Physical Event Industry Hit by Volcanic Ash: Will the Virtual Event Market Emerge?
As millions of passengers have been stranded by a huge ash cloud spread from an Icelandic volcano toward Europe since Wednesday, April 14, conference cancellations take a heavy toll on the professional event industry. Volcanic ash presents a particular challenge not only to airline passengers, but also to the conference and trade show organizers affected by the plume.
While passengers are stranded at major airports including Frankfurt, London, and Rome, one can’t help but wonder if this natural disaster would spur interest in the virtual event platforms. Unlike their physical counterparts, the virtual events are immune against terror acts, flu pandemics and natural disasters, even one of those disasters could be enough to put to a screeching halt the entire convention industry.
In the estimates made by “Virtual Conference & Trade Show Market Forecast 2010-2015“, a report recently released by Market Research Media, the worldwide virtual conference and trade show market is predicted to reach $18.6 Billion over the period 2010 – 2015.This flourishing market provides a number of growing opportunities for conference and tradeshow organizers, corporate event coordinators and content providers. The worldwide virtual conference market is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56% between the period of 2010 and 2015.
Actually the virtual event technology is already at work to ease up the volcanic ash crisis – EU transport ministers are to hold emergency talks by video conference.
