Numerous people harness the power and capabilities of the internet to keep connections with their loved ones. However, virtual gatherings have become a budget-friendly way to engage with fellow professionals. Networking and social activities have transitioned into the virtual realm, resulting in the virtual event planning sector flourishing.
We will explore the world of virtual gatherings – unraveling their essence, mechanics, and the artwork of orchestrating fascinating events capable of leaving an enduring impression on your attendees, compelling them to keep returning for more.
What Are Virtual Events?
Virtual events are gatherings that take place in the digital realm. Depending on their motive, they can take on numerous forms, from exclusive webinars for a select group and publicly available live streams to online conferences that could require paid passes. They can even take a casual semblance on social media platforms, like AMAs (Ask Me Anything) or live-tweeting sessions.
Virtual events are often hosted on online platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Clubhouse, which allow you to connect with your audience through video chat or voice calls. Moreover, a burgeoning marketplace for specialized virtual event platforms is being designed explicitly for webinars, conferences, and meetings.
One of the primary advantages of opting for a virtual event is its cost-effectiveness. You do not want to stress about renting a physical space, resulting in substantial economic savings for you. Furthermore, you can connect and engage with a worldwide audience while basking and relaxing in the comfort of your home.
However, it’s essential to acknowledge that virtual events do have their set of drawbacks. The most distinguished of these is the need to be physically present. Being in an alternate physical space than your audience means some attendees may feel disconnected. Also, issues like video and audio quality, insufficient soundproofing, or background noise can pose challenges, helping divert interest away from your message.
The Various Types of Virtual Events
The market has different types of virtual events, and their scope is as extensive as the digital horizon! Here’s a brief glimpse into some of the most popular categories of virtual events:
1. Virtual Networking Events
These gatherings bring together like-minded people inside the digital space. Virtual networking gives various connections and possibilities, from laid-back happy hours to post-work mingling periods.
2. Virtual Team-Building Extravaganzas
You can have your group bond over sporting activities and morale-boosting sports, all inside the confines of your relaxed domestic office. That’s the essence of virtual team-building events, as they allow you to foster camaraderie through digital screens.
3. Virtual Fundraising Galas
In the past, charities struggled to have their voices heard. However, technological advancements have ushered in a new era of technology through virtual fundraising. It’s now an excellent online technique for raising funds, as it helps champion noble causes with an international reach.
4. Virtual Talent Scouting
Employers searching for top-tier talent and expertise can turn to virtual hiring events, as they offer a savvy approach for sifting through applicants without the standard time and cost burdens associated with traditional recruitment.
5. Virtual Shopping Soirees
The future of eCommerce and social media has brought up a new activity in live stream shopping, and virtual shopping epitomizes this trend. Attendees can virtually ‘shop’ for cosmetics, clothing, and various merchandise through engaging online demos.
6. Virtual Social Sojourns
It’s no longer all business inside the digital realm. You can set the stage for casual virtual social gatherings, from a cozy night of online board games with buddies to different delightful escapades connecting friends, allowing heart-to-connections.
Ideas for Kicka** Virtual Events for Your Team
Let’s dive into a few thrilling ideas for your virtual events. Now that we have explored the ‘why,’ let’s tackle the ‘how’ with those fascinating live event ideas and systems. Virtual event planning strategies like these can be huge for the overall impact of your event.
Live Tweeting
Immerse yourself inside the buzz of live events by actively tweeting commentary and insights. Whether it’s an interesting live performance, a thought-provoking convention, or a sporting event, you can easily engage your target audience in real-time.
Virtual Workshops
When traditional face-to-face practice is unfeasible, virtual workshops are only suitable solutions. They offer you hands-on training regularly in situations where space limitations might otherwise be causing an obstacle.
Virtual Conferences
Hosting grand gatherings is a breeze inside the virtual events space. There is no need to book expensive high-end venues or an extensive support team. Like their in-person counterparts, virtual conferences are excellent in fostering interactions and permitting attendees to collaborate and inspire new ideas.
Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything)
Dive into candid conversations with an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session on Reddit. It’s one of the best ways to offer genuine responses to the curiosity of those intrigued by your story. You can give answers and provide a complete look at your character and values. Remember to share links to your web page or social profiles for potential followers.
Webinars
Forging connections with professionals from all over the world is a breeze through webinars. Hosting a website will elevate your popularity and broaden your network within the virtual sphere.
Social Media Live Streams
Social platforms such as Instagram or Facebook have been the leading way for live streaming, allowing businesses to foster connections with contemporary and potential customers and industry friends here. These streams are ideal for product awareness, idea sharing, client outreach, and exerting your influence over the industry players.
Tips for Hosting Virtual Events
Here are a few worthwhile insights for effective website hosting virtual events, which will ensure that everyone concerned enjoys a fantastic experience.
Set Well-Defined Goals
Begin your journey by establishing clear objectives, so before you start virtual event planning or choosing a suitable platform, make sure your purpose is crystal clear. Also, formulate SMART desires and ensure your entire project crew is aligned with your vision.
Choose the Ideal Platform
There is a plethora of social media platforms out there, each offering wonderful capabilities, so keep in mind whether you would like to co-host with other businesses or use superior moderation tools. It’s vital to select a platform that aligns with your event’s specific necessities, when your virtual event planning.
Timing Matters
Consider time zones and attendee availability when selecting the virtual event’s timing. Ensuring the ease of your members is paramount, as is allocating adequate time for Q&A sessions.
Promote Aggressively
Don’t simply depend that you’ll be lucky, and your target audience will simply show up spontaneously to your virtual event. You need to launch a proactive advertising marketing campaign in advance so that potential attendees have all the information they need regarding your event’s when, where, and how.
Craft a Comprehensive Agenda
Keep your attendees engaged by offering a clear and distinct agenda, highlighting the timings, and including relevant links so participants can plan their participation efficiently.
Moderation is Key
Be prepared for any eventuality by having sufficient moderators since online interactions can often be less than courteous, which is why maintaining control is crucial.
Engage Your Audience
Forget about the hour-long lectures and go for interactive activities in your event. Encouraging lively conversations amongst contributors facilitates direct interplay with the hosts.
Prepare for Technical Hiccups
Technical system defects can occur at any time, so it’s wise to have a backup platform if video or audio problems arise. This ensures your virtual event can continue seamlessly.
Follow-Up Post-Event
After the event, get in touch with your contributors and offer them access to event recordings, which helps foster their interest in future events.
Conduct a Debrief
Gather your team for a post-event debrief once the virtual curtain falls, and analyze what worked and what didn’t. This valuable feedback will prepare you for future virtual events.
Exploring Virtual Event Platforms
If you’re thinking about dipping your toes into the world of virtual events and virtual event planning, then you must remember that there are four main platforms you can use as your launchpad:
1. Instagram Live
This platform should top your list in case you boast a significant Instagram following, as with Instagram Live Rooms, you can conduct streams featuring up to 3 additional audio systems. Viewers can also actively interact through comments and questions and even submit post-event analytics and valuable insights for your event.
2. Clubhouse
This flourishing audio app is one of the best for fostering discussions rather than presentations. You can distribute event invites with room creation links, permitting anybody with the app to listen and participate in real-time discussions. For Twitter lovers, an opportunity well worth exploring is Twitter Spaces.
3. GoToWebinar
A popular choice for virtual events, GoToWebinar shines when managing a limited number of attendees for events. Its screen-sharing capability ensures all contributors have real-time access to presentation slides, ensuring an uninterrupted attendee experience.
4. BigMarker
Offering user-friendly, download-free webinar tools, BigMarker allows the introduction of digital whiteboards throughout your live event. Attendees can interact actively with the board in real-time group chat discussions, helping improve the general experience.
Unlocking the Magic of Virtual Audience Engagement: Ensuring Your Remote Participants Stay Engaged
For event planners and marketers, the heart of any event lies in the people working to bring it together. While in-person events thrive on uncertainty and spontaneous connections, the digital landscape has challenges, particularly in audience engagement.
Indeed, captivating a remote audience is one of the biggest hurdles event planners face. People can drift off occasionally in a physical setting, but in the digital sphere, recapturing their attention becomes a formidable challenge once an attendee loses interest and logs off.
The secret to conquering virtual audience engagement is to craft an experience that leaves your remote audience delighted from stepping onto the platform until the event’s final curtain falls. While coming up with an engaging digital strategy for audience engagement might seem daunting, it’s not impossible.
Pre-Event Preparations: Setting the Stage for Virtual Audience Engagement
Achieving high virtual audience engagement isn’t always a coincidence; it’s a strategic element that should be woven into the fabric of your event design. Start by defining the engagement method in your virtual experience’s context. Will it be gauged through session attendance, active participation in polls and Q&A, or your event hashtag? Establish core key performance indicators (KPIs) that can be assessed post-event.
Most event platforms provide complete data and insights to assess whether your virtual event targets have been met. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, as you must nurture your target audience first. Sending a barrage of emails is useless, but radio silence until the event day isn’t feasible as well, so learn how to strike the right balance.
Use the registration and ticketing procedure to understand your attendees better and inquire about their anticipated sessions and the source of their event discovery. You can keep the excitement alive by sharing pertinent event details – introduce the speakers, highlight precise features of your virtual event platform, and communicate about any event-associated updates. You also need to tailor your electronic mail and social media strategy to address those inquiries.
It’s best if you are willing to go the extra mile by dispatching physical badges and swag luggage, even if the event is remote, as you could infuse it with your personal touch.
Create a Buzz!
Encourage attendees to interact with one another earlier than the event, and you can harness the power of social media for that by devising a unique event hashtag for Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and beyond. Get innovative! Encourage early downloads of your selected event platform, sparking fascinating conversations in advance, as familiarity amongst attendees before the event fosters more natural interactions compared to in-person gatherings.
Choose Wisely and Coach Thoroughly
Speakers play a pivotal role in any virtual event, so careful selection is critical for your virtual event. Apart from expertise, enticing and commanding attention in a remote setting is paramount. You can request examples from their past virtual speaker engagements and ensure they exude human connection and aura when they take the virtual stage.
You must connect your audio speakers with your event management or production team to ensure no sound quality issues. Whether a professional or a first-time virtual speaker, a technical producer can offer useful insights into the sound, lighting, and intricacies of the event platform.
Content Design is King
Captivating audio speakers are important, but they cannot shine if your content design is lackluster. Therefore, you need to deliver bite-sized, interactive content that fosters speaker-audience engagement in an era where attention spans are dwindling.
Prepare for Every Contingency
Rehearsals aren’t unique to physical events, so if you neglect the technical details, it can and will send your virtual attendees packing. Therefore, you must ensure that your audio and video are impeccable and offer attendees logistical information in advance. Also, have a dedicated technical guide on standby to address all queries.
Don’t leave this critical detail to the last minute, and collaborate with a top-notch event management company to ensure a seamless virtual event planning and execution experience.
During the Event: Building the Momentum
Amidst the excitement of the event you’ve organized meticulously for weeks or maybe months, it is time to put on the polish. The technical elements have been finely tuned, your speakers are top-notch, and the content you’re about to deliver is virtually superb. Now, to ensure high virtual audience engagement during the occasion, you must remember that your attendees are not passive customers of digital content; they are actively co-creating the virtual experience with you!
Facilitating Check-Ins
Allow attendees sufficient time to check in and familiarize themselves with the virtual event platform and your event’s virtual arena. You need to ensure that your technical support staff is available to help attendees deal with demanding situations navigating the platform. Don’t look ahead to the target audience to provoke the verbal exchange – it’s the moderator’s function to kick-start the discussions. They should look to periodically spark conversations with questions that encourage discussions.
Throughout the session, the speakers and emcees must acknowledge the attendees with special shout-outs and warm expressions of gratitude. This helps to recreate the personal, human connection that is regularly observed in face-to-face gatherings.
Harness Virtual Audience Engagement Tools
While basic platforms like Zoom provide chat capability, event-specific platforms offer numerous engagement features. During the sessions, attendees can actively participate through polling and Q&A sessions, and speakers can show polling outcomes, field target audience questions, or even show off attendees on the primary screen, making their experience vital to the occasion.
Use push notifications strategically to keep engagement levels high by informing attendees about timetable changes and sending custom notifications tailor-made to their selected sessions. It’s often the small details that make a huge effect whenever you’re virtual event planning.
Allow Breathing Room
Understand that your virtual target audience’s conduct differs from in-person ones. Given the elements we have discussed, attendees cannot be anticipated to endure 3-day meetings with six-hour sessions daily. Maintain adherence to the organized agenda, preserving sessions below 60 minutes and allowing members time to relax. It’s also best to encourage movement during the event, possibly with a short stretch routine.
You must also consider that attendees might want a break in between the sessions rather than the event, so a digital lobby where attendees can interact freely can be a precious addition.
Introduce Gamification
Incorporating gamification into your approach is a superb way to enhance virtual target audience participation and engagement. Games and contests add a competition element, motivating attendees to participate actively. You can gamify various event factors, award points for interactions, session attendance, or remarks, and display them on a leaderboard to highlight the top achievers.
Gamification no longer simply complements engagement but additionally encourages desired conduct. For instance, if you aim to offer participants value, praise attendees for visiting the participant booths.
Monitor Social Media
If you’ve devised a complete social media strategy, you must maintain a lively presence throughout your channels at some stage. It’s an excellent way for enticing the target audience during breaks and providing them with updates.
You should encourage attendees to use the event hashtag and share their favorite moments. Also, keep an eye on Facebook and Instagram for added engagement possibilities. User-generated content, lively discussions, and notable highlights can bring your social media channels to life and keep your audience engaged and keen for more.
Post-Event: Sustaining the Virtual Audience Engagement Momentum
By now, you’ve orchestrated a triumphant virtual event that has enthralled your target audience. Active participation, lively chat rooms, and robust attendance rates underscore the event’s success, but here’s the important point: your quest for virtual audience engagement doesn’t need to end right here. You can take additional steps to embolden brand loyalty, enhance credibility, and keep the exhilaration of your virtual events ablaze.
Seek Valuable Feedback & Data Analysis
Whether you’re a seasoned pro or this became your inaugural virtual event, collecting comments from attendees is non-negotiable. Understanding their views on what worked and what did not is priceless. Did they discover the content material fascinating? How did they rate the speakers? Are there components you could have improved to enhance the overall experience?
Every nugget of feedback is a goldmine of insights to continuously increase the quality of your virtual events, consequently growing attendance. Recognize that only some humans are keen to complete post-event surveys, so consider offering incentives to sweeten the deal.
The insights supplied using your virtual platform are equally fundamental, as they unveil attendance patterns, content engagement levels, and polling results, providing a wealth of data for refining your virtual event strategy.
Repurpose for Extended Impact
This is the juncture wherein you reap dual goals – keeping the essence of your event and enticing a much broader target market, even beyond the live experience. Recording virtual conferences and webinars is common, so you must make them available on virtual event platforms. Surprisingly, this evergreen content often outshines the live event when it comes to viewership numbers.
Furthermore, embrace the network model, a thriving digital event trend in 2022. Your virtual event may have concluded, but the festivities can continue long after its end, as your event platform can function as a dynamic hub in your community to network, delve deeper into your services, and access on-demand content during the year.
This model fosters a self-sustaining engagement ecosystem, ensuring your digital target audience remains captivated and engaged long after the event’s very last curtain.
Final Word: Crafting a Stellar Virtual Audience Engagement Strategy
By now, you’ve received a comprehensive assessment of how to craft an exceptional virtual event and ensure high engagement levels. Throughout the virtual event planning journey – before, during, and after the event – there are strategic steps you can employ to ensure success. So, remain dedicated to continuous learning in this evolving landscape, as digital events are here to stay.
In truth, with the arrival of annual subscriptions offered by event platforms, most planners will discover that they organize more than one virtual experience every year. While nurturing remote attendee satisfaction might appear daunting, it has a lot of potential, especially if you harness the full capability of cutting-edge event technology solutions. Don’t leave engagement to chance, and take advice from your event management partners to help orchestrate fascinating virtual stories.
If you have any inquiries about virtual event planning or execution, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at EMRG Media today. Let our team take the reins and handle all your virtual event planning for you!
