Michael Barnett, VEI Co-Founder & Director
Imagine multiple event job offers? It is hard currently to imagine a plethora of career opportunities in the midst of a pandemic which has disrupted the physical event world at such pace. However, light is on the horizon according to research from Research from Grandview Research, a leading market analysis firm. Their research shows that event professionals will be in higher demand than ever, with virtual events set to grow to $404B in 2027. That’s about 808,000 jobs according to Economy Policy Institute data. Essentially, this means that over 125,000 virtual event jobs are going to be created each year for the next 6 years. This is the equivalent of hiring the entire trade show industry every 6 months or creating a second professional events industry in just 6 years.
At the same time physical events will be coming back, creating additional opportunity and revenue streams within a new hybrid event model. The need for event professionals to have experience in both physical and virtual events will create fierce competition, as the new and remodeled event companies will demand proficiency in both physical and virtual events.
And this makes sense, in 2020 we are on pace for over 400B webinar viewers a year according to Zoom and market data. That is over 50 webinars per person on earth, but only one per week. (Which, actually seems low compared to personal experience.)
According to BrightTalk these jobs will focus heavily on capturing great content, on staying up to date and ahead of the industry, presenting it in an engaging and captivating way with networking opportunities, and marketing it to an increasingly larger and more global audience.
For those who want to start looking right away Grandview says the top firms at present are: Microsoft, Cisco, ALE International, Cvent, VFairs, Zoom, Eventxtra, George P. Johnson, and ALIVE Events.
There is an exciting and hopeful future, and I wish everyone well in the meantime. Please reach out if you think I can be of any help, especially if you are interested in a scholarship to VEI.
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