The COVID-19 pandemic, which is becoming a long-term situation, has greatly affected the Korean event market that had seen rapid growth. As of August 2020, more than 70% of events were canceled or postponed, and the shock on the MICE industry was considerable. The MICE industry could bloom when businesses thrived on contact with people. 

Under the new circumstances, however, a new alternative emerged as events embraced online and hybrid formats. The MICE industry is largely classified into meetings and conventions. In the meeting industry focusing on information exchange and training, the transfer from off- to online was relatively smooth. Since May 2020, MICE events have been held online as digital and smart conventions. In 2021, most events have been hybrids combining on- and off-line formats. 

The exhibition industry where contact and contract are important did not see many online or hybrid formats in comparison to the meeting industry; however, B2C exhibitions held online, which reflected trendy issues during the COVID-19 pandemic such as camping and outdoors, received good feedback.

In the global MICE industry, CES, the world’s largest trade fair specializing in IT and consumer electronics, was held online as the first attempt since its opening 54 years ago. The 2021 World Economic Forum, also known as the Davos Forum, was also held online. The special meeting place was planned in Singapore where important guests participated online.

Event trends in the post-COVID-19 era can be classified into five categories. First is the digitalization of events. The COVID-19 pandemic and the influx of the generation MZ accelerated the speed of ICT technology in the MICE industry. 

The UIA (Union of International Association) Round Table organized by the Seoul Tourism Organization served as one of the good examples. For the event, the Seoul Tourism Organization utilized the entire city as the venue of the international meeting—conferences in Changdeokgung Palace, and workshops on Sebitseom Island. Utilizing 3D animation, the organizer promoted the city’s major tourist attractions, with participants experiencing a sense of presence in realistic-feeling virtual places as guided by animated characters. Starting July 2021, the Seoul city government made the virtual meeting platform “Virtual SEOUL” available for all online meetings free of charge.

The second event trend in the post-COVID-19 era is the increase in the number of hybrid events. Some events that utilized the omnichannel approach were held simultaneously for all users around the world. The annual PCMA convention, where the largest number of MICE industry professionals take part in the United States, chose omnichannel. Having set up the main studio in Singapore, the organizer held the convention in cities around the world, such as Montreal, simultaneously. The event proposed a new hybrid-type convention featuring a session enhanced with hologram technology as well as a virtual networking method for about 20 participants representing each city. 

The third event trend is easier liaison for inviting overseas speakers. The increased number of online events led to increased opportunities to feature overseas speakers, who tend to prefer online events to offline events. 

The fourth event trend is the attempt to increase the attention level required in virtual meetings. Since meeting via Zoom, a virtual meeting platform, became a daily practice, new words like “zoom fatigue” were added to our daily language. Staring at the screen for long hours obviously made people tired. 

Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab, examined the consequences—psychological and physical—of spending hours on such platform. He recommends taking Zoom out of the full-screen option and reducing the size of the Zoom window to minimize face size and to use an external keyboard to allow an increase in the personal space bubble between oneself and the grid would help. New strategies for reducing fatigue during a virtual event included replacing a virtual videoconference with a conference call. How to increase the attention span of participants without fatigue became the keywords related to events in 2021. 
Lastly, the increasing number of MICE businesses has given rise to the need for a new regulation concerning international meetings. Until 2020, a meeting was recognized as international only if it included foreign participants. This problem led to local firms holding hybrid or virtual events to overcome this time of hardship being unable to obtain the official status they needed to receive support funds. Even if selected as a candidate to receive support funds, a firm that might have secured 1,000 Korean participants but not more than 150 foreign participants would be excluded from the financial aid. They stressed that the definition of “an international meeting” must be adjusted, albeit temporarily, making this issue a hot topic. 

We have looked into various event trends in the post-COVID-19 era in Korea and abroad. How is Gyeonggi Province preparing its strategy for events in the post-COVID-19 era? 

In 2020, the Gyeonggi-do Assembly Parliamentary Study Group opened the Gyeonggi Mice Forum where members made a final presentation on the research consignment under the theme “Research on the New Normal Specialized for Gyeonggi MICE in the Post-COVID-19 Era.” Through the research, the Gyeonggi MICE Forum set a goal of establishing strategic measures for Gyeonggi MICE in the post-COVID-19 era and developing contents specializing in MICE per city(Si) and county(Gun) in Gyeonggi Province. 

In addition, within the year, Gyeonggi Province will establish plans to nurture MICE befitting Gyeonggi Province in the mid and long terms for the purpose of developing and nurturing MICE industries over the next five years. On July 29, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office and Gyeonggi Tourism Organization jointly held a meeting to kick off a research consignment to establish plans for nurturing Gyeonggi MICE events in the mid and long terms and to complete the work by November. 

It is highly anticipated how the Gyeonggi MICE industry will have exhibited its competitiveness in synch with the rapidly expanding MICE market thanks to cutting-edge technology.