[Part 2/3] Human experiences: A top 2025 consumer craving, Forbes says

In December 2024, we reflected on how events have changed since COVID-19 brought about a “new normal”. 

Earlier in 2022, Forbes reported that a concerning rate of 59% of people felt their relationship skills had been undone by the coronavirus pandemic. 

In parallel that same year, Allied Analytics LLP published a report singling out the “demand for personalized and immersive experiences [...] with consumers seeking unique and memorable events” as a catalyst to the projected supergrowth of the global events industry.

Precisely, Allied Market Research forcasted a doubling of the market size from $994.7 billion in value in 2022 to over $2 trillion by 2032. 

Three years since this projection, and as Forbes' Senior Contributor Kimberly A. Whitler put it, “more consumers will crave genuine human experiences” in an era where “tech becomes more important”.

Today, it looks like we’ve reached a breaking point in social networking! 

In a timely fashion on 30 December 2024, Rolling Stone published a shocking piece declaring that “Meta seems less and less interested in the social aspects of social media” as the monstrous giant is set “to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no-one asked for”.

One netizen summed up the situation aptly: 

We felt compelled to acknowledge her stance: 

For hosts in the private events space, this crisis is a plus. 

If we're being rational and serious, we all know that technology does not have the capacity to replace humans. It never should and never will. 

What technology will do (continuing its centuries-old track record) is replace people who fail to adapt to innovation by mastering new tech. 

Thankfully, downloading an event app as intuitive as Pay2Stay, signing up to it, testing it, and eventually integrating it in your day-to-day event business activities are easy tasks. 

Nothing stressful like learning how to type or use the internet, decades ago when typewriters and then computers made their way into offices. People got laid off. Some drowned in nostalgia, feeling out of place and useless.

If you’re too young to relate or remember this era, ask seniors around you. They’ll tell you. The digital transformation was rude for millions worldwide.

However, that shouldn't be the case for event hosts in 2025 where the rule of the game is basic.

Simply leverage peer-to-peer technology to respond to one of this year’s key marketing trends: Consumers craving more genuine human experiences.

Event ticket holders are hardly in the mood to queue in long lines (sometimes for hours!). When their turn finally comes, they equally don’t feel good keeping the next person waiting for several minutes because the receptionist can't find their names on the printed guests spreadsheet.

The most dreadful part for a guest, arguably, is getting entangled in embarrassing interactions before or after an event due to inconvenient payment methods or refunds that soon escalate into disputes... Sigh. 

Frankly, when guests RSVP and show up, it’s to get in fast and have a good time. End of!

“There are too many gaps in event operations for organizers of small-to-medium sized exclusive events,” Pay2Stay’s founder, Sascha Koch, remarked in a brief encounter with the team at The Future of Events.

Acknowledging the numerous challenges preventing event hosts from providing exceptional human experiences for attendees, he continued:  

“Building Pay2Stay is my contribution to the industry so that event hosts like me can streamline everything that goes into managing an event. 

“We really need to get to a point where guests are better catered for and where hosts enjoy a far less stressful and far more rewarding process – from the event creation stage to the check-out or payout stage.”

Now, before we wrap this up, the following is an honest question to event hosts out there. 

If an event ticketing app like Pay2Stay exists to:

✅ enhance your guest list management

✅ speed up secure check-ins

✅ and automate instant refunds…

Why would you:

❌ hold on to your pen and paper

❌ potentially lose both funds AND sleep because you can't always trust or control your bouncers

❌ embarrass yourself before difficult guests

❌ put your reputation at stake and what not? 🤔

We would truly love to hear from you in the comments if you’re still a pen and paper person. The same goes if you deal with invites, payments, check-ins, check-outs, refunds and payouts across multiple tools and devices instead of via an all-in-one event app like Pay2Stay.

In 2025, fulfil your guests’ cravings for wonderful human experiences. Cut out whatever eats into your time and theirs. Give them value for money in instances where general admission is not free.

In two words: Choose Pay2Stay.

Watch out for the final part of these mini series observing Forbes’ 2025 marketing trends from the events industry’s POV. Subscribe so you don’t miss it!