Sarah Shewey Founder/CEO at Happily posted on Linked-In the following question under the title …Are we just spoiled from the lower budgets of #virtualevents? Where she poses the question s “Covid revenge” pricing a thing? Are you seeing live event vendors charge more to make up for 2020?
For which I replied…
“There is a real “shrinkage” in suppliers… many AV companies shuttered their doors and furloughed techs went to other jobs. Basic tech labor IS going to be short as we come back online and will demand, undiscounted, rates. Same with gear… availability dropped and those that are around have taken loans and grants to still be here today. Naturally the discounts of the past will, largely, disappear. For years the Industry has been experiencing “price slashing” and heavy discounting as competition raged on. Companies like PSAV/Encore and the like were already doing away with big discounts as they trimmed their client portfolios. So I don’t, necessarily, think that there is or will be price gouging… rather an adjustment that will benefit the bottom-line and health of these production companies. Our industry is never going to be the same as before… Many companies invested in on-line platforms and server based technology. If you have been following the IT world you will know that these are very serious investments. While we expect that many conferences will return there are, also, many more (bread and butter type) that won’t. I’ve already heard from some financial institutions that now preferer the online version.”
The running survey (for a week now) shows that 63% responded that “Covid revenge pricing is a THING”
33% said no… that pricing is about the same and 4% said that their cost went down.
What are your thoughts regarding the pricing structures that you would expect and why? Given that any hybrid meeting environment will require even higher skilled techs than what was expected with standard meetings.
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