COVID-19 has all but eliminated live business events such as conferences, symposiums and seminars. But thanks to online collaboration platforms for web and video conferencing your ability to bring clients, prospects and team members together to learn and exchange ideas is actually booming during this historic period. Across the globe, businesses are taking advantage of collaboration platforms like GlobalMeet, Cisco WebEx, Adobe Connect, to overcome what was lost when live event production dropped off.
To up it a notch, there are webinar solutions including our own Engage Webinars that help you connect and engage with your audience in a much more integrated way without an expensive price tag. Engage Webinars allows you to engage with, entertain, and inform audiences in ways that the conferencing platforms mentioned above simply can’t manage. You can customize all aspects of the webinar including featuring your logo and corporate colors. There are multiple engagement tools available including polls, quizzes, Q&A and group chat that help you keep the audience focused and on track. Also, with real-time analytics, you can easily track audience engagement. Furthermore, Engage Webinars, allows your audience to easily access your content at any time thanks to on-demand/archive features and on any device.
These kinds of online collaboration platforms have paved the way for a new normal in hosting virtual events.
Properly planning a virtual event takes up to 4 weeks. Hosting virtual events can be as nerve-wracking as in-person events. To ensure your audience has a great experience, every small detail needs to be considered.
If you are considering hosting a virtual event, here are some pointers to ensure a seamless experience for your audience.
- Pre-event checks – No, not minutes, but days, before you host an event start checking elements off your check list. If there are multiple speakers, and different types of content to be streamed, any number of minor mistakes can lead to things going wrong. So, make sure you have all the content assets delivered and sorted in proper order for live streaming well before the event.
- Audio check – It is one of the things event producers most often overlook. Doing a sound check a few hours ahead of the event is critical. Ensure you check the audio levels of your host, moderators, and panel members, and have your technical team on standby during the event to fix any glitches.
- Connection speed – You would not want your audiences to lose their patience by looking at the loading icon during a live streaming event. To deliver a seamless experience, make sure you have a lightning-fast connection.
- Engage the audience – The biggest challenge of any virtual event is engagement, followed by interaction. Stats shared by Markletic indicate that 61% of marketers use videos to drive engagement and 81% event organizers rely on polling to improve audience interaction. For a successful virtual event, make sure you are interacting with your audience. You can keep them engaged and involved throughout the event by using such features as video, chat, poll, quiz, etc.
- Have a moderator – As with live events, all it takes is one noisy person to ruin a virtual session. Thus, it is highly recommended to have a moderator when hosting an event. Having one helps reduce the chances of any unwanted disruption. He or she can mute attendees and can also answer questions, reply to comments, and control content access.
Having a list of such pointers and checking them off before the final hour is crucial. It takes watertight planning and double-checking everything in advance. Today, virtual events are being hosted across the globe. There is no reason you can’t host one too.