An engaged audience is a happy audience, whether right there in front of you or participating remotely. So, how do you ensure you create an engaging event with opportunities for audience engagement or interaction? Here are some tips from the Innereactive team!

Choose an Engaging Speaker

Select a speaker with experience and great reviews to present to live and virtual audiences. The speaker you choose can truly make or break your event! If you are looking for help selecting the perfect event speaker, we can help! Beyond a wide connection of industry speakers, we are lucky to have Samantha Toth, ABOC, as the President of Innereactive. Samantha is highly praised for being a highly engaging speaker, lecturing internationally, and teaching executives proven marketing and company culture strategies.

Presentation Tips to Create an Engaging Event

The presentation they are giving to your audience is just as crucial as your speaker. Add live or virtual polling to keep your audience engaged throughout the entire event. The key to this is to ensure all attendees can see the results after everyone has had a chance to answer.

Spotlight Vendors & Sponsors

When hosting a live in-person event, you are presented with many touchpoints to build an engaging event. From how you set up the classroom, brand signage, provide presentation takeaways, and highlight vendors, you have ample opportunity to improve audience engagement.

For example, if your live event includes vendors selling/promoting their products and services, help them create a more engaging event with these ideas.

• Provide ad space within the handout or share their takeaway with the audience from your vendor.
• Allow your vendor to share a product sample with attendees.
• Have your vendor host a short workshop on utilizing their technology.
• Highlight your vendor’s name and contact information within the presentation.
• Give your vendor time before or after your presentation to introduce themselves and allow the audience to ask questions.

Breaks Can Help Create an Engaging Event

If your presentation lasts 2+ hours, don’t forget to allot time for breaks. Let your virtual and live attendees know when to expect the next break. Providing a timeline in the event reminder email so they know the schedule can help improve engagement during the event.

These breaks are a perfect opportunity to answer audience questions or discuss more individualized recommendations based on your specific audience. Don’t let your audience sit in silence! Move around, introduce yourself, and meet your attendees to boost engagement. During your break, don’t forget to share an event-specific hashtag so they can take pictures and share them online!

Handouts & Breakouts For Virtual Events

Prepare your virtual event by distributing handouts or helpful materials ahead of the event so attendees can print them ahead of time or view them electronically during the live stream session. Another option, if you can’t email ahead of time, is to create a QR code for downloadable handouts at the beginning of your presentation.

Breakouts aren’t just for live sessions anymore! Zoom has developed opportunities for virtual attendees to split up into virtual breakout sessions, too. For more detailed information on how to execute virtual breakouts, read about it here.

How did you do?

Your event is complete. Now what? We recommend always measuring the success of your event by surveying all attendees! Add a QR code on your presentation for easy link access allowing participants to provide candid feedback about their experience. Use this information to learn and improve all future events!

If you prefer to hand off the event planning to experts, our team is well-equipped with the experience needed to ensure your engaging event is executed successfully.

Marisa Lyon
Marisa is the Finance and Marketing Manager at Innereactive, and we are so grateful to have her. She enjoys helping businesses find the right solution for their marketing needs.

What is a Hybrid event?

Hybrid events are the sweet spot between live and virtual events. They allow you to appeal to a broader audience: those that want the in-person experience and those who prefer to enjoy the event behind the comfort of their screen. We’ll discuss how you plan and execute an event like this, the technology should you use, and some hybrid event best practices. 

Prefer to hand off the planning to some experts? We can help! With 14+ years of experience in the event industry, our team is here to ensure your hybrid event is executed successfully. Reach out here for more information!

Planning Your Hybrid Event

Organizing a live event requires more lead time than putting together a virtual-only event because you have to consider the venue, lodging, food & beverage, room layout, etc. Therefore, you’ll need to begin planning for the live event portion first, then incorporate the virtual event technology. Make sure your venue is well equipped with audio/visual and high-speed internet accessibility. 

Marketing

We suggest using social media and email marketing to promote your hybrid event. When doing so, clearly emphasize your event’s accessibility to potential attendees by letting them know they can attend in person or virtually. Highlight the in-person and virtual attendee event experience, so attendees know what to expect and that they’ll be able to benefit from attending this event however they choose. 

Registration

Registration happens all in one place! Set up a single electronic registration system for your event that takes all hybrid attendees to one site. Then, allow them to answer questions on how they plan to attend. This will provide separate attendee lists, allowing you to communicate customized event expectations to all attendees. 

Marrying The Virtual & Live Environment

When it comes to virtual events, we believe live streaming the presentation is the way to go. However, that method might not work for all events. If necessary, prepare pre-recorded presentations for your virtual attendees. If you choose to live stream the event, Zoom has developed wonderful live streaming capabilities. 

Build an events team because the speaker can’t do it all. Allow the live speaker to focus on their presentation to both audiences by providing them with a support person to manage the virtual attendee chat, Q&A and polls. Develop an efficient communication system that allows the speaker to receive online questions and comments alongside their live audience questions. At the live event, designate one screen for the speaker’s presentation and another screen for the support person to manage and present the virtual attendees’ live chat, questions, and poll results. Provide your virtual attendees with access to all of this information so they feel just as included. This is a great way to connect virtual attendees with their live counterparts.

Practice makes perfect! 

Set yourself up for success by testing the live and virtual technology together in a practice session. Can your virtual audience clearly hear the presenter during this audio check? Make sure the live AV is connected to a virtual microphone so that all attendees feel as though they’re being directly spoken to. 

Prefer to hand off the hybrid event planning to some experts? Our team is well equipped with the experience needed to ensure your hybrid event is executed successfully.

The wonderfully collaborative community of live events came to a halt for us all in 2020. Over the past few years, we have learned to embrace a virtual environment for our internal teams and our external event goals. If you’re facing the challenge of taking your already planned live event virtual, here are our tips and tricks!

From In-Person to Virtual Events

If you have a pre-existing live event booked that needs to be converted to virtual, make sure you understand and have read through your facility contract.

• Are you canceling soon enough to get some or all of your deposit back?
• Remember, the sooner you cancel the facility, the better!
• If you weren’t doing it before, make sure you’re now reading the fine details before ever signing anything.

No live event means you’ll no longer need to worry about food & beverage, room setup, AV, accommodations, covid-safety precautions, etc. However, that doesn’t mean your event planning process is any easier! With virtual and in-person events, it’s all about perfecting the details to execute a successful event & build a following.

Communicating with registered attendees

Notify Your Current Attendees

Did you have attendees already registered for your live event? It’s essential to notify your attendees of the event change. We recommend reaching out by email and phone to guarantee no attendees show up in person on the day of the event.

Market to new attendees!

One benefit of transitioning to a virtual event is your audience just grew exponentially! Use this opportunity to grow your event size and market to new attendees. Use these tools to get your name and event out there:

• Email Marketing
• Social Media Event
• Social Media Posts
• Digital Advertising
• Add the event details to your email signature!

Planning Event Size & Platform

Just as a venue is key to creating a successful live event, the platform & speaker are vital to engaging your online attendees. There are many platforms available to help you host your online event. Over the past few years our team has fallen in love with the power of the Zoom platform for digital events. Here are some factors to consider when looking at your online learning platform and speaker.

• Does your speaker have experience presenting in a digital course?
• Do you need to see attendee faces or videos during the event for credentialing reasons?
• Should attendees have the ability to speak or collaborate during the presentation?
• Do you need a polling feature for live results during your event?
• Are you manually sending pre and post-event emails? Or can your virtual platform handle that?
• Do you need to accept payment for your events?
• Can you add custom branding to your event to create a more customized event experience?

If you need help deciding which platform is right for you, or need someone to do the heavy lifting of planning, we can help!

Game Day!

Don’t go into the day of your event without practice! Set up a mock virtual event to do a run-through with your presenter/s and support team the week before. Many platforms, including Zoom, offer a practice session before your official event starts. Here are some questions to ask yourself leading up to the event:

• Who is monitoring and responding to your Q&A or chat section?
• How are you presenting and launching polls through your presentation?
• Who will handle the opening and closing statements?
• Do you have someone to introduce your speaker?

While transitioning a live event to virtual poses some challenges, it also opens many opportunities to extend your reach and engagement. If you have questions or are looking for guidance on planning a successful virtual event, we can help!

Event planning can be overwhelming and chaotic if you don’t have a good plan of action, especially planning multiple events at once. As an event planner, you must be organized, communicate well, and keep accurate records. Here are a few tips to ensure you have a firm handle on everything to help execute your event successfully!

Technology & Event Planning

Process Management

Technology is an event planner’s best friend! If you haven’t done so already, research and utilize an event or project management software. Personally, our team uses Monday.com. Monday allows us to create a template process that we can easily duplicate and customize for each new event. This process spells out all steps applicable to each event (so nothing is forgotten) and is updated daily to help us track progress and timelines.

File Storage

We also recommend using an online file storage system, like Google Drive to organize event documents and notes. Try creating a folder for each event you are hosting to file up-to-date registration lists, venue contracts, and event notes. We know an event planner rarely has a moment to spare and never has the time to sit at a desk with a laptop at an event. Creating an organized electronic filing system allows you to quickly access and share anything directly from your phone.

Printed Event Materials

While electronic files are critical for event planning, it can also be helpful to create a printed binder or folder for some events. Having hard copies of the most important event details on hand at your event is a smart contingency plan. (You never know if the internet will be reliable or if suddenly your phone will break!) We recommend keeping hard copies of some of the information on hand:

• venue contracts
• banquet event orders
• event agendas
• attendee lists
• room layouts
• and the like.

Be Prepared for the Unknown

Sometimes no matter how organized you are, glitches will happen. Event planners are probably used to the concept of: “it’s not IF something will go wrong, but WHEN something will go wrong.” We don’t say this to scare you, but we always recommend you prepare a list of things that could go wrong at an event. Along with what-if’s, think through some backup solutions, so you’ll be ready to take on anything that comes your way. The key is executing an event with guests unaware that anything has gone astray.

Ultimately, every event planner needs to find the organizational system that works best for them. However, we’ve found the key is having quick and easy access to information. Once you have a solid plan in place, you can reduce stress, create a seamless process, and allow your creativity to flourish.

Looking for some help organizing your next event? Our team of experts are here to assist you during all stages of event planning and management.

Jess Hunt
Jess is the Events Manager at Innereactive. After gaining 11 years of event experience in the food industry, she’s ready to take on the optical world. She’s very passionate about helping people, simplifying processes, and creating positive experiences.