Insight
From face-to-face to virtual
• Polls will help presenters get a better
understanding of the audience on the
other side of the screen.
• Real time answers to questions.
• Text notifications or content sharing
during session, for example through a
chat tool
• Social channels: Create a # for your
virtual events and encourage attendees
to interact. Moderate the discussions.
• Consider entertainment ideas during
breaks, for example mini ‘workouts’ or
music and teaser videos for upcoming
sessions.
SILKE HOERSCH ON HOW TO TURN YOUR EVENT INTO A
VIRTUAL EXPERIENCE
ust a few weeks ago, we
were feeling optimistic
about holding
Ungerboeck’s yearly APAC
and EMEA Unite conferences in March.
What happened next was out of our
hands, with the Covid-19 pandemic. We
did not want to give up on Unite, so we
worked on a virtual conference concept
that would still cover the great content
we were eager to share with our
customer community.
We had one week to revamp the
agenda and to elaborate the technical
set-up. Our decision to make this a free
event for our customers allowed us to
increase our reach tremendously.
So, how do you turn a multi-day
conference, filled with educational
sessions, presentations, product trials
and networking opportunities, into an
engaging virtual experience?
1) Online event format
When moving a multi-day event online,
you have to reconsider the duration and
the content. People don’t have the same
attention span in front of their screen.
Consider delivering shorter sessions
(30-45 minutes), reduce the number of
presentations per track, and ensure time
for Q&As, as well as breaks in between
sessions.
Schedule your sessions to
accommodate time zone issues.
Add enough resources to run the show:
moderators, presenters and panelists. Do
not underestimate the time it takes to brief
all involved. Rehearsals should be
mandatory to test the technical set-up.
Clearly identify your KPIs: what are
you trying to achieve? This will help you
decide whether registrants should be
charged, if the sessions will be made
available on-demand after the event, and
how you will follow up.
2) Choosing the right technology
Choosing the right provider will depend
on the functionalities that are essential to
your event. These include:
• Ease of set up for sessions
• Ease of use for presenters
• Audience engagement tools such as
polls and Q&As
• Supporting large number of attendees
logging in at the same time, ideally
without the need to download a desktop
app
• Support quality video production
3) Marketing & Communication
Moving our conferences online enabled
us to triple our attendance rate in less
than a week.
Event website
Your event website is at the core of your
event and is the main source of
information for your attendees and it
should include a clear agenda with direct
access to the different sessions, speakers’
names and a registration link.
Chatbot
Utilise your website chatbot to answer
questions prior to the event, but also
during the conference.
Email marketing
Advertise your event to your database with
mass email communications prior to the
event. Send delegates feedback surveys.
Social media
Use your social media channels to tease
your event and to promote content and
speakers. Post a preview of the sessions
and introduce the event hashtag.
4) Driving engagement
during your event
One of the biggest challenges of virtual
events is to keep your attendees engaged
when you can’t see people’s reactions to
your presentation. There are tools that
can help you:
5) Post event
All of the content should be available to
attendees right after the conference.
Crisis breeds invention and when we
all come out of this, reflecting the
experiences we made, we will not hold
the same events as before. Hybrid events
will become much more relevant in
future and we will have to find ways to
commercialise the virtual elements.
Silke Hoersch is
Executive Director
Marketing and
Business
Development at
Ungerboeck
Software
International
(Abridged version
of an article first
published at: www.
ungerboeck.com)
ISSUE 106
/
CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD
/
49