Survey of 201 corporate advertising and promotion personnel on their attitudes toward holding seminars in a teleworking environment

In response to the movement to ease restrictions on going out, more than 6% intend to move their seminars back from online to face-to-face.

As the 20th installment of its original advertising survey and research report, XICA Co., Ltd. has conducted a survey of 201 corporate advertising and promotion personnel to find out their attitudes toward holding seminars in a teleworking environment, and is now announcing the results.

Investigation background

Recently, as an increasing number of companies have adopted teleworking in response to the spread of COVID-19, there has been a growing trend to hold marketing initiatives, such as seminars, online, which were previously conducted in a face-to-face format with participants gathering at a venue.

On the other hand, following the gradual relaxation of the government's request to refrain from going out, there are some moves to return online seminars to being held in a face-to-face format, and it is likely that corporate advertising and promotion personnel are faced with a difficult decision as to whether to continue holding seminars online or return to face-to-face format.

In this survey, we asked 201 corporate advertising and promotion personnel whether they intend to hold seminars online or in person in the future, taking into consideration the current social situation, and also about the reasons and challenges they faced for choosing each format.

Survey results summary

• As a result of the spread of COVID-7, approximately XNUMX% of seminars have been moved online.
• However, in light of the gradual relaxation of restrictions on going out, more than 6% intend to return to holding seminars in person.
• As a reason for returning to face-to-face meetings, more than half of respondents cited "difficulty in interacting with participants" when holding online events.
• On the other hand, among those who plan to continue holding events online, many cited the disadvantages of holding events in person, such as concerns about the risk of infection with COVID-19, as a reason for continuing to hold events online, rather than the advantages of holding events online.

Summary of survey results

1. Approximately 7% of seminars are now online due to the impact of COVID-XNUMX

As people are being discouraged from going out and working remotely becomes more common due to the impact of COVID-19, we conducted a survey on the measures taken to hold our own seminars, and obtained the following results.

Only a very small number of people (1.0%) took no special measures and "held all seminars in person," while almost all (98.9%) advertising and promotion personnel changed the policy for holding their company's seminars in response to the spread of COVID-XNUMX.

As for changes to their seminar policies, 31.3% of respondents said they had "cancelled all seminars (3%)," while 36.8% said they had "held all seminars online (30.8%)" or "held some seminars online (7%)," meaning that roughly 67.6% (XNUMX%) of respondents had moved their company's seminars online.

*Seminars also include events held by our company, such as conferences and workshops.
* "Held face-to-face" refers to the typical format of seminars and events in which participants physically attend in a conference room or lecture hall.

2. With the easing of restrictions on going out, more than 6% intend to return to holding seminars in person

We surveyed respondents who answered in question 1 that they had changed some or all of their company seminars to be held online about their intentions regarding future seminar holding policies in light of circumstances such as the gradual easing of restrictions on going out, and obtained the following results.

The most common answer, roughly half, was that online seminars should be "partially returned to in-person events (50.7%)." Combined with those who answered "all returned to in-person events (14.7%)," more than 6% of people intend to return online seminars to in-person events, while less than 27.2% intend to "continue to be held entirely online (3%)."

3. The reason for returning to face-to-face meetings is the difficulty of interacting with participants online

Among those who answered in question 2 that they would return some or all of their online seminars to face-to-face meetings, we surveyed them about the challenges of holding seminars online that would lead to them returning to face-to-face meetings, and obtained the following results.

When asked about the challenges of holding seminars online, more than half of the respondents chose "difficulty in communicating with participants (57.3%)" and "difficulty in building relationships with participants (50.6%)." These results suggest that many people intend to return to holding seminars in person due to the difficulty of interacting with participants when holding seminars online.

4. Reason for continuing to hold events online is concern about disadvantages of holding events in person

In question 2, we asked respondents who answered that they would continue to hold all online seminars in the future about their reasons for continuing to hold seminars online, and obtained the following results.

Responses were concentrated around concerns about holding face-to-face events, such as "It will be difficult to attract attendees if we hold face-to-face events due to concerns about the risk of infection (75.7%)," "We cannot completely eliminate the risk of infection at our company's seminars (62.2%)," and "Holding face-to-face events when the infection has not yet been contained is likely to have a negative impact on the company's image (59.5%)." This suggests that many people intend to continue holding online events because they are considering the disadvantages of holding face-to-face events outweigh the benefits of doing so online.

Survey overview