In this second part of this blog, we will discuss the reasons why the event industry may not come back to pre-pandemic levels and there will be a stagnation following years. Also, a big question when can we say the pandemic is ended? Is it when the vaccine is discovered and distributed? Or does it mean that corona will be here with us like normal flu and we just adapt to the new situation? Or will it disappear at all? In our blog, we will write about the most probable situation, when the majority of people are vaccinated, but Corona is still among us.
Reasons why it is possible, that there will not be many LED events after the pandemic
1) Companies would integrate even greater virtual meetings than nowadays
There is a possibility, that companies would fully move to the concept of virtual meetings. They may decide that the employees or their clients don´t need to meet face to face if there is really good technology in virtual meetings. Fortunately for the event industry, we don’t have any realistic holograms like in Star Wars so far, but we will see what can change when big tech invests million to improve it.
2) Companies would save more money in general
2019 was a year of great positiveness in the world. Everybody was thinking about how the world economy is growing and anything can happen. The last crisis was in 2008 and everyone has forgotten what does it mean when something big & wrong happens. This is the reason why companies didn´t have any savings, and they just spent all their income. After the unpredictable pandemic came, the companies woke up and realized that financial reserves are important. It’s possible that this trend will follow the upcoming years and there will not be many spendings for employees or even important clients for companies.
3) It would take some time till people are willing to meet again
In the end, everyone is just a human. It means we all have some psychological behavior and habits. If the pandemic takes a long time, our brains will slowly adapt to the fact that we don’t meet with other friends or people in general. Maybe it would be the case that events are organized but people wouldn´t attend them just because they are not used to meet others than their close family. Also, it can be changed by time but till then, the event industry will be hurting a lot.
4) New hygienic rules
In my eyes, one of the main advantages of the pandemic is that hygiene rules must be observed everywhere now. I mean even the basics like disinfections are filled up everywhere and you don’t have a problem with using it. Before the pandemic, it was super normal to find missing soup even on the public toilets or public schools where it was never available. Nowadays, it must be everywhere. The negative side of this is of course money that needs to be spent on extra hygiene. If we speak about events for thousands of people it means thousands of euro/dollars that need to be added to each budget. Also, the distance between people when they speak or interact must be observed, so it means more money for bigger event halls, extra cleaning service, etc.
5) Covid Tests
We are not sure how long will it take to have obligatory covid tests when we are speaking about international events. If you travel to another country, they require a negative test after the arrival and vise versa when you come back. It means at least two tests per trip for each person. It can be even more when your airport is in a different country like for us. Usually, we fly from Austria but we are from Slovakia. Austrian airport is 40 minutes far away from our capital Bratislava but still, the Slovak government does not accept tests that you take in Schwechat airport and you must go for testing in Slovakia after the mandatory quarantine. It means that 3x covid tests are required for one event plus additional quarantine which needs to be paid. If we speak about a team of 6 or 8 people, what is our standard show, it´s thousands of euros paid just for this. We hope that after the vaccine, we would just need to declare that we are vaccinated and it would be the end of covid tests.
6) Aviation segment
If we speak about international events, the aviation industry plays a big role. Personally, I used to fly to different countries more often than using public transport in my city. Before the pandemic aviation was at the peak and you had flights everywhere all the time. When the client wanted a last minute event, let’s say 2 days prior I didn´t need to think of the flights. I knew that for 100% there are the fly tickets available anytime (of course prices were different) but this can change. Right now, there are 80% fewer flights than the same day one year ago. I think in the long term this will change back again but it will take a few years to come back.
All of these reasons can make events or LED shows stagnate in the upcoming years. Nobody knows what will happen just like nobody has expected the pandemic to happen in 2020. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people will suffer due to the consequences of social distancing and government steps to prevent people from dying. We really hope that all will change as soon as possible.
If you have any question, don’t hesitate to write to us.