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Organizing a virtual event has become an excellent way to deal with restrictions and push ahead with your company's meeting and communications agendas. And that's not all. Even before the present crisis, on-line events had huge potential. As you know, this technology makes it possible to connect people around the world, and build 3D environments with enormous communication possibilities. And all from scratch!
But organizing a virtual-format event from a studio is no easy task. That's why this article will tell you everything you need to know to plan yours.
Reasons to organize a virtual event
A virtual event is any act (congress, meeting, presentation, trade fair, course and much more) held through a digital event platform.
Whether or not it is due to the pandemic, the advantages of a virtual event or hybrid event are many:
Reducing investment
Not having to invest in the rental of space, logistics, catering, etc. will enable you to plan your virtual event with a greater initial budget. What's more, you can have speakers from all over the world, with no need to cover their travel expenses.
Multiply outcomes
Imagine you're holding a face-to-face event in a venue you've rented, with capacity for 250 attendees. Thanks to the possibilities of technology and virtual events, you can increase your guest capacity depending on the impact the event is having, even as it is taking place.
The technological adaptation of the event for streaming brings numerous communication possibilities to the table. The digital world enables you to easily scale your event, without having to determine a fixed number of participants.
Eliminating distances, and greater ease of access
Not only can the speakers give their presentations from anywhere in the world, it's also a great advantage for attendees, who won't have to block out big chunks of their agendas or spend on travel and lodging to attend your event.
What's more, audience members can participate, no matter where they are. All they need is a device with an Internet connection.
Optimizing measurements
Measuring profits or calculating the ROI of your virtual event is practically automatic when most of the data are already stored in a digital, automated platform. A virtual event brings another big plus: you can precision-measure parameters that are highly relevant to your strategy: number of active spectators at your event, attention flow maintained over time, reactions to questions, votes and interactions, visits to website during event, etc.
Technical elements necessary for a virtual event
Always bear in mind the importance of planning ahead for the technical needs of the virtual event. Some of the audiovisual materials you will definitely need are:
- Suitable Internet connection
- Cameras to film, in addition to mixers
- Reference monitors if necessary
- Lighting for speakers (and material to create effects if required by the event)
- Optimal microphones and sound desks
- Sources of content
- Streaming encoders
- etc.
In addition to the tools you use to broadcast the virtual event, you should remember other things to get the best results: event website, automated web-based registration capability, e-mail marketing platform, landing page to broadcast the streaming, etc.
Phases of a virtual event
Preparation: Prior to the event
In this preliminary stage, you will design the perfect event, with your goals in mind. Here you should consider the interests of your audience, and of course, your budget. Once these elements have been defined, you can begin with the design and communication phase.
In this initial phase, you set the fundamentals that will work as guides, and determine factors such as: possible plans B, promotion elements, platforms, speakers, gifts, etc. Methodical development of this phase is essential to achieve an on-line event of value that generates major interest and expectations.
Setting the stage: Day of the event
To ensure the success of your event, it is important to anticipate any unforeseen events that could arise and have back-ups and solutions for every problem.
On another note, since your attendees will be participating on-line, it's important to engage in constant communication, to ensure two-way attention (in this area, choose the communication channels best adapted to your audience).
Developing tools to ensure audience participation and interaction with the speaker will provide you with feedback on their attention, and will also give the speaker confidence (remember that often the speaker will not be able to see the immediate reaction of audience members, which can undermine their performance).
Evaluation: After the event
An event is never over, even after the final curtain comes down. To the contrary, the actions you carry out afterwards are vital to increase the event's effectiveness, and reap even greater profits, re-using content and making the most of the inertia generated.
At that time, it is important to retain the needs, concerns or doubts that have arisen during the virtual event. By doing so, you'll be positioned to improve and help your users with similar experiences in the future.
This article was first published in Dushow Spain, you can read the original Spanish version here.
