How conferences have changed

We were recently at a conference, and I can honestly say that it has really changed since the Pandemic. What I was noticing was that there were a lot fewer people at it. I am not certain if it was weather related or the location of the conference. This conference was in downtown Toronto, and I figured it would have good attendance, or at least that is what I had hoped.

I know that, even for the two of us, it was a decision that we made the day of the event. When we first talked about the event, we were going to be heading down right after rush hour so that we could spend the day down there. The morning of the event we had a decision to make and that was are we going down as planned, going at all, or going for just part of the day? Sure, our own desire of going to this one event had changed, so we needed to sit back and figure out what was best for the two of us and our business.

The result of our decision was we went for just part of the day and spent the morning at home/office getting some work done. It was nice to be able to have that time to get some work done and then head down. When we got to the event, the first thing that we noticed that it wasn’t as busy as we were expecting. Of course, we arrived when some of the sessions were in, but even after the sessions let out it didn’t feel busy at all.

We did stay through to the end of the event and the prize draws, but didn’t win anything. The one thing that I did notice that even during the prize draws that wasn’t the normal crowd so that was very different. The event was pretty good, and I know that we didn’t talk to a lot of the vendors, as there weren’t the one there that were of a big interest to us. Now to see if there is going to be the fall event next year or not, I guess we will have to see next year what happens.

Events have changed since the Pandemic and the biggest things are the number of vendors that are at the shows but also the number of attendees. The price of running an event has increased a lot with insurance and all the other things, and when you must pay staff to travel and man a booth it can become too expensive if you don’t get the business from the show.

Events and conferences continuing to change since the Pandemic, and they will continue to change as businesses change how they find customers. For now, we will attend the events and conferences that we can if they feel that they will also be of an advantage to our business and customers as well.