Emerging trends in the Events Industry
In the past, the event planning industry was used only by the elite. Today, it is being increasingly seen as a way of eliminating headaches and hassles normally associated with events, corporate as well as private ones. According to a recent research the event planning industry is expected to grow by 20 percent from 2006 to 2016. It is no wonder that social media like Facebook and Twitter is being integrated into weddings and corporate events.
Real time updates with Social networks
The massive boom in the events planning industry can be attributed to built-in event tools of social networks. These tools are being used by wedding/corporate event planners to advertise and market their services and also give real-time updates to their followers. Social media has helped the Events planning industry cut down the cost of advertisements and has resulted in the rise in their popularity and profit.
Social media like Linked In, Facebook and Twitter has also increased the face to face interaction taking place during corporate events. The fact that attendees Tweet before the event means that they learn more about the number of people attending, and more importantly, who is attending the event. This has helped promote a wider homogenous interest in the events and target particular crowds.
Location based social media websites
Many corporate events planners are also tying up with Foursquare and other similar location based social media websites to create badges to promote events. These websites are also being used to offer tips to the attendees recommending the important parts of the event, including drink or food items they should not miss! The goal of integrating social media with events in such a manner is to engage potential customers into conversation even before the event takes place.
On the other hand, corporate events at companies like Apple are extremely hush-hush. Organizers and Event planners use Twitter lists to ensure that people attending the conference are not tweeting anything that violates the companys confidentiality policies.
Social media and the big fat wedding
Social media like Facebook and Twitter is increasingly being used to organize, plan and promote weddings: be it a small wedding or large one with over thousand guests. Irrespective of the number of attendees, a wedding planner can benefit largely due to social media. For one, it can promote as well as advertise the services of the planners and secondly the planner gets access to a larger number of resources. Wedding planners get an idea about the popular choice in wedding venues, cake bakers, DJs etc and need not even leave his/her office for this purpose. Today, a Wedding planner can literally sit in Melbourne and yet plan a wedding in Perth, thanks to such social networking!
Couples often announce their weddings on Facebook and get a list of people/RSVPs who are attending the wedding. This saves the costs on printing wedding invites and RSVP cards.
As can be seen, wedding and corporate events planners are increasingly using Twitter, Facebook and other such sites to give, receive and spread information about upcoming events.