Although the sports events world has been on halt for nearly a whole year, the start line for the industry is on the horizon. It’s been a tough twelve months for those working in the sector, but there are positive things that can come out of this pandemic.
Through adversity change is inevitable, and from this change new trends are going to emerge that will impact how organisers deliver events and how consumers experience them.
Here are just a few trends that we expect to see in the near future.
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is clearly important and it’s becoming an increasingly important influencing factor for consumers when they decide to enter an event or not. Because of this, event organisers are having to adapt their operational planning and market their events in a manner that shows they are conscious of their environmental impact. This trend is good news for consumers and good news for the planet!
But what moves can event organisers make to easily improve their environmental impact without committing to large amounts of spend. Here are just a few ideas:
- Promote and incentivise car sharing / public transport
- Recycle all your waste and ask sponsors to do the same
- Work with suppliers and vendors with good environmental policies
- Move away from the goody bag, consumers value one quality medal or gift. This also gives an organiser more control over where and how the giveaway sourced.
- Use local suppliers
- Offset carbon emissions or provide information to consumers on how they can offset their own carbon emissions (for example cycling to work for a week instead of driving to offset the carbon emissions generated from taking part in the event).
Continuation of Virtual Events
Is there a place for virtual events once physical events start up again? We think so yes.
Although virtual running, cycling and triathlon events will never be preferred to physically attending an event, we do think there’s a place for them in the event calendar alongside physical events and here’s why.
Virtual events are brilliant at engaging people, building a community and providing content for event organisers outside of their physical events. They are low cost to deliver, so it seems like an easy win to continue offering this to consumers and reaping the benefits.
The Power of Social Media
New event series in the mass participation sector are popping all the time and organisers are harnessing the power of Instagram and other social media channels to create a great online community and in turn drive event entries. A great example of this is Trail Pursuit, a new event with a really strong social media following. This online community offers more value to consumers, builds the hype of the event and helps to generate a strong brand.
For any new and emerging event series out there, don’t underutilise social media and get left behind by other event series. For all the established events out there, this is less important, keep delivering good events and let the experience speak for itself, word of mouth is also a powerful tool!
New Events for a New Audience
Through the pandemic millions of people have found cycling and running as an outlet for the stress and anxiety that lockdowns caused. In addition to this, people have certainly found the value of spending time outside exploring the countryside.
Now these people have the exercise bug, they will be looking to continue to chase their exercise highs while experiencing the outdoors and we anticipate a whole host of new events popping up to cater for this audience.
What other trends are you expecting to see in the mass participation sector in the near future? Feel free to comment on our social posts so we know your thoughts.
All About Sports Events specialises in the planning and management of major sports events. If you would like to explore working with us please get in touch here or email hello@allaboutsportsevents.co.uk.
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