Moving a conference to a virtual event

Planning and delivering a virtual event is quite a different thing to holding a conference in person. Rather than cancel or postpone, moving the event online is a solution that more organisers are looking at.

We all know the benefits of meeting people and a virtual event can’t replace that, however, there are some benefits:

• There’s no limit on the amount of attendees
• Sessions can be recorded so people in different parts of the world can view at their convenience
• Engagement can be built with chatrooms, LinkedIn groups or using other social media channels
• Links can be added to videos or documents shared for additional content
• Sustainability – online events tick the CSR box as they are more environmentally friendly. No travel, no printing, no food waste and no plastic
• You don’t need to worry about accommodation, catering and all those special dietary requirements!

Most event organisers have very little experience of holding virtual conferences, but we’re now using Zoom, Microsoft Teams and other platforms to have internal meetings while we are working from home, this might be the first step to larger external events. Virtual events are particularly well suited to training and educational topics, where attendees like straightforward access to information.

Presentation style

Speakers have to change their style of presentation to engage the viewers and turn them in to participants. This can be done using a variety of tools, such as polls, Q&A sessions, gamification, quizzes or anything to make them interact with each other. Remote attendees will have distractions, such as their inboxes and phone, but when people are physically in an audience, they are often still answering messages. If people are interacting frequently throughout the sessions then they will keep the connection. A virtual networking session could be included. Although some people love these at physical events, the people who don’t enjoy joining a room full of strangers are often be more confident when joining remotely.

Quality production

The better quality production of a virtual event, the better the engagement will be. To hold the attention of attendees, the presentations should be excellent, with high quality lighting, microphones, visually appealing graphics and content, and varying the camera angles to make it seem like a live event. Using a moderator can help to transition between speakers, provide continuity and a summary. Breakouts and roundtable sessions can be included to cover specialist content. Consider the decor of the speakers’ backgrounds, you might still want to provide a branded message, rather than looking at bookshelves and personal photographs which cause a distraction.

The streaming technology can be integrated in an event app, which brings everything together, but also will enable a virtual event to be changed back to a physical event in the future. When the event has finished this can be used to keep everyone in touch with each other.

Charging for a virtual event

Changing to a virtual event is a safe way to deliver an event, but at the moment a lot of these events are free for attendees. For company internal events this isn’t a problem. However for events that make money organisers need to find ways to monetize them, whether that’s through sponsorship, advertising, push notifications, payment to attend or other methods.

Virtual attendees might not be willing to pay as much for an online event because they aren’t familiar with the format. This will definitely be the case if it’s the first one you’re holding or if the content is available afterwards, but the costs will change and a new budget will have to be prepared accordingly. The costs should be lower as you don’t have the venue, catering, travel, physical production and onsite staff costs. And, you might be able to reach a wider audience. Lots of people are making money from YouTube videos already, so the concept isn’t unfamiliar to your participants.

Holding a virtual event takes some planning and online events are different. They won’t work for everything, but they are definitely worth considering while we not able to travel as we usually can.

For more information take a look at our Tips for the Virtual Meeting article.