Federal Travel Restrictions: Adapting to the New Normal

Three years since the travel restrictions went into effect, federal workers are settling into a new normal around how they meet professional development, training, and networking goals. A recent study by Market Connections looked at the types of content most in demand by government IT buyers and decision makers as well as what is being produced by the vendor community and found some interesting gaps between the two.

What immediately caught our eye was the response to the question, "With the recent budget and travel restrictions in place and the cancelation of events, what are you or others doing to get the information and/or training you previously acquired from events (i.e., trade shows, conferences, seminars)?"  The top two responses from the government officials surveyed were:

• Webinars
• Discussions with co-workers

More interesting was the increase in the responses over the last time this question was asked in 2013.  Webinar attendance jumped from 55% to 73% and discussions with co-workers jumped from 42% to 69%. Discussion with personnel from other agencies and departments also had a large jump from 33% to 50%.

So what does this mean for the government event industry?

If government officials cannot get the budget or approval to attend big events, look at ways to take your content online or take it directly to them.

Webinars68% of government respondents ranked webinars as very valuable content... #GovEventsBlog Click To Tweet

68% of government respondents ranked webinars as "very valuable" content (coming in second only to research reports) while only 38% of contractors reported that webinars were a priority in their marketing plan. This is a pretty significant gap between what government wants and what industry is giving them. Webinars do require a decent amount of time and technology investment to do right, so it's not surprising that they may land on the "too hard" pile for vendors, but given the interest from the buying community, it may be time to revisit marketing priorities.

Brown Bags and On-Site MeetingsIf the government audience can't come to you, go to them. #GovEventsBlog Click To Tweet

If the government audience can't come to you, go to them. If they are relying on peers to get information, why not facilitate some of those conversations? Organizing on-site networking, panel discussions, or round tables can formalize some of these valuable interactions beyond being just water cooler chatter. As a vendor running these events, you can be privy to the discussions and the challenges they talk about. That can impact your future marketing.

For the full report, Federal Content Marketing Review 2015 click here.

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