Virtual event planning is tasking and demands you set a necessary checklist before D’Day in order to successfully host and conduct a virtual event. Many industry experts have come to terms with virtual events, and there is unanimity that virtual events, though not as popular pre-COVID-19 Pandemic, have now come to stay.  

The emergence of Virtual events has not jettisoned attendance of in-person events but it creates more flexibility, and the number of attendees of events planned and conducted virtually has increased by 35%. The numbers we estimate will go up by 2025 through the introduction of more seamless virtual events technologies. 

The key elements you should know before we list out the complete guide to virtual events planning was given life to by Industry expert Laurent Chrétien – General Director, Laval Virtual, in a community discussion thus; 

Key elements of virtual event planning  

• Engagement:  

Since a virtual event will have attendees sitting at their various locations to attend your event, you must ensure you replicate the interaction that in-person events create. To do this, have break-out sessions, ensure you understand how to present data effectively and employ other engagement mechanisms for a successful virtual event. Check out how to make virtual meetings more interactive for more insights. 

• Reduces Barrier: 

Prior to the adoption of virtual events by a wide population of the world, there were many barriers to in-person events. Think about the cost and stress of hotel reservations. How to plan your schedule so you have unbillable hours to travel and attend events, and the cost of transportation, among others. Then for you, the event planner, the cost of hiring professional speakers, and attendee planning were bottlenecks associated with in-person events.  

Now, virtual events have come to reduce those barriers by a large percentage. You can source talents around the world to guest-speak at your virtual events, plus your attendees do not have to bother about travel costs and hotel reservations. 

• Quality of the Virtual Space: 

It is agreeable that you are not sourcing venues with parking space, expensive food and catering services, good decoration, lighting, capacity, and a lot more for virtual events. But the experience and quality of the virtual space cannot be compromised. You must choose the right platform and technology to host your virtual events. This can be determined by how many people the platform can accommodate, the technical support available during the event, and other presentation tools. 

Though your attendees may not be present, you must ensure the quality feel is not compromised. 

• Create Value: 

What is your value proposition for the virtual event you plan? Have it at the back of your mind that there are several virtual events flying around the internet being organized by different businesses whether in the same industry as you or other industries. How do you stand out? Attendees, quite intelligent as ever, act smart when they choose or subscribe to virtual events. And the criteria they use revolve around the value and experience they get from your virtual events.  

If you want to stand out, you must think beyond the numbers that attend your events. First, focus on creating value, then attendees will multiply more than you can begin to imagine. 

Tips for a Successful Virtual Event Planning 

• Determine your audience: 

One of the most important steps in virtual event planning is to understand and determine who your audiences are. That will put you on the right track when it comes to topics you choose for your events, the marketing and advertising source, and the medium to quickly buy their attention. The audience segmentation will help you determine if they are more predisposed to attending a virtual event or whether they are tech-savvy.  

Unsure how to conduct audience segmentation? Socialtables recommends sending surveys to your target audience wherever they live to get valuable information to guide your virtual event planning. 

• Choose a Platform: 

With a plethora of virtual events technologies in the market, your projected attendees or registration will help you choose what platform is best for your event. The most popular virtual events hosting technologies are Facebook Livestream, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Periscope. These virtual events platforms have unique features but mostly work in the same manner. The choice is yours to determine the best for your events.  

People Connect recommends you consider the level of live event support among the criteria you use to arrive at your decision. 

• Set goals and objectives: 

You must set clear goals for your virtual events and what you aim to achieve at the end of the event. Is it more sales? Or business networking? You must set goals, as that is the only way to track the performance of your virtual events. 

When the objectives have been set, assign tasks to your team to ensure everyone is working towards achieving the same purpose. Your marketing, content, and support team must be clear on what is expected of them for the success of the event. 

• Choose your speaker: 

The best speaker for any virtual event must be renowned for his ability to engage your audience and communicate your brand concisely. Banzai says the best host for your virtual event is one with a great personality, who commands attention from your attendees and exudes confidence. 

We say a good speaker is one who is established in the industry, makes your attendee Oliver Twist, and is willing to attend your virtual events again. 

• Promote your Event: 

Whether people choose to attend your event or not depends on how much awareness you create for it. If you are already established in the virtual event planning industry, then you need not worry about promotion. However, for startups and medium-scale event planners, creating awareness determines the success or failure of your virtual events. We guess you would not want to let all your planning go to waste. Hence, we recommend you channel the same energy used in drawing up your virtual event ideas to promote your virtual events across all platforms and all mediums where your potential attendees are found. 

• Feedback: 

Feedback is expedient to the success of your next virtual event. Make it a tradition to send out feedback forms immediately at the close of your virtual events to gather information on what your attendees have to say about your event. It is necessary that this be done timely when the experience is still fresh in the minds of your attendees, as you will gather genuine feedback vital to your next virtual event planning. 

• Measure your success: 

The data from the feedback forms will help you gauge the success of your event and the gray areas that you can pinpoint for improvement. This is imperative for event planners who want to stay relevant in the industry and have a larger audience base. This will create referrals for their brands.  

Conclusion

To round up, virtual events planning requires as much dedication as in-person events, and the key to success is to know the key elements of virtual events and the tips discussed above. That information will increase your brand awareness and triple the number of attendees to your virtual events.