How to Make Your Virtual Events Better Than The Rest

Don’t plan your virtual events before reading this!

He had hoped all his troubles would be solved by the end of the webinar, but instead, he felt stranded and frustrated. One more platform reviewed and instead of feeling closer to the answer of what tech to choose for their meeting, he felt further away than ever before. Jason was an expert meeting planner, but this was a new way of doing things and he wasn’t having a good time. 

“I’m a stranger in a strange land,” he muttered to himself.

His co-worker, a small scruffy mutt named Penny, looked up at him from her place on the floor next to his desk, and then looked back down, unimpressed. 

“I’d give anything if I could just know where to start,” Jason thought. He glanced at the clock on his laptop and sighed. 

It was time for the next demo. He leaned back in his chair and debated whether or not to feign internet troubles. Jason generally liked what he did for a living, but he hadn’t signed up for this. 

With resignation, he clicked to join the Zoom meeting. After all of this, he still had a meeting to plan and none of this was fun so far. Not any of it. 

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Someone somewhere is enjoying planning all these virtual events we’ve been having this year. But my guess is that it isn’t you.

Virtual emcees, remote attendees, social media competitions for in-person and remote participants…virtual events can have so many moving pieces, that it’s easy to feel lost.

Almost 10-years-ago, I took part in a hybrid conference that changed my life and connected me to friends I still have to this day. 

In November 2011, I participated in Event Camp Vancouver, led by my dear friend and intentional event design expert Tahira Endean. The purpose of Event Camp Vancouver was to explore how the latest technologies could be incorporated into events without losing the human element.

[Check out my interview with Tahira about virtual events and collaborating with competitors!]

“We took traditional meeting design and inspected it from every angle, eventually using a variety of session formats to create an integrated whole experience that we felt would provide the most benefit both during and post-event for the participants,” shared Endean, who currently serves as the head of events for SITE.

Event Camp Vancouver brought together 90 face-to-face participants and its hybrid component had 50 active remote participants engaged in the meeting. It featured both an in-person and virtual emcee, which allowed for unique ways to interact with the online audience and not leave them out of important opportunities for cultivating connections and discussions together.

This exploration was an early testbed for many of the leading experts in the events industry and directly led to many of those individuals creating some of the most successful meetings, both in-person and virtual, the industry has seen.

Since that time, new platforms and technologies have come and gone. But the essential questions you need to ask in order to create a solid virtual experience remain the same. I’ve included a list of these considerations below with additional information on each in case you need it. 

Beyond the essentials, though, you need to think about what makes an experience more valuable to the participants as well as the producers. So I’ve also included some pro-tips and links focused on the virtual meeting experience along the way so that you can make your virtual meeting better than the rest!

The Essentials + Tips and Links You’ll Love

Here’s what you need to consider no matter what when planning a virtual meeting

What are your objectives?

This can seem pretty obvious, but many times we get tunnel vision and focus on one particular area necessary for success without a full appreciation of all the objectives for an event and how they relate to business outcomes.

What are you trying to accomplish financially, as a brand, and as an organization? Is this an ad-hoc event or does this event form part of a wider sales, marketing, or organizational strategy? While you may focus less on new members or exhibitors acquired, you can build goals around session registration and feedback surveys.

And remember that before you move onto the next area of focus, always ask yourself every consultant’s favorite question, “What does success look like?”

Check out How to Define Goals and Objectives for Successful Virtual Event Planning

Timing

What is your timetable and what kind of schedule are you working with for this event? Most experts recommend at least 8-12 weeks for planning a successful virtual event, but if the virtual event is several days with lots of moving parts, more time is obviously preferable.

You need to have a firm grasp on the timing you are working with, though, so that you understand what is possible and what isn’t when it comes to marketing the event and arranging for the content and content providers to present live or record their work.

Check out Virtual Events Timeline Tool for Producing Simulated Live Event Programs

Be Memorable & Know Your Story

What is your virtual event all about? What is your concept or theme?

Allowing you and your team some time to imagine how your event will be more than a generic collection of education and information is important. Do yourself a favor and take the time to envision something special that stands out as a valuable experience for your attendees. 

What emotions do you want to evoke (or avoid)? How are you providing consistency and experience through the five senses? How will your concept for the event flow through every touchpoint and aspect? Are you using music to tie one part of the experience to the other? Is there a theme song? An intro and outro video sequence that lets people feel a sense of continuity? Are you having baskets of swag delivered to your virtual attendees? What might provide an unexpected moment of delight or surprise to participants?

Check out How To Choose Event Themes That Wow

Budget

I likely don’t need to explain why the financials of a meeting are important but similar to in-person meetings, virtual events can sometimes have hidden costs.

Initial questions you’ll have when planning your virtual event will include pricing and the role that your partners and stakeholders might play in offsetting costs. Will you charge for your event or offer access for free? What kind of advertising and sponsorship opportunities will your online event platform provide?

Check out Budgeting for a Virtual Event

Check out how this association navigated their pricing strategy for their virtual event [VIDEO]

Structure & Content

Will the sessions be live, on-demand, or a mix? How long will sessions be? Will you have an emcee? How about a virtual audience engagement manager? Will the format of the education be shorter or longer?

Many event planners are seeing a need to shorten the duration of the sessions seemingly because attention spans are shorter online in a battle to keep a remote participant’s attention.

To deliver content that moves the needle, you need to understand who it’s for and what they want. Marketing tools like audience segmentation and targeting can help, but you need to understand your audience well in order to guide your choice of subject matter experts and topics.

Who are your speakers, facilitators, emcees, or entertainment? How will they be onboarded and prepared for their role in the event? How will you make sure their production quality for remote presentation is acceptable? What will you do with the content produced? 

Get help with onboarding and preparing your virtual speakers

Sponsors, Exhibitors, and Data

How will you track attendance, engagement, and attendee satisfaction? Data is gathered before, during, and after the event and can be used to qualify leads, prove event success, and improve the event for the next year. What data will you want or need to obtain from your event? What surveys will you send out following your event?

Where do your sponsors and other collaborators fit into your planning? What kind of value are you providing them? What role does data or accessibility play in your offerings? How can event participants network and schedule appointments with exhibitors or each other? 

Check out 18 Virtual Event Sponsorship Ideas

Collaborative Space

Do you want attendees to be able to communicate with one another? Where will the opportunities for connection exist? What tools will attendees have to connect with other attendees and how will you make it less awkward for them to do so? What kind of networking opportunities are included in your plans?

I think this is one of the areas that is horribly underdeveloped in most virtual meetings today. I also think it is an area that has the most room for growth and value.

Check out this blog post on How to Price Your Virtual Conference.

Add some fun for your virtual attendees by adding an interactive game or a virtual gamification expert!

You might want to add this platform to your demo list for their networking featured between attendees. I haven’t tried it, but have heard many good things about it from one of the groups I am in and how it is different in this area of engagement specifically. 

Technology & Production

What tech requirements do you have? Which platforms or tech tools will you use?

Do you need polling features or breakout rooms? Do you need one-on-one virtual meeting room capabilities? Will you engage virtual audiences with live polls, feedback surveys, quizzes, or session preview videos?

Who is handling the support issues during the live event and the backstage components of the event? What happens if you have connectivity issues? Even large organizations with experienced and savvy events teams struggle to answer these questions.

The key sections of the document are:
1. Official data & guidance
2. Comms, PR & crisis management
3. Running a digital event – best practice tips & advice
4. Tech for virtual events, conferences, summits
5. Tech for virtual conversations, meetings, webinars, video conferencing
6. Tech for video recording and production
7. Tech for landing pages 8. Logistics & venues
9. Financial mitigation
10. Insurance & legal
11. Health & Safety
12. Other resources

*Special thanks to the Guild group “CREO” – Corona Response for Event Organisers, who offer this to share for free! 

Here’s a great article on how to choose a virtual event platform!

Hear how the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) answered these questions and turned their in-person annual meeting into a virtual meeting and the technology tools they decided to use [VIDEO].

Check out how Map Dynamics works with meeting organizers on event dashboards and more (and also check out the interview they did with Association Chat, too)!

Promotion & Marketing

How will you build buzz and win the attention of your ideal attendees within a crowded marketplace full of choices with so many free and almost free options competing for your ideal attendee’s attention and time online? Where are you promoting your event and how can people learn more about your event ahead of time?

Is it easy to share information about it from the website? Have you optimized your event page for search?

Which emails do you have going out and when? Are you leveraging your partners and influencers already participating in your event? 

Learn more about how to build a content strategy for events.

Make It Easy (for EVERYONE)

Defining who is doing what and where and when is critical for any complicated project with more than one person involved. Clarity inspires trust. Aim for clarity in responsibilities from the beginning with every person involved in the virtual event.

Why don’t we spend more time to make things easier for our online attendees? (I know, easier said than done.)

We need to make it as easy and simple as possible for our participants to engage with our organization and our event. Will you create a guide for attendees before the event that explains how to join keynotes, attend sessions, and use messaging tools? Is it easy to find the event page? Is it easy to sign up for reminders? Is it easy to connect to others who have signed up for the event? 

Just. The. Beginning.

Obviously, these are just the beginning questions you need to ask yourself before planning your virtual event. But they are good ones to help you get to the place where you will have more clarity and insight about the kind of virtual event you want to plan. 

When I think back to that hybrid meeting I attended in 2011, I still think about watching the leaderboard to see who in the onsite and online audiences were advancing and I think about the ways that online audience was brought into the experience for the in-person attendees. 

Every person involved had a way to connect with each other, no matter where they were located. The focus was on bringing everyone together and helping them feel ease and excitement in connecting. And isn’t that what we’re all really striving for before we even think about the bottom line? Because without that connection, people don’t always want to spend money on an event.

How will you bring your next virtual meeting to life for your attendees so they can better connect?

I hope you receive value out of this post and please be sure to add your own recommendations or questions below! 

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