Putting on a successful virtual event involves a lot of planning, budgeting, and logistics. It also includes coordinating people, keeping track of attendees, and managing technical issues. As with any event, a hiccup in any of these areas can ruin the entire experience. 

Nailing Down Your Event Format

Whether you’re hosting a webinar, webcast, or live stream, there are many ways to make your virtual corporate events successful. To start, it’s essential to nail down the format of your event and create a clear agenda for your audience. To prepare for your event, ensure you’ve done a dry run with speakers and guests to check their on-camera presence and technical skills. It’s also important to test your internet connection before the event begins.

Keep a dedicated test lead and dev team ready during the live event to ensure no bugs affect attendees’ experience. Have external communication channels set up to quickly communicate issues and fix them before they impact the attendee experience.

Creating A Clear Agenda

A good agenda is key to ensuring your virtual event’s success. It gives your attendees a roadmap of what to expect, directing their flow and engagement throughout your event. It also enables you to curate an experience tailored to your audience. With so many digital events popping up, it’s important to stand out from the crowd by offering something unique to your attendees.

With screen fatigue becoming a common issue, keeping the program moving and giving your attendees’ brains a fresh new challenge is crucial. Changing the format and content frequently is a great way to do this, as is adding entertainment options like musical performances or comedy. If you do decide to add entertainment to your virtual event, make sure that it’s easily accessible and doesn’t disrupt the flow of the sessions. 

Building A Community

A community-based virtual event can be valuable for building engagement and promoting your brand. It allows your audience to come together around topics of interest and expertise. A good online community is built on trust and a strong sense of belonging. You should connect your audience with relevant content and ideas that will keep them engaged even after the event has ended. Adding interactive features like live polls, questionnaires, and small groups can help attendees stay engaged throughout your events. It also lets you track what is most important to them, giving you crucial insights for future events.

Keeping Attendees Engaged

Keeping attendees engaged is the key to a successful virtual event. People don’t enjoy themselves when they aren’t involved and stick around longer at events when they are more engaged. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to keep attendees engaged online! You can use live polls, Q&As and real-time chats to engage with your audience and bring them into the conversation. You can also offer gamification tools that encourage attendance, networking and participation. Games incorporating sponsor content can be a great way to build and maintain engagement throughout the event.

Providing the right tools to your attendees is crucial for hosting a successful virtual event. Ensure your platform is immersive, has all the features you need to engage your audience and supports communication. 

Jane