Virtual Events Success 101 Tip.
With the world moving toward remote interactions, several companies have moved their conferences and events online. Virtual meeting spaces have a lot of benefits, but only if the event is well-planned.
If you are planning a virtual event, an online event, a virtual conference or a webinar series, I have some advice you need to hear. Walk with me through this piece of article and learn:-
#1. Understand your audience
You need to have a solid gasp of your audience's general psyche. Are they more inclined to partake in virtual event planning? How tech-savvy are they? There are so many questions you need to be asking in order to build a strong demographic profile. A few other questions include:-
- What subject areas in your industry are they most interested in?
- How familiar or active are they with basic social media
- What types of offer do they respond best to?
#2. Put participant value first
Put participant value first and don't use the event as a tool to build an email list that can be later used for pushing products or similar purposes. This can be a differentiation while others burn the bridge with prospects.
#3. Utilize the small breakout chat rooms
I recommend utilizing the small breakout chat rooms in virtual events. This is a great way to share ideas on the topic, brainstorm and network with a smaller number of attendees. It also creates the familiarity of engagement and is an attractive option for the introverts who may be overwhelmed by the larger virtual events.
#4. Sharpen your titles and descriptions
When presented with multiple, simultaneous options for sessions to choose from in a physical event setting, attendees will often rely on word-of-mouth, asking other participants which breakout they are attending and why. Most virtual conferences lack this dynamic. Further, many online events rely on emails, social media posts and other tactics to inform attendees of what information will be presented. Thus, participants in your virtual event have less information when deciding what sessions to tune in for, and which to skip. Consequently, it is even more important that the session titles and descriptions for your virtual conference programming are descriptive and compelling.
#5. Choosing a host /mc
Who will be hosting the event? You can hire a professional speaker or it can even be an in house staff member who is comfortable enough presenting live before a remote audience. Whoever the designated person is, he/she should be able to speak clearly, respond to questions fielded through social media, introduce speakers and so on. The host should also be comfortable looking straight into the camera and not at a script in his hands. The host also need to respond at the spur of the moment to unexpected events. If the scheduled speaker is late, for example, could the host continue to come up with things to say to keep viewers from signing out? Finally, keep in mind that you can also have two hosts that can speak to each other as well as to the audience. This can be really beneficial if the two hosts have a strong rapport and can respond to one another's zingers and one-liners.
#6. Use cameras
To make the virtual conference feel more similar to the face-to-face experience, you should require presenters to use their web cam while presenting. This allows audience to see the speaker during the presentation, which adds another layer of information such as non-verbal cues, etc. However, this requires each presenter to not only have a decent camera but as well as suitable lighting. This isn't necessarily a huge challenge, but is another wrinkle that presenters don't have to contend with in face-to-face event.
#7. Engage attendees in real time
Attendees of a virtual event are not a captive audience. The host and moderator must device seamless handoff of comments/ questions from the audience so that attendees are engaged in real-time and get the communal experience an event or conference would provide. Also recognize the difference between QA rooms, which are questions for the host and chats rooms that allow attendees to dialogue.
Final thoughts...
In some ways virtual events are easier than in-person events because you don't have to worry about massive audio-visual infrastructure, meals, hotel rooms, food allergies and other obstacles.
But in other ways online conferences are more difficult because there isn't one set up for the room with speakers just getting a microphone and delivering their info back-to-back.
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