DALLAS – The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign is bringing renewed hope, particularly to the trade show industry. “Further fueling optimism is that trade show attendees, exhibitors, organizers and event planners are ready to receive the vaccine immediately,” said Ken Holsinger, senior vice president of data solutions at Freeman Event Research.
The statistics are encouraging. Freeman Event Research found that 80% of attendees, 82% of exhibitors, and 93% of event organizers and planners are willing to get vaccinated.
Freeman’s study also found that attendees and exhibitors in the U.S. plan to return to in-person events by fall 2021. According to the study, 78% of attendees plan to attend in-person events this fall, rising to 94% by winter. Exhibitors are slightly more optimistic, with 80% returning this fall and 95% returning by winter.
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“It’s a modern miracle”
Holsinger’s optimism is particularly poignant because he was a vocal advocate of caution early in the pandemic. “We were the ones who pulled the reins,” he said. “There was talk of having shows after Easter last year, but I kept saying, ‘Everything we’re seeing from attendees in every wave of data shows that they’re not going to be ready to come back until we have a vaccine.’ It was a sobering reality when you realized that the fastest vaccines to come to market in the past took four to seven years. Looking back to last April, thinking we’d have a vaccine within a year seemed like a pipe dream, at best. This is a modern miracle that will bring the industry back.”
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The lead time is a potential hurdle. “Most organizers take a year or more to plan their shows and events. Should we plan a program for a year or should we plan for a year because that’s the time we have? I would say the latter,” he said. “The events industry went off like a light switch, and initially we thought it would turn back on with a dimmer. It didn’t. It turned back on with a light switch, faster than we thought.”
Challenges remain
While this is an advantage, it comes with its challenges. To address these, Freeman is implementing planning tools, strategies and playbooks. Freeman’s strategy group is leading an agile planning framework working group, because clients will need contingency plans and success/failure scenarios that will take them nine months, six months, 90 days, 60 days, 30 days, two weeks, all the way to the event. “And there will be positive and negative things thrown at them throughout that cycle,” he said.
To learn more about Freeman Event Research, be sure to read the April issue of Trade Fair Manager for the rest of the story.
Contact Ken Holsinger or Bob Priest-Heck via media@freeman.com