2024 Trends
What’s trending in our industry in 2024? It’s technological and sustainable innovation. From the rise of hybrid events to the integration of AI and VR technologies, businesses are embracing new strategies to create more engaging, sustainable, and impactful experiences for attendees.
Hybrid Events
In 2024, hybrid events aren't just a quick fix; they're now a key part of how the industry plans gatherings. They make events more accessible to a wider audience and help reach more people. While the business events industry prefers meeting face-to-face, many big conferences now have a hybrid setup. This means that alongside in-person meetings, there's also an online option. It's a way for event planners to include more people, not just the ones who can physically be there.
Virtual Reality (VR) Technology
VR is revolutionizing the way attendees interact with events in 2024. The industry is leveraging VR to create virtual trade show booths, interactive product demonstrations, and simulated networking opportunities. Whether it's exploring a virtual exhibition hall or attending a live keynote speech from the comfort of their homes, attendees are embracing the transformative power of VR in the events industry.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI’s ability to collect event and data analytics mean event organizers can personalize every aspect of the attendee experience, from targeted marketing campaigns to tailored content recommendations while attending an event, AI is helping host destinations draw traffic to local attractions, making each delegate of a business event even more valuable the economic impact these events can have on our destination.
Sustainability
As environmental concerns continue to gain prominence, sustainability has become a top priority for the events industry. In 2024, businesses are implementing eco-friendly practices such as zero-waste initiatives, carbon offset programs, and sustainable sourcing of materials. From reducing plastic waste to incorporating renewable energy solutions, event organizers are making conscious efforts to minimize their environmental footprint and contribute to a greener future.
Health and Safety
In 2024 businesses are implementing health and safety protocols that are now built in the programs offered at their property. Some of these protocols include: enhanced sanitation measures, contactless registration systems, and social distancing guidelines.
By staying ahead of these trends and embracing innovation, our stakeholders can position themselves for success in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your property or venue has implemented sustainability programs, VR/AI technology or innovative health and safety protocols for the business events you host, please send information about these programs roxanne@tourismkamloops.com so we can promote these initiatives on social media on the tourismkamloops.com/meetings web page and during tradeshows.
OutsideTheBoxBC.ca
The Outside the Box BC collective consists of Tourism Kamloops, Nanaimo and Penticton. The collective was developed to create awareness and booking inquiries to solidify all three of these smaller locations as top meeting destinations in the Canadian Business Events market. All three destinations offer unique meeting amenities outside the typical venue spaces, can accommodate meetings up to 600 people, and offer apres experiences to knock the socks off delegates.
Objective
To get planners and corporate groups to think outside the main BC meeting destinations as locations to hold their events (aka, thinking outside the box), and branch out to our smaller, more unique destinations for their business events.
Benefits for Planners
- Save Time: Submit one proposal for all 3 destinations with responses back from all three destinations
- Planner Incentives: Booking in all three destinations provides planner incentives from Outside the Box BC, on top of any incentives that the planner/group may qualify for from each destination
Benefits for Destinations
Budget Friendly Business Development: As smaller destinations with smaller budgets, it is impossible to compete with the business development budgets of larger destinations such as Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna. The collective helps all three destinations make a captivating presence at business events and trade shows while still operating within our means. These are the budget conscious reasons we benefit from this collective:
- ⅓ of the Price for Sought After Trade Show Space and Activations: Exhibiting together at trade shows allows our destinations to create a more robust activation and visual presence to delegates. Think larger booths, better displays, and crowd pleasing activations (like local cocktails) that are proven to draw delegates to the OTBBC booth so all three of our destinations can get face time with industry planners.
- Travel Budget for One
- Effectively exhibiting at trade shows as a one woman show is next to impossible. However, on a smaller destination budget sending two people is a huge cost.
- Attending events as a collective means three people to exhibit and promote each other's destinations while having the capacity to connect with and inform 3x more delegates.
- ⅓ of the Travel and Marketing Prep: The prep and marketing that goes into the trade show and travel season is intricate and time consuming. Working together means we can split the duties required for this busy season in thirds.
- More Time for Other Responsibilities: While travel and trade shows are a large part of each of our positions in our respective destinations, being able to split the tasks and requirements for travel and exhibition gives us more time to tackle the rest of our responsibilities that pertain to our roles.
Awards, Connections and Bragging Rights
2024 BC Economic Summit
The Outside the Box BC team was asked to join the list of speakers and presenters at the 2024 BC Economic Summit May 7th in Penticton.
2024 BC Economic Development Awards Nominee
Marketing Innovation award
This award recognizes innovative and effective marketing materials used for attracting, retaining and fostering business as well as communication vehicles used by economic development organizations.
Canadian Meetings + Events Expo Hall of Fame Nominee
The Big Idea award
The Big Idea category honors an individual planner or supplier who has come up with and helped to implement an idea that has improved the productivity, profitability, culture and/or operational systems of a specific company/business and has helped in modernizing our industry in the process. Impact must be beyond an individual’s own business and demonstrate how it has helped or can be used to help in modernizing the industry.
BUSINESS EVENT IMPACTS IN CANADA
HOW CAN YOU HELP PUSH BUSINESS EVENTS IN KAMLOOPS? ADVOCACY.
We must champion the Business Events industry. Local advocacy for the business events industry is pivotal in positioning Kamloops as a premier destination for business, tourism, and investment, to ensure long-term viability. By actively promoting and supporting business events such as conferences, trade shows, and conventions, Kamloops can attract a diverse array of professionals, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders to our city.
HOW CAN OUR PARTNERS ADVOCATE FOR THE BUSINESS EVENTS INDUSTRY?
- Engage with the leads we distribute
- Not only is this an optimal way to ensure we can collect all the information for a client and put it in one convenient, professional package, this also helps us track data for the economic impact both won and lost leads have on our local economy.
- Familiarize yourselves with optimal approaches for responding to these leads
- We often provide training on how to respond to meetings that we build and make accessible to our qualified partners through the BOLD Dashboard.
- Don’t see an upcoming RFP response course? Be sure to reach out to us for Business Events BOLD Dashboard training for just you and your team.
- Collaborate with other stakeholders in Kamloops to organize events that benefit the broader business community.
- Collaboration with local stakeholders and organizations fosters community engagement and solidarity, nurturing a sense of pride and ownership in Kamloops' economic prosperity. The more we work together, nurture city-wide events and build a reputation as a location for larger scale business events, the more of an economic impact we can have on the community from room nights at partner hotels to money spent in our local economy.
- Provide reports on business event activity at your properties to Tourism Kamloops
- Reporting from your property allows us to compile accurate data on the local economic benefits business events have on our destination, and gives us a better snapshot as a destination sales team to find missed opportunities and new sectors to go after for leads.