The COVID-19 Pandemic Has Damaged the Events Industry. But Opportunities Arise from the Darkest Moments
There’s no denying the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the events industry — whether it be concert venues, conference centers, or sports arenas.
In fact, 96% of live event professionals have reported cancelling events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A large portion even believe the pandemic will continue to negatively impact their business for years to come.
Indeed, COVID-19 has impacted almost all aspects of life. Yet even in a crisis, opportunity arises. In our personal lives, the pandemic may have motivated us to rethink what we want out of our lives, and to live more intently. It may have helped you make a career change you’ve always wanted, or go back to school.
Within the events industry, the pandemic has presented a similar opportunity. We now have an opportunity to rebuild the events ecosystem so that it drives innovations, distributes value fairly, protects content creators appropriately, and ensures everything from financing to ticketing is efficient.
This is why we created Backstage — the crypto revolution in the event industry. We aim to solve the challenges in the events industry with our blockchain ecosystem and fluid cryptocurrency.
Impact of Covid on the events industry
COVID-19 has had a deep impact on global events across different sectors, such as culture, trade, and sports. In 2020, the pandemic did the most economic damage, causing the world economy to shrink by 3.4% (or $2.87 trillion less in economic output).
Yet the most impacted sector has been the events and entertainment industries. The virus has especially impacted event owners, entrepreneurs and organizers, as well as performers and attendees. The restrictions imposed due to the pandemic have also impacted private events, like weddings, exhibitions, conferences and so on.
The pandemic continues, and we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. The good news is we are returning to a new normal. People are once again attending shows, concerts, plays, sports games and more.
For us at Backstage, this presents a significant opportunity.
First, the events industry remains large — with plenty of room for growth post-pandemic. According to research, the event industry size was $1.135 trillion in 2019 and was expected to reach $1.553 trillion by 2028, a compound growth rate of 11.2%.
Note that events include conferences and exhibitions, corporate events and seminars, promotions and fundraisers, music and art performances, sports competitions, festivals, trade shows, and product launches.
A current issue is the lack of a unified ecosystem. Therefore, a solution like Backstage, which brings event finance, payments, intellectual property, ticketing and more onto the blockchain, has tremendous potential.
Second, after any recession, there’s the opportunity to build anew. Previously, the events industry had allowed too much control to large corporations, like Ticketmaster (darn those Ticketmaster fees!).
We need a solution that takes the industry towards a better future. Backstage can solve long-standing issues with the events industry, like ticketing fees and financing sources. With the generation of BKS tokens, Backstage founders will provide the event industry with technologies devoted to financing and digitizing the industry.
We’re happy to see that the events industry seems ready for a crypto solution. See our post on the arrival of crypto to sports.
How blockchain technology can help rebuild the events industry
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the events industry has numerous core issues, including:
- A low level of digitization and innovation
- A lack of financing options in the capital market
- Counterfeit tickets (5+ million fake tickets are sold each year)
- A lack of a unified ecosystem/platform (which leads to inefficiencies)
- Artists don’t get fair value for their work due to piracy, agency fees, unfair production company contracts, etc
For a long time, entrepreneurs in the events industry have been searching for solutions to these problems. In 2011, for instance, Forrester Research analysts claimed that digital music would fail if nothing was done about the current landscape and piracy. By the time the pandemic had hit in 2020, these issues were just as prevalent as they were at the dawn of the internet.
As the events industry gets back to full operation post-pandemic, we now have a unique opportunity: We can rebuild the industry in a better way.
Projects like Backstage can solve the issues mentioned above.
1. Digitization
Backstage can bring the events industry together on the blockchain and set the industry up for the 21st century and beyond. Think about the efficiencies a blockchain ecosystem creates. As Don and Alex Tapscott write, “The blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of economic transactions that can be programmed to record not just financial transactions but virtually everything of value.”
2. Financing
BKS can be a financing vehicle for artists, event venues, entrepreneurs, etc. COVID-19 hurt financing for many companies, as lenders and investors stayed away from companies that depended on in-person events. Now, it’s time to adopt a blockchain-based financing system that’s transparent, trustless, and efficient. No longer should festival operators or musicians have to knock on bank doors for capital. They can raise BKS tokens to launch their event!
3. Ticketing
Leveraging NFT technology, Backstage can help put an end to counterfeit ticketing. Each NFT is unique, non-interchangeable, and verifiable just like fingerprints. The lack of interchangeability (fungibility) makes counterfeit tickets impossible. Plus, event operators won’t have to charge ticket fees, as they won’t have to rely on legacy players like Ticketmaster, who charge fees that equal an average of 27% of the ticket price. All they have to do is integrate the Backstage NFT platform into their ticketing process.
4. Unification
Everything can be achieved within the Backstage blockchain. For example, your customers could use BKS tokens everywhere they go, whether you’re holding a virtual conference in the metaverse or a music festival in Miami. You don’t have to worry about different currencies and payment systems, as it all can be handled on one digital platform.
5. Fair Value
The events and entertainment players reward the monopolists now. Even if a young creator manages to make it big, chances are YouTube, Spotify, or another platform is taking more than their fair share. We need a system that rewards people for what they are worth. Through Backstage’s blockchain ecosystem and NFT marketplace, creators, like musicians, artists, and comedians, can finally get rewarded fairly for their work. The Backstage NFT Platform enables content creators to immortalize their content and productions as NFTs. In this way, musicians, producers, creators of any content of interest can rapidly monetize on their talent within the events ecosystem.
Backstage: The way forward for the events industry
Whether an artist wants to create an NFT collection or a club owner wants a streamlined payments system, Backstage is the answer. We aim to provide a comprehensive platform for the events industry — one that not only helps the sector capitalize on growth opportunities, but also enables all of us to move forward in a way that’s most fair, efficient, profitable and sustainable.
COVID-19 has been devastating for all of us, personally and professionally. But out of these dark moments emerges an opportunity — a chance to rebuild.
Backstage is bringing everyone in the industry together to do just that.
It’s time for the crypto revolution in the event industry.
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