8 Tips for Increasing Engagement at Virtual Events
Attendee engagement is critical - and virtual events are no different.
Keeping event attendees engaged during an event is critical to its overall success, and virtual events are no different. Event engagement is always a popular topic among event professionals because it is inextricably linked to creating a successful event for the attendees, guest speakers, and even the event sponsors.
It is crucial to ensuring that attendees feel like the conference was worthwhile, and making certain that event sponsors and guest speakers feel like they had a captive audience.
Now that most events are being hosted virtually, event engagement has become more challenging and arguably more important than ever before. So, the team here at Pixilated sat down to put together our top 8 tips for increasing attendee engagement at your next virtual event.
1. Define what success looks like for your event
It might seem fairly obvious, but this is a step that quite often gets overlooked. It is extremely important to define what success looks like long before your first guest arrives, as it will help inform many of the decisions that you make during the planning process.
For both virtual events and in-person events, you must have well-defined metrics or KPIs for what successful event engagement looks like at your event. There are dozens of different engagement related metrics you can track, so think critically about what best compliments the purpose of your event.
Whether it's the total number of attendees, average number of sessions attended, average audience size, polling and survey results, or NPS scores doesn't necessarily matter, as long as it aligns with what you’re looking to accomplish. Again, you need to have that figured out beforehand so that you can build a plan for how to reach and record those metrics.
2. Make sure your event app adds value
If you're going to be using one for your event, an event-specific app can be a great thing. However, you need to make sure that your attendees know it’s there and that it is interesting and provides real value to your guests. Without that combination, it’s likely to either get deleted immediately or never even downloaded at all.
So make sure that if you are planning to have an app for your conference, seminar, or whatever the case may be, there are reasons for people to use it. Again, this needs to align with the goals of your event.
Whether you’re positioning it as a way to create cool UGC, giving guests a way to provide feedback, or even making the application the spot for one-on-one chats, be sure that it fits the goals you’ve defined for your event. And if you are adding some type of technology, make sure you're promoting it, and that it has a reason for being there.
3. Create a virtual suggestion box & crowdsource ideas
It can be extremely challenging to add real improvements and value to your event while also trying to create fun and engaging activities, but you don't have to go it alone. Creating a virtual suggestion box is a really easy way to source ideas for fun things to do during the conference AND figure out where the most value can be added for your attendees.
You have attendees who are already bought into the idea of your conference or event, and a lot of them will be more than happy to provide feedback and suggestions. Surveys and polls through an event app or your virtual event platform are a great way to your guests to provide suggestions on changes they’d like to see, specific topics they’d like to cover, and activities they think could be helpful or impactful.
The important thing here is that your guests need to feel like they can easily share their feedback and that they’ll be heard. And even if your event is right around the corner, it’s not too late to send out a quick pre-event survey and collect some last-minute ideas.
4. Encourage attendees to ask questions & participate
Lots of people are shy or might not feel confident in sharing their opinions or ideas. Virtual events provide a little bit more anonymity, but it’s still important to encourage your attendees to ask questions, participate, and engage. And again, you need to let your attendees know their onions are welcome.
People generally like to follow the rules, if they feel like they're not supposed to be raising their hands, asking questions, and participating, then they won't. For virtual events, there isn’t an obvious way for participants to raise their hands or ask questions, so it’s going to be critical to not only encourage participants to speak up but also give them an easy way to do so.
Chat systems like Slack can be really helpful for this, but there are a ton of audience engagement tools to check out. Regardless, creating a path for your participants to engage in that way, and then encouraging them to do so is really important.
5. Make sure private chats are available
Having space inside your event for big, broad conversations is obviously really critical to the event’s success. But, in that same vein, providing a place or environment for your attendees to pair off and have concentrated conversations around their special area of interest is also of the utmost importance.
Within every in-person event, there are dozens in not hundreds of microcosms of attendees that can meet and collide. That same phenomenon can happen at your virtual event if you let it. Providing the ability to do one-on-one chats, creating chat rooms and happy hours built around a specific topic or theme, and creating attendee profiles where they can list their topics of interest are all greats ways to help facilitate these virtual interactions.
These smaller more intimate conversations are critical to the success of any event, as they allow people to connect with other professionals in a real way, create new business opportunities and connections, and add additional organic value on top of everything you’ve already put into the event. Making sure that there's a place for people to have small intimate conversations will be a huge asset for you.
6. Make it fun
When it comes to virtual events, creating fun things for your attendees to do is super important for keeping them engaged and attentive. Whether those are fun quizzes, costume contests, SWAG giveaways, a virtual photo booth, or some type of competition, it’s important to help your attendee create some fun memories and have activities in which to participate.
Additionally, they don’t all have to be things happening outside of the conference sessions. Having people try to break into small groups to focus on a specific problem or present their ideas to the larger audience are also great ways to create some fun for your attendees. If you want your guests engaged and bought in, then make them feel like they’re part of the experience.
Make sure that you're encouraging attendees to engage with you, letting know what options are available, and giving them something fun to do. There's a lot of distractions out there, especially when you're sitting in your living room at home. So, making it fun, enjoyable, and informative all at the same time is the best way to keep eyeballs on the screen and staying engaged in what's happening during your virtual event.
7. Host a few virtual happy hours
Speaking of having fun, another great idea for increasing event engagement is hosting virtual happy hours. Everybody likes to relax and have fun, particularly after a long day of learning, hobnobbing, and putting yourself out there. There are few better ways to allow people to recalibrate after a day full of note-taking and questions asking then having a relaxed atmosphere and a cocktail to help usher in the evening’s activities.
In short, having virtual happy hours is a huge opportunity to let your attendees have some fun and make a few business connections along the way. We’d encourage our readers not to stick to the linear narrative of what a happy hour is. There's a lot of fun things that you can do to intersperse them in a unique way and make it memorable.
And the virtual happy hour opens up a host of new opportunities, including bring your pet mixers, costume contests, best cocktail recipe awards, virtual scavenger hunts, and much more. Your imagination really is the only limiting factor here, and it is something that will have your attendees smiling and having a great time.
8. Set expectations with your attendees early & often
One of the most important things you can do to increase event engagement is to set expectations with your attendees at the start of the show so that they know about all the cool things you're doing to make your event fun and enjoyable for them. A sort of event preamble where you introduce the agenda and all of the activities you have planned is a great way to ensure everyone has the same information.
Even if you’ve sent out a million emails, nothing beats a captive audience. At the beginning of sessions, make sure they know there's going to be a fun quiz or some sort of group activity. At the start of every day, announce the day’s activities and what tools are available to your attendees.
No one is going to attend your happy hour, provide virtual suggestions, or utilize the event app if they don’t know that it’s there for them to consume. You don't need to make it too over or too over the top or grandiose, but you do need to make sure that you're regularly communicating what’s available.
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