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Outlook and Comparisons

Event Industry Outlook

As written about by event professionals, “2020 is a year that the event industry will remember for a long while, and for the worst possible reasons. Events have been among the businesses worst impacted by the crisis. For a long time and in many cases still to date, there is little clarity about when events will come back. Many in the industry have adopted the slogan ‘The first to go, the last to come back’ to describe how devastating the pandemic was for an industry living through its golden age,” said Julius Solaris the editor of Event Manager Blog.

In research including 1,000 event professionals, the most optimistic scenario has events returning in Spring 2021, but a full recovery isn’t possible until at least 2022. Beyond testing, tracing, and even vaccine release and distribution, it will be a while for the wider population will feel more confident to go back to live events. Who they are will imagine how long “a while” is.

General advice from those in the event industry, which will lag the rest of the economy, is to plan for full impact through the Spring, and substantial impact through 2021. This will improve in 2022, but some are forecasting continued fears by attendees, as well as businesses sending attendees, for as many as 2024.

If there is a surge of COVID-19, or the vaccine doesn’t have longer-term protection, another surprise during the pandemic, or even another virus risks public health, then all of the above is not realistic, and it will take longer.

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