Venues: Dinosaurs or Potential Kings of the Virtual Event Industry?

During my time working for an event organiser we owned and ran a large number of exhibitions, conferences and awards events.

The venue always talked to us about the same things:

1. Space.

2. Catering.

3. Security.

4. Cleaning, and occasionally....

5. Shell-scheme providers, carpets, AV equipment and electrics (although in UK venues the organiser usually sorted out these contracts separately).

Now, I believe that little has changed with this offering for decades (except with the provision of internet connections in the 90's maybe).

Venues do not have a reputation as a hotbed of innovation.
Tvenuesaurus-rex, take a bow (or a nap)!

On the other hand, we in the virtual events community like to think of ourselves as at the digital cutting edge, technological developers and in tune with social media and the evolution of the internet.

How could venues possibly be better placed to talk to event organisers about virtual or hybrid events?

Well, let us consider the following:

1. Venues already have a relationship with the organiser.

2. In most cases venues have already successfully delivered a service (let's face it, they are bricks and mortar - they are always in the right place at the right time!).

3. There is trust in the 'brand' (most, if not all, of the larger venues have been around for years and won't run off/go bust with your money like a small software company might).

4. If a venue invests in developing it's own platform (or re-selling one) it is an easy add on to the conversation the physical event organiser must have. Why not replicate your physical event online Mr. Customer? Too complex? Too much hassle? We can handle the whole thing - we are the one stop shop for all your physical/hybrid/virtaul needs.

5. I would imagine the CAPEX required to produce a studio, in venue, shouldn't be prohibitive and staff could be hired on a project basis, minimising/eliminating operational overhead. As such, the studio should be able to offer the best of video production standards: multi-camera, 3D/HD/SD, vision-mixing, captioning, sub-titling, well dressed environment, webcasting, etc. to cope with the most demanding of organisers. Event organisers, even the large ones, won't be able to get near the quality and cost base the venue can offer.

So, a word of warning to platform vendors: Venues aren't 'competitors' or 'irrelevant'. They are potentially the most valuable ally or partner you will ever have.
They could just be the 'kings of the brave new virtual world'.

Don't turn your back on a dinosaur....................he might just eat you!