Olympics, Expo and other international events: how they have changed

What lessons has the event industry learned from the pandemic, how will business change, and can online events replace offline events?

Issue contributors:

• Sergey Romantsev – podcast host, tech blogger;
• Petr Tutarashvili – Director of the Commercial Relations and Business Development Department of Crocus Expo;
• Matilda Petukhova is a digital content specialist, international production director.

Conversation highlights

How the event sphere has adapted to the new reality

The pandemic has hit events hard, with many events canceled or permanently postponed. During the lockdown, Matilda Petukhova retrained from director to digital content specialist. Crocus Expo, where Petr Tutarashvili works, mainly hosts business exhibitions, congress and exhibition events focused on b2b. According to Petr, the events continue to go on, but the number of participants, especially international ones, has significantly decreased. According to him, the fall is on average 40%.

How is the event market in our country now?

The technologies that the event sphere has mastered in two years have helped people inside the event to communicate even with those who could not come. According to Matilda Petukhova, for some, the online format is a solution to many problems, and for some, it is only an auxiliary option for events that work offline meetings.

80% of business exhibitions in our country are held in Moscow. Exhibitions were held at Crocus even in 2020, including with international representation. Difficulties arose with companies that do not have representative offices or distributors in our country – some of them participated through virtual stands. Petr Tutarashvili noted that the falling volumes are a new reality, and the previous scales should not be expected in the near future. On the other hand, the role of real business contacts is important, and new players are expected to enter the market. According to Petr Tutarashvili, from the point of view of business exhibitions, online events are a surrogate, nothing more than an auxiliary tool that will never replace a classic business exhibition with a congress. Exhibitions are communication and business agreements that are difficult to build “via Skype”.

Petr Tutarashvili believes that online formats are not profitable from a business point of view – people are not ready to pay tangible funds for participation in such events. Matilda Petukhova emphasized that the online format provides equal opportunities to attend the event, but personal meetings and contacts still have priority.

How the theme of events has changed during the pandemic

Psychological measures have helped many during the pandemic. People have been locked up at home for a long time and experienced emotional thirst. That is why the topic of emotional intelligence in the event industry has become so popular over the past two years.

Why Companies Feel Uncomfortable Online

According to Petr Tutarashvili, gathering a b2b audience online is more difficult than b2c, due to its specifics. For example, in the online space it is more difficult to show a new woodworking line. The exhibition is primarily focused on sales, and from this point of view, the online format is inefficient.

What types of events have become the most popular?

Top 3 popular event formats during the pandemic:

• Marathons — there has never been such a number of online marathons on various topics.
• Online master class — the “domestication” of events during the pandemic has led to the popularity of this format, when you don’t have to leave the house to learn something.
• Parties – the format that everyone forgot about has become popular again. Both offline and in a mixed format.

Can online completely shift events in the traditional sense?

According to Petr Tutarashvili, there is no effective replacement for b2b events – practice has shown that online meetings cannot replace exhibitions and congresses. On the other hand, b2c-audience can use digital formats quite successfully. Perhaps in 10-15 years, technologies will reach such a level of reality mixing that people will not care, but so far even virtual glasses do not give the full effect of presence and are not available to everyone.