SAGES Magazine

THE SOUTH AFRICAN GASTROENTEROLOGY REVIEW 2021 | VOLUME 19 | ISSUE 2 | 30 be reviewed and new compliance regulations made that even more essential. I strongly believe that biomedical industry has a responsibility to put back into the profession through education and other innovations. I think that different companies have evolved at different rates to this achieve understanding. The funding of these endeavours needs to move from a marketing budget to an education and social responsibility budget with marketing benefiting from the recognition that this brings. I think this issue is still in evolution but my understanding is that as the world’s economies recover, so this approach will benefit the educational and developmental agendas of many societies. Lastly to reflect on the responsibility to members which forms the basis for which any Society exists. Discussing congresses in isolation is not appropriate any longer, as they can no longer be the major source of income for Societies to carry out their mandate. This discussion must reflect on a multitude of ways that a society can achieve its aims and objectives. Many societies have moved to short webinars as a platform for sharing knowledge with members. I think this is probably the most important new innovation and the one that I think will definitely continue in the post pandemic period. However in numerous member surveys conducted over the years, networking, meeting old friends and making new ones has ranked very high in the benefits of congresses. I think this is because we as human beings need to have that type of contact with others. The world had become a very small place and over the last 18 months it has grown too big for most of us. I don’t think travel and the excitement of the congresses will wane. Most of us yearn for that and I believe that it will again become the main-stream for congresses. I believe there are many lessons that I have learnt over the last few months about congresses and the role of societies in general. We should embrace technology innovations in hardware and software to participate meaningfully in the virtual world, congress related or otherwise. The congress milieu has changed for ever and we need to focus on what we want to achieve for our members and the resultant revenue streams from these endeavours. To achieve this we need to be adaptable and work together with our partners. Denise Kemp I started in the Professional Congress organizing business in 1997 and have witnessed many changes and innovations in the industry but none have been so rapid or are radical as those we have undergone in the past 20 months. This is my perspective on how we have adapted what, the concerns are going forward and what I perceive will be the solutions. The rise in virtual events in 2020 has redefined the conference industry forever. The landscape has profoundly changed with uncertainty defining 2021. Should we go back to live? Should we do virtual or should we do hybrid? Much of what we will do, in the near future, will be a best guess, using the information that is available on COVID 19, travel restrictions and trends in the industry, all of which keep changing. What does my crystal ball tell me? I believe going forward hybrid events will be king, not because attendees want them, but because this will be the only way to include those unable to attend in person. Broadly speaking, Health Care Professionals (HCPs) appear to have embraced the transition to virtual and viewed the experience to be generally positive. When asked to rate their overall virtual conference experience, HCPs recorded on average a favourable 7 out of 10 score. Ninety-two percent of HCPs surveyed indicated they would consider attending a conference virtually, which they would not normally have attended in person. These results indicate a growing demand for virtual conferences, increased accessibility to a wider cohort of HCPs and that it is effective as a channel for medical education. At the end of the day, I think we have three things to achieve when it comes to virtual platforms, higher attendance rates, less drop-off, and higher engagement. I think that’s what every platform should be focusing on and helping their clients to develop. Audiences have found virtual events safer and much cheaper, not only because many events are free, but because there are no travel and hotels costs and time out of their practices. Attendees are connecting from all over the world in a way that has never been possible with physical events. It is interesting to note that HCPs rate the ability to view content on-demand as the most important element of a virtual conference and this needs to be incorporated into the package offered for this format. Almost half of the organisers reported an increase in their virtual conference attendance, but only 27% achieved a positive return on their investment (ROI) from their virtual events in 2020. Despite reduced budgets, audiences have increased expectations, and demand the newest available technology. Highly produced ‘shows’ will need to be the achieved product without the 20-person crew they needed in 2020. What are the revenue opportunities for virtual events? There’s definitely a space for free events in the digital world, but there has to be a move towards paid events in the virtual space that generate a revenue stream. It appears that your pricing should be set at a level where it doesn’t constitute a barrier to entry. An event could be free to attend, but still make money because you’ve got sponsors. The sponsors approach will vary. They may organise the events themselves or request exclusivity for their patronage structuring their financial contribution is key to a successful ROI. The Society’s organising committee and the PCO need to think about what to offer stakeholders, be they sponsors, exhibitors, or attendees. The trap is not how do we replicate our physical event in the virtual space” but “how do we provide a product that is attractive to all the stake holders and hence most likely to attract attendance and revenue ?” Associations and event businesses need to focus on the value they can deliver to the members. Thinking about “how to replicate my 150 seat theatre online” is where people make mistakes, and those businesses are not going to be around much longer. What will make the process much easier is If we take the approach that virtual meetings are part of a business performance metric and an underutilized resource rather than a problem that needs to be solved. As 2021 continues to play out, more will become apparent as to the pricing methodologies that associations choose to adopt. 2020 saw the majority of conferences offer complimentary or nominal registration fees for the virtual offering. However, this model is not sustainable. What is clear is that associations and PCOs will need to invest in technology solutions to evolve and enrich the end- user experience. This evolution will come at a significant cost, which will no doubt have to be passed down to attendees and or industry stakeholders in the form of registration fees. In 2019, and in reference to in-person conference attendance, 57% of European HCPs stated that without direct sponsorship congress attendance would be significantly reduced. This percentage is set to increase given increasing legislation to prevent direct sponsorship. This should not be such a barrier to attendance at virtual meetings if event registration fees are carefully priced. With these larger audiences, we can think of different ways to monetize the individual events that involves indirect sponsorship rather than the traditional congress trade OPINION