Summary:
1. Current situation: events in 2024
2. Outlook for 2025
3. More than just the budget or type of event, the trend for 2025 will be toward personalizing the participant experience.
4. Hybrid events
Whether it's a trade show, seminar, sporting event, or cultural event, trends are evolving to adapt and offer the public an unusual experience. According to a study published by the Unimev center Unimev, the events sector in France is growing steadily and showing constant improvement.
The figures are looking good and reflect the sector's dynamism and future potential. In 2018, annual turnover approached €65 billion for all types of events combined. Sustained growth continued in 2019, with an additional 7% increase during the year.
The digital revolution continues to transform the industry and benefit event organizers. They are increasingly using social media, content distribution platforms, and event management tools. In 2019, mobile apps became the norm. According to Event MB, nearly 46% of project managers use apps for their events and 26% are considering doing so.
Engagement and creating emotion have become the watchwords. People attending an event want to have a unique and personalized experience. Surveys, instant feedback, quizzes, gamification, and interactivity... Being as close as possible to participants is essential today!
Event venues are becoming increasingly important in the eyes of organizers and participants alike. 2019 is the year of unusual or offbeat venues: rooftop terraces, theaters, castle rooms... Many venues can be opened for the duration of an event, making it truly unforgettable.
The various surveys and analyses that have been conducted all point to a fairly clear conclusion: 2025 will be a year of change amid continuity.
Major trends (the widespread use of mobile applications, the democratization of interactivity, and the personalization of the participant experience) will continue to grow at a steady pace. Event organizers' budgets are expected to increase slightly, by 2.05% more than in 2024.
The types of events favored by European countries will remain largely unchanged from 2024. According to American Express Meetings & Events' Global Meetings and Events Forecast, product launch parties will continue to dominate in France, advisory boards in Poland, and internal events in Spain. Finally, as in previous years, trends for the United Kingdom remain a real unknown due to uncertainties surrounding the terms of Brexit.
One of the most popular methods at the moment is personalized surprises. More and more event organizers are producing content (goodies, mobile apps, etc.) or implementing processes (data processing to learn about each participant's habits, personalization of each stage of the event, etc.) in order to create greater proximity with their audience.
The key to this evolution also lies in the resources available to event organizers. These tools make it possible to maintain this growth while striving to minimize the carbon footprint generated by these new practices. Indeed, interactivity and personalization mean an abundance of data...
In 2020, each person will generate approximately 1.7 MB of data per second. The global volume of data stored in 2020 will be approximately 44 zettabytes. And, according to an IDC study, the total volume of stored data will reach 175 zettabytes in 2025.
This major trend also applies to events and requires significant technical adjustments. Indeed, a new format is becoming increasingly prevalent in the world of B2B events. It is expected to continue its rise in 2025: the hybrid event.
The latter offers an innovative participant experience for those present on site, while also allowing a wider audience to follow every moment via their smartphone and a dedicated app.
According to the 2025 Global Meetings and Events Forecast survey by American Express Meetings & Events, Europe has seen a significant increase in this format over the last 12 months. The percentage of event organizers using this format has risen from 49% to 66% over the year.
However, this rapid increase in data consumption is a cause for concern. Data is not carbon neutral and will force event organizers to rethink the design of their events, both before, during, and after, in order to reduce their carbon footprint as much as possible.
This issue has prompted service providers to reinvent themselves. The use of data-efficient platforms for organizing B2B events. Examples include the use of innovative data centers with state-of-the-art cooling methods and the widespread adoption of paperless solutions, which are among the best ways to reduce the overall energy consumption of your event.
The modular architecture of our Everywhere digital event platform, for example, allows us to drastically reduce data flow. Not only before and during an event, but also after it. All this while continuing to offer increasingly rich and agile interactive modules.
