In the post-COVID-19 world, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technologies, including crowd-tracking sensors for real-time data collection, mixed reality, and the metaverse, will shape megaevents, according to a report published by the World Government Summit Organization. Using a combination of virtual, physical, and hybrid approaches, the research, which was published in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), calls on government leaders to learn from events like the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Hajj, and Dubai’s Expo 2020 which were successfully conducted during the pandemic.

Cities hosting megaevents, which contribute almost $1 trillion to the global economy each year, need to rethink how to deal with these events in the future. This is because future shocks are expected to be more frequent. Instead of reverting to pre-COVID-19 methods, event organizers should plan for a hybrid future. In its paper titled Meeting the Future: How Megaevents Should Transform for Success in a Post-COVID-19 Era, researchers advocated for the development of much-needed smart solutions such as video analytics, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things sensors to predict and track crowd density.

Public health technologies include big data and dynamic dashboards for gathering real-time public health information, as well as automated and rapid reporting of COVID-19 cases and test results. The report said, the use of technology will be a key tool to launch megaevents. This will enable the most effective combination of capability, impact and safety for cities and host countries. These megaevents will have optimal social, economic and sustainability outcomes for years to come.