If there’s one thing, apart from the pandemic, that people will remember 2020 for, it’s the Zoom meeting. This platform hosted over 300 million meeting participants daily at the height of remote working.
During this time, many businesses discovered the benefits of using digital platforms for much more than meetings, too. Virtual events became commonplace, with many business owners finding them more cost-effective and far-reaching than the real thing.
Are you among those who prefer the power of getting your message across at an online event?
If you want to maximize the potential of online events for your business, take care to avoid the following virtual event mistakes.
1. Lacking Clear Objectives
Knowing your objectives beforehand will help you choose the best platform, speaker, and content when planning virtual events.
Set up your objectives and work backward when planning your content, so everything comes together in the end.
Remember to include digital engagement before, during, and after your event. Social media is an ideal platform for prior and post-event engagement.
2. Replicating In-Person Events
Some aspects of live events don’t translate well into the virtual realm. For instance, poster sessions are a big no-no when you’re presenting online.
You must investigate digitally compatible forms of engagement to keep your event dynamic, entertaining, and interesting. Some of the best ones include online game shows and quizzes.
3. Technical Virtual Event Mistakes
It’s very tempting to stage your event on the latest, trending virtual event platform without giving it much thought.
Take time to analyze the features of available platforms according to your needs and design your presentation to maximize its full potential.
Watch a few demos of each platform to get inspiration for your content and practice working with it, so you’re completely familiar with its potential.
4. Not Maximizing Your Content
With virtual eventing, success doesn’t depend on what you say or do, it’s how you say or do it that counts.
There’s nothing worse than a poorly planned, lengthy, and boring virtual event. Dynamic, varied content for virtual events is key to getting your message across in a memorable way.
Despite offering a varied program, you must maintain a cohesive feel throughout your event, so that participants still view it as a whole, connected, experience.
Too much information will overwhelm your audience, while too little may leave them feeling like they haven’t benefitted from your efforts.
An engaging, quick-witted virtual event host makes all the difference to your event. Make sure you hire someone with experience hosting this type of event and give them plenty of time to review the content in advance.
Remember, your audience is human. You must include a lunch break as well as regular comfort breaks.
You have one shot at creating a memorable, informative experience for your audience. If you want them to come back for more, you must make the most of it.
5. Lack of Rehearsals
Never present a virtual event until you’ve had a trial run, period. There’s no other way to iron out any glitches before you present to a live audience.
When you rehearse virtual events, you ensure your team, speakers, and event chairs know exactly where they fit in and what you expect of them.
Make sure you run through any pre-recorded presentations and videos to make sure they play all the way through without a hitch. Check your sound and lighting, and then re-check them ten minutes before your event goes live.
One helpful tip is to keep in touch with cell phones behind the scene if necessary. These devices also come in handy if your wireless connection goes down, and you need to connect to a mobile hotspot instead.
Once you go live, there’s no turning back, so make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. On the day, you want to focus on your audience without technological distractions.
6. Not Encouraging Engagement
You must include plenty of opportunities for engagement in your virtual event schedule. Audience participation eliminates boredom and helps people stay focused on your content.
Allow for question and answer sessions at regular intervals. Include a section for questions when participants sign up for your events. This helps the speaker address these issues during their presentation and keep things relevant to the audience.
If some questions don’t fit in with your content schedule, the speaker should address these issues afterward. Paying attention to queries
Live Q&A sessions are much more dynamic and engaging than written responses to questions.
It’s easy to overlook some questions when you have a chat stream running during your session. Unanswered questions will destroy all your attempts to boost engagement.
Chat streams are often distracting on screen too, but if you do want to have one, you should employ a team to answer questions promptly or bring them to the speaker’s attention.
As a backup, create some interesting questions while working on your content program and add them to the mix.
7. No Follow-Up
Don’t forget about your audience as soon as they log out. Continuing engagement is the key to ongoing relationships, and it’s the only way to gauge the success of your event.
Surveys about the event can help you plan future interactions and ensure you meet your objectives.
You should also upload a recording of your event to all your social media channels and your website. When you do this, your audience can watch it as many times as they like, keeping your presentation fresh in their mind.
Post-event follow-up is the best way to maximize the return on your efforts.
Technology Is the Key to Business Success
Now that you know how to sidestep the most common virtual event mistakes, you can embrace the benefits of the technological realm to your best advantage.
In the last two years, technology has been central to keeping many businesses afloat across the globe. Make sure you’re able to embrace all its benefits for overcoming future obstacles.
Are you keen to explore the exciting future of business today? Browse this blog for more up-to-date information and tips to help your enterprise thrive in modern times.
