Tips for Promoting Your Virtual Events

TIPS FOR PROMOTING YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT

With so many organizations hosting virtual events and many people expecting virtual or hybrid options going forward, there are a number of areas to consider when seeking to make your event successful. However, one things that increasingly seems to vex event planners is how to promote a virtual event. After all, the most intricately planned and executed virtual event will still be disappointing if not many people are able to take part and receive the information. Let’s take a look at a number of best practices towards promoting your next virtual event!

Know Your Audience

This is key in so many ways. Understanding who you are targeting your event for is the first step in ensuring that your other promotion efforts succeed. Take time to consider your audience. What industries do they represent? Are they at particular stages of their careers? Do they have common interest, passions, or causes?

Here, you want to consider demographics and psychographics. Demographics, of course, are descriptive qualities of who individuals are whereas psychographics refer to what individuals think and believe. Pinpointing the various groups that you are targeting your event for will help you identify the best strategies to promote it overall.

Have an Event Page that Stands Out

If you want someone to sign up to attend a virtual event, they need to be able to get as much information as possible when going to your website. Thus, having a landing page for your event that is descriptive, well laid out, and user friendly is key. Think about what you want to see when you go to look at an event. This will help guide you in terms of the content.

All your marketing material – whether printed, social media, or e-mail – should direct prospective attendees to the event page. You’ll want to have imagery that supports your event and messaging as well as the core information about date, time, and a preview of the topics. If you have any popular speakers, this is where you want to reinforce that by highlighting them. A successful and engaging event page will enhance the likelihood that people will register.

Use Multiple Methods of Marketing

Marketing is what many virtual events come down to in terms of their success. Unfortunately, many organizations do not have the experience to realize the need to diversify their marketing outreach. Different people will be reached through different methods. Additionally, it is more likely that people will take notice and sign up for your event if they see the message several different times.

Many organizations simply send out e-mails to their existing database of contacts. While e- mails are an important method of helping make people aware of an event, it should not be the only method. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram provide relatively inexpensive methods of micro-targeting your audience and should be leveraged as well. Of course, other avenues like direct mailings can also enhance the likelihood that your event gets noticed if that is in your budget.

Partner Up

An excellent way to improve your event’s attendance and outreach as well as broaden the scope is to partner with other organizations. Consider partnering with a business or professional organization if it fits your content. This will help improve notice and make your event more successful.

Additionally, if you have sponsors for your virtual event, encourage them to spread the word with their clients. This benefits them by showing that they are doing good deeds with support while benefitting you by driving more people to your event. Taking advantage of your connections is an important way to effortlessly spread the word.

Utilize Video

We all realize that technology is rapidly shifting. In reality, expectations of consumers are too. Video is now quite common and also provides a great way to hook prospective attendees. Consider creating a video that highlights your upcoming virtual event. Embedding the video on social media ads or your website can help convert visitors to registered attendees.

Additionally, there is something to be said for investing in professional quality video production. There are often many local freelancers that can help you develop a short video to showcase your event for an affordable price. Consider this if no one on your team has the technical skills needed.

Final Thoughts

When you plan your next virtual event, consider your strategy for targeting potential attendees. Understanding your audience, creating an attractive event page, leveraging multiple channels of marketing, partnering with other stakeholders, and utilizing video are all great best practices for getting the word out. If you’d like to trust your virtual event to the professionals, consider contacting Virtual Creative Studios and letting our professionals make your event perfect!

ARE YOU READY? SEE HOW WE CAN TAKE YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

A GUIDE TO HOSTING YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT!

A GUIDE TO HOSTING YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT!

Virtual events have exploded in popularity at first due to necessity during COVID-19 and now due to convenience and many other factors. With this knowledge, organizations will continue to hold increasing numbers of virtual events in the future. This guide is intended as a concrete overview to how to effectively pull off your virtual events.

What is a Virtual Event?

Quite simply, a virtual event is an event that you attend via the internet. You’ve likely engaged in many in the past ranging from webinars to perhaps even a full conference. In fact, there are four major types of virtual events.

Webinars are mini live training sessions that typically last between 45 and 90 minutes. Conferences can be held virtually and are large, multi-session (often multi-day) events with a variety of sessions, keynote addresses, and other aspects. Internal Hybrid Events are organizational sponsored events for employees that typically take the form of trainings, meetings, or town halls. They can combine people from multiple cities or countries rather easily. Finally, external hybrid events are like internal but allow attendees from multiple areas or organizations.

What are Benefits of Virtual Events?

There are a wide range of benefits of virtual events. While traditionally in-person events have been popular, the increase of virtual events during the pandemic led to an understanding of the value of this type of setting. Among the benefits of virtual events are the following:

  • Provide increased access to individuals who are unable to attend in-person
  • Streamline budgets by cutting the exorbitant costs that often accompany large in-person events
  • Provide added convenience for attendees that can attend the sessions most relevant to them while working through other sessions. 
  • Allow for greater flexibility in working schedules, increasing productivity. 

What are the Most Important Aspects of Virtual Events?

When we think about virtual events, they are not that dissimilar from in-person events in terms of the important components. First and foremost, content is the most important aspect. Your content will drive engagement. In fact, content is likely even more important in a virtual event than it is during an in-person one as individuals have more distractions surrounding them and you’ll need to ensure that you are actively keeping everyone’s attention. Finding compelling presenters and tailoring sessions in a way that actively engage individuals through technology is essential.

Marketing is also an important component. Virtual events should be marketed just as strongly as in-person events. Targeted promotions are important for connecting with your ideal audience and getting them to sign up. An effective marketing campaign will build awareness of the event and the benefits of attending it. This will ensure that you have adequate attendance and can succeed in your overall mission.

Finally, it is absolutely critical to strive to build connection. One of the reasons people enjoy professional events is for networking. In-person events do not have to mean people stay isolated behind screens. Integrating options for people to connect through things like virtual breakout sessions, event guides, and participant rosters can help enhance this area. Having a strong web and social media presence is particularly key for your event.

Unique Challenges of Virtual Events

While in-person and virtual events are quite similar in many ways, there are also disparities. One of the biggest differences is that virtual events do not have things like a unique setting driving registration. Thus, you must truly leverage the value of your content to promote registration.

Also, virtual events rely almost exclusively on technology. There are many different options for organizing a virtual event. Thus, it is imperative to select a technology solution that is right for your event. It should be reliable, support the anticipated number of attendees, be user-friendly, and allow for the options that you want to incorporate to make your event as interactive as possible such as polls, discussions, Q&A mechanisms, and breakout rooms.

If you are planning a larger event such as a conference, it will be important to ensure that attendees can navigate it. Publishing an online session guide or doing so through an app will help people find the session they want to attend and make a plan for engaging in the event.

Final Thoughts

Planning a virtual event has a lot in common with planning an in-person event; however, there are a number of unique concerns and challenges that ultimately make virtual events a little more difficult to pull off. Many companies decide to engage with experienced virtual event partners such as Virtual Creative Studios in order to create an engaging and entertaining event that provides a high degree of value for attendees. Regardless of how you organize your virtual events, having a coherent plan and focusing on development of content and marketing are key steps towards success.

Ready to get started?

Request a demo to see our Virtual Experience Platform in action!

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HYBRID EVENTS ARE THE NEW NORMAL: WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU

HYBRID EVENTS ARE THE NEW NORMAL: WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU

With the increasing rollout of vaccinations and the gradual removal of restrictions, people are enjoying the prospect of adapting to a more normal life. One of the highlights of this for many people is greater in-person interactions and a return to in-person events. However, the reality is that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting effect. While there will certainly be a return to traditional events, the new normal is likely to be the fact that there will not be a true normal.

In-person events are certainly being planned; however, virtual events are here to stay for many reasons including convenience and accessibility. Additionally, perhaps the biggest trend going forward in a post-COVID world will be hybrid events. These events combine the best of both worlds and allow greater options for attendees. Let’s take a look at why hybrid events will be the new normal and how you can ensure your hybrid event is a success.

Why Will Hybrid Events Continue?

There are a number of reasons why hybrid events will be common going forward. First, it is important to consider each person’s comfort level. While vaccinations are becoming more accessible, there will still be people who are not comfortable being in close proximity to others. Additionally, some people simply are unable to obtain a vaccine due to other health conditions. Being able to attend virtually will be important for these people.

Another consideration is the fact that virtual events provide greater accessibility. In particular, events that would traditionally require travel expenses can be delivered virtually to some attendees, saving them or their organization important money. Providing a virtual option for your event allows you to open it up to people who may not have been able to attend otherwise due to economic reasons.

Additionally, some people simply prefer a virtual option. There is something to be said about attending an event virtually from the comfort of your home or office. It also provides an opportunity to multi-task or be more efficient in utilizing down time between sessions. Another option is that people can engage in the aspects of an event most valuable to them while opting to spend their other time on other tasks during different portions.

Considerations for Hybrid Events

While hybrid events will be the preferred format for many people, they also do bring some interesting considerations for organizations planning them. For example, planning hybrid events means putting extra effort into the planning. How will events be broadcast for those attending virtually to ensure high quality video and audio? Even after over a year with virtual events, shifting to hybrid events will bring about new considerations for logistics.

Perhaps the most important consideration for planning a hybrid event is how to ensure that virtual attendees are engaged. The last thing anyone wants is to feel like an afterthought simply because they are attending virtually. After all, you don’t want your event to come across as a webinar. You want the virtual audience to feel just as engaged and valued as those attending in person. Encouraging components such as live tweeting can enhance engagement while adding things like special behind the scenes tours or video segments for virtual attendees can make them feel special. Additionally, having virtual breakout rooms for discussions can be valuable.

Another concern is to ensure inclusivity. With hybrid events, there are considerations for your virtual audience including things like ensuring visuals have large fonts with color contrast and clear language. Additionally, ensuring that the presenters understand there are people attending virtually and ensuring to include them in their presentations is an important way to improve the experience.

An interesting consideration is how to best create value for your sponsors or exhibitors. Determining ways to promote sponsor and exhibitor visibility with the virtual crowd at hybrid events can increase engagement by those attending remotely as well as help satisfying sponsors. Consider a virtual showcase where virtual attendees can view information about exhibitors and sign up for more info on products or services they are interested in. Encouraging random drawing giveaways to virtual attendees can also help with this connection.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, the future of event planning will likely include many hybrid events, which has many benefits but also largely requires planning two events at once in many ways. For those wanting to ensure that both in-person and virtual attendees have a great experience, contacting the live event professionals at Virtual Creative Studios will allow you to leverage their knowledge and skill to ensure your virtual guests don’t miss out on the live experience.

ARE YOU READY? SEE HOW WE CAN TAKE YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

© 2021 VIRTUAL CREATIVE STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

6 Ideas To Make Your Virtual Event Pop

6 IDEAS TO MAKE YOUR VIRTUAL

EVENT POP!

Ready to plan your next virtual event? This time, why not shake things up a bit by getting creative with your live event and using a theme to boost audience engagement. Whether you’re hosting a virtual event for your employees or planning a networking opportunity for a particular industry, there are plenty of ways to make your live event stand out and be a memorable occasion.

To get your creativity flowing, here are six out-of-the-box ideas to make your next virtual event pop!

01.

Wine & Question Time


Welcome an industry leader or influencer to your next live event and merge a wine tasting class with a Q&A session. This is a great opportunity to get your event sponsored by a local bar, wine company, or vineyard too. Each guest will be gifted a discount code to order a wine tasting kit or bottle of wine prior to the virtual event. On the day, a sommelier will teach your audience how to taste and identify the different flavor notes of the wine. Then with a glass of wine in hand, they will be ready and relaxed to listen to your guest speaker. This is an excellent way to help everyone feel more at ease and confident speaking up and asking questions. Socialize virtually and learn new skills in this chilled-out and casual question time live event.

02.

Virtual Networking


A live event can be made more interesting by inviting everyone attending to network live using breakout rooms. This feature will automatically pair up participants and create ice breaker questions to encourage engagement and help conversations flow. Virtual networking is a fantastic alternative to the traditional coffee and industry meet-up approach especially for people who are shy.A virtual event allows professionals who find networking a scary prospect to meet other people within their field of work or with a shared interest without forcing themselves into awkward social situations. After a couple of minutes, participants are brought back to the main virtual room before breaking up into small groups once again. This unique dynamic is best for short and sweet conversations, where people can swap contact information if they wish to.

03.

Coffee for Startups & Entrepreneurs


Indulge your love of coffee with a live event that focuses on sharing business ideas whilst enjoying a coffee break. An online coffee event can easily be achieved by sending your participants a free coffee voucher or a bag of coffee from an independent coffee company. Add in a branded mug for additional exposure!Now invite your live event participants to take part in a virtual brain-storm activity to share and develop interesting business ideas as a group. You could ask entrepreneurs to provide their elevator pitch or ask industry leaders to share their thoughts on potential gaps in the market.

04.

Virtual Escape Room


A challenging virtual event theme is an online escape room. Ideal for team-building, bring your employees together and see if they can solve a series of clues, riddles, and puzzles against the clock to win the game. There are several escape room companies now offering live virtual game nights for businesses or groups of friends, or you can make your own and strengthen your team’s ability to work remotely but towards a shared goal.You can use print-off puzzles or hide an Easter egg on a particular website or social media account and ask your entire team to hunt it down. Or to really maximize engagement, add a role-play activity, by giving each virtual event participant a character to play in a murder mystery online game.

05.

Beat Hanger with Home Deliveries


While virtual events are becoming the norm, hunger can quickly disrupt a live event and take away focus from what you’ve got to say. To avoid hanger, the emotional outbursts that can come with being hungry, treat everyone to a home food delivery. Gifting your viewers a voucher so that they can order a takeout of their choice just before your live event, allows you all to dine together and guarantees everyone will be energized and ready to participate.

Top tip: Contact your local food delivery company to see if they’d like to sponsor your virtual event or provide a discount.

06.

Branded Goodie Bags


Finally, we come to branded goodie bags. Everyone loves a free gift, and just because your hosting a virtual event doesn’t mean you can’t provide a physical incentive to sign-up and take part! Ask participants to provide their home address when they sign up for your next live event so that you can send them a branded gift box. Inside each bag or box, provide relevant gifts to your topic of choice or theme. So, let’s say you’re hosting an international business event. Consider vouchers for online language courses, international candy, introduction offers to business software, and unique coffee blends to try from around the world. This incentive not only rewards people for signing up but can also be used to run a competition or giveaway. Consider a scratch card or physical puzzle that everyone needs to do simultaneously during the virtual event to boost your overall engagement rate!

5 Virtual Event Tips For Online Speakers | Virtual Conference Speakers

5 VIRTUAL EVENT TIPS FOR ONLINE SPEAKERS | VIRTUAL CONFERENCE SPEAKERS

If you’ve been invited to speak at a virtual event or virtual conference we’re here to help! As virtual event experts, we know how exciting yet daunting being an online speaker can be. Unlike public speaking where your conversation can naturally flow and you can use members of the audience as focal points, and to provide instant feedback as you speak, virtual events can make this more challenging.

You often won’t be able to see everyone on the virtual event, and this can throw some people off and make online speaking a nerve-wracking experience. But whether you’re representing a brand, your own business, or providing input as an expert within your industry, don’t panic! We’ve put together 5 top tips for online speakers. From filling those awkward moments of silence to using digital background for an office aesthetic illusion, get ready to ooze confidence, professionalism, and passion as an online speaker.

01.

Props for Online Speakers


If you’ve been invited to speak at a virtual event or virtual conference we’re here to help! As virtual event experts, we know how exciting yet daunting being an online speaker can be. Unlike public speaking where your conversation can naturally flow and you can use members of the audience as focal points, and to provide instant feedback as you speak, virtual events can make this more challenging. You often won’t be able to see everyone on the virtual event, and this can throw some people off and make online speaking a nerve-wracking experience. But whether you’re representing a brand, your own business, or providing input as an expert within your industry, don’t panic! We’ve put together 5 top tips for online speakers. From filling those awkward moments of silence to using digital background for an office aesthetic illusion, get ready to ooze confidence, professionalism, and passion as an online speaker.

02.

Remember to Breath


Having a glass of water, coffee, or notepad to hand as an online speaker will help fill awkward moments of silence. These gaps within a conversation can feel more intense during a virtual event but there are simple ways to fill up these moments and give yourself time to think and consider a new conversation starter, or another point you’d like to make. As you take a sip of your drink or look as though you are making some notes, this gives a visual cue to other people on the call to talk or perhaps as you a question. If no-one speaks, that’s OK, you can just say a one-liner such as ‘one moment, let me just have a quick sip of my coffee’ and take a moment to yourself to relax and calm your nerves.

03.

Use Virtual Backgrounds


If you, unfortunately, don’t have an aesthetically pleasing home office or room at home that you’d like to show-off while speaking at a virtual conference, you can use a faux background instead. Virtual backgrounds provide a digital illusion and conceal anything you’d prefer your virtual conference or event viewers not to see. From general clutter to family life going on in the background, add a professional, minimalist office background to your presentation or talk. Backdrops can also be branded which is ideal if you want to maximize this opportunity to increase your brand awareness.

04.

Let There Be Light


Lighting can make a huge difference to the look and feel of your live video stream. If you’re presenting as an online speaker at a virtual event, you might want to invest in LEDs to add warmth to your room. A simple string of warm light LEDs can make your video feed look more inviting, or you can get creative with colored lights. Take this a step further by choosing LEDs in your brand colors to really promote your business during a virtual conference. Carefully placed lights can also draw attention to certain things in the background of your room such as branded pop-up banners, a whiteboard for presenting and writing down ideas, or perhaps awards that you have on display.

05.

Prepare Your Voice to Speak


Whether you’re public speaking or you’re going to be an online speaker at a virtual conference, preparing your voice is key. Apart from having the right equipment to speak online such as a microphone, camera, and lighting, you’ll also need to make sure your voice is ready to present. Warming up your voice a couple of minutes before going live will prevent any squeaky high-pitched notes. A great warm-up method for online speakers is to hum a song, taking steady breaths as you go, and changing from a ‘hmmmm’ to an ‘ahhhhh’ sound halfway through. You should also rehearse your introduction and greeting so that you start strong and with high energy. Remember to speak passionately about your points, and ask for input from others. By engaging your online audience you can give yourself opportunities to catch your breath, relax and then start talking once again.

Commencement Planning – Being Prepared

COMMENCEMENT PLANNING-

BE PREPARED!

We all know that graduation is a huge milestone in students’ lives and it should be celebrated with all the pomp and circumstance. However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the rules and regulations for gatherings of people has been changing by the day. Your school’s traditional graduation ceremony was probably in place for many years, most likely it is very different now. That’s where we come in, we want to help you mitigate risk while also still celebrating your students and their hard earned accomplishments.

Review our tips on ways that Vizzi can help you stay prepared during your graduation planning.

02.

Determine your Timeline and Budget

When planning out your graduation it is always best to keep your timeline in mind. Not only for planning purposes but also for budgetary purposes.

Given that rules and restrictions change by the day it can be hard to commit to specific vendors by the needed deadlines and typically when planning last minute, that can cause the cost to increase. All of these reasons are why Vizzi offers a flat platform fee and then you can pick and choose which modules you specifically need for your graduation.

Also, Vizzi can be configured and ready to go within 3 weeks.

03.

Always Have a Plan B.  

In today’s world where things are changing by minute it can be difficult to know what to expect. That is why we always recommend having a Plan B.

We know that having your traditional in-person ceremony is your ideal experience and while you can plan for that, it is best to have something in the event that it can no longer take place.

Vizzi offers solutions for both in-person and virtual solutions and can help you plan for contingencies so that we can in the event of a last minute switch, we are ready to move on our Plan B.

Ready to start planning your graduation? Our team is ready to help!

ARE YOU READY? SEE HOW WE CAN TAKE YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

© 2020 VIRTUAL CREATIVE STUDIOS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

5 Tips To Make The Best Virtual Trade Show Booth

5 TIPS TO MAKE THE BEST VIRTUAL TRADE SHOW BOOTH

What if you could get all the benefits of having a booth at a major trade show without ever leaving your office?

Well, you can. Even before COVID sent us into quarantine and cancelled in-person events, virtual trade shows helped connect buyers and vendors across the globe without firing up a single jet engine.

As technology improves, virtual trade shows are becoming more and more popular across industries. So if you haven’t already, it’s time to learn how to create the perfect virtual trade show booth. And lucky for you, we’re going to tell you how to do just that.

What Is A Virtual Trade Show?

You’re probably familiar with the idea of “regular” trade shows, and have most likely been to quite a few. But what’s all this about virtual trade shows?

Well, a virtual trade show is a sort of digital replacement for trade shows. They’ve become more and more popular since COVID-19 hit, but they were around before then, too. Like other virtual events, they’re great because they’re often more cost effective and accessible to a much wider audience.

A virtual trade show is an online event that runs for a limited amount of time with the goal of connecting exhibitors and visitors. It’s sort of like an online hub where visitors who are interested in a particular niche or industry can find out more about your services and products.

What Is A Virtual Trade Show Booth?

A virtual trade booth gets you a space on the digital stage at the trade show. Your “booth” is an online space for visitors to learn more about your product or service through videos, audio, and text. You can even include a chat bot or live chat features to talk with visitors in real time. Or you can funnel them to a form or link so you can contact them later.

Typically, there are two different types of trade show booths.:3-D Booth Modeling: These events try to use 3-D modeling to recreate the look and feel of an actual trade show booth.Page-based Design: A page-based virtual trade show lets exhibitors create a website or webpage to educate visitors.

5 Tips and Tricks For The Best Virtual Trade Show Booth

Now that you know the basics of virtual trade shows, it’s time to learn how to make your virtual trade show booth better than all the competition.

01.

Start Before The Event


If your plan to attract and convert visitors starts on the morning of the virtual trade show, you’re already behind. You want to start wooing visitors as soon as possible! That means doing everything you can to capture their attention and make them want to visit your booth.

To get some exposure, ask the event host about sponsorship opportunities and putting your logo on the event website. You could also sponsor a pre-event email so attendees know to look out for your booth. And don’t forget to send an email marketing campaign inviting any leads you have who might be attending to visit your virtual booth.

02.

Know Your Audience


This is another thing to check off the list way before the event starts. Any event veteran knows that the key to trade show success is knowing your audience. Somethings to research are:

  • Audience demographics (gender, location, age, etc.)
  • Pain points
  • Values and interests
  • Product needs

The more you understand your audience, the better you can deliver content that interests, educates, or helps them. It can even help you figure out the best way to deliver that content, whether it be through videos, text, live demonstrations, or one-on-one convos.

And don’t forget the old saying, “keep your friends close but your enemies closer.” It’s also a good idea to know your competition. Who else has a virtual booth at the event? What are their value propositions and how can you better your booth?

03.

Top-Notch Visuals


First impressions matter, so you want the visuals of your virtual booth to impress the visitor and encourage them to spend more time with you. It’s important to take the time to make a well-designed, attractive booth for the event. That means using brand colors, modern designs, and high quality images. People want to see what they’re buying, so make sure to have plenty of product images on hand to help them imagine using it themselves.

This isn’t shallow–it’s part of your brand. People base part of their opinion of you on how your virtual trade show booth looks because it’s a reflection of how you work. If it’s modern, informative, and clean, then that reflects well on you. If it’s sloppy, old-fashioned, or hard to understand, people won’t even bother spending the time getting to know your company.

04.

Make Sure Everything Runs Smoothly


Now that your virtual trade show booth looks great, it’s time to make sure it works just as well. It’s important to make sure the user experience (UX) of your booth is smooth and pleasant. The goal is to have users enjoy visiting your virtual booth, so it needs to run quickly, be easy to navigate, and have appropriate functions.

On the other hand, having responsive content and interactive tools at your virtual trade show booth can help send you above and beyond the other vendors. You want your booth to be memorable for the right reasons.

So before the event launches, make sure to test-drive your virtual booth from the POV of an event visitor. Check for all the little details, from spelling errors to coding mistakes. You want to give the impression that you’re meticulous and do quality work.

05.

Get The Conversation Going


If your event offers instant messenger or live group chat features, make sure to use them to the fullest extent. The point of a trade show–virtual or not–is to make connections with people who are interested in your products or service. Real-time messaging helps you communicate with them and start to form a relationship.

It’s also important to let visitors talk amongst themselves. You can monitor the chat to figure out what their first impressions, pain points, and concerns are.

Need Help With Your Virtual Trade Show Booth?

If you’re not exactly tech savvy or you’re just too busy to create the perfect virtual booth, it’s time to call in the professionals. Our team of virtual event pros can help you with everything and anything for your virtual trade show.

Call or email us today to learn more about what we can do for you!

How To Create Amazing Content For your Virtual Event: 5 Tips and Tools

HOW TO CREATE AMAZING CONTENT FOR YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT,

5 TIPS & TOOLS!

It’s pretty safe to say that “Zoom fatigue” was one of the most used phrases in 2020. And as virtual event planners, we understand why. After almost a year of quarantining and cancelled events, our industry has missed the mark with most virtual events.

Even though we have some seriously cool and cutting-edge technology, most virtual events end up being last minute quick fixes that are more likely to bore the audience than inspire them.

But in 2021, we’re saying that enough is enough. We won’t settle for less anymore when it comes to planning and executing exciting, intriguing, and beautiful events.

So, to help reach that goal, here’s our 5 tips, tricks, and tools to make next-level content for your virtual event.

How To Create Killer Content For Virtual EventS

01.

Go Back to Storytelling


If you want to put on a great virtual event with fantastic content, the first thing you need to do is go back to storytelling. Storytelling is the foundation of our jobs. Events let the audience experience the story for themselves.

When virtual events become boring and lifeless, it’s because we forgot to tell a story. When you’re not storytelling, all you’re doing is dumping information on them. It’s like the difference between reading a novel and reading the phone book. They’re just not the same.

So before you do anything else, you need to figure out what story your event is trying to tell. And then build your content strategy off of achieving that goal.

02.

Get the Right Tools


Back in February of 2020, it might have been excusable to think that virtual events were just a temporary replacement for live events that didn’t require any major investment. But by now it’s obvious that virtual events are here to stay, pandemic or not. And if you want to make them any good, you’re going to have to invest in the right tools.

It’s time to say goodbye to the belief that virtual events are always majorly cheaper than in- person events. Sometimes you have to make a calculated investment to put on the best virtual event possible–in the same way that you would invest in a venue or caterer for a live event.

When it comes to must-have tools for putting on a high-quality virtual event, this list is a good place to start:

  • Green screens-If you’re planning on doing some post-production work, green screens are a great investment. After recording you can insert maps, graphs, videos, and other interactive features that will bring your content to life.
  • Microphones-When you’re recording sound, external microphones are a must. If you’re laying down an audio track, an XLR microphone would work. But when you’re videoing a speaker, it’s best to have lavalier microphones that can clip to their shirt and record their voice no matter where they are. Crisp, clean audio is a gamechanger for virtual content.
  • Video editing software-If you want to edit your videos in-house, do yourself a favor and invest in video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. You might also need to invest in a computer that can handle the video-editing in the first place.
  • Lighting–If you’re shooting professional video content for your virtual event, lighting is a must. Depending on your budget and needs, this could be anything from a ring light so a soft light set-up or even studio lights. The right lighting will take your content from “home video” to “professional presentation” just like that. 

03.

Know Your Audience


There’s one simple rule to remember when you’re figuring out what content to produce for your virtual event: know thy audience.

After all, the audience is the focus of the event. So when you’re picking speakers, brainstorming topics, and creating content, you need to always keep them in mind. Some things to know about your audience are:

  • Pain points
  • Concerns
  • Goals
  • Aspirations
  • Education
  • Job level

At the end of the day, you’re putting on an event to serve the audience. The more you know about them the more successful you’re going to be–because that’s how you get genuine engagement. 

04.

Switch Things Up


After a year of Zoom meetings and webinar overload, most people are sick of sitting in front of their computers watching people talk. But don’t take that as defeat. Instead, you just need to be a little creative and find ways to keep people interested and engaged.

One way to do that is to vary the type and tone of your content. Nobody wants to watch a video of someone reading off of a PowerPoint for an hour. Encourage your speakers and content creators to break up their presentations with Q and A sessions, short videos, or graphics. And don’t forget to spice things up with real-life stories and context; like we said before, it’s all about storytelling.

05.

Warm Up the Crowd


Sometimes at a live event, a video will play before a presentation giving context or preparing the audience for what’s coming next.

Creating these little videos for your virtual event is a thoughtful touch that can whet the audience’s appetite for the upcoming presentation. And when your event has attendees with wide ranges of experience or expertise, contextual videos can help bring everyone up to speed.

Making Content For Your Next Virtual Event

If you want to create amazing content for your virtual event, there are 2 things to keep in mind: Know your audience, and tell a story. If you do that, you’ll be able to create amazing content that your audience actually cares about. So spend the time getting to know your audience and the story you’re telling and your virtual event will have some seriously incredible content.

Need some help along the way? That’s what we’re here for.

Contact us today for help planning and executing your next virtual event!

Why Event Pros Are Obsessed With Virtual Events: 6 Benefits & Advantages

Why Event Pros Are Obsessed With Virtual Events: 6 Benefits & Advantages

If you’re like one of the thousands of people who has switched to virtual working, learning, and socializing since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in February of 2020, you’re probably used to one thing: Zoom fatigue.

Zoom fatigue can feel like burnout, anxiety, and feelings of being overwhelmed or unproductive. And thanks to the recent increase in digital communication because of COVID, it might seem like virtual events are the last thing your target audience would want to attend right now. But we’re here to remind everyone that virtual events don’t have to be a drag.

In fact, when they’re done right, they can even be better than in-person events! And despite the uptick in zoom fatigue, marketing and event professionals still reap major benefits from hosting online events.

Virtual Events By The Numbers


Before we dig into the many reasons that marketing and event professionals love virtual events, let’s look at the cold hard facts. If you still need convincing that virtual events aren’t going anywhere soon, here’s some quick numbers that might help change your mind:

This year, Adobe hosted their annual Summit entirely online and shattered previous attendance records. Over 500,000 people went to the virtual Summit–16 times more than usual.

80% of marketers predict that they will produce more virtual events in the coming years.

In 2020, the number of organizations that put on virtual events doubled.

84% of virtual events cost less than their in-person counterparts.

80% of survey respondents claim to have reached more of their audience via virtual events than in person events. Now that we got those numbers out of the way, here are just a few of the many benefits of virtual events that will stick along long after COVID is gone.

Now that we got those numbers out of the way, here are just a few of the many benefits of virtual events that will stick along long after COVID is gone.

6 Reasons Pros Love Virtual Events

01.

Save Money


In business, it all comes down to the bottom line. So one of the biggest reasons event professionals love virtual events is because they cost much less than traditional in-person events.With virtual events, you don’t have to pay for hotels, venues, or catering–all of which can end up costing a hefty chunk of change. Saving money on virtual events can be great for marketing departments that are seeing their budgets slashed due to COVID-19. More than half of event marketers surveyed believe their 2021 budgets will be smaller, so it’s a good idea to start planning now.

02.

Save Time and Money


Do you find that the closer you get to an event, the less work your team actually has time to do? Planning and producing a major in-person event takes a lot of work–loading up products, shepherding people, setting up signage, and rearranging rooms can take days, depending on the size of the venue and event. On average, it takes half the time to plan a virtual event (4

weeks compared to 8). Plus, small virtual events can take as little as 2 weeks to plan! So if you’re low on man-power and time, a virtual event is the way to go.

03.

Better for Attendees


Right now, travel for events is pretty impossible, let alone risky. In normal times, travel can still be expensive, time-consuming, and just plain annoying for event attendees and speakers alike.

One of the best ways to boost your attendance is to make your event easy to attend, and virtual events take the win in this category. It’s much easier for a busy executive to tune into your conference online in between meetings than it would be for them to catch a flight to your city. With virtual events, you can avoid all sorts of barriers to high attendance, including geographical distance, travel expenses, and tight schedules. In one survey, 80% of respondents said they were able to reach more of their audience via virtual events than in person events.

04.

More Feedback


If there’s one thing marketers and event professional love, it’s feedback–ideally in the form of cold, hard data. And virtual events offer plenty of data to look through.

Depending on your virtual event platform, you can get data about attendance levels, guest satisfaction, which topics garnered the most interest, and more. While you may get some feedback from in-person attendees about their thoughts and feelings about the events, it can’t beat the data that virtual platforms can offer.With virtual events, you can record all presentations to go over later and find places to improve.

Best of all, personalized data from attendees can help you follow up with qualified sales prospects.

05.

Get Better Speakers


If you’re trying to find superstar speakers for your conference or event, you know how difficult it can be to get A-listers on your line-up. But even major influencers in your field are likely to be more interested in speaking at virtual events rather than in-person ones.

Things like travel and time away from the office make in-person presenting undesirable to C- level execs and other speakers. With a virtual event, it’s easy for them to log on to the presentation from the comfort of their home or office. For the speaker, there’s a big difference between a 60 minute commitment for a virtual presentation and a 2 day trip to an in-person event.

06.

Easy to Evolve


As we all know after the COVID pandemic, circumstances can change quickly and drastically. If something major happens, it’s harder to pivot in-person events than virtual events. If a speaker gets sick, a venue has to close, or a massive pandemic sweeps the globe, it’s difficult to change plans for an in-person event.

You might have to cancel the entire event and lose non-refundable deposits!

But even if those things happen, you can still host your virtual event with just a few tweaks. Virtual events have a lot of flexibility, so you can rest easy knowing that everything won’t come crashing down due to an unforeseeable issue.

Plan Your Virtual Event Today!

Even if you’re all Zoomed out after 2020, virtual events don’t have to be a drag. As you can see from this list, there’s plenty of reasons everyone–from event professionals to speakers and attendees–loves virtual events. Need help planning your next virtual event?

Get in touch with our team to see just how much your organization can benefit from a well-planned and produced virtual event.

Call or email us today to request a Demo!

Out Of The Box Ideas To Promote Your Brand During A Live Event

Out Of The Box Ideas To Promote Your Brand During A Live Event!

Hosting a virtual event can be a lot of fun, but to make the most out of this live opportunity you need to learn how to incorporate branding and smash marketing goals. Since you have your target audience’s full attention during a virtual event, every second counts. This is one of the most valuable resources you have to market your business and maximize brand awareness. While talking about your business is important, it can start to sound salesy and can sometimes put viewers off your brand. Instead, you need to get creative when it comes to promoting your brand. So, here are some out of the box ideas to make sure your brand pops during your next virtual event!

Here are 6 creative and interesting ways to promote your brand without giving your viewers an elevator pitch.

01.

Set The Scene With A Branded Background


Thanks to technology, you now have the opportunity to create a branded background for your live event. This visual reminder can include brand colors, a logo or a key marketing message. Setting the scene to your virtual event, a branded background will enhance brand visibility, and can also be pretty eye catching too. However this requires some thought! A branded background should be attractive but not too distracting. Avoid dark colors or busy patterns and opt for light and bright designs with clear branding or a short and snappy slogan. When looking at ways to brand your event, make sure you look into different platforms and their capabilities to be able to showcase your brand.

02.

Introduce An Influential Guest Speaker


Depending on the industry you’re in, a virtual event can be difficult to promote, especially if your subject is serious. To attract guests to sign up and attend your live event, secure an influential and exciting guest speaker, but hide their identity until the big day.

This will create a buzz about your event and encourage sign ups. During the live event, you can surprise your audience with the speaker and host a Q&A session. Allow the guest to share their thoughts, opinions and stories with your audience. By securing an exciting and influential guest speaker, you are showing your guests that your brand has power and influence in the industry and worth paying attention to.

03.

Maximize Social Media


Leverage social media to maximize brand awareness during a virtual event. Ask guests to head over to one of your social media accounts as part of a live competition.

Follow all guests from your brand’s social media account as a way of showing your appreciation for their time during the event. Run a social media Q&A via social media for your guest speaker. These techniques will help your guests to become more comfortable when engaging with your brand via social media and will help boost your followers too.

Certain platforms will also be able to display your social media sites live on their platform, which is a great way to keep your attendees engaged.

04.

Share you history to Promote Your Brand


We all love a good story every now and again, so consider sharing the story of your brand and business with your guests. By revealing unknown information and personal stories with your virtual event audience, they will start to feel closer to you and develop brand loyalty.

Consider starting with how far you’ve come as a brand and discuss the hurdles you have had to overcome. Ask if anyone can relate and start a discussion. Storytelling really is an art form, but when you master this craft and you can become seriously influential while hosting a live event. If you struggle to tell your story, take advantage of power-points, videos and pictures to help you paint a picture. 

05 .

Send Guests Branded Goodies


A branded goodie bag is an exciting out of the box idea to promote your brand during a virtual event. Certain virtual event companies even have branding opportunities that can be paired with their management or platform services.

By gifting guests a physical treat, the overall experience becomes more enjoyable and engaging. Consider branded items that your guests can use or enjoy during the virtual event such as hot chocolate, coffee, tea bags, cookies and a branded mug. Or if you really want to impress during a live event, why not gift your guests a food delivery gift card so that you can host a ‘Have dinner with me’ style event.

Let’s be honest, guests who are digging into delicious snacks or a take out are going to be more engaged and happy to be there than those who are starting to get hungry.


06.

Make Things Competitive


Competitions and giveaways are a great way to boost engagement as well as brand awareness during a virtual event. If there is a chance to win something expensive or exciting, you’ll bet more people will sign up to your live event. When choosing the right competition for your branded event, make sure the prize ties in nicely with your brand.

Let’s say your a health and wellness company, consider a yoga retreat for two or mindful meditation class. If you are a private dentist, perhaps you could giveaway a teeth whitening kit or electric toothbrush.