wine2wine Business Forum data highlights the value of virtual events in 2020
Upon conclusion of the seventh edition of wine2wine Business Forum, participants were asked to fill in a satisfaction survey. Gathered data will help organizers Veronafiere and Vinitaly in improving the event for the 2021 edition and highlighted the success of the virtual format from 2020.
This recent edition of the Forum saw a rise in first-time attendees, with 42,37% of visitors buying a ticket to wine2wine for the first time.
After the close of the 2020 edition of wine2wine Business Forum participants were given the option to gain prolonged access to the session recordings, provided they completed a satisfaction survey. This survey was designed to allow the organizers to gather data that would allow them to improve the event for 2021 based on concrete evidence, thus ensuring the continued success and growth of the forum.
Last 2020 edition of wine2wine Business Forum was held on November 23rd and 24th. Due to the COVID-19 emergency, for the first time, the forum took place as a 100% digital event. Over 140 speakers contributed, coming together to discuss topics such as African wine culture and the connection between wine and hip hop culture. Main themes of this year’s edition were diversity and inclusion, with Veronafiere and Vinitaly giving women and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) speakers the spotlight.
23,38% of wine2wine Business Forum 2021 participants filled in the survey. While the majority of people attending the event came from Italy, it is interesting to note that the Forum also registered an increase in attendees from the United States. The majority of visitors hold managerial positions with 27,35% of attendees being Owner, President or Managing Director of a company. Sales and marketing specialists follow, respectively with a 19,28% and 13,45%.
Wine2wine Business Forum 2021 attracted visitors of three main age groups: 35 to 44 years old (30,26%), followed by 45-54 (28,25%) and 25-34 (21,74%). Word of mouth played an important role in the promotion of the event, with most visitors admitting they had suggested the Forum to their contacts. Professional updates and networking opportunities have been pinpointed as main reasons for participants to attend the event.
This recent edition of the Forum saw a rise in first-time attendees, with 42,37% of visitors buying a ticket to wine2wine for the first time. 43,49% of participants stated their willingness to participate in the next edition, while the general organization of the Forum has been graded 8 over 10 (where 10 is the highest grade).
Overall satisfaction rate related to contents, sessions, and speakers was positive. The majority of respondents stated that the sessions met their level of knowledge. Most participants followed 1 to 10 sessions and nearly 3% followed more than 31.
Drivers in choosing what session to follow have mostly been speakers, trends, and tracks. Most participants enjoyed the new digital format of the event and recommended keeping both the digital and the physical format for next editions too. The VF+ Platform, the program that has been used to stream the event, has been scored 8 out of 10. Among the tools it offered, the most used by visitors were: session streaming, direct messages, video calls and live chats.
What this date shows is that moving the Forum to a virtual event that mirrored as closely as possible the experience a participant would have encountered had the event been in-person, allowed for greater participation, satisfaction and more sessions being viewed than ever. As a result participants were able to gain more from the event, and speakers gained greater visibility; the idea outcome for an edition centered on headlining issues such as diversity, inclusion, allyship and female leadership.