The conference season of 2020 has been unlike any year preceding it, and we all know why. With 30 now considered a large gathering, virtual event and gatherings have gradually become a part of our new reality.
In December 2019, Zoom averaged 10 million daily meeting participants, but in April 2020, they recorded more than 300 million daily meeting participants. The popularity of video events can be directly linked with the covid-19 pandemic.
Because of physical restrictions, virtual events have become a necessity for businesses today. In addition, there are economic benefits involved in hosting virtual events. According to SkillsCouter, 94% of businesses claim that video conferencing has increased the productivity of their businesses.
Tips to Consider Before the Event
While we are all aware of the importance of virtual gathering, hosting a successful virtual event involves more than live streaming using a mobile app. These 5 tips will help you get better results with planning for your virtual event.
1. Start with A Game Plan
Every successful event starts with a game plan. Creating a well-defined strategy is one of the first things you need to do. Being a virtual event doesn’t mean it requires less planning than physical events. The first question you should as is: “what do I want to achieve with this virtual event?”
After getting a direction for your virtual event, proceed to plan how they will be achieved. A list of things you should prepare for include;
- How to reach your target audience
- The process of registering participants
- The contents to be delivered in the event
- The best delivery method for your target audience
- The best anchor for the virtual event
- The duration of the virtual event
- The best time for the event
A clearly defined game plan would ensure that your event runs smoothly. In addition to your plan, make provisions for possible mishaps unique to the nature of your event.
2. Choosing the Right Platform and Tech for Your Virtual Event
It is unlikely that anyone would go into an event unprepared. However, it is possible to prepare wrongly for a virtual event. There are different platforms for hosting a virtual event. The first step would be choosing a platform that suits your event. These platforms include;
Webinars
Since the lockdown, platforms for hosting webinars have become more popular than ever. These platforms offer real-time online presentations, allowing a host to address participants over video or audio messages and also share their screens while narrating. Some webinar platforms include;
- Servv: is a unique reality platform that offers IRL (in-real-life) experience. Participants can join your life events by simply clicking one button.
- Livestorm: is an on-demand webinar platform that connects you to zoom, slack, and other engagement tools.
Video Stories
Video stories are popular among online retailers, social media influencers, and content creators. With the aid of social media, they create product description videos, visual content, live interviews, and more. The stories of TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat have been the most used in 2020.
Live Tweets
Live-tweeting or texting is another form of virtual events. They usually take the form of interviews (Ask Me Anything) or live discussions anchored by a moderator. Reddit, Slack, and Diacord are the popular platforms used for live-tweeting events.
Choosing the Right Tech
Choosing the right tech that is best suited for your life event comes after selecting a platform. For simple appointments, a laptop would be enough. However, for hosting a virtual unveiling or a hybrid event, that tech will be insufficient.
Video conference room solutions would be better suited to host official meetings, workshops, conferences, and hybrid events. If you are using entirely new tech, give them a trial run before the big day. If you need to get a technician to ensure that the mics and cameras, work as they ought, by all means, do so.
3. Use Promotions and/or Reminders
The nature of your virtual event would determine the type of promotions required. For a webinar, conference, or hybrid event, strategic promotions could greatly impact the response of participants. Promotions should be strategically directed towards that target audience in order to get more participants.
Reminders are just as important as promotions. After getting participants to register for your virtual event, you want to make sure they are properly reminded about the date and time of the event.
The length of promotion is also an important ingredient for the success of your life event. According to Markletic, successful small virtual events were promoted for 3-6 weeks. Hosts of large virtual conferences on average needed more than 6 weeks to promote the event to get the desired registrations.
Reminders can be sent to participants a week to the event, 3 days, 24 hours, and an hour before the event. This is not the perfect reminder format but keeps your audience informed with time to prepare for the event. For virtual appointments that do not require promotions, reminders can be sent to participants.
4. Expend Your Creative Prowess
The success of your live event largely depends on how much creative effort is invested. A bit of creative genius should be found in every other tip you need for a perfect virtual event.
The most memorable events are not drawn from templates; they are the product of the creativity of a person or team. While you have a goal in mind on what you want to achieve, go about it as creatively as possible.
When planning for your life event, go for the spectacular. Plan to make a statement with your virtual event. Participants are more likely to return and invite others if the event leaves a striking memory.
5. Simplify the Registration Process
The registration process is the first experience participants get of the event. In creating the registration process for the virtual event, eliminate every bottleneck. While requesting for information required for the event, make it as easy as possible for anybody to register.
Getting their personal information from Google is one way to cut down on the registration process. For the big day, keep the process of joining the event as simple as possible; a one-click link is perfect to get your participants to join you live. For a one-click solution for your virtual event, you need a virtual platform like Servv.
Tips to Consider During/After the Virtual Event
Now that your virtual event has been set up for success, what should you do during the event?
1. Seize The Attention of Your Audience
Early into the virtual event, you should look to seize the attention and connect with your audience. One of the best ways to keep your audience interested is by using relevant and captivating content throughout the virtual event.
In creating content, keep it as simple as possible for your target audience. Keep your presentation detailed and avoid using filler contents. Avoid using unnecessary technical jargon to confuse your audience. If you lose them along the road, they will be less likely to buy your ideas.
To keep their interest throughout the event, format your content such that it steadily builds their expectation to a climax. To keep them expecting, refrain from providing your contents (or the entirety of it) as pre-reads before the event.
All the contents (videos, texts, slides, graphs) to be delivered during the event should be sorted out before starting the event. This will make your virtual event look like it was done in one take.
2. Aim for Interaction with Your Audience
The impact of your event largely depends on how much you would connect and flow with your audience. Striking a connection with your audience will give you a clear understanding of their reactions which will help you determine their wants. Always use a host with great communication skills
For a closed room virtual meeting where information of the participants has been provided, it would be beneficial to familiarize yourself with such information to understand their psyche.
In a virtual event where the audience is largely unknown, work with audience participation. Whether it’s a presentation or the event of a sale, audience participation is key for the success of your event.
An alternative form of audience involvement would be to provide Q&A forms, or polls before the event. At the end of the event, you can request feedback and recommendations from participants.
3. Use A Mix Pre-recorded and Live Content
No rulebook states that all your contents must be delivered live. In March this year, author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra experienced a live tech failure at his global meditation event. The result? Participants were left with blank screens for about 20 minutes.
To reduce the potential risks of technical glitches associated with 100% live, you can split your contents between pre-recorded and live. This approach affords you to have a backup plan should there be any failure. Besides, it affords you more time to prepare better pre-recorded contents.
4. Get Sponsors Involved
While the audience remains the soul of the live event, the event would not be possible without sponsors. Bring sponsors or partners up to speed with the goals and aspirations of the brand.
5. Sell Your Brand
Whether your live event is closed room or public, take out time to draw attention to the brand. Providing the participants with incentives directly linked with the brand at the end of the event is a great way you expand your reach.
In a live unveiling event for your new clothing lineup, you can make coupons available for matching shoes and hats.
Make sure to record the entire event; sharing highlights from the events is a great way to continue promoting your brand. Post-event promotion helps you showcase the significance of the brand to participants and non-participants alike.
In a Nutshell
The execution of your plans is only as good as the platform you choose for your virtual event. To optimize the success of your virtual event, you need a platform that offers the best virtual experience like Servv. This revolutionary new platform gives an in-real-life experience to your virtual event. Servv simplifies virtual events, connecting you with your audience with one click and helping you record your event with ease.
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