Identifying Opportunities in Your Venue

The pandemic created many challenges for businesses across many industries, especially meetings, events and venues. But it also created many opportunities for those that were willing to grab them. Buying into the virtual experience economy through the hybrid hosting and broadcasting of such events can create a profitable revenue stream.

Growing industries present tremendous opportunities for businesses but how can you work out if they apply to you? For starters, you need to take a look at your business strategy for the next few years. Review your operations, your spaces and your marketing. Where are there gaps, do your projections show what you’re doing to be profitable? Can your technology be improved? Despite what your answers to either of these questions are, you can always be doing better.

By starting now and getting it right you can solidify yourself as an ideal venue for these events to take place for years to come. With the projected growth of esports the amount of profit you can bring in coming years can be large. With regard to other uses of space, it’s important to think of how you can take advantage of every opportunity your venue has to offer. 

Virtual Experience

Arguably, the biggest opportunity for all events and venues are the virtual experience economy and hybrid events. Hybrid events flourished during the pandemic and continue to do so with good reason. These events combine elements of both online and offline experiences and are perfect for fulfilling current and future audience expectations. Hybrid events are becoming increasingly popular as they allow people to attend events from the comfort of their own homes or offices. The importance of this cannot be understated as we have now well and truly transitioned into the virtual experience economy.

The Virtual Experience Economy is defined by IBTM Events as “the next iteration of the Experience Economy. It is poised to drive business growth through virtual events. It seeks to accelerate the merging of digital and live events in the years to come, with the possibility of making permanent changes on consumer preferences even after the pandemic.” It has caused a powerful merging of technology, which in turn has led to a higher level of engagement within events.

Other Opportunities

“Work Life Balance has played a large part in the return to office and the conference room for corporate companies. Values have shifted significantly and Event planners are looking to nature, at regional destinations where space is in abundance.  A shift to outdoor hospitality options will continue. The majority of people prefer to be outside because they consider it to be a safer place to be.  Resort destinations will continue to be in high demand,” Kylie Brajak - Group Director, Global Sales and Distribution, Crystal Brook Collection.

Identifying the potential of all of your spaces can present plenty of opportunities for your venue. By running a comprehensive audit of your spaces you'll be able to determine which are profitable and which aren't. Once you have identified the less profitable spaces, try to determine what's not profitable and make changes accordingly. Think outside the box. In terms of ICT changes such as contactless technology and payment, there are many places you can implement it. Any space where people are required to make bookings you can use it. Here’s an interesting figure, did you know that according to The Business Research Company’s latest reports, The “Financial Services Global Market Report 2021: Covid-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030”, the global financial service market grew over $2 trillion by the end of 2021? This is an incredible level of growth that many people weren’t anticipating. More importantly, there are several ways that you can take part in this growth, especially those in Western Europe where the largest portion of this growth (40%) has come from. Furthermore, if you’re from North America, your region accounted for 27%.

This means that technology isn't going to continue to drastically improve in the coming years. Keep an eye on it and stay on top of emerging tech trends. Doing so can help you become a technology powerhouse and potentially use your spaces in ways you never thought possible. 

Ultimately it's important to keep the virtual experience economy and your customers at the front of mind. What do they want and how can you use digital experiences to delight them. Create unique experiences in each of your spaces and you'll be able to maintain strong growth into the future.