EVENT HORIZONS

FROM HYBRID EVENTS THAT BLEND THE REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLDS TO MORE CREATIVE USE OF VENUES AND HOTEL SPACES, THE REGION’S MICE INDUSTRY IS FINDING NEW WAYS TO BRING THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY TOGETHER

- GEMMA GREENWOOD

When the world went into lockdown, with offices and venues closing their doors and business travel virtually grinding to a halt, the meetings and events industry took a huge hit.

The working population and businesses adapted quickly, thanks to video conferencing technology, leaving hotels and venues wondering how they would fit into the ‘new normal’ given the effectiveness of these online solutions.

Zoom emerged as the pandemic’s global success story; for the quarter ending April 2020, the USheadquartered video communications specialist reported a massive 169 per cent year-on-year revenue hike to reach US$328.2 million, while daily meeting participants peaked at more than 300 million during the period, up from 10 million in 2019.

Zoom’s measurement of “annualised meeting minutes” jumped 20-fold, from 100 billion at the end of January to more than two trillion in April.

“We were humbled by the accelerated adoption of the Zoom platform around the globe in Q1,” says Eric S. Yuan, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zoom.

“The COVID-19 crisis has driven higher demand for distributed, face-toface interactions and collaboration using Zoom. Use cases have grown rapidly as people integrated Zoom into their work, learning and personal lives.”

Despite restrictions on work, travel and events easing in many countries around the world, Zoom and similar platforms have become integrated into every facet of life and are now commonplace for meetings, conferences and more, even mega sporting events.

Most recently, Formula 1 and Zoom Video Communications announced a new digital partnership to deliver the first ever virtual Paddock Club.