Re-Thinking the Events Management Industry in the Philippines

The Pandemic is unforgiving.

Many of the events management companies in the Philippines folded. Those left are struggling. More than a year of lockdown and stringent measures of the government, physical events are nowhere in sight.

Psychological Confidence

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) assigned in crafting policies in their latest announcement allows 30% occupancy of an events venue capacity.

Only a few are keen on taking a second look at this new policy. Foremost, the policy is a positive development but expensive to events organizers. The cost is too high to recover the investment.

Second, and most important one, the possibility of another Covid 19 Wave is around the corner. The Delta virus has been detected in some infected patients in the country. This variant infects faster than other variants.

Other factors hamper the recovery of the events management industry. Still, the high cost of implementing a physical event, and the threat of the Delta variant of Covid are enough to stifle the attempt to restart physical events.

Unless this two are addressed the Psychological Confidence needed to make a comeback is far from the horizon.

Virtual and Hybrid Events

When the lockdown happened last year, event organizers, like me, are in a state of denial. The majority resorted to a wait-and-see attitude.

But when the data pointed out that this will last for a longer time, it is a wake-up call that roused some of us to take action.

Clients demanded us to provide solutions to their needs. They still wanted to do events. This forced us to turn our attention to virtual platforms.

Across the globe, this is the marching orders of clients- find a solution fast or else lose our account.

This is the main impetus for the acceptance and growth of virtual events. The latest survey of the Center for Exhibition Industry Research showed that 88% of the Global Events Management Executives plan to retain virtual events in their service offerings.

In the Philippines, some event management companies are thriving because of virtual events management. Slowly the industry players are acquiring the skills to provide virtual events management.

The main deterrent to fully embrace virtual events is the unreliable internet connection of the country.

Reframing the Current Pandemic

If the pandemic is here to stay, we need to change the way we look at things. We need to accept that in the Philippines, it will be virtual and hybrid events from now on.

Some say we need to dance with the pandemic. Against the backdrop of slow vaccination programs and economic recession, we need to find ways to stimulate the events management industry.

Right now, one thing positive about the situation is the digital transformation that has swept the county. In a country with 84 Million internet users and 89 million active social media users, the pivot towards digital is seamless.

The challenge for this new reality is to further rethink the events management industry in order to make it sustainable. Since the positive impact, it provides to the different levels of our lives is proven.