At the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, we announced earlier this year that CES® 2021 will be an all-digital experience. We are far from the first event to make such an announcement. In the past few months, we’ve seen the events world evolve to keep bringing value to attendees, from online webinars to virtual networking hours. As they say, the show must go on.

Despite these challenging times, and as much as we will miss the serendipity of meeting our guests and new partners in person at Las Vegas this January, I think the new focus on virtual events has presented a unique opportunity for event marketers to capture the attention of audiences who are very different from what we may be accustomed to.

Cultivating a Sense of Community

Our goal as marketers is to connect with our audiences and, in the events world, show them how they can connect with each other at our event.

As we move to a fully digital world, the focus shifts to one person — the one in front of the screen. Event marketers everywhere are turning to the skills of social media influencers, trying to capture the hearts of many while on a one-to-one platform.

The more personalized expectation of a digital event may be calling for the use of data. Every attendee experiences CES differently, the connections made and the business done for each individual — from CES veterans to first-time attendees — unique. It’s only by making customizations, from personalizing the event itself to making sure we are speaking to every guest’s interests, that we as event marketers will be able to offer the best experience in a digital world.

Maintaining Business Value for Attendees

The digital space is a crowded one, even more so now. With social and other entertainment platforms on the rise since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, how do we break through the noise to bring professional value to our guests?

Marketers are now presented with the unique opportunity to create engaging learning and networking spaces for a truly worldwide online audience, matching — or even exceeding — the business reach of a live event.

In this unfamiliar space that is suddenly very populated, our conference programming must keep our audiences’ needs first. Digital-only keynotes should be given differently from a keynote given to a room full of people. Production differences can alter an attendee experience. Importantly, the topics that interest our audiences today may be different from what we are used to.

Staying True to Your Brand

Even through these months where the whole world is talking about the pandemic, it’s important for us all to stay true to our companies’ core missions and connect with customers in the ways they’ve loved while staying relevant. We can adapt and also stay authentic.

At CTA and CES, we engage the technology community. At CES 2021, along with many of our always-loved hot tech topics, we are excited to share the ways technology has created many new solutions to address the COVID-19 outbreak.

The current environment is rapidly changing. I believe that marketing teams are agile and creative, and we are equipped to craft engaging events in this new digital era. As our own teams here at CTA prepare to bring the world’s most influential tech event online, I look forward to sharing ideas with and learning from other marketers making similar moves.