Virtual Events: What They Are + 10 Virtual Event Best Practices for Smooth Sailing
Hosting virtual events could be your most lethal weapon when it comes to bringing people together. Taking your event online can do wonders, especially when you want to convey your message to a global audience.
That said, how marketers and event organizers navigate a virtual event — big or small — has an enormous influence on the attendees.
To make your virtual events a success, we’ll walk you through the various facets of a virtual event and some of the virtual event best practices for smooth sailing.
Let’s get started.
What is a Virtual Event?
A virtual event is an event hosted on the web. A somewhat modern take on in-person events, virtual events add greater value when it comes to content distribution at a large scale – think global.
What’s usually perceived as a trend widely observed due to the onset of the recent pandemic, hosting virtual events isn’t a new phenomenon.
Even during the pre-pandemic era, the odds are that most of us attended a virtual workshop, webinar, on-demand coaching session or online conference. Well, these are all different forms of virtual events. And to host them, people no longer have to bow to the hegemony of big production studios and corporations.
With tools like Sequel, creating engaging virtual events and embedding them onto your website is effortless.
But, Why Virtual?
Cost-saving and flexible
From the production perspective, going virtual means lesser time and monetary investment in logistics, venue, setup, staff, etc. It’s also a much more flexible option than an in-person event. For instance, you can use a tool that gives you access to a versatile, fully-branded platform to host your events year-round, at any time and from wherever you want.
More accessible and inclusive
Let’s face it; not everyone can attend in-person events. Factors like travel or health limitations may make reaching the physical venue not an option for many. This is where virtual events help by making the events inclusive for people with logistical or personal challenges.
Plus, with the ease of connecting online, it’s a much quicker and more accessible option. No traveling across the city, finding a parking slot, walking around a convention center or finding a seat with an unobstructed view of the speakers. Virtual events save attendees from all these hassles and more.
Better analytics
Virtual events make gathering and measuring attendee data more straightforward. So, they give you a leg up while tracking the overall success of your event. For example, you can run online polls during the event to engage your audience and get real-time feedback about the session. You can also ascertain how many people registered for the event, how many showed up, what the engagement rate was, etc.
Backup & contingency plan
Finally, virtual events work well as a backup or contingency plan if Murphy’s Law transpires and your in-person event gets canceled. However, in such a case, a fool-proof alternative could be a hybrid event, where both in-person and virtual events go hand in hand. Talk about event power!
Virtual Event: Types
To give you an idea of different types of events, here’s a quick list:
Virtual Event Best Practices to Host Impactful Events
No matter what industry or niche you belong to, going live on a free online platform just doesn’t cut it when it comes to hosting influential events.
Producing a high-quality digital experience that drives engagement and actions takes practice. Here are our top tips that can help:
1. Find the what, the why and the how
Begin with identifying the type of event you want to host and why. What is it that you want to achieve from your virtual event? Is it more brand visibility, a stronger community, or driving more sales for your upcoming product? Once you have the event type (webinar, trade show, conference, etc.) and the objective clear, set up a timeline.
Select the topic, the media to be shared, the activities to keep the participants engaged, and so on. Remember, an agenda will give you the clarity you need to manage things better. So, create a run-of-show with details like the time and date of the event, each session’s duration, speakers’ information, etc.
2. Build your tech stack
Investing in the right technology is crucial to the success of your live events. No matter how interesting the line-up of your speakers is or how many engaging activities you’ve prepared for the event, if your mic echoes or your webcam produces a shaky video, creating an impressive virtual experience for your attendees won’t be possible.
That’s why, you must invest in the right tech stack and significantly reduce the odds of delivering a mediocre live experience.
3. Choose a virtual event tool
Several components factor into an attendee’s experience with your event and the live event solution you choose is the most important. Imagine being able to host your live event right on your website or customizing the event with your branding. You can do this and more with a professional embeddable live event solution like Sequel.
Look for features that matter the most to you. For example, if you want to dive into post-event analytics, ensure your chosen platform offers that. Some other must-have functionalities include pre-recorded content sharing, bringing audience members to the stage, a virtual green room, live polls, Q&A, etc.
4. Create a buzz
One of the best virtual event best practices is to leverage social media and email. Promote your event on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc., to increase registrations. Send email reminders to the attendees at least a month in advance.
To take things up a notch, create a dedicated landing page for your virtual event and share the link in all your promotional posts.
Pro Tip: Share the event schedule with the attendees at least two weeks before the event and send weekly email reminders through email to maximize attendance.
5. Select the right speakers
Finding and signing the right speakers is often a challenge for event producers. While almost everyone loves to have a big-name speaker onboard, choosing people who add value to your event is more important than relying merely on the star power.
Look for an expert with a fantastic on-camera presence and who is open to marketing the event on their social handles. Bring a broad range of voices to the panel and ensure that each speaker you choose is well-vetted and the perfect choice based on the niche and topic of discussion.
6. Humanize your virtual event for an immersive experience
Pivoting to virtual events doesn’t mean hosting robotic experiences for your audience. If you think online events lack the human touch, do something to bring that back.
A good solution can spice up things and make your virtual events more immersive for greater impact on participants using dynamic chats, breakout rooms, one-on-one or group discussions, etc.
7. Show some sponsor-love
Just as physical venues come with dedicated spaces to showcase sponsors, your virtual events should also portray some sponsor-love. You can use overlays, graphics or even pre-recorded videos to enhance the virtual environment with a quick shout-out to the sponsors.
You can also run sponsored giveaways to jazz things up and improve in-event engagement. The idea is to highlight your partners by showing some support along the way. But it should not be a faint buzz. Instead, it should be a warm, heartfelt credit.
8. Get live support
Most event marketers or producers miss the support aspect of their virtual events. To avoid panicking at first sight of things going downhill, rely on a tool that offers quick 24/7 live event support. Have the hotline number of your platform’s tech support handy and reach out to them for fast resolutions if any emergency pops up during the event.
9. Conduct a dry run
Any list of virtual event best practices would be incomplete without this piece of advice. Conduct a dry run multiple times before the event goes live. From the sound to the video, the presentation slides to the background – ensure everything is working fine. Have your backup equipment ready for the mayday. And choose an optimal, high-speed internet connection to host smoother studio-quality virtual experiences.
10. Utilize data
Keeping in mind the importance of metrics, it’s essential to choose a live event solution that helps you gather data, measure ROI and optimize KPIs.
From real-time engagement data to live and on-demand watch rates, your chosen tool should be able to deliver insights into your virtual audience’s journey to create successful future events.
Ready to Make the Most of these Virtual Event Best Practices?
At the end of the day, your virtual events should deliver value and bring your audience together for an enriching experience.
Sequel helps you take the pressure off hosting powerful virtual events. Create, host and embed on-brand virtual events on your website, engage the audience, see what’s working with minute-by-minute analytics and deliver 5-star virtual experiences — at scale.
Schedule a demo to see how to create immersive virtual events and grow your brand with them.