Award-winning catering and events company Green & Fortune has released a report, detailing how the events sector is changing, as well as highlighting changes in the motivations of event attendees and techniques on how to maximise engagement.
The report illustrates how a widespread shift to flexible, remote working patterns has had an enormous effect on how and why events are run. Not only do the insights gathered from respondents show a general indifference to more formal events, they also show a broad shift to a midweek events schedule.
For example, the report argues that in 2023, employees are much more protective of their time, particularly Mondays and Fridays which are common work from home days. As a result, event organisers look to host events on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday a whopping 83% of the time. By comparison, only 2% of organisers consider hosting an event on a Monday, and 5% on a Friday, reflecting both the difficulty in getting people to attend, and also respect for employee wellbeing and mental health.
Online events are preferred on Mondays and Fridays, but employees are often happy to extend their hours during midweek days in order to attend face to face events. According to the report, both event agencies and corporate event organisers find that their clients overwhelmingly still prefer face to face events over hybrid or online only options. In-person events are still highly valued, both internally for team building, training and development, and externally for lead generation and relationship development.
This shift in motivations and working hours has made time an even more important consideration when it comes to event organisation. The insights report highlights ‘Return on Time Invested’ (ROTI) as a new, essential metric for measuring the potential value of an event - as attendees value their time more than ever, it becomes even more important to make sure that an event delivers considerable return in order to encourage attendance.
Rebecca Harris, Director of Business Development for Green & Fortune, comments: ‘We sought the thoughts and opinions of our agent partners, corporate supporters and significantly delegates and guests who attend events with us. The paper highlights subtle shifts in why events are held and most importantly the huge value placed on ensuring delegates’ time is used to maximum effect and is Time Well Spent.’
Green & Fortune operates some of the capital’s best known event sites, including the likes of Rose Court Events, Sea Containers Events, Kings Place Events and Central Hall Westminster. You can read the full Time Well Spent report here.