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The Event Education Festival Snapshots: The World of Virtual and Hybrid Events
by EVENTFAQS Bureau Business Events | July 31, 2020 | News
The Event Education Festival Whistling Woods International
Whistling Woods International’s three-day ‘Event Education Festival’ kicked off on 29th July 2020. Here are some snapshots from a discussion on virtual and hybrid events on day one.
Siddharth Ganeriwala, Director & CEO, Aura Integrated Solutions (Moderator):

“Physical, Virtual, Digital, Hybrid... we are hearing a lot of these words but we really don’t know what’s happening in the world today with the event industry itself. An industry that was always high on experience and was dependent on one-to-one interaction has now become (about) one-to-many interactions.
Navneeth Mohan, Director & CEO, Laqshya Live Experiences:
“Virtual is extremely effective when it comes to education and training events and this will become a big shift in the future. Technology has evolved and connectivity like 5G and balloon internet coming through is going to be a game-changer for the future. Virtual is going to stay but it won’t replace live (physical) events.”

“Content Innovation is the key to the game. COVID has made us think and grasp the technology and understand its flow.”
Atul Nath, Founder, Quivr:
“We believe that the future is omnichannel activation/marketing where consumers are going to be both online and offline. Today the reality is that everyone misses those experiences to interact with other consumers and with brands. So that is going to come back strongly.”

“Pre-COVID, as an industry we have always charged clients based on the delivery; hardly anyone charges for content creation. So suddenly there is no delivery and now it's all about content creation. Content has always been the king but we are just seeing it more clearly today.”
Ranjit Raina, CEO, Geometry Encompass:
“The change that we are going through is not over yet and it will continue to change for some time now. Long before COVID, people had already become omnichannel; we just made it ‘physical’ and ‘virtual’ for them.”

“Video production, specialized production, software, innovations, AR, VR... they have always been a part of this industry but their role is now heightened. Understanding of the digital world is a very necessary and basic skill set that we need to catch up with.”
Whistling Woods International’s three-day ‘Event Education Festival’ kicked off on 29th July 2020. Here are some snapshots from a discussion on virtual and hybrid events on day one.