Amaechi Uzoigwe - Manager and business partner for Run The Jewels and Songhoy Blues

“The lockdown should have made the music industry realise how large the opportunity is in gaming partnerships.

That audience is so infinitely larger than music can ever hope to be… in audience size, in revenue, all of that. If the music industry doesn’t develop a real gaming strategy that’s more comprehensive and robust and interesting fast, it’s going to lose out. That’s where the audience is. That’s where the money is, and that’s where the youth is."

Lihui Zhang - President of Caixin Media

“An offline event is all about what happened that day, on that spot, among those people. In virtual, we can stretch that period into several days or even weeks. The game changer is good design to increase interaction."

Eddie Kemsley - CEO of Sands Heritage/Dreamland Margate

“We are going to see huge variations on what we can do. Rides and VR will be very tricky, from hygiene to management of queues. So we’ll see adaptation of existing offers and also new styles of entertainment – for example takeaway food, drive-in movies. I suggest people constantly monitor what people are doing around the world. People will think more about how they spend their leisure time. In the medium to long term this will be a huge plus in terms of people’s desire to create memories and experiences. The challenge is to weather the storm over the next 12-18 months.

Look at what was going on already where retail meets leisure. We now have to become more innovative and creative. Take something like [immersive cinema experience]Secret Cinema, which has adapted to Secret Sofa. We have to work harder to come up with multi-sensory experiences for people. I think we’ll also see dynamic pricing – for example high prices at restaurants for Saturday night, cheaper on a Tuesday."

Ted Schilowitz - Futurist for Paramount Pictures

“We are entering the age of what I like to call the 'screenless screen. The next wave of what a screen will be will not look anything like the screens that exist today. It will be a virtual layer on reality that will feel transparent to you. This is not science fiction, this is science reality. It's really happening. We are all going to have a device that is going to get you into the screenless screen within the next few years."

Theo Edmonds - Cultural Futurist

“Sports may be the only place we can come together for a few hours despite political beliefs.

Sporting events make people happy, even if that happiness lasts just for a moment. Combined with the human need for belonging, is what will keep sports and entertainment relatively unchanged post COVID-19.

As simple as they may sound, these create belonging cues that tell us we belong together, that’s important in how society moves forward."

Sean Lane - Director of S (Squared) Creative Projects

“Post COVID-19 I predict further economic downturns which will hit all industries with a roll-on effect in terms of corporate and entertainment budgets for events, sponsorship and marketing. The event companies and agencies that manage to keep their lights on will not only have a smaller pool of work available to pitch for, but will have to be beyond nimble with lower budgets and potentially higher client expectations and greater ROI demanded."

Dennis Shirshikov - Senior Financial Analyst, FitSmallBusiness.com

“But after the crisis, consumer behavior will shift from digital to physical consumption. The relief of multiple states lifting rules on social distancing will lead to a resurgence of in-person consumption. This means theaters, restaurants, shows, rides, and experiences. This is based on the changes consumers went through right after the Spanish flu in the early 20th century, when all types of physical entertainment became so popular that it became known as the Roaring ’20s.

As such, I expect these media companies to get into the business and acquire experiences to service consumers and better compete with established players like Disney and its theme parks. This puts theaters, theme parks, excursions, theaters, and production companies high on the list for future acquisitions."

Andreas Waschk - Chairman, AWC/Explorado Group

“Some of venues which previously were interactive and hands-on have turned what they do into shows, telling the story of a place in a different way. That also means adapting the time – we see formats such as quests, where ‘gratification’ is much shorter. We also see a more local approach, additionally with different values. And a greener future, for example far more cycling in cities and visitors with a deeper meaning for going."

Charles Read - Managing director, BLOOLOOP

“Some changes will be accelerated, such as virtual queuing. Covid is an accelerator, with a huge amount of innovation both indoors and on the operator side. We won’t be going back to what we had before. For example, gamification before arrival, representing a seamless integration. The way people interact will be thought about a lot. Obviously there will be an investment in hygiene. Also, facial recognition, ticketing. People will need to feel totally safe."

Jonathan Doughty - Global head of foodservice, leisure and placemaking, ECE Projektmanagement

“If it’s broken it is not going to be fixed by leisure. Probably 10-15% of space in shopping centres without a leisure offer would benefit from leisure to extend day parts. But so many were never designed for that. Frankly, retail has not been good enough at keeping people engaged. But we mustn’t forget that leisure doesn’t have to be a multi-million-euro installation, it can be a meal, a walk in the country or by the beach. Our buildings are people places and can be repurposed for whatever we want to do. The financial returns of what came out of retail are not going to come again."

Junaid Moerat - Serves on the board of the professional arm of Western Province Rugby Union (Stormers) as well as the executive committee.

“It is critical for our sports organizations to challenge their own thinking, to be proactive, creative and adopt an innovative and commercially driven mindset. Technology in sport is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have. We should always be looking for the next innovative solution, from broadcasting technologies to improvement of player performance, to the way fans consume sports. I believe that for sports organisations to remain relevant, we need to realise that technology is the future of sport.

Sponsorships are evolving into partnerships, stadiums should be more interactive, we should embrace blockchain technologies, fans will start demanding a bigger influence on decisions, we should enhance fan engagement through things like esports, digital currencies and fantasy sports."

Louis Alfieri - Principal and chief creative officer at Raven Sun Creative

“It’s about adaptation of existing assets. Most leisure attractions don’t have time to invest a lot more money so how can you be adaptive. Take, Knotts Berry Farm. It is now refocusing on delivery of chicken and pie – which is how it originally started – and is performing very well. The challenge is to reproduce what you do to give you an advantage. Through the different stages of reopening, we will some things that go away over the next 12 weeks and others that will change and people will expect to see.

In-home versus out-of-home: it’s already apparent and an ongoing discussion, especially with the rise of AR and VR, notably being on the cusp of an AR revolution. Right now, we can trial things, it’s an opportunity to try things because people will be more open. Owners will be open to try some riskier things. Already you can see out-of-home come to in-home, for example virtual museum tours. So there is an opportunity to create an eco-system.

Brands need to bring value in terms of their overall strategy. How can individual, smaller experiences be brought together for a longer experience? At the leisure attractions, how are rules explained? How do you communicate positively? One opportunity I see is haptics – interaction with gesture movements to avoid touch, plus a luxury pricing model, with a smaller group at a high level experience."

Will Townsend - Senior analyst at the boutique tech analyst firm Moor Insights & Strategy

“Maybe organizers won’t be focusing on mega conferences in the future, which puts tens of thousands of visitors in one space. They could break it up into smaller venues directed at a specific topic tailored more to specific attendees. If I’m a developer I probably don’t want to go on a track related to marketing."