How Virtual Events Are Shaping The Future Of B2B Marketing & Sales Events In The Middle East
The global pandemic has had a devastating impact on the business world, affecting all verticals of every industry and causing acute disruption. This has compelled organizations to implement systemic and functional changes to ensure business continuity in the post-pandemic world.
This had a profound impact on in-person B2B marketing and sales events in particular, which have been ruled out indefinitely. During the past couple of decades, event marketing has played a prominent role in sales and marketing activities of products and businesses across the Middle East.
As a response, the events industry has adapted by placing digital at the forefront and taking events completely virtual.
Virtual events today are providing a digital venue for event marketers to conduct end-to-end marketing events that would have otherwise not been possible. A report suggests that the global virtual events market size is currently valued at $ 77.98 billion and is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.2% from now to 2027. This means that the virtual event platform market can be expected to be valued at $774 Billion by 2030.
For the Middle East, which is the upcoming hub of event marketing activities, the new-normal has brought forth a much-welcomed paradigm shift, with event organizers realizing the various benefits which virtual events bring to the table.
The need for a viable tech solution to continue hosting events has led to the widespread adoption of virtual events across the world, and particularly in the Middle East. What was adopted out of necessity, has now turned out to be the most popular choice, with event organizers realizing the numerous benefits of hosting virtual events.
Purnank Prakash, CEO & Co-founder Of Samaaro
"Hosting virtual events has enabled event organizers to reach more people, cut costs, improve product offerings and understanding of customer needs", said Puranank Prakash, CEO and Co-founder of Samaaro, in an interview with Khaleej Times.
According to another report, 84% of organizations that have conducted a virtual event in 2020 claimed that they spend less money on virtual events than in-person events, while reaching 100x more audiences.
"Another core value proposition of virtual events lies in its ability to provide organizers with event analytics, which was limited in in-person events. In a century in which data is defined as the new oil, analytics can go a long way in helping organizers and exhibitors understand various aspects of a business. During virtual events, organizers/exhibitors are given access to an analytics dashboard that fetches real-time event data and provides various insights" added Purnank.
Samaaro is a multi-award-winning virtual event platform that has been helping event organizers in the Middle East host various types of virtual events. One of its most impactful virtual events was GCC Power which was hosted in collaboration with GCC-Cigre - an NPO that was established under the umbrella of the Gulf Cooperative Council.
GCC Power was a large-scale virtual exhibition that brought influential people from the energy industry to discuss the latest developments in the energy industry.
According to Samaaro, the entire platform was customized according to the client’s brand guidelines, including the welcome lobby, networking lounge, meeting rooms, conference halls and all the other 3D spaces. An automated booth maker, using which exhibitors could fully customize their product booths, was also provided to help the exhibitors integrate their brand theme with the platform.
The company also claims that the event recorded over 1200 registrations from over 59 countries. The average time spent over 2 days on the platform was 6 hr 56 mins, resulting in a massive ROI for both the organizers and the sponsors.
GCC Power is just one of the many virtual events which Samaaro is hosting in collaboration with various brands in the Middle East.
"I am glad to say that event organizers and exhibitors in the Middle East have finally realized the benefits virtual events bring to the table. They (virtual events) are enabling them to reach audiences on a global scale, a possibility which one could only dream of until very recently. Going by the trend, events, virtual events, in general, are going to be a huge success, especially in the Middle East, which is the upcoming hub of event marketing activities" concluded Purnank.