VentureBeat reports that virtual events company Unisfair released its annual marketing survey, showing that even more advertisers will be advancing their brands through virtual events this year, with 62 percent saying they would be increasing spending on that medium in 2011, and 42 percent saying they will cut down on how much they budget for physical events.

“What we learned from the 2011 marketing survey was that even more marketers are planning to increase their spending on virtual engagement compared to last year,” Joerg Rathenberg, vice president of marketing for Unisfair, told VentureBeat. “It is interesting that more marketers are increasing their virtual event budget, where only 32 percent were planning to increase their physical event budget.”

A majority of the 550 marketers surveyed say they want the ability to attend a virtual event from a mobile phone.

"The numbers confirm what much of the business world is already experiencing: That physical attendance at conferences and tradeshows is becoming less frequent as companies switch to cheaper, easier-to-access virtual events," wrote Riley McDermid for VentureBeat. "When asked what the best part about attending a virtual event is, 58 percent cited the ability to multitask, while 14 percent find the ability to be 'invisible' until they want to engage with colleagues or vendors to be a primary benefit of attending virtual events."