Are Virtual Events Our Future? Not Necessarily.
When businesses realized the severity of COVID-19, they had to make fast decisions to protect their staff. For most, if possible, this meant closing offices, retail locations or any physical spaces that weren’t essential and moving to a remote work structure. And, as a result of eliminating the physical element of workplaces and gatherings, people had to lean into digital solutions and virtual meetings.
In fact, workers are spending 29% more time in team meetings and 24% more in one-on-one meetings than prior to the pandemic. To put an even finer point on this, Zoom—a video conferencing provider many people have used to host remote meetings and events—reached a peak level of 300 million daily participants in April, compared to the 10 million that used the platform pre-COVID-19 in December.
With these numbers, it’s fair to say that people embraced the change—at least at first. Operating from home and joining meetings in sweatpants had appeal, and while many people predict virtual events will have an increased presence in the future, they’ve had a devastating side effect—what is commonly referred to as “Zoom fatigue“.
By moving the entire meeting and social experience online, people were met with a new set of challenges. When confined to a screen, participants struggled with their levels of engagement—unable to make eye contact or follow who was speaking, gauge body language and hand gestures, interpret tone and so forth. It also invited in new distractions, with people viewing themselves on-screen or unwelcome background surprises, be it an excited pet, roommate interruption or the interfering noise of everyday life. For events that offered a menu of features, from polls to games to chats, it created an environment of sensory overload—breaking up participants’ attention. Simply put, it’s forced us to work harder to engage in a way that feels natural, productive and immersive.
The complexities of virtual events are half the battle, because the very nature of the technology creates challenges as well. These tools offer a myriad of technical hurdles—from poor WiFi, frozen screens or even complete software crashes. Simple, short meetings can run significantly longer as people combat glitches, impacting productivity and also interrupting the organic flow of a conversation or presentation. And since it’s up to the user to have proper, updated equipment for participation, these virtual meetings may not have the attendance or engagement they deserve.
One final, unexpected downfall of going virtual? They’re overly structured. By being separated by a screen and relegated to a certain window of time, we lose spontaneity and the benefit of unplanned meetings at the watercooler, or a valuable business connection you might make during an event mixer. A lot of great connections happen within the natural rhythm or our days, something we just can’t recreate with technology.
Virtual gatherings do have their advantages, by offering cost savings and convenience, but are they our future? We’ve undoubtedly not seen the last of them, but as we’ve seen during the pandemic, they’re likely to become a complement to the way we work and gather, versus being the answer.
It may be hard to imagine a return to the way things were, but it won’t just be refreshing to get back to in-person events, it will be necessary. If you’re interested in how we can do that safely and in a way that drives value, visit our thoughts here.
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