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Most important tips on how to launch a virtual event

02.06.2020
Finding a provider that can connect the dots between event management and technology is the key to successfully set up your virtual event. Professional congress organisers and meeting planners have experience in setting up and managing physical events and there is not a significant difference in managing it in the virtual environment.

Events bring us together to learn, do our business, meet people and make experience and memories, from conferences to exhibitions. But, there are circumstances when our events cannot be held in live environment and with the help of technology you do not need to cancel you event, you can have it 100% virtually or hybrid, with partial live elements.

Virtual vs hybrid event

In virtual event your audience interacts in a fully virtual environment, either through a video conferencing tool, a live stream, a virtual event platform, or another method, while in hybrid events there is a mix of audience participation-both live and virtual, for example live session streamed to a broader audience, or an exhibition where suppliers have a presence both online and offline.

Benefits of virtual and hybrid events

1.Less resources meaning less work and more traffic with wider audience reach
2.Flexibility meaning everything can be updated at the last minute
3.Metrics and reporting meaning getting even more data from your event and more ways you can show event value
4.Undiscovered potential meaning there is room for creativity and content engagement so it opens up opportunities for your attendees and sponsors

Tips:
1. Adjust your planning and strategy

Your virtual event strategy is not going to the same as your live event strategy. Adjusting your plan for virtual events opens up new possibilities that you must consider before moving forward. How your goals and priorities need to change with a virtual event? Can they be expanded? Does anything need to switch out?

2. Think about your audience and give your content a strong context

In virtual events is is harder to keep distractions to a minimum and keep the audience engaged behind the screens. Put effort into creating the experience in way that helps bring out the value of the content and keep your attendees engaged. Consider adding interactivity to your virtual event with some of the options:

  • boost engagement and help ensure that conversations are a two-way street. The more attendees engage, the more value they find in your event.
  • Polls and surveys can provide interesting insights during and after presentations to see who’s actually engaging.
  • Virtual lobbies give attendees a valuable moment to chat and introduce themselves.
  • Virtual product showcases for your sponsors like product walkthroughs, augmented reality experiences, and more.
3. Align ahead on the right metrics

More insights mean more ways you can show value, so it’s important to align ahead of time on the right metrics for your team to track. Data will help yu navigate your future events and will provide valuable insights to sponsors of your event.

4. Put effort in your attendee and sponsors education

As this is a new format of event attending, it may take some time to educate the audience in terms of couching them how to participate in your event. Your sponsors need to understand all the opportunities of a virtual event so invest time to explain all the benefits to them.

5. Market your event

Think of providing valuable content before, during and after to boost the community and offer information. Your content can live long after your event and can be available on demand to generate additional future value.

And last but not least: Find a provider to lean on and connect all the dots

Which way is the best to present my content? Which platform to choose? Where do I place my content, how do I facilitate networking? Those are the important questions you will be asking yourself when setting up all the tools for virtual event. Finding a provider that can connect the dots between event management and technology, is the key to successfully set up your virtual event. Professional Congress Organisers or Meeting planner agencies have experience in setting up and managing physical events and there is not much difference in managing it in the virtual environment. Think about sponsors packages, branding and marketing your event or choosing the right audio visual technology or engagement tools for audience participation, all of those already exist in event strategy of a face-2-face event. Professional meeting planners will help you navigate through virtual space more efficiently with satisfaction of your attendees, speakers and sponsors.

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