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Think of the most engaging and stimulating online events that you have experienced. What elements of the attendee experience made the host organization’s branding impactful for you? What were your initial impressions of the organizational culture? Did the experience contribute to a sense that you were valued as a member of this online venue’s community? A memorable branded experience promotes a sense of trust and meaningful connection with your attendees.
This article will cover some tips for designing and branding a successful virtual event.
Why Virtual Event Design is Important
A virtual event is the best way to increase your brand visibility, especially since COVID restrictions have transformed event planning and increased demand for online events over the past two years. Attendees value a safe, convenient, flexible, and informative learning experience more than ever, so it is crucial to design and brand your virtual events carefully. If you are intent on in-person activities, it is best to plan a hybrid event to allow more flexibility and access in anticipation of sudden changes.
Increase Brand Awareness Through Virtual Event Design
Branding an event involves developing and influencing the event’s reputation in order to attract attendees. Therefore, customization and branding of your virtual event platform is crucial. Personalize images and color schemes for both the desktop and mobile apps. Make sure images, fonts, and color schemes are consistent across pages and sections on the virtual platform. Uniform formatting will contribute to ease of navigation and positive brand impressions.
Event Webpage
Write landing page content and other resources with a genuine tone and voice that reflect the spirit of your branding campaign. Most event attendees will regularly check the webpage for registration information, schedule updates, and speakers’ bios before and after an event. Design website menus and sections according to your branding color palette, and use clickable banners so that you can make commonly accessed pages easier to find. A leaderboard can be used to highlight the countdown to an event or pre-event activities. During and after the event, post photos, videos, and other event materials on the webpage to sustain branding awareness and attendee interaction.
One challenge of virtual event planning is finding alternative ways to achieve the positive effects of traditional event interactions. Incorporating touchpoints into the virtual event will increase attendee engagement, and you can do so through the use of your platform’s chat, polling and other interactive functions. In lieu of friendly registration check-in areas, lively vendor exhibit halls, fun giveaways, and informal networking activities, virtual event planners can build in some touchpoints that reinforce branding awareness and make attendees more active participants in the event experience. Make the most of your webpage or mobile app with widgets, virtual scavenger hunts, and other tricks. You can use these activities to boost energy when attendees might experience mental fatigue or information overload.
Generate excitement and interaction via email marketing campaigns
Leverage your email campaign to pique interest and excitement before, during and after the event. Personalize emails and outbound communication so attendees feel a sense of belonging.
Once registration is complete, find the magic number of emails, so that attendees do not feel bombarded with electronic messages. The initial emails should provide event orientation content so attendees can optimize their experience; email content can range from practical steps about accessing sessions or messages that highlight the event theme.
Assemble a Support Team Responsible for Tech Troubleshooting During the Event
Be prepared to have a response team ready to troubleshoot registration, tech, audio and access problems. This staff can direct late arrivals to sessions or guide those experiencing technical problems. Encourage attendees to use the chat function to ask questions about schedule changes and other questions. Have a separate messaging system for event presenters, so that their technical or other needs can be met immediately and therefore minimize disruptions for attendees.
After the Event
Effective branding shows when attendees are already talking about registering for your next event before completing the current one! Ride the momentum of a successful event with social media posts and a concluding email to attendees immediately after the event ends. It is best to collect survey responses soon after the event concludes for a higher yield of survey responses.
Over the last two years, most of us have gotten used to the switch from in-person to online events. While this has made many events more accessible, new challenges are arising around keeping guests entertained and engaged despite online communication barriers. To resolve these issues, the emerging field of virtual hospitality aims to instill a human touch into online events.
To answer this question, it might help to first understand the definition of hospitality itself. According to the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, 'hospitality' can be defined in two ways:
It goes without saying that virtual hospitality is the application of regular hospitality to the online sphere. While it may be difficult to provide food and drinks to online guests (unless you have their permission to send food to their addresses at a specific time), being friendly and generous towards guests- and providing services- is very doable.
Remember: one of the key essences of hospitality is service based on goodwill and genuine care for your guest's experience.
That said, a good place to start is to think about what you would like if you were your guest, and then treat your guests the very best of how you would like to be treated.
To help you get into the 'virtual hospitality mindset' for your next online event, we've put together five simple ways to let your guests know you care about their experience:
1) Have human support
AI chatbots are all the rage. And while they may help solve generic queries, it's all too easy to tell when you're one instead of a human.
Now, at face-value, this may not seem like a problem. But research into human interaction with chatbots has found that people generally don't like talking to bots.
A survey by CGS in 2019 of over 1000 US consumers found that 86% of people prefer talking to humans over AI-based chatbots. While this survey may not necessarily be conducted in the context of online events, its findings likely still apply.
That said, it's worth noting that, to some degree, these findings might be age-dependent, as the same survey also found that 43% of those aged 34 and younger were more likely to say that chatbots made it easier to resolve their issues compared to less than 30% of over 35's.
This means that when deciding if you will use human or bot support for your events, it may make sense to consider the age of your participants. While people generally prefer human-to-human interaction, for younger audiences, bots may be less of an issue.
2) Let people know who- or what- they're talking to
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to include human support as the frontline for problems that may occur during your event, it may be best to let your guests know that they're talking to a bot.
A study from the University of Goettingen in Germany of 200 people found that letting customers know they are talking to chatbots if their queries cannot be resolved led to fewer negative reactions than if people were not told.
This, said the researchers, is because chatbots are 'more likely to be forgiven for making a mistake than a human.'. Simply having a chatbot admit it is not human, and perhaps apologize for making a mistake, could, say the researchers, perhaps even improve customer perceptions of your brand.
The same goes the other way too. If you do manage to have human support for your event, then it makes sense to make people know they're talking to a human. This means ensuring your support person has a personality when speaking to guests, which may be achieved by using less formal language, idioms, smileys, and of course, taking the time to understand what guests need.
3) Show you care
If we think back to the days of in-person events, you may remember hosts checking in on you at the start of the event, and then several times throughout- perhaps initiating some small talk or handing over some hors d'oeuvres.
Maybe minus the hors d'oeuvres, there is no reason you can't show similar hospitality in your online event. This may be done by sending an individualized welcome message to each participant and checking in via online chat at various points throughout- especially if you notice some users starting to disengage.
To individualize your messages (and make it clear you're a human with the ability to perceive), you could comment on something on their profile that catches your eye. Maybe you notice they went to the same school as you- or they simply chose a nice color for their profile.
To complete this step, it goes without saying that it may be helpful to gather some publicly-displayable information about your participants- even if that is just allowing them to choose the color of their profile, or a fun avatar.
4) Give Freebies
Just as in-person events my give guests gift bags, it may make sense to consider a 'virtual' gift bag. This could contain any manner of things that are appropriate for your audience, and may contain one or more things at once.
Our personal favorites are:
5) Track feedback
Lastly, getting feedback- and assessing it over time- is an important way to know what hospitality methods worked in your event, and of course, how to improve.
This could be done by asking participants to fill in a quick questionnaire after the event asking them about how much they enjoyed it, alongside any written or vocal feedback on what they enjoyed most and what could improve.
You could also analyze this feedback alongside their interactions with human support, chatbots, or speakers, whether or not they opened/ used their gift bags, and of course, if they attend future events.
Such insights may help you better tailor your event experience to your audience ie. If participants who interacted more with speakers enjoyed the event more, then it may make sense to introduce more ways to invite guests to speak.
Alternatively, if more people attended future events after donations were made on their behalf than after receiving a free written guide, it may make sense to focus more on making donations on behalf of attendees than giving free guides.
Online events are everywhere. If you want yours to get noticed, you really have to stand out of the crowd. And, unless you’re already a well-established brand and have a loyal following, you will need to try all means possible to get people's attention.
Here’s our five top tips to get your event out there and onto your audience’s calendars.
You should never underestimate email lists when marketing your events.
Before knowing how to use one though, the first step is to create one. The best email lists are the ones that contain active members ie. people who will actually read them and engage.
This kind of email list is created by adding real value to your audience. It could be done by offering a free resource that competitors ask their audience to pay for- perhaps a page out of a book or a short training course.
In exchange for this freebie, you only ask people to sign up via their email. By offering real value in this way, you can be sure that any sign-ups will be more likely to read your emails and respond to events- whether they arrive as a part of a newsletter or as an official invitation.
That said, when sending an invitation, it’s important to remember to send it a month or two in advance, to be concise, and to include two major components:
After this first invite, you can periodically remind your audience about the event by advertising it in a weekly newsletter, for example.
Creating content relevant to your event is an excellent way to boost your marketing efforts. This might include blog posts, podcasts, videos etc. that tie into your event’s theme. It might also include 15 minute interviews with some of your event’s participants, whether transcribed or recorded.
As content creation is a part of developing your brand, it’s important to ensure that whatever you put out there addresses your audience’s needs and interests. The right content can make a brand a go-to source for a certain topic, and thus drive interest in events even beyond the one you may be initially marketing for.
Different audiences tend to spend time on different platforms, and so taking the time to research where your audience is, and what kind of marketing methods yield the highest conversion rates makes sense.
For example, LinkedIn may be an ideal platform to market events related to professional development given its career focus, whereas platforms like Instagram and Facebook may fare better for events aimed at a more general audience.
Likewise, some sites may cater to specific niches, and thus partnering with them for event promotion may be a great way to reach your target audience. Labroots, for example, has a sizable audience of scientists in the pharmaceutical industry and other fields. Partnering with them for content creation or sharing on social media platforms could help promote events aimed at related audiences.
While some avenues may remain consistent strongholds for members of your audience, also remember that new opportunities are sprouting up all the time- and that those who get in soonest are likely to be able to make the most of them.
This in mind, keeping in touch with your audience’s latest community trends is a great way to identify new marketing opportunities to scale your event promotion quickly. Some of these new methods may work, and some might not. Sometimes you only know by trying, however, so it may be a good idea to reserve some of your marketing budget- perhaps around 20%- for experiments.
Some estimates state that as of January 2022, 4.62 billion people globally use social media; that’s roughly 58.4% of the world’s population. And according to Statista, as of 2020, people spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media per day. That basically means that there is a lot of opportunity to reach out to people on these platforms for your event!
Following from the previous point, it first makes sense to identify which platforms your audience use- ultimately where they hang out and where/ how they’re most likely to engage. You can investigate this using insight tools such as Google Analytics, and tactics such as social listening- which involves monitoring relevant keywords and hashtags across platforms.
Once you’ve identified the right social media platform(s), it’s time to start promoting. This can be done via a series of methods including:
Creating a unique page on your website is a great way to get people to take your event seriously- and it can act as a central hub for information and updates.
While the event page doesn’t need to be overly sophisticated, it should include all necessary information about the event including:
To make the event page more lively, you could also include sneak peeks into what the speakers will be discussing either via video snippets, short articles, quotes, or photos from previous events.
Virtual events can be advantageous. They potentially allow businesses to reach a larger audience and give attendees a more carefree experience without the hassle of travel. But without a destination trip to lure people in, how does a virtual event planner convince people to attend their event and actually stay tuned? Here's how to make your next virtual event a hit.
Get Tech Savvy
Don’t skimp on technology. Incorporate high-quality technology to make your production more captivating so that audience members are drawn to the screen instead of doing chores while half-heartedly listening. A virtual event platform like Chati can help you do just that.
Chati helps to organize and streamline your production by furnishing templates and tools to make your event more engaging. This can include well-designed spaces for different sessions within the event, like networking booths, live streaming, polling, workshops and Q&A sessions. It's a nice alternative to the less interactive and lackluster Zoom screen and has features to accommodate a larger audience for a better user experience.
Virtual event platforms also offer assistance from producers who can assist with editing, coordination between speakers and technical issues to take some of the stress off of the virtual event planner.
Organize Your Event
Consider how you want to produce your event's presentations. Virtual events can have live sessions recorded in real-time, pre-recorded sessions or a combination of both.
The pros of live virtual events: they are more natural because they simulate an in-person event. Speakers can improvise more and engage with viewers as the event is unfolding. The cons: live virtual events are more prone to technological glitches.
On the other hand, pre-recorded virtual events are less error-prone but less interactive. Pre-recorded sessions also allow you to air more than one session at a time without needing a producer for each presentation like you would if they were live and happening at the same time.
It may be best to use both live and pre-recorded presentations from speakers. To make presentations more polished, you could have speakers pre-record their presentations and then go live for the more interactive features like Q&A sessions. And it is never a bad idea to have a backup pre-recording of the presentation on hand just in case issues occur with live streaming. Also, alternating between the two types of recordings can let you use pre-recorded sessions as a break to set up for live shows.
Once you decide what your recordings will be, use a template for outlining the flow of your show. This should include a timeline for each session, a list of speakers and their sponsors and a backstage checklist of which tasks to cover between sessions.
Other tech tips to keep in mind for streamlining your event:
Safeguard your internet connection by using an ethernet connection instead of WiFi and make sure your hosts have a minimum internet speed of 20Mbps for upload and 30 to 50 Mbps for downloading.
Have a neutral background with good lighting.
Use a good quality microphone and experiment with speaker placement for making your presentation more dynamic.
Use a virtual "green room" where event speakers and producers prep and coordinate off-screen.
Use a variety of arrangements for visual elements that incorporate high-resolution graphics like slides, charts, overlays and transitions for more visual appeal.
Incorporate a lower third into the presentation. This means put an insert in the lower third of the screen with the speaker's name, title and company.
Get the speaker to make good eye contact with the camera by placing his or her notes at the top of their computer screen, if using any, or on a second screen close to eye level. If speaking without notes, have them place a visual marker next to the camera as a reminder of where to look.
Market Your Event
To maximize attendance at your event, make sure it's well marketed. First, you need a website for the event where potential attendees can learn more and register for it.
On this website, attract attendees with a well thought out explanation for the purpose of your virtual event and provide the event schedule, a list and biography of event speakers and an FAQ section. Also clearly communicate where and how people can register for the event.
Event registration should be easy and user-friendly and should ask for enough details from attendees so that planners can tweak their event to their audience.
Before the event, email attendees instructions on how to access the event with practice launching sessions so they become familiar with the technology and are reminded of the event.
Engage Your Audience
In the virtual event world, along with streamlined technology, the content of your event is everything.
That starts with good topics and good keynote speakers. The content of presentations could focus on leadership, research, client opinions or insights, new products or offer some sort of training. Be conscientious of the length of your sessions. Avoid making them too long to avoid losing your audience's attention.
People do bore easily when they don't have an active role, so allowing for attendees to interact during or between sessions is another important aspect of a virtual event. Find a variety of ways to get the audience to interact. This could mean setting aside a time for Q&A sessions after presentations and a time for open conversation on presented topics. Even games and quizzes over content can be successful ways of engaging the audience, especially if prizes for correct answers are given.
Audience engagement could also look like offering a variety of sessions at any one time so the attendee has more options and interests to choose from. Offer them recordings of presentations if there are scheduling conflicts by leaving content available for days or weeks after the event.
Make separate chatrooms or networking sessions available where attendees can go to discuss presentations or chat with sponsors. You could also offer breakrooms where attendees can decompress after taking in so much new information.
Last but not least, make sure you get prompt feedback through attendee surveys so you'll know just how much of a hit your virtual event actually was and can plan for the next one.
At in-person networking events, people get the opportunity to build relationships, learn something new or showcase their products and services. The good news for companies embracing virtual events? The same can be done virtually. Here is your guide to networking in 2022's virtual age.
Prep for the Event
So that others know your agenda and you attract the appropriate audience, know the intended message behind your networking event. Is it to market a product or is it to show support for something in the community? Make your goal in hosting a networking event as specific as you can so you know how to gauge its success. The purpose behind your event will also influence its format and design.
Plan the logistics of the event. With a virtual event platform like Chati, you can use a virtual space to format your event in an engaging and user-friendly environment.
Decide how long the event will be and outline the main highlights and activities. Generate presentation ideas and activities specific to your target audience and within your budget.
Invite People
You can't have a networking event without people. Get the word out and go beyond your usual network. Avenues for finding new attendees include real-life and social media contacts. LinkedIn may provide new faces with similar interests based on their background.
When inviting potential attendees, give a sneak peek of your networking event and a link where they can RSVP. Remember not to go overboard with your guest list. Networking events, even virtually, should be relatively small for better opportunities for connection.
Before the event, share the link with attendees and demos on how to use the virtual platform where the event will be held. Also send out any relevant reading material that will add value to the event, such as information on keynote speakers, if you'll have them.
This is also the time to find out if any attendees will have accessibility issues or time conflicts that they'll need to manage during the day of the event so you're not caught off-guard.
The Event is Underway
You successfully gathered a group of people for your networking event. What's next?
As the host, offer opportunities to break the ice without making people too uncomfortable. Keep it light by having people answer short questions instead of sharing an extensive biography or work history. Ice breakers could be getting people to talk about a favorite hobby or one of their life goals. Try to avoid topics that emphasize a person's job title or company.
During presentations, to better engage your guests, ask thought-provoking questions that spark conversation and foster learning. Also help keep everyone on track by reminding them of the time remaining.
Take advantage of breakout rooms during the event. For fairly large networking events, this could mean letting people break up into smaller groups for more intimate conversations. You can also share links and documents on presentations in these rooms.
Make your event more interesting with these ideas in mind:
If you have keynote speakers, ask them to include a personal anecdote of how they became successful.
Have guests participate in a short virtual skills class where they learn something new and fun so they share a common experience to talk about with each other later. This could include learning a skill that helps them professionally or learning something creative like a craft just for fun.
Like with in-person networking, you may choose to include a casual virtual happy hour where people talk over drinks in a relaxed setting.
Include a speed networking portion where people chat one-on-one about themselves and things they enjoy outside of their professional lives. Don't only emphasize guests' professional lives at your virtual networking event. Let this be a time for them to escape from the work mentality and not feel like they have to connect with others based solely on their work identities. This is a chance for them to connect with like-minded individuals in their personal lives as well.
After-Event Etiquette
Hopefully after a good turnout and successful networking event, the gracious host will email thank you letters to each attendee. Wish them well and thank them for their time and attendance. Also share any links or downloadable resources on topics featured at your event and ways to stay in touch, such as social media groups or email lists.
Kindly request any feedback from your audience in the form of your choosing. Helpful ways could include rating scales, comments or short surveys.
If you have other upcoming networking events in mind, don't forget to mention them in your follow-up email. Take the high points from your most recent event and any positive feedback from your guests to promote your next event on your social media platform.
Virtual events are becoming increasingly common. Though virtual events were a sudden necessity at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry is starting to see them as a more permanent fixture.
But even though virtual events are here to stay, they pose new, exciting challenges for how to effectively engage attendees, communicate critical event information, and encourage networking.
At the end of the day, though, engagement is the name of the game. If you’re in the process of planning an event, here are ten virtual event ideas to help make yours engaging and successful.
1. Q & A’s and polls during meetings
It’s often hard to gauge participant engagement during a virtual meeting or to even give people the opportunity to ask questions. Visual cues are often missing to indicate someone has something to say. Q & A’s, moderated through a chat feature, can give people a place to ask their questions. It even gives attendees who are a bit shyer an option to engage. Similarly, polls give people an easy way to respond to speaker questions and stay engaged.
2. One-to-one interaction
Creating space for people to meet one-on-one can be a challenge in a large digital space. At an in-person event, people can talk and network fluidly on a one-to-one basis. To help facilitate this interaction virtually, allow attendees to schedule meetings with individual speakers -or vendors- to carve out space for these crucial interactions.
3. Communal engagement spaces and breakouts
Conversely, the opportunity to engage in larger group formats can also lead to generative discussion and networking. Make sure that you facilitate breakout sessions that allow attendees to network in groups at your next event.
4. Offer a range of content options
People appreciate flexibility, and a virtual conference, perhaps uniquely, allows for this. For your next event, provide attendees the option of attending live events and watching on-demand recordings and content on their own time.
5. Schedule meetings that accommodate time zone differences
Unlike geographically fixed events, virtual events allow people from around the globe to attend and participate. As a result, consider scheduling meetings to accommodate different time zones present at your event.
6. Gamify!
Games are fun and can be an incredibly effective way to keep attendees engaged, particularly when prizes or rewards are involved. Consider incorporating games into your next virtual meeting to keep attendees active; a game can be something as simple as providing prizes for attendees who network with a certain number of other attendees, sponsors, or vendors.
7. Find unique speakers
The content you provide during a virtual conference is key–and what better way to provide eye-catching, quality content than with a speaker that your attendees are sure to find interesting. Consider looking at speakers that you might not have been able to get for an in-person event—many of the logistics and costs associated with in-person events might make it easier for a speaker to attend a virtual event.
8. Create event registration “categories” that cater to different interests
Everyone who attends a conference has something they’re hoping to get out of it, and these interests vary. Creating different types of registration based on what kinds of events an attendee may be interested in could attract more attendees and keep them engaged.
This approach also enables you to develop targeted marketing content, ensuring that a recipient is receiving something relevant and interesting to them.
9. Make event content available on-demand after the event
When you leave an in-person event, the only thing you can take with you is your notes from meetings and impressions. With virtual events, meetings themselves can be recorded and viewed later. Make content available for a limited time, though, to increase demand.
10. Rest, relaxation, and something fun!
Not everything about your next event needs to be all business - people need a break, after all! For your next virtual event, consider ways to incorporate unique entertainment options, such as a comedy show or musical performance.
While there are so many other virtual event ideas out there, this list should give you a starting place to make your next event engaging for attendees and an overall success.
With virtual events becoming more and more commonplace, it’s important to keep your audience engaged and wanting to come back for more. While attending talks and meetings can seem redundant after a while, interactive booths offer a chance for attendees to see something fresh and engaging. The plus side is the more interactive the experience, the more likely attendees will want to use your booth again. Here we explore how interactive booths can help make virtual events more fun and engaging for all parties.
Whether the goal is to be educational, informative, or just engaging, every interactive booth serves a purpose. However, you still want people to come back to your booth at future virtual events, which is why the booth needs to be as unique as possible. There are several ways to accomplish this, either through games, prizes, exploration, and spreading the fun to social media. Even incorporating a limited one-time-only feature gives audiences something to look forward to the next time they come to your booth. Changing things up every time they use your booth keeps it unique and fresh for everyone.
Everyone loves games, and this can absolutely include your booth, too. You often here people say they pay attention better when they read for fun than when they read because they have to, either for school or work. Fun makes people happy and incorporating this in your booth will give your audience something big to look forward to in the future, especially if the fun changes every time they use your booth.
If people are going to spend time on something, they’re going to want to get something out of it in the end, and this includes your booth. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, you want those few minutes to mean something for your users. Whether it’s a small certificate or cool photo, giving your users an incentive to use your booth will give them every reason to come back in the future, especially if the incentive changes.
Social media, especially Twitter, has become the go-to tool in spreading the awesomeness of everything, and this can include your booth. Twitter is validation central where everyone wants to get noticed and using the blue bird app to share your booth is the best way to get people to come back for more. This can easily be accomplished by letting your users share the moment on Twitter with a cool photo and hashtag as a final step when using your booth. Everyone on social media wants validation, and you can use this as a way to spread the awesomeness of your booth for future users.
Interactive booths can be a very fun way to offer virtual event audience members an escape from the mundaneness of well, virtual events, whether it’s talks and/or meetings. Your booth can be informative, educational, engaging, or all of the above, but you still want people to come back for more in the future. Whatever your booth features, mixing things up and offering limited features or incentives gives audiences a reason to keep coming back.
Engagement is key with any event, though it is even more important in a virtual event. With attendees geographically distributed, it can be more challenging to put on a virtual event that helps attendees connect and stay engaged.
So what can you do?
The answer: get creative with available technologies available, both to help facilitate session types you are already familiar with from in-person meetings (keynotes, breakouts, etc.) and to offer other forms of engagement that might have been more challenging to do in-person. We’ll break down how to leverage technology during an event and recommend fun, creative ways to engage your attendees.
Live Streams or Pre-Recordings: Which Should You Use?
First, let's talk about a few common types of event sessions and the best ways to make them engaging for virtual meetings—specifically, the pros and cons of live streaming versus pre-recording a meeting to maximize attendee engagement and the quality of your meeting.
1. Keynote addresses
Keynote speeches usually kick off a meeting and can be a good way to set the tone and feel for the rest of your event. With a live stream approach, you get the benefit of real-time activity from your speaker, allowing them to improvise and respond in real-time to queries and questions. Then again, a pre-recorded keynote, with the keynote speaker present, still offers the opportunity for the speaker to respond to questions during the speech while also ensuring a smoother production value.
2. Award ceremonies
Generally, award ceremonies are likely to be more effective and engaging when conducted in real-time. There are many moving parts that benefit from a real-time component, so live-streaming may be the way to go. However, parts of the ceremony could be pre-recorded, such as speeches, to minimize glitches, so you could consider a combination of approaches.
3. Panel Discussions
Deciding whether to live stream or pre-record a panel of speakers for discussion later depends on how much control you want to have over the meeting. Pre-recording can help minimize the risk of technical mishaps (such as faulty internet connections by a single speaker), but live streams can preserve the give-and-take, spontaneous conversations that often occur during a panel discussion, which can be generative and engaging for attendees.
4. Product Demos
Depending on your event, you may have sponsors who are hoping to sell products and offer demos to prospective buyers. As with other formats, there are pros and cons to consider. A pre-recording allows your sponsor to adequately and effectively demonstrate a product, while live-streaming gives event attendees the confidence of connecting to a sponsor representative in real-time, rather than passively watching a demonstration.
Ways to Engage Participants Beyond the “Business” of Your Event
When it comes to virtual event engagement, you’ll also want to consider other ways to keep your attendees engaged beyond the business of formal event meetings. The following are a few ideas to help engage your attendees:
While there are many ways to use technology to engage your audience, the goals you and your attendees have should drive the decisions you make about technology.
As the world continues to evolve during the coronavirus pandemic with more focus on social distancing and telecommuting, virtual conferences are becoming more commonplace in nearly every career field. They negate the cost and hassle of traveling, often internationally, and you still get to share your awesome ideas from the comfort of your own home.
Here, we explore some best practices to keep in mind for virtual conferences as we kick off the 2022 conference season. While these suggestions have become almost second nature to now-experienced virtual conference attendees, it’s always good to get a refresher.
Maintain In-Person Mentality
Thanks to the power of Zoom, we can telecommute right from home. But with this luxury often comes watching your colleagues sitting in their pajamas because they literally just woke up. For all virtual meetings, but especially virtual conferences, it’s always good to keep an in-person mentality. This means remembering to get dressed up with a clean appearance as though you’re literally there at the conference itself. This includes full professional attire, not just a nice button-down shirt on top with shorts that your audience won’t see. Don’t shy away from going all out.
Professional Backgrounds
In the age of telecommuting, it’s easy to forget that your audience isn’t just looking at you, but what’s in your entire frame. Presentation and networking always matter, and it’s important to present yourself as professionally as possible in all aspects to make a better impression on your current and/or potential employer. Digital backgrounds can seem fun, but they are still in their infancy and are often distracting for an audience if your digital background doesn’t quite blend with you or your attire. While digital backgrounds are becoming very popular, especially in science, presenting a more organic background such as a full bookshelf surrounded by items relevant to your talk gives a far more professional appearance. This will actually make your audience far more attentive to what you’re talking about because your background is actually your best way to demonstrate your overall work ethic.
Rehearsal Is Still Important
Delivering a virtual conference presentation is much the same as an in-person conference. The majority of the time you’re engaging with your audience, clicking through slides, and pointing when necessary. However, virtual conferences deal with far more technological barriers than in-person conferences, specifically your internet connection. This is why it’s just as important to rehearse several times in the days and weeks leading up to your virtual talk. Do all of your slides fit? Are your videos loading correctly? Do have every talking point down to the letter? Does your background display a professional setting that correlates with your talk?
Conclusion
While virtual conferences are becoming more commonplace, it’s always important to treat them like in-person conferences. Dress professionally, display a professional background, and always rehearse several times before to ensure everything is working as it should. Like in-person conferences, virtual conferences are a fantastic way to network and meet new people. Go forth! You got this!
Virtual events are here to stay. They’re far cheaper to host and there’s far less stress on both the hosting company and the attendees. But just like with in-person events, there’s still a lot of care and attention required from all parties to make virtual events successful enough for people to keep coming back. Here we will discuss how to navigate the ins and outs of virtual events as they become more and more common in the post-pandemic era.
Virtual Events are Accessible
Virtual events are much cheaper and easier to both host and attend. The host doesn’t have to worry about paying for giant conference halls, vendors, and security, while attendees don’t have to worry about the financial and logistical hassle of traveling. Despite some upsides, there are still some downsides to virtual events that everyone should keep in mind. For instance, virtual events are still very much content-heavy and lack the luster of a unique destination, and can be far more difficult for networking, the latter of which is the very reason you attend any event. This is your chance to spend quality face-to-face time chatting with future employers/mentors/employees outside of the event itself, either at a coffee shop or going out to lunch/dinner. It’s important to remember that networking is far more difficult to accomplish at a virtual event as the heavy content (often on-demand, as well) now demands the attendees to jump from meeting to meeting during the entire event without taking the time for actual networking.
While we all got comfortable attending virtual events during the pandemic given you can attend one from your own home, it’s important to remember that the experience itself can be far less exciting. For in-person events, you’re there, immersed with the people and the action. You excitedly roam the various halls and rooms taking in everything while meeting fantastic people for coffee or dinner. Virtual events don’t have any of this as you’re often distracted by the dog or kids, so it’s important to remember that while virtual events are far less of a logistical mess, they are also far less immersive.
The New Networking
We spoke about networking, which is the very reason you attend any event. Along with the lack of immersion that in-person events offer, it’s important to remember that networking is far more difficult to achieve at virtual events, so patience is key when it comes to having those all-important face-to-face meetings. This lack of immersion is slowly being overcome by mobile event apps where you can schedule one-on-one meetings with parties of your interest. You still get face-to-face interaction while building those important connections.
While virtual events are here to stay, it’s important to remember the pros and cons of in-person events to virtual. While both cheaper and logistically easier for all parties, both hosts and attendees don’t really get the same immersive experience that in-person events offer. Keep these tips and tricks in mind when hosting or attending virtual events going forward.
