Study shows a thriving event tech landscape amid pandemic

The number of event technology vendors across the world has expanded by 400 per cent in the past year, according to a global mapping study conducted by marketing specialist, Hoosh.

The inaugural study, titled EventTech 800, identifies 832 companies operating in the event technology space across 11 categories, such as Event Marketing Software, Conference Intelligence Software, Event Management Software, Virtual Event Platform, and Audience Response Software.

The number of event technology vendors worldwide has grown by 400 per cent in just 2020 alone

EventTech 800 creator and CEO of Hoosh, Fab Capodicasa, attributed the rapid growth in event technology to the disruption of in-person events throughout the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting need to engage audiences virtually.

“I’ve been following this space closely during Covid-19 but was still shocked by the sheer number of vendors that have emerged”, remarked Capodicasa, who added event software startups are booming, far outpacing consolidation of larger, established players.

EventTech 800 features startups such as Hopin, Airmeet and Swapcard as well as established heavyweights such as Cvent, Aventri, ON24 and Bizzabo.

Capodicasa told TTGmice that both the growing presence of new vendors and the consolidation of established players would ultimately benefit event planners and event attendees.

He explained: “In SaaS (Software as a service), as platforms eat up others and get bigger, more apps are created to take advantage of the ecosystems those platforms create. Big platforms like this, and even push for it, because the platform with the biggest ecosystem of apps wins.

“What this means for event planners is fewer choices in platforms but more specialised apps. The selection of specialised apps can be overwhelming, but it expands the range of the planner’s capabilities and range of creative possibilities. And that results in variety and flavour of experiences for the user; otherwise, the user would experience the same (at events) too often.”

Hoosh will continue to track the event technology landscape and publish EventTech 800 quarterly for now. The study may be produced bi-biannual or yearly when the sector stabilises.

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