The world is still dealing with an acute global health crisis. With this current pandemic scenario, virtual events have become the new normal. After the change in dynamic in 2020, pre-planned in-person events either got delayed or canceled. Virtual event planning is taking the stage as the next big break in the event world. Today, almost every organization is leveraging virtual events to keep their business running. And why not? The demand for virtual event platforms is increasing rapidly which makes it the future of the event industry.
Let’s face it, even though the world is getting back to the way it used to be, people are going to be skeptical about taking part in large gatherings. So that defines, virtual events are here for a long term and are growing exponentially. It comes with endless advantages starting from better ROI, increased participation to reduction in carbon footprint and cost-effectiveness.
We all live in a world where technology advances and improves at an impressive speed. So, as event planners it is our responsibility to follow up with the emerging trends. To make sure you capture a successful virtual event, getting hold on the correct technology and taking crucial steps while planning virtual events, a checklist is a must.
The following checklist is easy to implement while you are planning your next virtual event. This will help you get everything on your plate and deliver a successful online event. Time to get started!
Pre-Virtual Event Planning Checklist
Address Your Goals and Objectives
Just like physical events, establishing a goal and objective of your virtual event is a crucial phenomenon. Define why you are orgasing the event and what are your expectations. In short, ensure you have a clear purpose before moving forward towards all the planning. Ask yourself a few questions like are you organising the event to reach out to more attendees? Or do you want to perceive better visibility? Are you willing to display your new innovations to the public? Or do you want to conduct an AGM? And so forth. Whatsoever is the reason behind hosting a virtual event, it must be clear in the mind of the planner.
Set the event expectations ahead of time so that you can monitor how well your activities went in comparison to the targets you set. It does not fit well if you host online events with on-ground event targets. Do enough homework and define your objectives accordingly. A virtual event network enables you to generate data that aids in analysing the event’s success metrics.
Create a Budget for Your Virtual Event
To make more accurate decisions, you must first create a realistic event budget. No doubt we require a budget to host any event, but an online event budgeting differs from in-person event budgeting. Digital events exclude the costs associated with transport, food, decor, and location, among other things. When budgeting for a virtual event, the most important consideration is to invest in the appropriate technologies.
Find Out Your Tech Requirements
Once you’ve defined the objective and created the budget, the next step is to determine the technology requirements. Determine the duration of the event, the number of attendees going to be present at your event, and so on. If you are done deciding the key aspects, search for an empowering virtual event network with versatile and entertaining capabilities.
Curate Content that is More Engaging
This is a very common yet the most important aspect in response to engagement. We all know that content is king and if the quality of your content is not up to the mark then attendance can be compromised. A good content can curate better attendees involvement, maximise attendance, and carry forward interaction. Keep the content brief, insightful, entertaining, and exciting. Taking speeches of long duration can distract audiences making it disoriented for them while assessing the online event on screen. In order to generate more leads, include on-demand video content to participants who were unable to access the live event.
Choose the Correct Sponsor for your Virtual Event
Look for virtual event sponsors that deliver industry-specific sponsorship packages. This will help you bring in more engagement which will further lead to better ROI.
Checklist During Virtual Event
Keep your Prospects Attentive and Involved
Ensure that the guests are involved in the gathering. Between the activities, provide virtual event engaging features such as live polling, surveys, fun activities such as spin the wheel, quizzes, contests, digital footprinting, and so on. It aids in ensuring the event participants are involved throughout.
Enable Attendees to Communicate Via Live Chat and Networking Features
Allow your attendees to interact and network with other delegates, speakers, organisers, and vendors in real time through live text/video/audio chats in a digital space. Enable 1:1 chats, breakout sessions, discussion forums, online networking tables, and other engaging and unique opportunities for your audience members, which will help your event stand out exponentially.
Post Event Checklist
Conduct a follow-up survey for Your Attendees
After the conclusion of your event, it is important to conduct a survey to get an insight about how well your event performed and what their experience was. After your event, don’t be reluctant to conduct a follow-up survey with your attendees by email. Request them to share their opinions and have constructive feedback on the event. What they liked and didn’t like about the event. It helps in recruiting more qualified leads, assessing the event’s feasibility, and overcoming all the future event challenges.
Examine the Data Collected During the Immersive Virtual Event
A simulated event allows you to gather important audience data from the beginning to the completion of the event. To measure the success of your event, getting a complete analysis of the data collected during the virtual event is important. A comprehensive analytics study will help you determine whether the event succeeded or failed to meet its objectives.
Highlight Your Online Event Success Progress in Front of Shareholders
Exemplify your online event performance report to shareholders in order to increase sales and development. You can reveal your event progress by using critical event details as well as personal stories posted by attendees.
Over To You
As we see more and more cases of novel coronavirus rising, the demand for virtual events are at its peak. Marketers and event managers recognised the value of face-to-face encounters, but interactive gatherings have closely mirrored the same by providing immersive environments. The benefits provided by simulated activities greatly outweigh those provided by physical events. Any of the advantages of virtual activities include increased reach, attendance, greater interaction, enhanced ROI, cost savings, emission reductions, rigorous data monitoring, and so on.
Whether you are new in the world of virtual event platforms or have already hosted a few events, this article may be of assistance to you in hosting a good virtual event. We’ve created an incredibly simple interactive event checklist to help you plan and host a great event while also providing guests with unforgettable and authentic experiences. It’s time to begin!
