Venues in Coventry and Warwickshire have seen a return to physical meetings, conferences and exhibitions as enquiries for hybrid events decrease.
Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, the region’s convention bureau, has been speaking with venues across the area – with one venue reporting that 75% of enquiries favour face-to-face over hybrid events.
The convention bureau surveyed venues from across the region, including Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry Conferences, Warwick Conferences, British Motor Museum, Telegraph Hotel, Eliot Park Innovation Centre and IXL Events Centre.
The role of hybrid
Coventry Conferences reported that four out of 10 enquiries are still requesting hybrid capability, which is a stable level, while at Warwick Conferences there is a decrease in hybrid enquires.
However, both venues emphasised there is still a place for hybrid events to reach global audiences – and there is still work being done to improve hybrid capability at Coventry Conferences.
Most of those surveyed indicated that the reasons for the decline in hybrid requests are due to the reduced impact of Covid-19.
However, the decline in requests are also due to:
1) Organisers not being aware of what hybrid can bring to an event
2) Organisers being cost-conscious
3) Organisers believing delegates will prioritise an in-person option, rather than virtual option (if given both)
Paul Jones (pictured), managing director of Conference Coventry and Warwickshire, said: “There has been a huge desire from people to get back to face-to-face events and the inevitable impact of that has been a reduction in enquiries for hybrid events.
“The return to face-to-face events is fantastic for our visitor economy and we have a varied portfolio of venues for event organisers to choose from in Coventry and Warwickshire.”
