6 Must Dos When Making Your In-Person Event Virtual
Making your in-person events virtual may seem impossible, but it doesn’t have to be.
The COVID-19 health crisis made throwing an in-person event nearly impossible. Event professionals, rookie planners, parents, and a host of other individuals have had to change their plans and come up with a way to host their event virtually or cancel it altogether. The team here at Pixilated is no exception, and it's safe to say that we are all in uncharted waters. So, we decided to sit down and put together the six things that we think are most important to consider when making your planned in-person get together a virtual event instead.
1. Update your marketing strategy
The absolute first thing you need to do before making your event virtual is to update your marketing strategy. You've probably thrown 1000 parties in the past and have all of the tips and tricks up your sleeve that traditionally worked like a charm. However, when you're targeting an audience that is wanting to digitally attend, those rules are going to change.
So, make sure you take some time to do a little bit of research, check-in with all of your favorite marketing and events blogs, and see what they're suggesting and what they’ve seen work for others. It’s important to remember that virtual events aren’t new, they’re just new to you. The best method here is to blend in some of those new strategies with your tried and true methodologies by making them virtual friendly.
2. Put together a clear & concise landing page or website
Just as important as an updated marketing strategy is a clear and concise website, landing page, or information guide in general. Remember, you’re not going to have someone on-site helping attendees figure out where they're supposed to go, and it’s unlikely there will be any major face-to-face interactions. So, it's going to be a little more difficult than normal to inform guests about those last minute changes that always seem to creep up.
Having a clear and concise website gives your attendees a place to see that the event is still happening, understand what is going to be taking place, see updated schedules and agendas, and understand what part of the virtual conference or event is going to be most impactful for them. Again, now more than ever, when you can't communicate face-to-face and everything is going to be built around this digital communication, it is exceedingly important to have a place where your potential attendees can find clear and concise info that is easy to understand and helps them figure out where they need to be.
3. Find a simple & straightforward video platform
Next up is finding a simple and straight forward video platform. For many of your attendees, this could potentially be their first time logging into and using something like Zoom, GoToWebinar, Google Meet, or any of the other video and chat clients you might be considering for your virtual event. What might seem simple to you, can be really confusing for a first time user. And there are typically files that need to be downloaded before the video client will work, so even something as simple as installing the software can cause plenty of headaches.
What you’re going to want to do is thoroughly vet your video platform, make sure that it is simple to use and has great customer support, and then try it yourself before the event takes place. To take it the extra mile, create a how-to guide for installing and launching the video platform, and then send it to all of your attendees upon registration. This will help ensure that when the day of your event comes, it's easy for them to find the appropriate link and get logged into the video platform.
4. Make an easy-to-understand agenda/event guide
We've all been to an event where the agenda or event guide was more confusing than street signs in a new city. And as I’ve already covered, there won’t be any smiling volunteers to help direct your guests to their destination or answer their questions about last-minute changes. So, clear, consistent, and easy-to-understand information is the name of the game when it comes to virtual events. Whether it’s last-minute changes, notating keynote speakers and their schedule, highlighting pre-conference workshops, or even inviting guests to a post-conference virtual happy hour, all of that is going to be communicated digitally.
Ensuring that all of the information your providing is simple and to the point is going to help ensure that attendees have the best experience possible. Let your guests know what they should be expecting and always over-communicate. While it might seem simple and obvious, this is going to be a crucial part of creating a good guest experience because most people have never attended a virtual event. Everyone is going to be a little bit confused, and maybe even a little bit nervous. So make sure that you're consistent in your communication strategy and that everyone has the info they need. It will make your attendees feel better about the experience and produce more positive results.
5. Create a plan for attendee engagement
Put a little more effort than usual into creating a plan for attendee engagement. It’s important to remember that your virtual event is more than just someone speaking to 50 people on a Zoom call. With guests attending virtually from their homes, it’s going to be significantly harder to keep people engaged with all of the distractions that the environment presents. You can combat this by upping the ante on your engagement strategy. Fun quizzes, silly door prizes, audience polls, live Q&A’s, and post sessions surveys are all great tried-and-true ways to increase engagement during a virtual event. But, the virtual nature of the platform also opens up some new doors.
Throw a bring your pet to virtual happy hour mixer, have a themed day where people come dressed as their favorite superhero, or let guests show off their virtual office - the possibilities are endless. You're going to have to be creative and get outside of your comfort zone, but there are definitely ways to make it fun and engaging. As long as it fits with your audience and will add to the experience in a fun and meaningful way, then there’s no reason not to get creative. It will help get your guests to fully engage and commit to the event.
6. Produce a fun shareable moment
Shareable moments may be easier in-person, but there’s no reason you can’t bring that magic to a virtual event. So whether it’s imploring people to let their followers know they're going to attend after registering, having people submit photos for an event collage, creating a virtual scavenger hunt, or even bringing in a virtual photobooth software technology like PixiWeb that produces user-generated photos and videos, you want to make sure that you have something in there that gives people a fun takeaway or makes them feel like part of the community. Even can get a photo slideshow and have all the photos cylce through and update in real time. For inspiration, check out how PixiWeb helped bring the fun to GMID Virtual 2021.
The idea here is to create a moment or moments that your guests want to share with other people. Giving them something that they're excited about and want to share on their social networks is the key here. It creates a lasting memory and gives attendees something to talk about with their colleagues and friends. And the best part is that it’s going to help you when it comes to brand awareness with messaging being deployed on your behalf by someone else, publicizing your event. It also generates great feedback from your attendees and produces FOMO for anyone that didn't bother to get a ticket - both of which hopefully increase attendance for next year.
Bonus Tip: Do your homework :)
We're certainly not the only place for information on the topic of virtual events. In fact, there are likely hundreds if not thousands of other blog posts on this exact topic. So, take some time, do your research, and learn from some of the best that the industry has to offer. Crowdsourcing ideas from different sources is always the best way to produce truly amazing in-person events and their virtual counterparts are no exception. Right now there are loads of conversations going on about tips and tricks that will make this so much easier for you and anyone else you might know that’s planning a virtual event. So please keep learning. And if you have any ideas that you'd like to see us cover, make sure you leave it in the comments.
More helpful articles for Virtual Event Success:
The Complete Guide To Virtual Events in 2021
13 Strategies For Ensuring The Success Of A Virtual Event
8 Tips for Increasing Engagement at Virtual Events
The dos and don’ts of hosting a successful virtual event