Hybrid and in-person events have made a major comeback in 2022. As events are shifting back to what used to be normal, the future of virtual events hangs in the balance. So, to help streamline expectations for all event professionals vFairs carried out a survey for “The Future of Virtual Events”.
The respondents of the survey were professionals from corporations, events services, NPOs, and the education sector. Here are some of the most important takeaways from the survey that event professionals need to know about.
A Virtual Event Stats Outlook For 2023
Let’s start with a throwback to 2022 which was a great year for virtual events. The survey’s respondents also hosted virtual events for their organizations which can give us a good foothold to develop further context.
- 88.1% of the respondents had hosted at least 1 virtual event
- 46.3% of the respondents had hosted at least 4 virtual events
- 28.4% of the respondents hosted more than 10 virtual events
The expertise of these respondents in the survey is important to understand the legitimacy of the information vFairs was able to deduce from it. The survey predicted the future of virtual events with remarkable accuracy and the results show that they are here to stay. Here are some of the key statistics.
- 93.2% of respondents considered their virtual event a success in terms of attendance rate.
- 77.2% of the people surveyed prefer virtual events because of how easy they are to attend.
- 49.3% of the respondents showed interest in hosting some virtual and some in-person events.
- 20.9% of the respondents were interested in hosting in-person events with some virtual events.
- 7.5% of the respondents were only interested in hosting virtual events.
- 28.4% of the respondents to the survey chose virtual events with some in-person events.
- 95.5% of the people surveyed ensured that virtual events will be a part of their events strategy for next year.
- 38.8% of the surveyed people think that hybrid events will be the most popular in the next year.
vFairs also conducted some more proprietary research for the future of hybrid events through this survey in 2021. The survey results showed that:
- 57.4% of the respondents believed that virtual events will continue to grow.
- 14.8% of the respondents believed that hybrid events will become the future of all events.
According to both surveys, over the past few years, virtual events seem to be here to stay even if the trends move towards hybrid or in-person events. This seems to be the case, as 1 in every 2 event professional is inclined towards both virtual and in-person events for their future strategies. Organizers realize the importance of both types of events and we might see more hybrid event trends emerging in B2B and B2C markets.