Traditionally all business meetings, conferences, or events were conducted in person. Occasionally, expert speakers used to join such events remotely, while every other aspect of the event was designed for an in-person experience. However, times have changed and virtual interactions became an inseparable aspect of an event program.
Meanwhile, if you think virtual events do not require much planning then you are mistaken. Virtual events require planning as much as in-person events, if not more. Both types of events require promotional strategies and effective audience engagement. With the help of virtual event management platforms, you can carve out an exceptional event experience for all your attendees.
Types of Virtual Events
Webinars: Webinars are probably the most well-known form of virtual events. Often webinars last for about 45 to 80 minutes and are preferred by businesses to educate their customers. Due to their peculiar nature webinars have always been hosted virtually and may not involve live audience interaction.
Virtual conferences: On the other hand, virtual conferences require attendees to interact with each other on an ongoing basis. These events often revolve around specific agendas, involve keynote addresses and other forms of interactions.
Hybrid event: Hybrid events can be held for audiences both inside and outside of your organization. These events generally involve training, industry interactions, sales launches, etc. Networking is the basic purpose behind these events.
To plan any of these events, you can take assistance from virtual event planning solutions. Nevertheless, consider the following key points before starting event planning.
- Events are predominantly conducted for audience engagement. Thus they will require curated content for the intended audience. The content might be created in format i.e. textual or video but it must be engaging.
- An excellent marketing strategy, as well as targeted promotional efforts, are required for virtual events.
- Determining the success of your event is equally important. You can assess event performance by gathering data from each attendee.
Elements of Virtual Events
Furthermore, due consideration must be given to some of the basic elements of virtual events. Online events are constituted of
- Dedicated event website: You can set up a website for in-person as well as virtual events. Website is an effective medium to carry out event promotional activities. Additionally, it can be treated as a one-stop destination that allows participants to discover information about your event.
- Event registration tool: The registration page is the first point of contact for attendees. Through this page, attendees can register for the event, submit their preferences, etc. The page also enables you to gather information about event attendees.
- Live to a stream of the content: It allows you to share curated content with the event participants.
- Question and answer session: Through these sessions, participants can interact with the expert/speaker and ask about their queries.
- Facility for Note-taking/favorite slides: It allows your event participants to save a particular part of the content slide or make notes to refer to it later.
- Recorded content: Recorded content allows participants to access it even after the event is over.
- Interactive video conferencing: Your event management platform must provide a facility for audio/video interaction.
- Opportunities for sponsors and partners: Provide enough opportunities for sponsors and event partners to have visibility during the event.
- Feedback surveys: Feedback whether verbal or written gives you better insight into overall event performance.
Make Virtual Event a Success! With the right use of technology, you can make your virtual events massively successful. So the key is to choose an event management platform that perfectly suits your event requirements.