Obviously, no one knows the answer to those questions except for the first one. It is evident that in-person events will never go away. Yes, they will go through cycles and events that don’t remain relevant will struggle or go away but nothing can replace the handshake and the in-person relationship building–not the online communication and interaction of a virtual event, not the virtual business card exchange (who made that up?), not the online chat room networking, nothing–it is just not personal enough and does not build a relationship in the same way.

In my opinion virtual events are great lead generation tools for sponsors and great educational programs for people who can’t attend in-person events, but I see them as really just the next generation of webcasting. So, if they have the opportunity to replace anything it will be the traditional webcast and not the in-person event. I can be contacted at djenkins22@comcast.net.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/derekjenkins