The Potential of Virtual Events to Become One of the "New Normal" Activities

Many things have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. One of them is the event-based industry. For activists in this sector, finding ways to adapt to stay relevant is the key to getting through this. Not easy, but tried.

One that has started to adapt in this way is Loket / GoTix. VP of Commercial Counters Mohamad Ario Adimas (Dimas) explained that the condition of staying at home for a long time makes people need entertainment. On the other hand, musicians and the like need to keep working and greet their fans. Finally virtual events become one solution.

"Adaptation to online events is also one of the answers. Through online events, Loket seeks to encourage the event and entertainment industry to stay alive, musicians and event crews can continue to work, and the public can continue to have access to entertainment at various events. which finally triggered Loket to collaborate with event creators in finding the best solution in the midst of this crisis," explained Dimas.

Dimas continued, Elbow provides a special page that can make it easier for event creators to create a virtual event. Loket also claims to have innovated by combining ticket management system services with video streaming, so starting from planning, organizing, producing, to communicating with the audience in the form of a website or what is known as a website. virtual venues.

"[We] apply the analogy as ticket in offline events. Ticket sales and distribution are also made exclusively, where one URL link can only be used on onedevice consumer. This is one way for the eventcreator still get the appreciation they deserve for what they do," added Dimas.

Goers also made a similar adaptation. With service Goers Experience Manager (GEM), they are trying to adapt to the changing pattern of events as it is today.

GEM was officially launched by Goers last year. The goal is to provide an experience for event owners and users who want to join the event. Now, in the midst of a pandemic situation, GEM is one of the important services that can help organize online events.

"Goers Experience Manager is a platform for experience creators to make experience, digitizing ticket sales online and offline, and connecting with more than 450 thousand Goers users," said Goers Co-Founder and COO Niki Tsuraya Yaumi.

He added, through GEM, event owners are provided with various features for event management, ranging from: email blasts, reports and settlement, URL customization, to the use of voucher codes.

Virtual events are one of them new normal

Online or virtual events have started to get crowded since the pandemic forced all offline activities to be canceled and the government urges people to stay at home. Various forms of activities are held, ranging from music concerts, workshops or training, webinars, and the like.

Dimas believes that in the future online events will become new normal which continues to be in demand even if this pandemic ends. He reflected on the surge in the creation of online events at the counter. So far there 2.000 events in the last one month, including online concerts that managed to sell up to 5000 tickets.

"The numbers are quite high for online event ticket sales in Indonesia. In the future, we are committed to continuing to strive to launch new innovations for the event and entertainment industry, and will continue to actively contribute. Loket hopes that eventcreator and the audience can maximize the features of this online event and make it a solution to stay productive," explained Dimas.

Niki said the same thing. He considered that even if the pandemic was over, technological developments and the habit of doing things from other places flexibly would make online events continue to grow and still have fans. there GEM take a position as a platform that makes it easy for event makers.

"Offline events are limited by distance and time, while online events are not. We see the future online event very sunny. As a comparison, some of our partners have experienced an increase in the number of participants by 50% due to holding events online," added Niki.

Although it can't 100% replace in-person event experience, online hosting will be one of the options for organizing events at this time. The flexibility offered in it is the main attraction for the audience. The biggest scourge today, especially in Indonesia, is the stability of the internet network and the availability of infrastructure nationally.