event, but on a digital event, uh a Zoom conference, everybody can contribute.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think with that possibly uh comes also a change of mindset.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um I certainly have seen a lot of apprehension in the past to just open the floor to the participants.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you have for the most part, um, yeah, as an organizer, you you tend to control the variables within the live event.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is really uh an opening up of a of a real two-way conversation with clients that comes with a lot of data as well.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's a lot of interesting opportunities that come out of the back of this.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I mean it's always the moment, isn't it, when you get to those sort of panel Q ⁇ A's and things like that where it's so easy to sort of die on stage because the audience participation isn't as um uh as great as you'd hope.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, funny enough, one of the things that we've found in in our training through delivering that online more is there's much more um openness to participate, to asking a question, and it seems like um the interactivity amongst participants is is much greater um you know online and through these sort of different tech tech platforms.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but just just to your point, um, you know, obviously inevitably there's going to be more online events going forward.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: So how how can you compete?
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's these classic scenarios where everybody's moving everything to you know onto digital and they're competing with their comms.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: How can you, I guess, one create that immersive brand experience that you would often get when you go to these live events?
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe, John, to your point, you still do those live events, and that's really where you have all those sort of brand touch points.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: How can you online though bring something um that's sort of very unique to a specific brand and to really compete?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I think there's uh it's a real opportunity to actually step outside of the typical templates.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, if you go to uh um you know a Bright Talk seminar, it looks in a certain way and everybody sees the same thing.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, or if you do a Zoom conference, yeah, it will be in a certain certain format.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: But actually, there's a real opportunity to create a whole story around that.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that could, for instance, be in the form of a landing page.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen some really good uh events that have switched to be completely delivered, be delivered uh digitally.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's a it is a real brand uh experience as you are as you are inside that.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, the delivery of the messages comes through video, um yeah, such, but the whole packaging around that is uh is far more interesting, and there's an opportunity to actually connect with people through interactive elements um on a or with a virtual event, uh, much in the same way that you would do in the live event, possibly connecting it with apps.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there have also been uh quite a few uh new technologies that have been pushed forward, possibly uh technologies that have existed for a while but suddenly are seeing the light of day because there is demand for it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, companies have uh set up platforms for for actually having full day conferences online um and it just flows naturally.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um on the uh the flip side to keep somebody's attention for a long uh space of time uh online um is quite can be quite a challenge.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so maybe there's an opportunity to split uh a day-long event into multiple uh shorter sections so that you've got this re-engaging on a continual basis uh with clients.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um so yeah, there's a lot of technology that will make that possible.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think and I think sort of what what makes the difference between sort of a brand experience is is really just trying to set it apart from other content that you might consume online.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um and as John, as John mentioned, that's lot there's lots of um sort of new technology platforms that have come to the fore who are really trying to recreate that whole live event experience.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and you know, you know, some who've who've recreated an entire sort of you know venue where you have, you know, you can have multiple streams of content running at the same time, you can have networking areas where you know individuals can go into a room and network over Zoom with other people, you can have sponsor stand areas, um, you can have green rooms for the speakers to network, um, and you can have sort of networking tables for people actually sitting at the conference.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: So they're really just trying to bring the whole live event experience into the digital sphere, which I think if if if you're looking for a real sort of immersive brand experience, those are the kind of platforms that people need to be looking at as opposed to the straightforward, you know, live streaming and chat rooms, etc.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think there is possibly with that also a risk of going too much towards the technology.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think uh in many ways, simplifying what it is that you're actually trying to achieve and getting to the point quickly is really important because you have to think that people will uh likely be more distracted if they're sitting at home and suddenly their cat jumps on their lap.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there is a uh it's a different thing from being uh actually at a uh at an event as such.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think another way to possibly make uh make it more of an immersive uh an immersive uh brand experience is to also consider uh doing events in the future from people's own offices.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we normally meet at a nice hotel somewhere, but why not do uh do a meeting actually from the offices so that you have a sense for this is where we work, this is who we are, this is what makes us tick, and this is why you can trust us to uh to manage your your money.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what does this mean for budgets, I guess?
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because obviously events used to used to be a huge part of the marketing mix and the marketing budget.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I anticipate that we're you know, we've obviously seen significant change over the last few months in terms of how that budget's been allocated or clawed back.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um but do you do you anticipate that actually the overall budget will be remain the same for marketers, but it'll just be pivoted and tilted um sort of across the marketing mix a bit further?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you actually think that events will maintain quite a large chunk of the budget still?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: It'll just be sort of used by embedding better technology and being a bit more creative and and sort of using it as you as you you know you already mentioned through more innovative ways.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so um I would uh expect that based on what we've seen in the financial crisis uh that budgets will come under pressure uh because budget overall will be under pressure.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, marketing is an easy uh, you know, and particularly events within marketing is a is an easy target to uh to take a chunk off the table.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think even uh allocations for 2020 will be reined in, people will see what has not been used, and maybe we can uh recoup some of that uh for uh for spend elsewhere in the budget.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think uh for next year, budget probably will be uh lower across the board.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not necessarily saying that that's the right thing to do.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there is probably an assumption that uh because you can go digital, um things will be less expensive.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think uh yeah, events will probably take an even more important role in the overall uh connection with uh with clients going forward.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I think the pressure will be on marketers to think what they can do with the available budget.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, it will be lower, but uh there is a pressure really to reimagine what you can do, where the priorities lie, and how you can best connect with clients.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think one thing that virtual events do bring is an opportunity to actually meet clients across borders.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't need to have a separate roadshow, separate event right across all the major cities in Europe.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: You could do one event with speakers from all over the world participating and everybody coming along to the same uh to the same meeting, hear the same messages.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: So there are opportunities to to tighten things up if uh if needed.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: I agree.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think I think for those for those companies who've sort of pivoted to the digital sphere successfully and seen success with it today, I think they will potentially repurpose percentage of their budget to to focus more on the digital sphere.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um a case study I I learned about on a webinar the other day um for Ernst and Young, who run a big annual event, usually in Monaco, where they get sort of six to seven hundred people attending, um, and they ran it digitally this year and got two and a half million people viewing it.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously be then thinking, well, this has been amazingly successful for us, so let's I think they have now switched, sort of repurposed a lot of their budget to focus much more on the digital sphere.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I think sort of case studies like that is where you will see companies saying, Well, actually, we don't need to spend spend out the hard cost for physical venues and catering and all of that side of things, and we can we can get the global reach digitally instead.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess it's also then how did they then put those field sponsorship packages together to be able to sort of then um enable multiple brands to have you know presence kind of through that sort of tech delivery as well?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: What does all that then mean for for ROI?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: I presumably through by moving much more to the sort of digital delivery, senior management are rubbing their hands in glee because they can actually really get better better information on the return of that investment and that cost.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: Would that be fair, Amy?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think I think the beauty of of online and digital events is that actually it makes the ROI much, much easier to track because all of the metrics are totally trackable.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, obviously going far beyond who's dialing in, you can see at every stage, every stage of the event who's engaging, who's who's watching for a certain period of time, who's uh who's joining in the chat rooms, who's taking part in any polls or any other engagement that you run as part of the event.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I think in in that sense, every every digital event, you've literally got very, very clear metrics all the way through that you can see, you can see what's been successful and what hasn't, and how engaged your audience have been.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's a that's a very powerful thing in comparison to live events where perhaps it's a bit more challenging to sort of track how many how many direct you know leads you may have got from an event.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would completely agree with uh with what Amy uh said.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: There.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's also a real opportunity to uh to larger uh largen the footprint as such of the event.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: So it's no longer the day itself on its own.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: There are so many opportunities to actually extend that over time and repurpose a lot of the uh a lot of the information and messages that have been captured, um, which makes it fit very nicely into the broader uh marketing plan and and into the broader marketing mix.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also that again extends the uh the ROI that you get from it because you've actually uh got an opportunity to do far more with the same information.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: You talked a lot then on on the digital side of things for the the live events that we still want to run.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: What are the practicalities for that, you know, and and where where are we?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate we're the end of June.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot more um probably to come in terms of what we're able to do and the groups that we can um bring together.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_01: But where where do things stand and what what what trajectory do you think we're we're on?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, maybe you can start on that.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think I think at the moment, obviously, we're still waiting for some some government guidance.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think obviously there's a there's a big impetus from the hospitality industry to reduce the sort of social distancing measures from two metres to less.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_02: So whether that's one and a half or one, I think we're in theory due to find out on that today.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think that that will suddenly make running a live event much a much more feasible, feasible thing to do.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think I think my sense is that there will probably be a slow return to live events.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think we will see lots of people jumping to do it immediately, especially those that have have found it that they've been able to run events digitally too successfully.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think what we are seeing is that is that hotels and venues are have been sort of busy over the last few weeks sort of remeasuring floor plans, thinking about how they can run events safely with with whatever social distancing measures in place that we need to do.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's lots of companies, you know, who would who are promoting their sort of touch-free badging.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think I think it will it require a lot of thought to run it, but I think sort of you know being able to run a COVID-safe event will become will become possible.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think it will perhaps start with smaller events before moving to larger ones.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I think I think sort of once people have started doing them and and sort of demonstrating that they can run them safely, um, I think we will hopefully hopefully see some kind of a return to normal.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't think uh it will necessarily happen the same at the same pace in all countries.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, everybody will have their own regulations.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um once there is a vaccine that will likely accelerate uh the return of live events uh as well.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think uh there probably will be um we won't go back to where we were before for quite some time to come.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think in uh separate from the regulations that are in place, there is also uh likely a apprehension from the audience to come together.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um so um not everybody will be comfortable sitting in a large room full of other people who are uh who they don't know.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so I think uh likely going forward, um yeah, we will have a digital aspect to events in general uh for most settings.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I think that that's really where the future lies, likely at this stage.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, in the six, uh, 12, 18 months ahead, uh we will probably see smaller events returning, which is something that we also saw uh, by the way, after the financial crisis.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was far less of the show that was going on, it was far more focused on individual or on smaller settings or meetings, what can be uh done um or what can be managed easily uh in-house.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think uh the digital overlay, so having a streaming aspect of that um or even a recording aspect that is then per uh repurposed later on uh will provide us uh with a new way of communicating with clients.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that has a number of implications from you know what kind of uh messaging you want to get across, how do you actually prepare your speakers?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because the the sense of uh speaking towards the camera is completely different from being uh from interacting with a live audience.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think uh possibly having a small event uh returning and having a live audience will get people across far better when they're on camera as well.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So the um yeah, I think that is something we need to uh prepare for um and uh is something that we can embrace as a really great step forward to connect with clients.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess with that going on, that um and that's the the time it's gonna take um to sort of get back to some sense of normality, albeit it may be on a much more reduced scale.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um what does that really mean for the third parties?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm conscious for maybe some of our listeners they'll be buying sponsorships and events from uh publishers and and other third parties.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um from my understanding, a lot of the kind of the bookings from over this period have been sort of moved out to sort of later in the year or early next year.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that then just all become very congested?
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and sort of how do you begin to pick through that?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh John, do you want to?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think there will be uh will likely be a bit of a consolidation of uh suppliers who are out there.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't think everybody will come through uh through this whole period unscathed.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so um we will probably see a slightly different playing field from the what from what it was before.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh the companies who have taken this time to rethink how they can reach out uh to uh to clients, asset managers, uh provide a platform uh that is suitable for sponsorship, uh yeah, they will have done a good job uh likely with that and provide something that is new and interactive and that really provides a brand experience uh that uh that asset managers want to uh to rely on or use.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think in terms of uh suppliers for live events, uh not everyone may be there.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I think uh marketing departments should be considering who they're working with at the moment um and maybe have a plan B in place, uh figure out if there's some additional services that might be needed.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I think it will be a different environment in which we work, uh, but uh I think there will certainly be uh ample supply of uh good companies to work with.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: Amy, any further thoughts on that?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I mean totally totally agree with John in the sense that I think we will we will see that not everybody will will come through this and there'll be companies that will that we will never see again.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think in terms of the third-party events, yes, it's just making sure sort of people are working with with with companies who who can produce produce the produce the events, the strategy, and to deliver on the ROI that they're promising in terms of the engagement that they're getting with the audience and the reach that they're getting from the events.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think for for event managers running events going forward, then I think they'll be firmly focusing on you know, sort of content, content and more content, and making sure that they're running, running events that are standing out from the competition and creating agendas that people don't want to miss, etc.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: etc.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously, as John said, yes, I think every every event will have some kind of a hybrid, hybrid element because it will take a while before audience confidence comes back.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm conscious of time, and um uh I just wondered, given those last thoughts, Amy, if we kind of felt like a few tips coming through for event planners and managers um in different asset management houses, etc.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I wonder whether um I'll come to you, John, first, and then Amy, any final thoughts really just for those planning schedules, wanted to support campaigns over the next six or twelve months, and what should they be looking for, both I guess in their own events as well as any any third-party ones?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um I think uh really now is the time to examine and refresh your marketing strategy, your event strategy, how does it all hold together?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, what do you need to do to go forward to engage uh with your clients?
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, digital will play a bigger role.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think hybrid is the space that we're where we can expect the market uh to settle going forward.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think uh as a key consideration for asset managers is connect with your suppliers and figure out what they are doing and uh define how you can best uh serve your clients uh through the partnerships that you have in place.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: Amy, anything else to add?
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I think I would just say, sort of in terms of thinking about event strategy and and and how that fits within within the overall marketing strategy, is just to to ensure that that all the events, whether they are digital, hybrid or eventually live, is just to make sure that they cover sort of the three key areas of content um connection so that the audience can connect with speakers and each other and sort of create that sort of community.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: I think those are the those are the three key things that people need to be sort of ensuring is still still in existence in their digital events, um, and obviously keep focusing on that as we as we move into this slightly new normal of um mix of digital and live.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Brilliant.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: And that's been such a great sort of walkthrough all that's going on.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much for taking the time, John, Amy, um, to add your expertise and and thoughts around what marketers and event planners can be can be doing right now.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Really, really helpful to everybody.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you very much.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.