The Present & Future of Events Industry with Jason Allan Scott

The events industry is evolving at an unprecedented rate-and for good reason. The use of virtual and hybrid events has gained traction in 2022 due to their growing popularity. These trends have fueled investment dollars from industry giants into further improving these technologies to provide a better user experience for physical attendees, virtual audiences, and planners alike.

Today, event attendees expect better production standards and more engaging technology to make their time and money worth it.

To stay at the forefront of the industry, event planners must understand what’s changed and be prepared to implement these changes, as event ROI is increasingly dependent on engaging attendees.

10times asked Jason Allan Scott, Founder, KOPUS to share his expert viewpoints about event technology, event marketing, and the trends shaping the events industry right now.

Additionally, he discussed how young professionals can start building their personal brands.

About Jason

Jason Allan Scott is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and best-selling author. Scott has been described as a top influencer on the web by a variety of media outlets and social media platforms, including Amazon. Double Dutch named him one of the top Event Professionals in the world.

With his experience in events, sales, and online marketing, Scott helped brands such as ILEA UK, Arsenal FC, Fulham University, Small Business UK, Google, Canvas Planner, TFN, The Marketing Society, BBC, Marvel, Asemblr, WB, Interguide and Holmes Place grow their businesses.

Scott has spoken at more than 210 conferences, events, and companies around the world. His company, apodcastcompany.com, also helps people with podcasts for their businesses, and he is focusing on helping the struggling hospitality industry with Kopus.

• How would you describe your professional journey to us? 

I am an entrepreneur from Cape Town, South Africa who grew up in a council house in front of Albow Gardens, in Cape Town. I was in pursuit of a life beyond what was on offer in post-apartheid South Africa and came to the UK twenty years ago after starting and selling a swimming school in Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite overcoming many personal challenges including nearly dying from a gunshot wound as a child and living with an auto-immune condition as an adult. I have worked in events for over a decade helping spaces make money from their space by offering places to meet, create and celebrate. I also started a podcast talking about my career as a founder of people first companies, in 2015 I won the top 100 best businesses in the UK and was invited to Number10 downing street. 

Since then I have built and sold two podcast shows as well as written over 50 business books for the world’s second-biggest ebook publisher in the world, BookBoon. 

Named on platforms such as The Guardian, Eventbrite, Haymarket Media and Marketing Weekly Scott is penned as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in Events. 

• What first attracted you to event technology?

As a venue salesperson, owner, and events manager I suffered to get more eyes on my venue, I struggled with time management to show potential clients around my spaces and how to decide who to rent to as space is a perishable good and I could not afford to lose a date. It was technology that came to help, it was technology that made taking books easier, registrations, and then events themselves. 

• Could you share the most amazing achievements and major milestones in your career?

The most amazing milestone was my first time being nominated for the top 100 most influential people in events for making over a million in 12 months for The Penthouse London, the second was being featured as one of the UK’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs in Events for Eventbrite. Although these were major milestones in my career, I felt a major achievement every time I sold a space, made a memory for a client, or made revenue for a venue owner or landlord.

• What tips do you have to help young professionals to develop their personal brand – how can they get started?

Your personal brand is more than your occupation. Your personal brand is the story of the life you are living and more importantly, telling. Sure, your personal brand should include your profession. But your personal brand is your life resume that follows you forever, even if you decide to start a new venture in a completely new category. Being able to quickly and effectively articulate who you are and what you have to offer is essential to personal branding. 

Take the time to think about your short and long-term goals. What do you want to achieve? What is your motto? What makes you unique? As you go through this process, remember to stay true to yourself. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. This is about what YOU have to offer and what makes you the person that people should work with, or invest in.

By applying Tip #1 you can get a better sense of what unique qualities and expertise you bring to the table.

In defining your mission statement and pitch, you should also consider what can you do better than your competitors and how can you leverage this to appeal to a niche market. One of the most effective and affordable ways to build your brand is through networking. 

The more you reach out to people within your field (and even related fields), the more recognizable your brand will be. By connecting with people, you can build a community that can work as brand ambassadors and helps expand your influence.

Establish Credibility by Focusing on Results and Quantifying Your Success. Building a brand requires investing time and energy into long-term content strategies. You will have to consistently produce high-quality content and push it on social media platforms and other forums in order to gain traction.

Don’t expect to see results overnight and don’t be discouraged if it takes months of hard work before you start reaping significant rewards. Be persistent. Stick to your strategy and you will eventually see your vision becoming a reality. When it comes to social media, consistency is key. Determine which platforms are best for you based on your audience and your content. Then focus on your efforts on regularly posting on these platforms.

For me, it all starts with a podcast and from that, the content goes to LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Pinterest, and YouTube. 

• Where do you see event tech in the future?

The global workforce is undergoing a massive technological shift that many are calling the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” I am proud to be a part of this for www.kopus.com. where we help remote workers, digital nomads, urban digital creatives and freelancers find places to live and work with short rentals, of months, days and hours. 

Where we reward workers for using space and reward buildings with carbon offset credits so everyone wins. 

According to a recent World Economic Forum report, nearly a third of the most important skillsets in 2025 will be comprised of technology skills not yet considered imperative to the job today so future predictions are hard but here are a few: 

NFT’s – It’s hard to ignore the buzz, but there is an opportunity for NFTs and events. As event tech becomes an inseparable aspect of events in general, there’s increasing interest in integrating NFTs into the suite of features that can promote attendee engagement on digital platforms — both during and after events. One of the most talked-about use cases involves providing NFTs as gifts to event attendees.

This application had its mainstream debut during last year’s Oscars, when the Academy partnered with NFT marketplace Rarible, AdVenture Media, Taillard Capital, and Metaversal to present award winners with NFTs for digital artworks. Another possibility is the use of NFTs for ticketing. Companies like Leeway Hertz have branched into offering NFT ticketing protocols, which can be particularly useful for events where fraudulent tickets can cause problems (think high-demand concerts prone to unscrupulous scalpers).

Then there is the metaverse. 

Imagine catching a world-class speaker performance or a niche-specific event with your favourite thought leader right there in your living room. 

This is the possibility of the metaverse! 

In the simplest terms, the metaverse is the internet, but in 3D! 

It’s a form of digital interaction where connected, virtual experiences can either simulate the real world or imagine worlds beyond it.

Many of the metaverse ingredients are with us now – think interacting with lots of people and content made by them, in persistent, immersive worlds across many devices, including virtual reality. The more these components intertwine, the closer we get to a fuller version of the metaverse! 

• Event marketing and production-wise, what are the most important necessities for pulling off a stellar virtual, hybrid or in-person event?

• Virtual, Hybrid or in-person events all need the same necessities:
• Understand the objective of the event.
• Know Your Audience. 
• Know Your Timings.
• Draft a plan and follow the timeline.
• Create content that attracts your target audience.
• Design the event message you want to share.
• Have a lead capture mechanism.
• What is the Content
• What is the community communications plans
• How will you know if the event is a success? 

There are a few elements extra perhaps that are important for virtual and hybrid: 

• Platform. We could say this is the most important point, choose wisely. 
• Technology. If we talk about technology, we must consider both presential and virtual parts. Do your homework. 
• Registration Plan for both
• Hybrid Event Room. 
• How are you Networking online? 

• Your message to the industry?

Just as the Internet of Things (IoT) is gradually creating a more digitally-centric, connected society, Web 3.0 is removing any lingering complexity from the web and making it more accessible for a greater number of people and working with greater numbers of people is what event professionals do best so this is a great time for us. 

We’re in the early stages of some forms of Web 3.0 technology, but if you’ve conducted a search on Google today and used natural language to find an answer to your question, you have already experienced the benefits of this next chapter in the story of the World Wide Web. 

Web3 has the potential to unlock a more valuable internet for everyone. New companies can build on Web3 infrastructure to create communities around their brands and product concepts much more easily than in previous iterations of the web. And even established platforms can leverage these forces by plugging into blockchain-based content networks and giving their users some ownership over their data. 

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose, so I hope everyone takes the time now to learn about the opportunities of web3 for their work and lives. Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time we’ve got! The key is in not spending time, but in investing it. 

Our sincere appreciation goes out to Jason for sharing his unique viewpoints about the present and future of the events industry with us

For more in the Events Industry Experts series, check out our interview with Brandt Krueger, Corbin Ball, Will Curran, and Stephan Murtagh today!

Are you interested in sharing your insights or viewpoints with the events industry? Join the Eva Talk.