Business conferences are going virtual amid the COVID crisis; the effects will linger-but could it change the face of modern conferences and trade shows?
By Michael Hiskey, Chief Strategy Officer, Data Connectors
It’s gotten to be the norm: every day, we see some conference, some gathering being cancelled because of the current COVID crisis we face. Airshows in England have been cancelled; broadcasters’ conferences in Las Vegas are postponed. McDonald’s has turned its worldwide meeting of franchisees into a virtual event. Even O’Reilly permanently closed its in-person conference division.
The economic impact is incredible; it’s estimated that the loss from cancelled technology meetings exceeds one billion dollars, according to an article in Recode. The ripple effect, of course, is much greater than that. It leads to a legitimate (and rather obvious) question: what happens to infosec conferences like Black Hat or RSA when the crisis subsides?
It’s far more than a theoretical question: conferences like CanSecWest moved from in-person to virtual; Gartner’s conference and Infosecurity Europe, both scheduled for June, have been indefinitely postponed. And Dublin’s Global AppSec conference has been cancelled.
Companies that would ordinarily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, preparing for and attending mega-conferences are now looking at viable alternatives that cost far less. And they’re wondering if they can achieve a greater ROI from reducing their costs even as they micro-target their prospects.
Right now, the answer appears to be a clear “yes.” Virtual summits have emerged as an alternative that is being deployed to bring attendees, speakers and vendors together. McDonald’s, as mentioned above, is going the virtual route. Information security conferences, like those sponsored by Data Connectors, have quickly pivoted from in-person regional meetings to online. Those meetings have actually paid dividends: the company had 300 people registered to attend an April conference in Los Angeles. But when it cancelled the physical meeting and moved it to an online format, registration almost tripled. It’s not a one-time anomaly, either: a similar event, scheduled for this week in Chicago, initially had 250 registrants. That number has trebled as a virtual event.
Obviously, the COVID crisis will eventually subside. But there are indications that the lessons learned during this time may stay with us. More people and companies are learning that working from home can be done efficiently and profitably. Some of those companies are wondering if attending the mega-conferences are worth it.
They are, in addition to the virtual meetings, looking at smaller regional meetings which cost significantly less while still delivering many of the same benefits of the larger conventions. In some cases, even more: it’s estimated that as many as 20% of the attendees at any given conference are there seeking another job. They’re going to see far more value from going to a show in their region, rather than flying to Las Vegas, New York or Orlando. The same holds true for account executives: they’ll tell you they’d far rather spend their time talking with a prospect from their territory than dealing with someone from the other side of the country. All of this, while the educational value derived from the regional meeting may be compatible with the information they would receive at the mega-conference.
This is not to suggest that the big conferences will wither on the vine. The broadcasters will re-convene at another date. Microsoft, RSA, Facebook, Salesforce and others will still gather with thousands of attendees in their yearly confabs. But the idea that companies and attendees MUST be at these gatherings to be effective is starting to slip in this era of social distancing, perhaps even more than we would have thought even a relatively short time ago.
It’s been suggested that the COVID crisis has already begun to change the very nature of how we live. The way we regard conferences, trade shows and the like is part of that change, and will continue to evolve.
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About the Author
Michael Hiskey is an author, speaker and blogger having shared his thinking with publications and at conferences and trade shows over the past 20 years. He has been working with enterprise data and analytics software, as well as cybersecurity solutions at organizations around the world. Michael has lived and worked across three continents, responsible for strategy, marketing, business development and product expansions. He started his career in finance, and then spent 10 years with IBM, where he held roles in various disciplines. Since 2011, he worked primarily with high-growth firms, helping them to build-out product-market fit, development roadmaps, and client advisory boards.
As the Chief Strategy Officer for Data Connectors, Michael helps to fuel the collaboration between the 650,000-member cybersecurity community with solution providers and government agencies.
Born and raised in New York, Michael holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, and lives on Long Island with his wife and two daughters… one current and two future “women in technology.”
