Today, XING Events is publishing its research about digital transformation in the event industry. Digital transformation entails changes in existing business models and structures in the event industry. Digital technologies are in the process of taking over the traditional trade fair and event sector, creating the need for further development. XING Events wanted to find out how organisers are using digital transformation for their purposes, which new developments there are and where the challenges lie.
Three-quarters of organisers noticed an improvement in their processes, particularly in the area of event preparation, by using digital technologies. This is also reflected in the opinions of attendees who feel that additional event information, networking opportunities and online ticketing are the greatest advantages that digital event preparation has to offer. Although nearly half of organisers surveyed are using online ticketing, this solution is not their prime focus. However, it has become indispensable for almost 90% of attendees. Although organisers feel that event marketing and attendee communication has successfully been optimised, attendees expressed their need for more information. When opting for digitalisation, the main goals for organisers were to achieve efficiency in terms of time, costs and organisation, and increase attendee satisfaction. 75% of organisers could reach these goals by using digital solutions. A look at future trends shows similar results: Three-quarters of organisers want to continue expanding their digital event management solutions in the future. Attendees have also noticed an improvement, and 81% find digital solutions to be indispensable.
From August to September 2016, XING Events GmbH conducted a representative online survey with about 2,500 German and international event organisers and 2,100 attendees to find out how digital transformation is manifesting itself in the event market, the industry’s position today, what opportunities and challenges of digital transformation organisers are identifying, and what the visitor perspective on this development looks like. The majority of respondents were between 40 and 45 years of age. 54% of organisers surveyed organise conferences, congresses and trade fairs, 50% organise corporate events, 47% organise seminars, 35% organise training and courses, and 24% organise concerts, festivals and nightlife events. 39% organise other events, networking events and private events. The majority of German organisers (75%) organises events exclusively in the German-speaking area.
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