MEET THE ROCKSTARS OF CONVENTA CROSSOVER 2021
Every year, Conventa Crossover invites world-renowned meeting planners, marketers, entrepreneurs, and creatives to share their knowledge in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This year won’t be any different – inspiring individuals who have helped co-create and transform the meetings industry will come together from 26 to 27 August 2021. At the same time, we will be opening the stage to a new generation of young and talented meeting planners and marketers. You will learn from keynote speakers who have successfully transformed their events and are recognized as the pioneers of our new reality.
Joining the 6th Conventa Crossover conference is Nika Močnik, Founder & CEO of Eventnika. Before you meet her at Conventa Crossover 2021, we wanted to hear her thoughts on the future of the meetings industry and see what surprises she has in store for us.
Interview with Nika Močnik
Q: What do you think about the theme of this year’s Crossover – The Meetings Industry AC/BC (After Corona/Before Corona)?
If I compare the event industry in 2019 and in 2021, I see a big difference. The meeting industry has drastically changed and will never be the same, so AC/BC is a very funny title of a true story – nobody in the modern world will take in-person events and mingling for granted ever again.
Q: What is your forecast for the meetings industry in the coming year (2022) and beyond?
virtual and hybrid events are the future
2020 has changed the entire industry and it is impossible to precisely predict where the trends are heading (we also couldn’t foresee the effects that Corona will have on the entire world).
What I have discovered in the past few months is that virtual and hybrid events are the future. They became our heroes in the times when almost everything else stopped and showed us a new virtual event reality. But that doesn’t mean that in-person events will disappear. People found out how important networking and mingling are and that nothing can replace in-person experience.
Q: How do you envision agility and innovation in overcoming the corona crisis? Can you share some examples of best practices?
Our company couldn’t organize more than 90% of planned events in 2020 (in person events). Since we are a small team, we managed to switch to online/virtual events very quickly. If we weren’t agile, we couldn’t survive this crisis. I am really grateful to be working with such an amazing and creative team, which hasn’t stopped thinking of solutions rather than the problem. Since the meeting industry was greatly impacted by this crisis, companies that weren’t innovative didn’t make it to 2021.
Q: How would you comment on the following statement? “Corona crisis has shown the need to organise events that are responsible to the environment, the participants and the community as a whole”
I believe that events should have a big impact on the hearts of people, not on the environment or on the safety of the participants and the communities. That is why I believe that virtual events have helped us achieve our goals without endangering other people.
This new reality brought also some favorable discoveries. Lots of companies realised that some types of events can be done in a virtual or hybrid format and therefore have a much smaller carbon footprint. I still believe that some types of events can not be done virtually (e.g. wedding), but streaming a wedding to relatives in remote locations can be a great solution for connecting a family through long distances.
Furthermore, my opinion is that in person events do have a big environmental imprint, mostly due to travel (speakers, participants), food and drinks (specially single use bottles or coffee mugs) and promotional materials (that usually end up in the trash). One possible solution that has become prevalent in current times was organizing an online/virtual or hybrid event (having at least some participants online), using recyclable materials and online promotional material.
Q: What will you surprise us with at this year’s event?
The title of my speech is “Don’t listen to your clients!” It might sound a bit far-fetched and your instinct is probably telling you that you definitely should listen to your clients. In my presentation, I will reveal who you should really listen to when organizing events.
About Nika
Nika Močnik is the heart and soul of the Eventnika company, who knows what the word top-notch truly means in the world of event management and event planning. Her approach is creative and innovative, while acquiring the eye of an eagle to notice every single detail. When creating an event, she puts the participant in the first and most important position, whether the event is offline or online. While building trustworthy relationships with clients, she knows that flawless execution is the only thing that matters at the end of the day.
