A comprehensive look into HR conferences in the era of Covid-19
Highlights:
General overlook of holding conferences before Covid-19
What has changed after Covid-19?
HR conferences are one of the best and the most valuable organized events to strengthen, innovate or develop your professional skills. There are dozens of HR conferences worldwide, and they are all different.
Basically, the HR market has significantly grown lately and continues to grow every year. We did a whole bunch of research to show you how holding HR conferences was planned and what was changed after the spread of coronavirus.
Let's see how Covid-19 influenced the conferences that have already held and those that are still planned.
General overlook of holding conferences before Covid-19
Researching the HR conference market, we found out information about 50 HR conferencesthat were planned to be held this year.
Сonferences were scheduled to be held almost every month. In the spring and early summer, more than 10 conferences in a month were planned.
HR events were planned to be held all over the world. Below is an infographic that shows detailed information.
The average planned number of visitors to all conferences is 1877 people. Below is a graph that divides conferences by the number of people that were going to attend them.
Lots of famous speakers were going to present their works at the conferences. Most frequently the number of speakers varied from 26 to 50.
We are sure everyone was curious about what well-known people they could meet at such an event. The conferences were addressed by speakers from lots of world-famous corporations.
We have also found out what were the most popular presentation topics that were going to be discussed at the conferences in 2020.
Ticket prices were quite expensive. The average cost for an HR conference ticket in 2020 was $1122.
What has changed after Covid-19?
Coronavirus is now in pandemic status. It hit the global economy painfully and was reflected in all sectors. The scope of the event organizers also did not stand aside. The most significant events around the world are being canceled, they are postponed or even their necessity is called into question.
We have conducted research to present to you how the conference organizers react to the new type of virus, what steps they take and what is changed. Statistics are changing every day.
Some conferences that managed to be held used such methods of protection against coronavirus: antiseptic (branded one), protective masks and medical support. They also provided their visitors with special brochures where all the anti-virus rules were written.
Lots of conferences added special pages about Covid-19 updates to their websites.
Events go online?
Unexpected cancellations hurt the reputation of the organizers and lead to enormous losses.
But at the same time, Giorgio Armani easily showed the new collection in an empty room: the event was broadcast online. Automakers organized virtual presentations, partially ofёfsetting the cancellation of the Geneva Motor Show. The world's largest technology conference, Collision, will also be held online. And there are plenty of such examples around the world.
Most likely, lots of HR conferences will also go online. Some experts estimate it positively. Reducing the number of global events will have a positive impact on the environment (at least due to the rejection of air travel and the absence of plastic waste).
It applies not only to various conferences and events. A large number of companies switch completely to remote work. After they have established the most basic processes (video conferencing, task setting and employee control) they think about essential things — employee adaptation and team training. For example, some companies launch Cloud-based Corporate training portals.
It makes sense. But the problem is that the industries were not ready for such drastic changes. We need to re-form "on the go": while the world is struggling with a pandemic, event companies need to work on realizing a new reality. And it dictates other formats and ways of interacting with the audience.
The world has changed — and we need to meet this!