Virtual events have become the mainstream in building connections and fostering professional relationships through their ability to enhance products and services from various fields and disciplines. They present valuable opportunities to meet new people and gain knowledge that lasts a lifetime. But how important is it to use virtual events to reach a global audience for your brand, and what steps can be taken to maximize your virtual event experience while building your brand for the right audience? Here, we examine several methods that can be undertaken to achieve this while enhancing the virtual event experience overall.   

Let’s first examine how the power of virtual events can break down geographic barriers. In a nutshell, virtual events help expose the irrelevancy of geographic barriers, with a 2022 study predicting that virtual events hold the potential to not only eradicate both geographical and administrative barriers but also increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in a post-Covid world, as well.   

The goal of every company is to build its brand by sharing it with as many people as possible and using virtual events to reach audiences at the global level can do just that. This helps determine the right audience for your brand while also learning about various cultures and how to reach audiences you might have initially overlooked.   

Navigating is one of the most challenging aspects of the virtual global landscape. Still, if accomplished using virtual events, you can not only reach new client numbers but learn new ideas, as well.  

This is accomplished by constructing inclusive events through various methods, including diverse representation, crowdsourcing, establishing meeting norms, and written and verbal communication, to name a few. It is important to note that the same planning style for in-person events should be applied to virtual events to maximize the goal of an inclusive environment.  

Utilize the unique features of ChatiConnect one-on-one or group video chat to network on a global scale. 

For virtual events to be successful, especially at the global level, it’s essential to make them as seamless as possible for all your clients and attendees. This includes easy access to attend, engage, and leave feedback, if necessary. The easier your clients and attendees can attend, the more likely you are to build your brand.  

Virtual events hold the potential to build relationships with individuals of all backgrounds and disciplines, especially at the global level. Building your brand while making positive connections is always a win-win.

When hosting virtual events at the global level, it’s of the utmost importance to remain aware of cultural sensitivity and relevance. This includes potential slang and/or idioms, gender stereotyping, and appropriately adapting words and images to enable inclusivity further.  

In addition to incorporating cultural sensitivity, other ways to make your virtual event inclusive include captions for the deaf and hard of hearing and multilingual options since a portion of your audience might only speak one language.   

Hosting a virtual event on a global scale means having to remember a portion of your audience will be from different time zones, as there are currently 38 different local time zones in use around the world. This means offering several times for the same talk or session within your virtual event to maximize engagement and inclusivity.  

A variety of strategies can be applied to make your event as convenient and inclusive as possible for your attendees. For inclusivity, these strategies include instilling a culture of courage, encouraging a sense of purpose, and empowering a sense of well-being. Strategies for convenience run parallel with how to manage the various time zones, as mentioned above, in that offering multiple talks and sessions at different times will increase your attendance and build a sense of belonging. 

Chati facilitates broad customization options to amplify your brand. 

As noted earlier, the goal of any virtual event is to maximize your brand as much as possible, and using various virtual event marketing tools to showcase your event will do just that. These include online tradeshows, virtual conferences, and webinars. The goals of these strategies include: 

• Finding your broader target audience. 
• Communicating the importance and value of your virtual event. 
• Leveraging current digital channels. 

Another important goal is to market your virtual event before, during, and after the event.  

As noted above, leveraging digital channels is a strategy to market your virtual event. These include a myriad of social media outlets, like Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, and now Mastodon and Threads, with the latter two gaining traction as a substitute for X. LinkedIn is especially useful for building professional connections, as it is primarily geared towards business and professional purposes.  

If your virtual event is going to be on a global scale, your attendees will come from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, diversifying portions of your event to better engage with a diverse audience will make your virtual event more impactful for everyone.  

To increase inclusivity for your virtual event, creating personalized interactions for making broader connections is vital to building your brand. Some strategies for personalizing your virtual event include understanding the preferences of your attendees, producing custom content, on-demand content, and personalized engagement, just to name a few.  

With the goal of building your brand in mind, the importance of showcasing your company’s products and services to a global audience can’t be overstated. However, moderation is vital, so too much showcasing can result in the opposite impact you seek.  

Gaining clients is one goal of your virtual event, but building partnerships with other companies is another goal. This can be accomplished by expanding your marketing horizons to allow for company-to-company interactions instead of company-to-client interactions.  

Chati’s innovative networking system allows your brand to reach new audiences worldwide. 

Speed networking is slowly becoming the next great way to build connections and meet great people and including it in your virtual event could provide an excellent avenue to build lasting relationships on a global scale. Another way to accomplish this is through collaborative workshops to foster engagement, which could also be combined with speed networking for a more engaging experience.  

Artificial intelligence has become intertwined in our everyday lives, so why not use it to your advantage for your global virtual event? For example, it can be used as a matchmaking tool to identify the right attendees for certain aspects of your virtual event.  

Knowing that you’re engaging the correct audience and using various metrics tools to track appropriate participation and engagement numbers is vital to growing your brand. This allows you to re-evaluate strategies and tactics both before, during, and after the event to maximize your engagement, specifically on a global scale.  

If you’re going to grow your brand globally, understanding the various audiences you’re reaching is vital. This is accomplished through analyzing geographical data to make more informed decisions about your virtual event content and time management.  

Some examples of brands that have successfully grown on a global scale include Chati, Salesforce, Slack, HubSpot, and Notion. These companies have leveraged multiple tools to both grow their brand and build lasting connections, as well.  

The Covid pandemic forced both the public and companies to adapt quickly to a world of lockdowns and restrictions, and the use of virtual events on a global scale is only getting stronger.    

Virtual events aim to build connections and share ideas without geographic restrictions. In this post-Covid world, embracing the opportunity to use virtual events to continue this fantastic trend is more important than ever.

Virtual events hold the potential to not only build your brand and list of clientele but also build strong and lasting connections at both the local and global scales. Virtual events have been shown to erase borders and geographic barriers, creating a more engaging and inclusive world for everyone.  

As noted, the goal of every company is to build its brand, and using virtual events to do that on the global stage will not only accomplish this goal but potentially grow it in new and exciting ways where everyone can engage and connect. Virtual events offer an exciting way to share ideas and build connections that have only grown in a post-COVID world that will only gain traction and foster connectivity without worrying about geographic barriers keeping you from accomplishing your goals.   

Sources: Nature Biotechnology, Splash, Toppan Digital Language, Eventscase, Cvent, Virtual Days, Cvent (1), Eventpreneur, Wistia, Nature