The National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA) and GL events have released the industry’s first ever White Paper concerned with the future of outdoor events. The Future’s Forum White Paper was created following a meeting involving high profile members of the industry, asked to predict trends that will shape its future.

Areas covered by the paper include the importance of the experience economy in pushing consumers outdoors, and the role of the industry in creating bespoke and tailored event products, across every public demographic, to accommodate this trend. The paper also reports on discussions concerning the increased role of businesses and brands in outdoor events, and the opportunities and threats they represent.

The report represents the beginning of an industry-wide discussion spurred by GL events as NOEA’s first Future’s Sponsor, and the association’s desire to share market information and research that helps the industry plan for its own future. The report touches briefly on both event technology and secondary ticketing, with future discussions planned to delve even deeper into these areas.

“There is an amazing thirst for this sort of discussion and the resulting findings, and we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of engagement we’re getting from the industry at such an early stage,” commented Rachel Baker, UK Group Marketing Manager, GL events. “We see our role in the industry as supporting the associations that are concerned with its development; how we prepare for the future and how we dictate it for ourselves.”

The Future’s Forum will reconvene throughout 2017 and into 2018 where it will address other areas of the industry’s future, from globalisation to the importance of entrepreneurialism, to the role of cities and destinations in accommodating outdoor events.

“The Futures Forum and the new White Paper are all intended to begin a discussion within outdoor events that allows us to get as much information and opinion as possible, and then share it with the rest of the industry,” commented Andy Grove, Interim President, NOEA. “These are important topics that the industry needs to discuss; we’re grateful to GL events for allowing us the resource to have them.”

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To access the report, please visit: www.glevents.co.uk/experience/futures-forum-white-paper/