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A virtual events producer understands the virtual experience. Their work lies in making the event run smoothly, which centres a lot around the logistics of timing, sound, video quality. Having one on your team also kickstarts promotions, streamline registration, build atmosphere and optimise engagement!

Decide on your virtual event

A lot of companies think that a webinar is the only way to go for them when hosting any sort of online event. There are other options though that can be effective in delivering quality content to your audience.

Live Interviews – calling on an expert in your field or one tangential to it, often boosts your attention across social media.

Live Q and A – this is often thought of as a slice of the event, but it can also work well for in its own right. It’s useful for launching a product with lots of new features, for example.

Product Launch – creating hype for a product launch can be rocketed with a top-notch event.

Fireside Chat – let your brand community into your business with a casual chat. That could be an Instagram Live, for example, and works well in warming potential consumers to your business and strengthening your existing community.

Influencer Takeover – this works well once you choose the right influencer. It has to be someone (with a genuine following) that targets a demographic similar to that of your business,

Livestream platforms

Just like choosing the venue for an event, settling on a livestreaming platform has a heavy influence on your viewer’s experience. Some options on the market are quick to set up and easy for users to access but may have the tendency to glitch every so often or the video quality may be below par. That’s fine if you’re hosting an informal session. However, this doesn’t bring across a very professional tone, especially if it’s a paid event.

There are plenty of options on the market now, here are some of the top competitors:

• Zoom
• Youtube Live
• Facebook Live
• Google Hangouts
• Microsoft Teams
• Instagram Live
• Dacast
• Vimeo
• Periscope
• Twitch
• Youknow

Each of the streaming services has its benefits and drawbacks. Instagram Live, for example, is extremely easy to get going but has a very basic set of features and is limited in how you can get your audience interacting. On the other hand, Vimeo packs in a lot more functionality from multiple simultaneous streams, geoblocking and IP restriction. Vimeo and a couple of others on this list provide eCDN, which is a peer-to-peer delivery system that will allow you to stream your event across your network of users with minimal local bandwidth consumption.

Timing

Here’s what’s going to make or break the event. Not giving your business enough time to prepare for an online event can affect the uptake, deliverance, engagement and takeaway feedback.

To give you an idea, 56% of marketers will take between 2-4 weeks to plan even a small virtual event. So starting early and getting around to finalising the following factors will set your business up for the best possible results. Enter the mindset from the beginning that your event is going to impress and ignite interest, rather than ticking the “engage with customers” box.

Promotion

What are your key performance indicators? Or in other words, how can you distil your event into a marketing elixir. What makes your event unique and essential addition to a person’s life?

Next, solidify your proposition. What are people going to walk out with after leaving the event?

Once you’ve got that figured out, it’s time to create hype across social. Promotion is essential for any online event – so it’s important to allocate a segment of your budget to creating awareness. Creating a hashtag for the event is also a good tactic. Encourage any speakers to use this in the weeks and days coming up to the event. According to Hubspot, “If you have speakers from other organizations, make sure to ask the thought leader or brand to promote the event — or their session — on their channels”.

You can also create a competition around this hashtag for attendees. You may consider teaming up with influencers or partnering up with another company to spread the word and increase sign-ups.

These are just a sample of the ocean of techniques that a virtual events producer will have at their disposal. They’ll be able to decide the best social media strategy for your particular event. Having this inside track makes sure that your event connects with an ample audience.

Registration

Handling registrations but also cancellations and ensuring that all this runs smoothly takes expertise or else a lot of time as well as trial and error if done in house. A virtual events producer will get your system automated, easy to manage, as well as user friendly. Having too many stages in the sign up is a sure-fire way to drop potential conversions along the path to registration.

Optimising for an online platform

A lot of your team’s strengths are transferrable from in-person to online events. However, the technologies used in the online sphere require experience being able to handle. That holds especially true in the middle of a conference filled with people and a glitch occurs, or the sound disappears. A virtual events producer will likely have everything up and running before it becomes an option for people to go and make a cup of tea and miss a crucial part of the talk.

Engagement

Here are a few suggestions to keep your audience engaged throughout your entire event:

• Live polls
• Encourage using the chat feature
• Q and A section
• Passionate speakers
• A well-paced schedule with time for tea breaks

Feedback

Letting your audience leave without a call for feedback, is a massive opportunity wasted. Be human – let them know how it will help your business and their experience to learn from this event. As we’ve touched on before, offering a competition or discount increase response rates. Another tip is to keep the questionnaire quick and simple to submit.

We’re an experienced team of virtual events experts. Whether you’re looking for a full suite of skill sets to launch a large event, or need a producer to oversee that your event runs smoothly, you can get in touch with us here at Videoworks.

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