Is it just me, or does everyone else find themselves challenged to describe this past year? Looking back, it’s hard to believe everything that changed in the world in 2024, all of which directly impacted our event industry.
Event professionals are no strangers to solving challenges, and this past year proved that whatever is thrown at us, we will always find our way and thrive. These are the 5 themes that most shaped the speaking industry in 2024.
1. DE&I
The groundwork for the changes impacting DE&I programs started in 2023 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn affirmative action. The ripple effect of this decision began impacting students attending universities, then caused public universities around the country to reinvent or remove their DE&I departments. Additionally, the private sector began taking note in 2023 when several large corporations were sued over diversity-related hiring practices, and the backlash continued into the 2024 election cycle, making this topic one of the most discussed in the media in 2024.
Unlike the past few years, event organizers reconsidered whether to book speakers on this topic in 2024. As a result, speakers who primarily focused on DE&I topics in recent years found themselves reinventing their messaging and adjusting their topics to include broader themes like belonging and acceptance, focusing more on the end result of successful DE&I efforts rather than awareness of the issues involved.
2. Politics
Scholars and students of political history will have a lot to talk about for years to come following the political rollercoaster that was 2024. In an unprecedented change in events, a sitting president running for re-election decides to drop out of the race with nearly 100 days until the national election. A past president runs for re-election and wins after being defeated by the current president four years ago. Mix in some scandals, convictions, and pardons, and it reads like a future Netflix hit.
This presented some interesting trends in the speaking industry. We saw upticks in requests for political experts on both sides of the debate, conservative and liberal, as well as bookings for bipartisan pairs of commentators who could debate the key issues on stage together. For other organizations, they chose to avoid the political topic altogether, focusing instead on uniting audiences and organizations.
The next four years are likely to bring even more changing legal precedents and economic trends to discuss. We and the event organizers we support will all be watching very closely.
3. Technology
If 2023 was the year that artificial intelligence became mainstream, then 2024 was the year that organizations focused on how to implement it to benefit their processes and efficiencies. With over ⅔ of event organizers planning to use generative AI in 2024, adoption within our event industry has seemingly been overwhelmingly positive. Similarly, LLM tools have continued to improve and help all of us work more efficiently.
For speaking topics, we did see more speakers and requests around the implementation of AI within industries like finance and healthcare. As organizations began creating their own internally-trained AI tools, the issue of intellectual property and uncovering how LLMs are trained using existing online information became one for the courts and for the event stage.
AI is changing how event organizers find information about potential speakers online. AI overviews now appear on Google and Bing, and AI tools now offer free search capabilities themselves. This might be a great place to start generating ideas, but for most busy event pros, it will not replace the customized recommendations and personalized logistics support that only a speakers bureau can give. As technology dominates our world, the desire for human interaction and experience will continue to grow, too.
4. Olympics
If you are anything like me, you were completely glued to the 4-hour-long opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. While not without controversy, the opening ceremony provided some of the most innovative design and celebrity star-power of any games in recent memory.
The summer Olympic and Paralympic games brought us some memorable moments featuring world-class athletes, many of whom are also available for speaking events and corporate appearances. For a few weeks in a year that was filled with divisiveness and uncertainty, the Olympic Games brought the entire world together and showed us the impactful power of sport.
5. Transformation
In 2024, organizations embraced the need to change and evolve to remain competitive and profitable. Facing uncertain economic factors and rising production costs, companies and universities find themselves looking for ways to drive innovation, resilience, and efficiencies. Whether that is through technology and AI, or through evolving brand and corporate culture, the importance of people to make all of these things happen can not be underestimated.
It’s often been said that we are on the verge of our next technological revolution, the last of which was the birth of the internet. As someone who remembers what it was like before the World Wide Web, one thing is for sure: we have absolutely no idea exactly where this latest wave of technology can take us. The reality is that we are all in uncharted territory, and that is what makes change and transformation exciting to watch. Organizations who provide the opportunity and tools to empower their employees to grow alongside technology will be the most successful at retention and employee satisfaction, because these tools are nowhere ready to be operated without human intervention and expertise.
This year was nothing short of a transformative year for our world. Whether talking about the challenges of our world abroad to the topics like the economy and immigration rights in the U.S., one trend is expected to continue: speakers who unite audiences with messages of inspiration and hope will continue to be in high demand.
What’s ahead in 2025? We expect to see the need for unification and healing after a year of so much division. How that translates into the event world is ultimately up to our hard-working event and meeting planning audience. As they define themes, goals and experiences for events in 2025, we will be standing by to make sure their audiences hear what they have to say.