What Will Publishing Events Look Like in 2021?
/by KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd.
Over the last year, in-person publishing conferences and events have been faced with how to move forward as we all remain stuck at home. Many organizations have worked hard to pivot to live and recorded online programs and continue to connect well with their audiences. Some have put their programs on hold until in-person events can again take place. And organizations which previously did not host events have taken the opportunity to create a program platform.
As an industry partner and frequent exhibitor and event sponsor, KGL looks ahead with the rest of the publishing world to another year where we may not be able to meet in person. Yet after reflecting on recent experiences and speaking to several conference and book fair organizers, we assembled some insights into what the conference and event landscape will look like in 2021, what aspects have worked virtually and which haven’t, and how to connect to customers and colleagues in this remote world.
Maintaining and Growing the Audience
Book fairs and conferences that rely on in-person attendance, not only locally but internationally, met with some struggles last year, particularly on the exhibitor side. Virtual exhibitions and vendor “booths” are not able to get the same level of foot traffic online, no matter the creative lengths organizers have taken or the promotions offered to visit. For organizations that rely on exhibitors, this has been hard to navigate online and likely will not be solved, which has hurt the bottom line.
Programming, on the other hand, is still very successful. Whether in-person or online, attendees still want to hear from experts and look for ways to improve their businesses. And in many ways, having an online program has helped expand the reach of these organizations to attendees who might not have previously been able to travel.
“For our New Directions seminar, attendance was higher than the prior year, by about 15%. Engagement was high for both the live chat and the live Q&A sessions we hosted for some of the sessions,” said Mary Beth Barilla, Program Director for the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). The annual Charleston Library Conference also saw an increase in new participants, a survey noted that 44% of respondents were attending for the first time.
The key for these organizations is to use available platforms and partnerships to connect to old and new audiences. “Our strategy of cooperating with well-established media partners and of being present where our target groups are—whether on our own platforms or on social media—proved effective,” said Juergen Boos, Director, Frankfurter Buchmesse. “At the same time, we all know that nothing can replace meeting in person. We’ve learned a lot for book fairs to come, both in regard to physical and digital events.”
Creating New Libraries of Content
In addition to live programming, many organizations are providing access to videos, research, and information in expanded or newly created content hubs for members and virtual conference-goers. “We built our OnDemand Library (with the support of our sponsor, Cadmore Media) to offer new content asynchronously, including educational sessions on a variety of topics, our fall New Directions seminar, and our new Journals Quickstarter Training,” said Barilla of SSP. The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) has also created a library. The Frankfurter Buchmesse worked with partners around the world to create a free Market Insights hub with information highlighting unique market details.
Providing Equal Access
One of the most positive aspects of online programs and events is accessibility. “As a deaf scientist, I feel that my access has improved,” writes Peter Hauser, a professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in this article in Science Magazine about virtual science conferences. With accessibility being one of the key trends we identified for 2021, event organizers are able to be more inclusive for all attendees with online programming and may help create strategies on how to maintain that when in-person events resume.
Bridging Time Zones for Virtual Events and Meetings
While online programming allows for a wider audience, one challenge that comes with live programming and meetings is the challenge of time zones. For programming, creating and cataloguing asynchronous videos is a simple solution. For meetings, that solution is not so simple. Literary agent Andrew Nurnberg told Bookbrunch, “While managing with those in Europe and America, we inevitably failed to speak to everyone in distant parts, not the least Far East, which is eight hours ahead of us in the UK – colleagues in New York had it even worse, with thirteen hours between time zones.” While no one has figured out a solution to that problem, many publishing professionals are adjusting their schedules in order to connect with colleagues on the other side of the world.
What to Expect This Year?
Because online events have much less overhead, new players are entering the field of events or expanding their offerings internationally. The Independent Publishers Guild will launch a publishing forum in March, literary agency Curtis Brown is hosting a spring rights fair in March at the time when the London and Bologna Book Fairs would ordinarily take place, and Publishers Weekly has slated an event to take the place of Book Expo, to name a few.
As the online calendar becomes crowded, what is the best way for every event to stand out? For those conferences and book fairs that have a proven track record, the online transition is not as difficult. Those organizations have built-in audiences and memberships and brand awareness, it’s just a matter of reaching attendees on a platform that is easy to navigate and access. For newcomers, this might be more difficult. Everyone has Zoom fatigue and, if only one event can be selected, oftentimes attendees will pick the known quantity.
KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) is the industry leader in editorial, production, online hosting, and transformative services for every stage of the content lifecycle. We are your source for intelligent automation, high-speed publishing, accessibility compliance, digital learning solutions and more. View our evolving 2021 virtual events schedule at kwglobal.com/events.