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Pop culture event series rebrand has new content focus

Strong focus has been placed on the creation of high-quality journalism content as a pop culture event series rebranded its virtual realm this week.

ReedPop has introduced Popverse, formerly known as Metaverse, as it sets out to bring in more staff to its editorial teams. The aim? To help grow its community through content.

Also in the event industry news this week we’ve seen a report show in-person attendance is more favourable than ever, while Cop26 president Alok Sharma returned to Glasgow to mark six months from the UN convention. Here’s everything you’ll find this week:

  • Pup culture series rebrand puts focus on content
  • Live attendance ‘most favourable ever’
  • Sustainability back on the agenda with Cop26 reminder
  • IEG exceeds expectations with €38m first quarter
  • Convention events booming in Brisbane

Pop culture series rebrand puts focus on content

A major pop culture event series has rebranded its virtual realm and placed new focus on content as it looks to grow its community.

ReedPop, from RX, is doubling down on journalism with a series of strategic new hires to grow its editorial team as it introduces Popverse.

Formerly known as the Metaverse, the rebranded platform is a new home where fans can stay up to date on their favourite fandoms and discover new ones.

Chris Arrant, Popverse editor-in-chief, said: “There is a true appetite within the pop culture community to connect beyond the live events that ReedPop puts on every year.

“With Popverse, we have brought together some of the best comics and pop culture journalists to bring our fanbase engaging, unique content to help them interact with their fandom communities every day.”

Content is one of the Three Cs needed to grow an engaged 365 Community around your events, the others being commerce and connections.

It is where an organisation can make its value proposition real every day, with new useful publications to engage an industry. 

This what keeps social media channels active and engaging, what makes email newsletters get opened and what starts to pull in new audiences through search engines.

Download your free copy of the Community Blueprint for a complete guide on building your own 365 business model.

Content at launch will of Popverse includes convention coverage, how-to and shopping guides as well as deepdives into popular fandoms.

The platform will also premiere a three-part video series called Hall Pass, featuring 5-minute videos that take viewers directly onto the New York Comic Con show floor with lively personalities, energetic games and interviews with the casts.

Live attendance ‘most favourable ever’

Attending events in-person is now the “most favourable it’s ever been”, according to a new study.

Findings from the latest MPI Meetings Outlook show 85% of respondents put live as their preferred option, while virtual saw a drop from 32% to 26%.

A majority also believe in-person attendance will increase more than 10% over the next year

Terry Cunningham, MPI Toronto Chapter, said: “Everyone is talking about wanting to be in person and making demands of associations to host in person, but I still think there is a hesitancy.”

Meanwhile, projected business conditions over the next year show the second-highest “favourable” result n the history of Meetings Outlook — only slightly surpassed by summer 2021 results.

The majority of respondents anticipate business will be more than 10% better in the coming year.

Sustainability back on agenda with Cop26 reminder

The president of Cop26 has warned world leaders that failure to honour commitments made at the conference would be an “act of monstrous self-harm”. 

Alok Sharma MP hosted the show at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow to mark six months since the UN’s sustainability gathering.

He was joined by representatives from business, civil society and young people in Scotland as he set out his vision for the second half of the UK’s Cop presidency.

Alok said: “Every country must respond to the call to revisit and strengthen their nationally determined contribution and they must do so in 2022.

“The Glasgow Climate Pact calls on countries to look again at their NDCs, not at some vague point in the future, but this year, in 2022.”

He added it would be an “act of monstrous self-harm” if world leaders failed to honour commitments made at Cop26 in November. 

 Meanwhile our industry is also well aware of the importance of reshaping to this model. That’s why a scheme has been launched with the aim of moving the sector towards net zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

The Net Zero Carbon Events initiative – hosted by the Joint Meetings Industry Council – was delivered at Cop26 and hopes to bring together a wide range of industry stakeholders to tackle the issue.

IEG exceeds expectations with €38m first quarter

Italian Exhibition Group hopes “darkest period” of pandemic is over as first quarter exceeds revenue expectation.

The €38 million figure marks an increase of more than €35m compared with the first three months of 2021, when the industry faced lockdown challenges.

This latest announcement comes after IEG’s board of directors approved an interim management report that exceeded expectations.

Corrado Peraboni, CEO of IEG, said: “The participation recorded during the events of this first quarter and the results achieved, both in terms of volume and in maintaining the pricing applied, suggest that we can put the darkest period of this pandemic, which dealt a severe blow to trade shows all over the world, behind us.

“In March, we organised international trade fairs of primary importance for the Group, such as Vicenzaoro and Sigep, standard-bearers of Made in Italy in the world for jewellery and food respectively. The figures show that we were able to look beyond in order to achieve our objectives and further growth.”

Convention events booming in Brisbane

A major venue in Australia has returned to convention levels not seen in more than two years, according to new figures.

The Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre is set to host 16 conventions during the four weeks of May – including two internationals with the remaining, national and state events – the highest number held over a four-week period since 2019.

Most of the conventions are related to key scientific, medical and healthcare sectors including leukaemia research, critical care, cardiovascular genetics and nuclear medicine.

Bob O’Keeffe, BCEC general manager, said: “As the very first convention centre in Australia to reopen during Covid-19, we have had time to adapt and integrate efficiency measures into our operations, but there are still challenges and we need to remain flexible. 

“Staffing across the industry remains a concern, but a major recruitment drive delivered very positive results and we are pleased to see many new staff members join our ASM Global family.”

The centre will play host to 100 events in total during the month and expects to see 43,000 patrons through the doors.

It is a trend which is set to continue with 14 conferences in June along with five exhibitions and a host of corporate meetings and functions.

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