What’s going to happen to virtual events when the pandemic is over?  This question has become more and more urgent for speakers, meeting planners, and speaker bureaus as we’ve struggled through the course of the worldwide scourge of covid-19.  I’ve talked to a wide swathe of our communications world and begun to discern some possible answers.  Herewith are my fearless predictions, with many thanks to everyone who shared their ideas and expertise with me.  And of course, any blame for getting the future wrong attaches to me, not to everyone who helped.

Here’s what I see happening and not happening, sometime next year, or, if things go badly with the vaccines after all, early in 2022.

First, we won’t go all virtual.  Until we evolve into some sort of techno versions of ourselves, we humans do much better and develop much deeper connections with each other face to face than virtually.  The urge to convene has been building up and will result in an explosion of face-to-face events once it is safe, comfortable, and easy again.  Just as the market for meetings bounced back bigger than ever after 9/11 and 2008-9, it will again post-pandemic.

Second, we won’t go all face-to-face.  But what is different this time is that we learned how to use Zoom (and other video conferencing software) and the technology is much better than it was 10 and 20 years ago.  So what’s going to happen is that we’re going to end up with two tiers of meetings.  For the top dollar and the strongest organizations, meetings will be face-to-face, with some aspects streamed and/or recorded for those who couldn’t attend.

Then, for less well-heeled organizations and less critical meetings, there will be a second tier of all-virtual convening.  The savings in travel, venue, food and drink are enormous, and the sharp-eyed accountants looking out for their organizations won’t miss that opportunity.  One imagines a Board of Directors of a medium-sized organization meeting 3 times a year virtually and once in person.  Efficient, cost-effective, and time-saving all at once.

Finally, then, we’ll have a bigger set of options than we did pre-pandemic.  I’m predicting that two markets will develop, very much along the lines of Clayton’s Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma.  and we’ll all be able to pack more in because we won’t have to travel quite as much.  For those who can’t wait for a return to face-to-face, hang in there.  It’s coming.  Within a year or two, you’ll be able to be on the road as much as ever if you want to.  For those who have enjoyed this strange time of enforced absence from the road, you get your fondest wish, too.  You’ll be able to pick and choose and attend those somewhat less important meetings virtually.

Everyone wins, except perhaps the hotel industry.  But with time and growth they will be fine, too.  People are eager to see loved ones, colleagues, new places, old restaurants, and all the sights they’ve been missing.  By 2022, it will be good to be a hotelier, or an airbnb-er once more.

See you on the road soon!