Say goodbye to venue coordination, catering logistics, and travel arrangements—virtual events are here to revolutionize your event planning experience. While virtual events can never replace the sense of community that live events foster, digital events do have a powerful advantage for businesses. In this blog, we’ll guide you on why virtual events have captured our hearts and share invaluable insights to ensure your next event shines like never before.
Planning Your Event Logistics
Picking the Perfect Day and Hour
Before diving into the setup of your virtual platform, here’s a secret: certain days and time slots work wonders for virtual events. According to the experts at LiveWebinar, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, ideally around the time of lunch, from 11 am to 12 pm or 1 pm to 2 pm, are prime moments to capture your audience’s attention.
Choosing Your Virtual Platform
Once the date and time are locked in, it’s time to select your virtual platform. Our team’s preference is Zoom, a versatile platform that grants us the freedom to customize registration processes and streamline communication through emails. But regardless of the platform you opt for, investing time to master its ins and outs, including settings, reporting tools, and presentation features, will pay off handsomely.
Fine-Tuning Event Scale and Platform Dynamics
How grand will your event be? Will it embrace an intimate setting where attendees can freely activate their videos and occasionally participate in discussions? Alternatively, will it transform into a larger-scale gathering where all participants are muted, with the spotlight solely on the presenters? These are choices within your grasp, each shaping the attendee experience.
Ensuring there’s a tech-savvy individual behind the scenes, well-versed in the virtual platform, to support speakers and field questions during the Q&A or chat sections is a strategic move we highly endorse. It’s a realm our team has mastered, and it’s proven to be a game-changer.
Next, Brand & Market Your Event
One fantastic part of virtual events is the ease of customized branding and reaching a large target audience. While live events are targeted to specific geographical locations, online events can span the nation, if not the globe! All with custom branding just a click away.
Personalization and Branding: Elevating Your Event’s Identity
Zoom boasts a range of pre-designed email templates: registration confirmations, cancellations, reminders, post-event follow-ups—you name it. Before hitting send, customize these templates to make sure they align with your message. Include any missing instructions or follow-up details your audience might want or need.
Unleash a Marketing Frenzy: Captivating Your Audience
Just as you’d dispatch e-invitations for an in-person event, use your digital resources to invite attendees to your event. Construct a compelling e-blast that entices your contacts to RSVP for your virtual affair. And don’t forget about social media! Create graphics with on-trend imagery or videos and a caption with your essential event information:
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- Attention-grabbing headline
- Brief event overview
- Date and time
- Condensed bitly registration link
Get Ready for Showtime!
Real-Time Tracking: Navigating the Path to Success
Monitor registration figures by regularly exporting your registration list and sharing these insights with your team and speakers. Do the numbers align with your event goals? Don’t shy away from exploring online paid advertising to maximize your reach.
Ready to take the work out of weekly registration updates? Reach out about our automation services and how we can help take simple repetitive tasks off your plate for good!
Rehearsal and Showtime: Perfecting Your Virtual Performance
Set up a mock virtual event rehearsal with your presenters and support crew. Many platforms, including Zoom, offer practice sessions before the official event kick-off.
The day has come! Your registration list meets (and hopefully exceeds) your expectations, and your presenter is ready to rock. All support personnel and speakers have arrived early to the platform to ensure audio & visual are working correctly, along with a strong internet connection. Finally, remember to hit record! A nicely trimmed version of your presentation creates another touchpoint to send to event attendees. Additionally, this is a great way for presenters to re-watch and analyze their speaking skills.
We hope these tips give you the confidence to execute successful virtual events. If you would like to transition to virtual events and find ways to automate the communication with attendees, our team can assist.