13th Jan, 2021

Ultimate guide for organizing a successful and engaging virtual event

When it comes to conducting an online event, feeling confused, unsure, and overwhelmed quite is normal. You are probably wondering how to host an online event, and where to concentrate to do it right. You may face many questions in your mind like what will be the duration of the session or will charge a fee or it’s a free event? If its a live event, what happens if you have connectivity issues?

But the ground fact is- Technology can help you to organize virtual events that even rival actual events. You will likely have a better success payoff once your online event goes live. Of course, it needs a lot more to plan and organize an online event than just choosing a streaming platform. Here we bring an ultimate step by step guide and tips for hosting a virtual event. Here we go! The planning process is very similar to that of in-person event, the more you treat the virtual event like an in-person event, the better.

So how do you do it?

How to organize a successful Online Event

 

Things to be taken care of before conducting an Online Event

First of all, define your purpose and what you want to achieve. To help you decide your event’s purpose and aim, think about the audience you want to target. Depict a clear idea about your target audience, speakers and what kind of experience do you want to give your audience?

Predefined Agenda

Appoint a team to develop and set a schedule and agenda. Treat your online event as you would treat your actual event if you want your online event to be productive, successful, and engaging. It is good to be ready with contingency plans, as an event without a program and a plan are vulnerable to mistakes.

Invitations

To fit the theme of your online event or brand, go for Digital invitations which are affordable, and also customizable. You can create a personalized digital invitation by adding a link to your online event registration page.

Managing your event speakers

Make sure all your event speakers have a stable internet connection presentable background, and clear audio. To get the audience to interact and engage, Q&A sessions play a pivotal role. Ask your speakers if they are comfortable with it. An expert speaker knows how to get the attendees involved. Before the final day, do a mock trial to avoid any discrepancies on the Big Day.  

Event Format

You can host a virtual event in various ways. Here is the list and description; you can choose as per your requirement

1. Hashtags: With the help of platforms like Twitter, Discord, Reddit, Slack, and many more, you can start a discussion online by using a hashtag.
2. Webinars: A real-time online presentation. With the help of platforms like Zoom, Livestorm, WebinarNinja and YouTube Livestream, you can host a webinar where participants can also ask questions and if anyone wants to view later, the organizer can give him the access too. Webinar use for the workshop or online classes. 
3. Conferences and Networking: Platforms like Brella, HeySummit, Hop In, Run the World, Vfairs, EventsNow Live studio and many more, use for conference or networking as they are offering more interactive features and sophisticated tools. 
4. Social Livestreams: You can improve your chances of engaging with your audience, with live streaming and almost every social media platform offering this feature. Live streams show comments and attendees in real-time, thus drives more engagement than regular videos. You can use platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Live, LinkedIn Live, Twitter Live, and YouTube Livestream for your live streaming.

 

Choosing a Host for Your Online Event

While selecting a host or MC for your online event, you have to keep several parameters in your mind.

Criteria for choosing the best host:

1. The person has a social media account where S/he is promoting them
2. Having a website will be an ad-on
3. Have some hosting video sample of their own
4. The communication style of the person matches your requirement
5. The personality of the person
6. Can handle any unpredictable or uncomfortable situation. To gain a better outcome, choose carefully.

 

Creating Your Online Event Content

For delivering an amazing online event experience, content is crucial for both the organizers and the attendees. Don’t be too late in the planning of content creation. Pre and post-event content is important to create awareness and keep the essence for awake for your next event.

 Few tips for creating content for your online event:

1. Create some interactive fun videos related to your theme or goal and share them in the social media platforms
2. Conduct some polls and generate research on event topics and share to catch the attention of the potential audience.
3. Create a buzz in the crowd about your speakers, their works and contributions.
4. Showcase your renowned attendees too.

 

Relevant and appropriate platform & software for Your Online Event

 Before you choose the platform, make sure you have the checklist of requirements:

1. Your expectation from the event
2. Features you required like: attendee engagement solutions, pre-registration system, ticketing system, monetizing features, security features, event page    etc.
3. Device friendly software and platform
4. Software with full-cycle customer assistance.

 

What you want to achieve is a crucial acting point to decide the right software and platform for your online event, so prioritize your needs. Ask yourself about your expectations to understand which event management software can meet your needs.

Date and Time  

While choosing the date and time of your virtual event, keep in mind the difference in time zones as you are expecting audience across the globe and the date & time could be crucial for attendees living in different time zones. To deliver access to your audience worldwide, it is also a good idea to plan multiple networking sessions as maximum time, setting a convenient time for everyone is not possible.

Engaging Your Audience

Create opportunities for your audience to participate if you want to engage them successfully. Tips to engage your audience:  

•    Encourage them to raise queries and submit those in the comment section
•    Encourage them to participate in polls and live discussions or tweeting
•    Request them to share their feedback
•    Promote the names who actively participate in the polls or discussions.
•    Organize innovative and engaging network sessions
•    Create appealing content relevant to your target audience.

 

Promoting Your Online Event

Keep your target audience in mind, when promoting your online event. Consider what content to publicize and where and how. Ultimately, to get your audience interested in attending, your content should be relevant to them. What will your online event offer? Think about your selling point. To disseminate your virtual event, take advantage of available social media tools.

Ultimate Checklist for organizing a successful and engaging virtual event: 

 

• Easy accessibility is a pivotal key. The first step is to finalize an appropriate online platform that meets your requirements like – registration of attendees   and attend your event.
• To improve quality and reduce your margin of error, do a trial run before the big day.
• Make sure your virtual event is device friendly as a lot of people are comfortable with smartphones or tablets.
• Engage your audience. To captivate your audience’s interests, use visual aids and a platform with features where you can run polling or chat pods. Assign someone to look after this section, so attendees don’t feel unattended.
• Make sure you have a contingency plan for any unpredictable situation
• Post-event follow-up. You can use the valuable sight collected from your audience to improve your future virtual events.

 

Get maximum exposure through the huge inflow of traffic with EventsNow

Here is how EventsNow can help you to reach your targeted audience with less effort. With seamless online event registration software, EventNow makes ticketing easy. It is the best platform for event organizers to publish, promote and sell their events. The services provided by Eventsnow are:

• List, promote and sell tickets online.
• Circulate newsletters.
• Optimize your Social Media promotions
• Simplify the user’s search by categorizing your events in our website.   

 

In a nutshell, leverage your event brand name and make it more appealing. Manage your online events with EventsNow by inviting your audience in seamless customizable registration pages.

Wrap up 

Virtual events should be kept simple accompanied with simple interfaces. To increase the connectedness of the event, keep it short and focus on audience engagement. Before organizing a virtual event, make sure that you know the tools and software well enough and do your market research on audience demand. However for a successful online even, the process requires time, research planning and resource. Here at EventsNow, we can help to reach your targeted audience easily. List your event in the right marketing site to reach a potential audience with ease. EventsNow team is here to help you.  If you are looking for a Demo of EventsNow Live studio then contact kushal.a@eventsnow.com