Navigating Virtual Events!
Why are virtual events so important?
Bringing us all back together.
As cancellations for events rolled in, event coordinators, sponsors, attendees, and exhibitors started to wonder what will happen to live events moving forward. Soon after several virtual solutions started to emerge and provide some solutions for engagement from video events, to virtual reality environments with avatars.
Everyone began to see that there were several benefits to virtual events and the technology being used. Event planners started to gather analytics quickly giving them data that enhanced the customer experience. This rolled into showcasing more immersive virtual event experiences and engaging sessions. In addition to the data gathered they obtained improved attendee feedback providing metrics to plan for future events.
Another major benefit was the removal of geographic limitations allowing event attendance to grow exponentially. This lead to eliminating cost roadblocks for attendees and delivered additional value to companies.
Who is coordinating the tech in virtual events?
The role of an Event Technologist!
Soon after these innovative solutions were adopted the need for a tech-savvy individual or team was underway. The event technologist is now a needed position for event planners to have on staff to deploy and oversee event tech, provide support, data collection, and analysis. Firms with a large enough event program may have several event technologists on staff, each with a specific area of expertise.
Technologists rely on technology to deliver engagement and adoption success metrics, like mobile app downloads, registrations processed, survey response rates, tickets sold, participation in various activities, and a host of detailed data on the attendee journey from marketing to post-event engagement. Included, they will be responsible for relaying a lot of that data to the planning team and helping them translate it into demonstrable ROI.
Connecting everyone virtually.
Hybrid Events are the future!
Onsite events are never going to go away but the format and participation may be much different and when paired with virtual it can become a perfect solution. A hybrid event can address health and safety concerns, provide the opportunity for an organization to attend if they have a limited travel budget or if the onsite venue has capacity limitations.
Making sure that a hybrid event is still one event but two experiences is key. Both virtual and in-person attendees should be able to balance between experiences, and arguably the most important portion of the event is the content. Making sure it relevantly translates across mediums and is highly engaging keeping everyone involved can make or break a hybrid event.
Post-event actions are as important as what is done during an event. Hosting an event means nothing if you don’t gain any insights. Make sure to send out a post-event survey to get a sense of which content resonated with people, and how attendees felt about onsite versus virtual experiences.
The Takeaway
A lot has been learned from these experiences. One of the most important lessons that we learned is to be prepared. Incorporating virtual and hybrid events into your total event program will be a key piece of your event strategy. Live, in-person events will never go away, but it never hurts to have a backup plan.
Elevux
If you are interested in learning more about creating a virtual event and would like to start a project contact us at hello@elevux.com or visit us at www.elevux.com.
