The threat of corona pandemic has resulted in the halt of businesses across the world, thereby causing delays in business meetings, conferences & fending of events.

 Are you the one who is facing the wrath of virus spread and your event got canceled? Thinking of a solution to gain a foothold in such a disastrous situation and make your event or conference happen?

“Go digital, Go virtual” is the solution for all your business puzzles in recent times. Virtual events and virtual conferences are taking place across the globe that helps you to stabilize. It’s not wrong to say that we are likely to witness an increase in hybrid events in the coming times, as pandemic situations are further fostering virtual event solutions.

Virtual events and virtual conferences have become an integral part of businesses nowadays. Selecting the right virtual event platform where you are likely to meet your potential audience and taking advantage of the best Virtual Events solutions, help you reach a pool of audiences across the globe at a single click. Make your virtual event stand out by sprucing up the creativity quotient that matches the taste of your prospective attendees.

Hybrid or virtual events and conferences is the best way to scale up your experience in this new world. Going all virtual comes with great benefits you have ever experienced. Today, several virtual meeting platforms and several virtual events platforms are available to facilitate you with the splendid virtual events solutions. In this article, we will share a complete guide to virtual events and conferences, starting from its benefits, steps of execution of virtual events and virtual conferences to the ways to measure the success of the virtual events.

Let’s get started..

Firstly, it’s necessary to understand what hybrid or virtual events are before proceeding towards the steps of execution and how to make it successful.

What are virtual events and virtual conferences?

Virtual events and virtual conferences are conducted over the internet which allows audiences from around the world to tune in live from their remote locations to catch the ongoing live event irrespective of geographical location. 

Virtual conferences hosted over the internet are efficient enough to keep your business privacy intact as it allows you to send the link to the participants you wish to join the onsite meeting and restrict the settings to private. A cup of coffee, the comfort of your own home, a strong internet connection and a virtual meeting tool or video conferencing tool are essential ingredients and you are all set for an important virtual conference, you can’t afford to delay.

What are the steps involved in executing successful virtual events?

To make your virtual event go viral on the internet and become the new sensation, execution needs thorough research and each step should be followed to make your virtual event a big hit giving your counterparts a footprint to follow. Here we go:

1. Plan for your virtual event completely beforehand

The motive of going virtual should be clear and concise in the mind of the broadcaster. The first thing you need when you plan to go virtual is the right virtual event tool and the virtual event platforms that help you reach your potential target audience. Anticipate what technologies you need and what is the best platform to carry out your virtual event successfully. Selecting the right virtual event platforms entirely depends on your audience segment, create your plan accordingly. You are well aware of your audience segment and no one else, where you will find their presence and what to serve them, no one knows better. Make a point of every little detail beforehand to eliminate the flaw before executing. Do not forget to optimize your virtual event for mobile as well as the majority of audiences tune in through smartphones.

2. A prescribed timeline is a must for a virtual event

A clear timeline for a virtual event is a must whether you are organizing a virtual brand event or a virtual conference. Make a list of activities you need to complete before and after your event. Setting the timelines for your pre virtual event and post virtual event to measure the analytics and responses is a crucial step. Project deadlines help in managing an easy flow of work while making the execution of virtual events trouble-free as well as successful.

3. Managing resources

You need a couple of helping hands to make your virtual event successful. Knowing the tricks of managing resources by distributing work for performing an activity prior and post-event is a must. You must plan the activities that need to be carried out for the whole event starting from pre-event preparations, handling ongoing virtual events & post-event work. Planning and managing the work done by your resources contribute to the overall success of the virtual event. Assign the task to the resources as per their skills and have a complete understanding of their abilities. Make it an important point to have clear and timely communication with teammates to have feasible options, if any problem persists.

4. Measure cost analytics

Talking about the cost considerations, hybrid or virtual events are the cost-effective measures that help in reaching millions around the world, which in-person events fail to do so. Virtual events hold an upper hand than a physical event when we talk about cost considerations. A virtual event software provider, video conferencing tool, digital marketing strategies & a strong and reliable internet connection with high bandwidth is all you need to carry out your virtual event successfully. Virtual events cut the cost of attendees’ food, accommodation, travel & location thereby emerging out as a cost-effective measure for carrying events digitally. 

5. Offer opportunities to event speakers to motivate attendees

The right execution of a virtual event is likely to give a positive result while making your event successful. The speaker of the virtual event plays an important role in engaging live attendees and motivating them to take action. Offer unique opportunities to your event speaker by allowing them to speak a little more between the event and share their knowledge with viewers thereby opening doors to new marketing and branding opportunities.

6. Make the right marketing strategies

Digital marketing plays a crucial role when it comes to virtual events. You need to create awareness about your upcoming virtual event to your target audience residing in different countries and locations. Today, the Internet is full of virtual event platforms and digital technologies are on a rapid rise, selecting the best one entirely depends on your business. Developing the right marketing strategies helps in optimizing your marketing efforts and make your virtual event a success. Email marketing, blog marketing, social media marketing, paid marketing, etc. are some of the available marketing tools that help to capitalize on your virtual event.

7. Take advantage of social media platforms to make your event hit

Selecting a platform where you can find your potential target audience for the event makes your half work done. Finding the audience from where they are, helps in reaching a wider audience base. Social media platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, youtube, twitter, Snapchat, etc hold millions of users across the globe. Selecting one or multiple social media platforms for your virtual event entirely depends on the presence of your prospective audience on each platform. You can use social media platforms for pushing your audience for early registration of the virtual event. You can even use social platforms to run your ads allowing the audience to know more about your presence and upcoming events.

8. Great content always work

Great content will always remain the king if your business is digital. Preparing great content hook the virtual attendees and make the event look professional. Victory is not far behind if the content you share adds value to your business and event.

Sharing short videos, images, blogs & GIFs has been in the recent trend to catch the sight of your audience and make your virtual event successful.

9. Set up a virtual sponsor and exhibitor booths

Setting up a virtual sponsor and exhibitor booths for the event attendees becomes much easier when you are hosting a virtual event. Keep a track of visitor analytics while hosting product demos or hosting sponsor videos.

10. Build an online community

Increase the engagement of your audiences while you are organizing virtual events. Creating an online community helps in engaging them with other counterparts while sharing experiences. An online community can be used by you later to share the relevant information or schedules about your upcoming events.

11. Record events

Record your virtual events as it allows attendees to catch the synopsis of the previous event which they missed due to some chaos. Recorded events can even be used later for marketing purposes giving a glimpse of your past event to your potential attendees. 

12. Have an attractive landing page

Create a flawless landing page where you will direct the traffic for making registrations for the virtual event. Make your event registration landing pages attractive by adding a captivating content and a short video. Ensure beforehand that your website landing pages are error-free.

13. Send event reminders to virtual attendees

Sending reminders before your virtual event keeps your audience informed about the event dates and time. If you have made any changes to your schedule, the reminders will update your audience with the latest information about the event.

14. Run a test event

Once you are finished with all the necessary things, run a test event privately before you launch it to eliminate the risk of any errors. If any technical glitches are found during the test run, you can sort it out before the actual event takes place. 

15. All set to launch your virtual event

Once everything is checked, it’s time to launch your event and Go Live. Keep a track of your virtual event to measure its success.

How to conduct a successful virtual conference?

Virtual conferences are carried across the world with the latest remote meeting technology and video conferencing tools. No need for a conference room where business strategies are made and big deals are cracked, when one can host virtual conferences with complete privacy and security. Privacy remains the top concern while discussing business collaborations or hosting virtual conferences to discuss important deals. Sending an invite to people you want to join the conference allows only a couple of attendees to witness it thereby keeping your privacy intact. Nowadays, several virtual meeting platforms are available that offer secure hi-tech remote meeting technology that makes business conferences easy from the comfort of your own home. Keeping some important considerations in mind is a must while you plan for a virtual conference. Here are some tips for planning a virtual conference:

1. Keep time zone differences in mind

If you are planning to host a virtual conference with attendees of different countries having different time zones, considering the time suitable to a majority of participants is a must. Have a discussion beforehand and work out for the best possible time to carry out your virtual conference or session.

2. Easy registration

Ensure the registration process is easy and mobile-friendly for your invited attendees.

3. Pre-record presentations

Technical glitches can erupt at any time and may fail your virtual conference. To be on a safer side pre-record presentations beforehand which can be used later if any mishappening occurs or you fail to stream live sessions.

4. Plan live Q&A

Live Q&A helps in engaging attendees and building a network through virtual conferences.

How to measure the success of a virtual event?

Measuring the success of a virtual event is much easier as compared to physical events. The right track of data and analytics helps in knowing the amount of time your audience spends while interacting with your virtual event. Virtual events make it easy to track the interaction between the attendees and the broadcaster. Apart from the feedback from the virtual attendees, login data of registered attendees and the type of question asked during the event helps in measuring the success of the virtual event. 

Final word

It’s time to rethink and change your physical events policy to virtual one as the gateway of hybrid and virtual events has been opened which is likely to strengthen even further in the near future. Partnering up with virtual event solutions service providers helps you in rolling out your virtual events and conferences with ease. Dreamcast is a premium live webcasting services provider that offers video conferencing solutions and allows you to webcast your virtual events on various platforms. If you have not yet thought about a virtual event, now is the time to get started!

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