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5 Simple Steps for a Successful Virtual Event Planning

Virtual Event Planning

All thanks to technology, we have stepped into the digital era. With the rapid advancements in technology clusters, virtual event technology came as a savior in 2020. Entire nations across the world have been hit by a global pandemic in 2020, leaving businesses and organisations in flux. The event industry is one of the fastest-growing entities that has been severely affected by the unforeseen forecast of COVID-19.

Leveraging video streaming services, was the only option left with event planners to keep going. In the time of the global health crisis, people are pushed to maintain social distance to limit contact and prevent the transmission of the deadly virus. Certain restrictions on travel have been imposed by the government to ensure the health safety of the public. Hosting virtual events is the only option left with organisations and businesses to keep churning out.

Today, virtual events have become the most powerful tool. Marketers and event planners across the globe are tapping on the powerful tool to benefit from the same. It overcomes various barriers associated with physical events such as geographical constraints and space limitations. Apart from it, a virtual event results in saving in a lot of assets for both the parties involved. The cost involved in travelling, hiring technical staff, arranging accommodation, food, and beverages, renting venues, etc. gets escalated. The perks offered by virtual events are far beyond the reach of traditional physical events. Many big leading brands are opting for virtual events to showcase their offerings. Johnsons and johnsons, Apple, etc are some of the leading brands that leveraged virtual events. They have set a benchmark as virtual event examples in the industry. To ensure a successful virtual event, the right virtual event planning and levering the right technology is a must.

A virtual event planner closely works in identifying the objectives and creating a strategy for a successful virtual event. Today, it’s not wrong to state that virtual events can standalone for any company. A successful virtual event reaches millions across the globe without any geographical constraint at a single click. In this post, we have listed 5 simple steps to kick start your virtual event planning and ensure success. Let’s get started!

5 simple steps to ensure a successful virtual event

Have a look at 5 easy steps that will help you in virtual event planning:

1. Determine the Objective & Define your Virtual Event Format

Determining the purpose of hosting a virtual event is a must to proceed to virtual event planning and strategy. One must be sure what they want to achieve out of a virtual event and who are their potential target audience. Having an insight into your audience psyche is a must before planning a virtual event. Do the research and understand their behavior such as what attracts them the most? What are they most interested in? how active they are on social media and so on. Once you have a thorough understanding of your target audience psyche and determine the objective of your event, you can move to select the event format. Same as traditional events, virtual event planning can include many formats. Be it a webinar, trade show, workshop, or a product launch, a virtual event platform serves all. Select the format that best suits your requirement at a time. Create different and unique user experiences for attendees to keep them engaged. Once you decide upon the format answer the following questions to yourself to ensure a smooth and successful virtual event. Here are a few questions you need to have an answer for:

● Will your event be live, on-demand, or both?
● Will your event be gated or free?
● What is the registration process?
● What engaging features would you like to utilise in your event?
● Do you require key speakers?
● What will be the mode of interaction?
● What is your budget?
● Do you want to create a personalised theme for your event?
● How attendees will navigate throughout the event?

Having answers to certain questions and more beforehand, is the first step towards successful virtual event planning.

2. Select the right technology

Technology plays an important role while planning a virtual event. Selecting the right virtual event platform is a must to ensure a successful virtual event. Today, the market is full of ample virtual event platform service providers. Selecting a platform that offers customisable services and packages is the best bet. Get yourself familiarized with the basic functionalities and features of the platform before the event. Ask your service provider to test a dry run before the actual event. Look out for engaging tools and features and live chat functionality while making the final choice. It is the only medium to keep attendees engaged with your event throughout. A platform that is backed by 24*7 tech support for seamless delivery is a must to have.

3. Be wise while selecting a speaker for your event

Whether you are planning to hire a professional keynote speaker or an in-house staff member, be wise in selecting. He/she is the key source for imparting information about your event to virtual attendees. Ensure that the speaker you selected is comfortable to have a talk and present in front of a virtual audience. The speaker must be fluent, have knowledge about the subject of the event, and should be able to answer the questions asked spontaneously by attendees. The speaker should be efficient enough to engage attendees with the event without a script.

4. Select an appropriate date and time

While finalising the date and time for your virtual event, an event organiser must keep certain considerations in mind. If you are targeting global audiences, keeping time zone consideration in mind is a must to ensure maximum attendance. Look out for the date and time that suits the majority of attendees. Apart from it, it is suggested to do a little research before finalising the date for your virtual event. Look out that the date you selected does not have any national holidays or competing events, as it will result in affecting the attendance at a virtual event.

5. Promote your virtual event

Marketing and promoting your virtual event is a must to ensure a successful virtual event. It works the same way as live physical events. It does not matter how good your event is, if your audience is not aware of it, it is of no use. Promoting your event right is an integral part of virtual event planning. A virtual event planner utilises all the possible channels to promote a virtual event. Direct mails, public relations, social media integration, or leveraging social media channels is the key to promote your virtual event.

If you are new to the world of virtual events, the above-mentioned steps will help you to kick start your journey!

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Written by Abhishek Chauhan

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