The transition to a digital world has been a fast and drastic one. In the span of just a few months, we've seen traditional businesses scramble to establish an online presence. For the event industry, this has meant a sudden shift to virtual conferences and events. While this new format comes with its own challenges, there are also many opportunities for success. With the right knowledge and approach, virtual conferences can be engaging, informative, and even fun.
Virtual conferences and events will undoubtedly play a big role in our future, in the short run and potentially for a very long time. The good news is that virtual events have a lot going for them - in terms of accessibility, cost savings, environmental footprint, etc.
It's just a matter of figuring out how to make them less of a drag. You're more likely to learn something different from your attendees, though.
How? Rather than creating engaging and memorable experiences, virtual conferences are becoming mundane.
Here are some best practices for online conferences and ideas you can implement to set yourself apart from the competition and garner raving reviews.
Establish Your Event's Goal
Your conference should be crystal clear to attendees what it is all about. You run the risk of turning away attendees if your conference's purpose is unclear.
Establishing realistic goals and KPIs will help you measure your event's success and provide you with data and reports.
Best practices for online conferences entail the following KPIs:
- The number of registrations
- The rate of attendance
- The number of leads and revenue generated.
Choose a Theme
A virtual conference does not benefit from bringing people together in a physical location. To achieve best practices for online conferences and a cohesive event environment, it is essential to ensure it feels as natural as possible.
You can accomplish this by selecting an overarching theme that reflects the content of your event. For example, The Augmented World Expo USA 2020 used the theme “It's Time To Go Spatial,” a reference to the AR and VR content and a space design.
You should always ensure that your event and marketing materials have consistent messaging, imagery, and backdrops to create a sense of unity and ownership among attendees.
Create an Easily Navigable Registration Website
You want to ensure that your virtual conference registration website is the go-to resource for potential attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors. Many of these virtual event websites serve as the central hub for the event later on, so it is vital that the website has a clean design, is easy to search, and is accessible on both computers and mobile devices.
These are the most important elements of your registration website:
- What is the purpose, name, and branding of the virtual conference?
- An agenda highlighting key speakers and general sessions.
- How much will the conference cost?
- Information about accessing content after the event.
- Contact details and FAQs.
Prep Speakers and Rehearse your Virtual Event
The learning curve for achieving best practices for online conferences is not limited to virtual event planners. All stakeholders adapt to a new format together, including speakers, sponsors, moderators, and participants. There's a perfect storm of potential glitches on the horizon.
You have to ask certain questions before launching your virtual conference, such as.
- Are the microphones used by the speakers reliable?
- How are well-lit sponsored talks?
- Does the moderator have a reliable internet connection?
You should practice your virtual event to uncover these issues and many others that can result in an unsatisfactory live event. Make sure that every speaker is set up correctly. All slides need to be in order, and everyone needs to know where and when they need to be.
Connect on a Human Level
Having a human moment with the audience is more important than perfection: It is OK to break the fourth wall.
There used to be an expectation of a smooth, curated experience. Nowadays, life is much more spontaneous and human. It might seem counterintuitive, but the more polished your virtual conference is, the more likely it is to be boring. People enjoy watching human moments, including pauses, stumbling, and some raw emotion.
You might as well just upload a YouTube video instead if you edit all of that spontaneity out. Do not worry about delivering a flawless event if it is by any means sloppy or unprepared.
Shorter Event for Better Retention
The content in the stream is easy to skip, unlike a real event, where you are locked in a room and can't leave. Being concise and thinking of ways to make speakers' points as clear and concise as possible are important.
How many slides do you use to pack the real value into your presentation? You might lose your audience if you make them hold their breath. The big picture: What percentage of your conference is just fluff to fill out the agenda? With a virtual format, a few hours of quality content will have a far greater impact than a few days of mediocrity.
Sparkle more Fun in the event
Everyone wants to have a bit of fun attending a virtual conference, besides the talks and roundtables. Taking a break from all the content is a great way to boost engagement.
Gamification is the most commonly used method. You can do this by creating quizzes, trivia questions, or even escape rooms. Offer prizes to encourage your attendees to compete. In addition to real-time responses, your attendees will have a voice and take part in the conference in a meaningful way.
You can also create a dedicated channel or feed where attendees can interact and meet. Consider offering a photo booth where attendees can take a self-portrait and add branded animation to their selfies.
Consider using a hashtag on social media to build awareness around the cause and encourage others to get involved. One of the top ongoing best practices for online conferences.
Put the Focus on Production
A professional production always helps to engage your attendees. All your live and pre-recorded content must comply with this rule. If you plan to conduct sessions from the comfort of your home, ensure you have good lighting, audio, and internet access.
If you're dealing with the latter, consider the production value since they can be edited or enhanced. The benefit of real-time engagement is that you'll avoid hiccups, and the speaker's performance will improve because you won't feel like you're on a Zoom call.
Consider hosting an event from a studio if you want to go all out. This is an excellent way to jump in and out of sessions, which adds a highly professional touch. This also contributes to a more enjoyable and engaging attendee experience by preventing the impression of being juggling between different webinars.
Don't be Bound by Old Metrics
You'll need to change how you define success, but that's not bad.
We often define success based on the number of people attending or registering for an event. Each conference has its challenges. The reach of a virtual conference may not be the same as that of a physical conference with three or four years of experience.
Rather than forcing the numbers, you should focus on the specific outcomes of the event. Consider increased brand awareness, more business meetings, and community expansion.
Virtual events aim to bring together communities and industries as a celebration of hard work and accomplishment, as a means of sharing lessons learned, and as a way to promote the next generation of technology. Keeping that in mind is crucial to maximizing the experience.
Pro-Active Support Team on Call
Having a slight bug in the technology shouldn't put you in panic mode. Find a company that offers you a dedicated customer support team. One that can be accessed during the event to resolve any queries and troubleshoot possible issues.
Platform with all the Best Practices for Online Conferences
Oreed is the perfect example of an event platform that can help you create successful virtual events. Oreed applies all the best practices for online conferences, from providing an engaging and interactive user interface to offering a wide range of features that allow you to customize your event to meet your specific needs.
Oreed also makes it easy to reach and engage a larger, more geographically diverse audience by offering a variety of registration options and integrations with popular social media platforms.
Oreed is the perfect virtual event platform because it has all the features you need to make your online conference a success. Oreed applies all the best practices for online conferences, including live streaming, break-out sessions, chat rooms, and Q&A sessions. Oreed also offers unique advantages that other virtual event platforms don't have, such as the ability to host multifaceted events. With Oreed, you can reach a larger audience, participate in more interactive sessions, and get more insights into your audience. Oreed is also more cost-efficient than other virtual event platforms, making it the perfect choice for event organizers who want to maximize their ROI.
Bottom Line
Although the transition to a virtual platform from a traditional in-person meeting seems intimidating initially, the immense convenience and value it offers will eventually outweigh any perceived risk. With online workshops offering global reach, keynote events, 24/7 access to content, real-time interaction, and much more (even during a pandemic), it makes sense to jump on board.
You can set yourself apart by following these best practices for online conferences and pro tips listed above. Hop on the bandwagon because it's time to conquer that virtual conference!
