I believe you would have entertained the idea of virtual events. However, the biggest roadblock is the great unknown. Just what kind of events will be suitable virtually? While many companies have great products and platforms, not many do enough to present the use cases for their solutions. This leaves you with a big headache when trying to figure out what might work best for you. Thankfully, we live in the age of the internet, and if you search hard enough, you will always find precedents for you to model after. Here are 5 types of virtual events people are hosting in 2020.
Webinars
If you have something to say to your audiences and require more than 2 mins of airtime, webinars are the way to go. They are the star of the season, helping individuals connect with viewers across the globe, from the comfort of their armchair. Webinars are usually held in the form of a presentation, and could be pre-recorded or held live. A good webinar should compose of polls and Q&As to maximise engagement with your viewers, so they feel fulfilled at the end of the event. If done right, webinars will be your best tools for qualifying your audiences, and could be a great sales funnel.
What is the goal of your business? If it is to increase profits, then you will be thinking about how to maximise your leads. The larger audience you reach out to, the more likely you will get a lead that converts. Online trade shows and exhibitions help you do just that, by maximising your potential audiences to a global scale. In this event, you can engage prospects from across the globe using chat tools, polls and panels. This is a great platform to educate a global audience on your offerings. To make this truly worthwhile, you can integrate an online store within your event, to shorten conversion time from a warm lead to a sale.
Online Music Concerts
As live events get cancelled, the first tier of casualties are artistes and talents, not businesses. Yes, companies lose the opportunity to outreach, but these poor performers lost their stream of income. During these difficult times, a few beacons have virtually gotten together to put on a show for their audiences. These concerts could be great fundraisers for organisations hit most by the pandemic. On a smaller scale, online concerts are also a great way for performers to generate some income. Venues have also gradually warmed to the ideas of doing virtual sets, which bodes well for talents toughing it out in this pandemic.
Virtual Conferences & Summits
It is easy to confuse virtual conferences with video conferencing. That said, demands for both have skyrocketed since the start of 2020. In a virtual conference, we are talking about more sophisticated engines than purely video calls. As we take an enforced break from live events due to the current pandemic, these events have allowed organisers to reach wider audiences, put together multinational panellists, all for a fraction of the cost. Past organisers are finding it cheaper and more effective than physical conferences, as long as they make use of the right online engagement tools.
Virtual Onboarding Fairs
Businesses have not gone through such upheavals since the last financial crisis. The fate of companies moving forward rests heavily on the new hires they are blooding in this period. It’s a great struggle to ensure these hires have a great foundation to build their success without being there physically to guide them. They need a robust onboarding program, and virtual onboarding fairs are a great alternative. They enable businesses to train distributed hires via interactive tools and audio/video chats. Better yet, conducting training online means you get valuable metrics into participation levels.
The possibilities of virtual events are genuinely endless. Hopefully, the above gives a good idea of how you can make use of some platforms available out there. As long as you can imagine the event and use case, I’m sure you can find a virtual event engine that’s able to support it! To see what we have for you, check out www.getout.events/virtual-events.
