A lot of evolution took place during this time and the Media and Event Management Industry was no exception.

This phrase is often used in showbiz – “the show must go on”, and somehow it turned into an epiphany for the Media and Event Management Industry since COVID attacked the world in the year 2020. Life across the globe hit a halt, and it took almost a year to jolt ‘life’ back into life. A lot of evolution took place during this time and the Media and Event Management Industry was no exception; instead, they were amongst the first ones to shape up for the new digital future.

Statista has estimated the revenue of the organized events industry to be more than 100 billion Indian rupees in FY 2021 aided with this new digital transformation, up from around 66.1 billion Indian rupees in FY 2018. This rise is a result of all developments brought together including the ones in event organizing, conducting, studies, and training.

What became the lifeline of Event Management since COVID?

Entertainment has kept humans in the zone of sanity for time immemorial. If you try feeling ennui for one afternoon and you will find yourself in maelstroms of melancholy, depression, and despondency. If it wasn’t about the Media and Event Management industry, the same would have happened to everyone around the globe. And, Yes! Even the Media and Event Management had to adapt to the changing requirements of keeping people engaged within the safe premise of their homes. The technological advancements of the 21st century digital age navigated the new path for industry, and here we made it through.

The ‘New Normal’ is the ‘virtual events’ and ‘virtual participation’ by people. For ease of understanding, one can divide the event management industry into two categories – Event Management Studies and the actual Industry.

· Event Management Studies completely went digital by adapting the VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augment Reality) technologies for learning and training. The event management institutes resorted to virtual seminars, conferences, and other online induction programs to impart learning to their students. The perfect learning curricula for studying ‘Event Management and Media’ needed to be maintained and advanced technological interventions and a world-class education system facilitated that.

· The Media and Event Management Industry also stepped up its game, whether it was requiring to adopt digital tech to organize contactless (virtual as well) events, hygiene standards second to none, and turning ‘social gathering’ according to the norms of ‘social distancing’. Well-curated and wide-spread networks became the roots for the success of events in these COVID impacted times. With every passing day, the pioneers in the event management and media industry are coming up with better innovative ideas to keep the show going, as it must be! Making it all even better.

The Road Ahead for the Event Management Industry in Post COVID Era

The pandemic struck the global industry all of a sudden, leaving less time to prepare for the time ahead. Many a pillar fell during this time; Economies were struck hard, Industries were impacted, and Education turned obsolete. Many thanks to the digital age innovations that kept the growth curve in the positive quadrant and the industry leaders showed the way to all others.

The lockdown period changed the meaning of the word ‘lifestyle’ since COVID. Such pandemic situation has given a new mission to event management industry leaders i.e. to carve a new path for the students, learners, trainees, workers, and professionals so that even in adverse situations they can hold the fort strongly and continually work to build a better future, for them and the world.

Right from a daily work meeting to a live streaming seminar with hundreds of people involved, or live virtual shows and concerts of stars for thousands of their fans to professors imparting learning in online classes with VR and AR tech; the Media and Event Management industry has come afar since the lockdown was first imposed. We have proved that - we didn’t give in, we have proudly won.

(The author is  Arvind Jyot Sabhaney, CEO of team.i)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house