B2B Metaverse, Hybrid & Digital B2B Expo, B2B matchmaking & Networking platform ,New digital customer experiences

1. Behavior of participants in B2B virtual events
Since the Covid pandemic started in 2020, the world has been forced to
reinvent and to adapt itself to the new reality and keep moving forward.
Digitization or virtualization is at the heart of this change as it was no longer
possible to travel and meet like before. Many fields have been, and are
affected,in particular the events,where most of them have migrated online,
fully or partially, and with more or less success. This ranges from simple
webinars to Virtual Exhibitions, the most advanced ones offer 2D and 3D
navigation, advanced networking functions, live or pre-recorded multi-
language conferences, etc. [1]. From these online events, experts observed
clear differences in the behaviors of participants, both visitors and exhibitors,
when these events migrate from a traditional exhibition hall to their online
counterpart.
In this article, we will share these findings, their analysis, as well as solutions to
adapt to this new reality and leverage them to make online events more
successful.
Findings

2. The organizers are unanimous on the following phenomena:
1) Very often, the number of participants present at online events isfar below
those registered, despite the reminders by email before the events, and after
the first day, there is an erosion on the following ones.
2) Additionally, when visitors (actually e-visitors) attend, they tend to stay at
the on-line events for a short time only.
Looking closely, these phenomenaactually come from the fundamental
difference between the on-line version and the traditional off-line version,
since:
1) the participants, both the e-visitor and the e-exhibitor, are not physically in
the same place
2) Their time is fragmented.
Why?
1) E-visitor: he is in front of his screen (computer, e-pad or smartphone), at
home or sometimes at the office. As he is not physically present at the event
venue, he doesn’t need to care about the return on investment of the physical
trips he did before, thus not obliged to devote 100% of his time to visit booths
and conferences.
Also, working at the office or at home, he often receives other solicitations to
which he must or wants to satisfy immediately (calls from customers, urgent
emails from colleagues, crying children, interesting TV programs, etc.), leaving
temporarily the event or online conference he was following. He will come
back to it (or not) depending on the situation.
This fragmentation of his time, and therefore of his activities, greatly impacts
the level of activity of virtual events.
2) E-exhibitor: like e-visitor, he is in front of his screen, and not required to be
physically present at his booth as in a traditional event.
Like the e-visitor, he also receives a lot of external solicitations and tends to
respond spontaneously, while waiting for the notification of the e-visit of his
booth,for which he must enter in communication with the e-visitor if the latter

3. wishes to communicate with a representative of the online booth. After that he
will go back to what he was doing before the interrupt, and before the next
visit notification. This lack of concentration also reduces the effectiveness of
online events.
What are the alternatives to reduce these impacts?
The answer to this question is all the more interesting as variants of the Covid
continuously impact us, speeding up the digitalization in different fields. As a
result, online events have become a common and increasingly important
solution. [2]
For us, improvements will need to come from both sides, the event platform
and the participants.
First, we believe that on the organizer side, an adaptation of the format of the
events is desirable in order to avoid this phenomenon of erosion of the number
of participants over time. Actually, there is no need to keep traditional events
format, which last 2-4days and with lengthy conferences lasting 1-2 hours.
For the online version, a shorter duration, with more concise conferences of
10-15 minutes with take-aways, and available in replay, will well respond to
this phenomenon of time fragmentation of e-visitors.
Then, offer more networking possibilities, with speed dating and matchmaking
sessions [2], to recommend to e-visitors booths that match their needs and
interests. This will tend to increase the visit time of e-visitors,for the visit of
booths as well as the attendance of conferences, leading to increased activities
of e-exhibitors and increased interactions with speakers, thus improving their
ROI, financial and time spent.
Finally, the choice of the topics of the events will have to match the needs and
challenges of our rapidly changing society, with the accelerated digitization in
different fields, enabling their smart management.More participants will
undoubtedly arouse the interest of e-exhibitors and expert speakers who will
find there a targeted, interested, and therefore valuable audience.

4. We also recommend that e-exhibitors make efforts towards e-visitors, with
games, demos, and animations on their e-booth, be proactive on the chat, etc.
In short, go and seek e-visitors and not wait passively behind their screen. In
fact, it's the same than in a classic event, and virtualization shouldn't change
these good habits!
In this article, we have shared our thoughts and experiences coming from
dozens of virtual events organized on the Must Expo platform
(https://must.link/) and those of our colleagues since 2020. We analyzed the
interesting behaviors of participants, and from there we have redesigned our
events in 2022, more targeted and optimized, with a community that grows
every day, to share knowledge and network with peers within their ecosystem,
and this is precisely the goal of Must !
[1] This is the case of Must, the young French start-up member of French Tech
Paris-Saclay, which offers, thanks to its Artificial Intelligence engine, the
features to connect e-visitors and / or e-exhibitors, for better networking
efficiency and user experience. Must launched its first virtual exhibition in July
2020
[2] « Virtual events, why the hybrid is the solution of the future » published by
Must Experts team at March 2021