Introduction
If there’s anything meeting and event planners today know to be true, it’s that making connections in-person is a powerful thing. But for a variety of reasons, it’s not always easy or achievable to bring people together in the same space. It’s why virtual and hybrid events have become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason. 카지노사이트
Virtual events not only help planners expand their audience and promote inclusivity, but they can be an effective way to increase revenue and track key data about your audience. Despite these positives, however, there’s still a lot of planners that don’t know about hosting events online or adding virtual components to their in-person events.
In this guide, we’ll explore everything planners need to know about virtual events, from why they should consider hosting a virtual event, to what a virtual experience is actually like and how to make it a success.
What is a Virtual Event
Virtual events, in their simplest definition, are events held online. Virtual events are events that are completely hosted and run online with the potential for attendees to view or participate from anywhere in the world. Virtual events typically consist of an agenda with single or multiple-track presentation sessions and/or collaborative sessions. These sessions are all streamed online.
Types of Virtual Events
Virtual events, like in-person events, can cover anything, but typically there are four types of virtual events: virtual conferences, webinars, internal hybrid events, and external hybrid events.
What is a Virtual Meeting Platform?
With so many people working remotely, meetings today are likely to take place on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Webex. Meeting platforms are great for hosting interactive sessions with audience participation. They also enable you to break up sessions into smaller groups. The platforms are typically used company-wide and managed by the IT department. Unlike virtual events or webinars, these gatherings are often internal with no specific marketing goal. 안전한카지노사이트
What is a Webinar Platform?
A webinar is like a virtual seminar. This format has been around for 20 years, and no wonder. It’s a great way to share content with external audiences. Typically, a webinar offers basic registration for a single session with a marketing objective. Organizations count on webinars to build awareness, establish thought leadership, boost conversions, and more. Because webinars tailor to a different audience than meetings, webinar platforms offer more attendee tracking capabilities.
What is a Hybrid Event?
At Aventri, we strongly believe that, although virtual events are insanely popular right now, the events industry will ultimately move towards hybrid events. A hybrid event is a combination of a virtual and an in-person event where attendees can either attend the event in-person or attend the event virtually and/or online from around the world.
Advantages of Hosting Virtual Events
For most planners, going virtual is still a foreign concept. After all, if bringing people together in-person is the preferred option, why should planners even consider organizing an event that takes place online? Many planners are also wondering if they can reach the same level of engagement or reach their revenue goals as they would with a traditional event. The truth is there are several benefits to going virtual that may not be well-known throughout the industry. Below are five benefits of hosting virtual and hybrid conferences:
Expand Your Audience & Inclusivity
A common misconception about virtual events is that they take away from an organization’s audience from in-person events. But in fact, virtual events have the opposite effect. From financial and budgetary issues to health reasons and disabilities, attending in-person events can be difficult for many. Having a virtual event pass to your in-person event, for example, allows people with personal or logistical challenges to be included, adding an element of inclusivity to your strategy. Especially if the issue for not attending an event is financial, allowing people to attend virtually for the first time may also be the selling point to get them to make a larger investment in your event in the future. 카지노사이트 추천
Save Time & Money with Logistics
Virtual events can be a great option for meeting and event planners dealing with shrinking budgets. In fact, virtual events are about 75% less expensive than in-person experiences, as planners typically save money on staff, venue, setup and takedown, accommodations, meals, travel costs, and more. At a minimum, the only thing planners have to worry about paying for is the cost of their virtual meeting platform. Planners also typically save a lot of time on logistics when hosting a virtual event compared to a live experience. Although virtual events do require some setup time (e.g. event website, registration, event marketing, and promotion, etc.) and some extra coordinating with presenters, it’s tremendously less than that of an in-person event. Overall, virtual events are a great option for organizations facing budgetary constraints or that need a quick turnaround time.
Event Flexibility
Have you considered the flexibility in not having your event grounded to one singular physical venue? What if it was possible to have a fully branded, multi-use event space that is accessible 365 days a year, at any time, from any location worldwide? With virtual events, this is the reality. Because virtual events take place online, you have a lot of flexibility in how you broadcast your event. Whether you’re hosting a thought leadership conference, a virtual town hall, a sales kickoff, or another type of event, you can choose to make the sessions interactive, offer different language options, invite guest speakers, and more. Providing you with the ultimate event flexibility, not only as the event host but also for your attendees.
Collect Powerful Data
Collecting and measuring feedback and engagement is crucial for all types of events. But a challenge for in-person events is getting people to participate and to actually use tools to help track such key KPIs, such as mobile event apps, surveys, etc. This is where virtual events have an advantage, as all attendees have to do is use your online platform and all of its engagement tools in order to participate; plus it’s done entirely in real-time for all participants. Not only will this real-time feedback help presenters gauge how their session is going (which is especially valuable since these presenters cannot see attendees’ faces during some virtual events), but it will also be useful to measure the overall success of a virtual event. Although the data that virtual events produce varies depending on what platform and event management software you use, it should be easier to gather certain data on your event and attendees during your virtual event than an in-person event. For instance, you can know when your attendees logged on, from where, the number of people attending, how they are paying, and so much more.
Event Back-up Plan
The future of virtual events will become a common aspect of any meeting or event. With event turn-around times as low as two days, virtual events will be in every event planner’s back pocket for when an event must be unexpectedly canceled, postponed, or have a large reduction in attendance. Including virtual components or having a partner at the ready to help your in-person event transition into virtual, is a must and maybe the key to saving your event.