05/20/2021
Three Things to Know About Virtual Events Now
The survey results from a recent virtual industry conference provide some interesting insights and cautionary tales. The event — which pre-pandemic typically consisted of 8,000 attendees — received ratings of good or excellent by 85% of attendees. But just 38% of the exhibitors shared those sentiments. So what gives?
For starters, trade shows in the virtual age are hard. Like, super-duper hard, and more so if your organization is used to exhibiting, shaking hands and generating leads. On the plus side, attendees still see value in taking time to log in and participate in educational and networking sessions.
We’re one year into the pandemic. The future looks brighter, but uncertainty continues to cloud decisions about 2021 and 2022. Here are some things we’ve learned:
Live events are challenging but not impossible. Simulive (or pre-recorded sessions) are better, provide less risk and allow for enhanced production values. This elevated production (and less tech-failure stress) means a more engaging session for the participants.
Community matters. Attendees are still hungry for engagement, and the good news is we’re finding more and more ways to do it. This can be in the form of live Q&A, effectively using chat, breaking into smaller roundtable discussions or networking/fun events to liven up the day. All have received high grades from participants. Holding a series of 40-minute webinars over the course of two days is not a conference. Drawing in your attendees with feedback and participation adds to the overall experience.
We’re not going back. The world is used to virtual events. It opens new opportunities for attendance and new ways to communicate.
We hope to be back in-person as soon as humanly possible, but when that time comes we’ll need to plan for a hybrid model that serves the needs of the audience … and how they want it.
Want to go deeper into this topic? Our latest podcast is available now. And we’d love to hear your take as well! What’s working? What’s not? Let us know.
As we hit the one-year mark of the pandemic, it's a good time to see where we are, and what we expect moving through 2021 into 2022. Will we see a return to normalcy? What have we learned about how to successfully execute virtual events? Will we go back to in-person like we