Introduction: Problems In The Events Industry

Events have long been a way of bringing together a group of people for a collective purpose. Be it a conference, networking event, product launch or even a birthday party, events continue to be an integral part of most societies. This would explain the high net worth of the industry with a valuation of USD $800 billion. It would thus seem surprising, that given an analysis of a high profitability industry, one can find rampant lapses in standards and a significant loss of opportunity cost. This is counter-productive in an industry that is already worth billions and should be generating so much more.
So, why is this the case? There are many factors behind the laggardness of the industry. However, the key issues plaguing the industry stem from two key factors — transparency and accountability. A lack of information between buyer and seller often results in detrimental consequences to the buyer. These can be further broken down into various consequences in the industry:
#1 Unfair Prices
One of the most notable pain points of the industry can be seen in its lack of fair pricing towards buyers. Often, intermediaries can be involved between buyer whenever they source for vendors (sellers) for their events. Sellers also look actively for intermediaries to advertise their services and find customers for them. In turn, intermediaries charge middleman fees with markups that can be deemed unreasonable, in the range of 20%-30%. Such a situation leaves the cost on buyers to bear; with most buyers being unaware of the fees in the first place. Hence, the lack of transparency has crippled buyers in an industry where varying prices might be paid for the exact same service. There is a lack of fair value transfer from sellers to buyers.
Furthermore, unfair prices exacerbate the issue of budget. With every year, it is common for buyers to face a limited and lower budget alongside rising costs. This makes the task of finding suitable vendors even more difficult. Not to mention, while working with a smaller budget, buyers have to find creative means to make the most out of their budget and create value out of their event. With unfair prices, the regular buyer is curbed from organizing an event that will deliver its intended results the most efficiently.
#2 Buyer and Seller Reliability
In any event, success is heavily reliant on both the buyer and seller to fulfil their side of the contract. A corporate team building activity cannot be run smoothly if the seller fails to turn up on time. Similarly, a birthday party cannot run as planned if the buyer refuses to make a required deposit for the birthday cake. With a lack of transparency and accountability from either party, the finality of the event is often put into question. There is a certain requirement for reputation. This is especially exacerbated in the rise of the gig economy. With the advent of the internet, freelancers have gained easier access to buyers. However, these freelancers also often face the problem of establishing a reputation. This also applies to buyers.
On top of this, current trends show that people are more attracted to instant gratification. In terms of the events industry, this often means that sellers now have to work around a shorter lead time whenever they receive requests from buyers. This undermines their ability to produce quality events in such a short time. As such, the lack of general buyer reliability could be unfair to sellers.
#3 High Volume of Cancellation
What happens when cancellation occurs? It would seem that most of the brunt would have to be borne by buyers who have to pay cancellation or penalty fees. Yet, we often overlook that sellers too are affected — opportunity cost from missing out on another event. With the events industry being dynamic, variables and factors towards the success of an event changes every day.
#4 Keeping Up With Changing Times
In recent times, innovation has also been a key factor in influencing event attendance. The events industry is stuck in state of stagnation — with parties failing to share ideas and collaborate for more innovative events. This is in contrast to what many term ‘buzz’ in the digital age, whereby a combination of creative ideas and effective marketing results in large crowds being drawn in. There is a need for sellers to collaborate and build upon existing structures to further the growth of the events industry.
What then can be done to address these issues? We believe that addressing the lack of transparency and accountability are crucial steps in improving the events industry. With the advent of blockchain technology, there is now a new avenue perfect for solving the problems within the events industry. What if there could be a safe and reliable way of hiring vendors? What if there was a mechanism that could protect both buyer and seller? At Event Protocol, we envision a future such as this.
The future of the events industry is coming soon.
About Event Protocol
Event Protocol is the future of events where parties can establish a unified reputation and interact in a frictionless fair-share economy, without intermediaries. It will store event information and history and will lend itself to event businesses, marketplaces and procurement databases.
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Website: https://eventprotocol.io/
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