ON POINT ARTICLES
6 TACTICS AND TIPS TO BRING VIRTUAL EVENTS TO THE NEXT LEVEL IAPCO Member: AIM Group International Author: Ronsagela Quieti, Managing Director Congress Division AIM Group The pandemic forced associations, corporate event organisers
2. BECOME TECH-SAVVY
and event professionals, to assimilate and dive into new
It is important to be able to leverage every single platform and
formats and ways to meet. We moved planned in-person
tool available on the market and evaluate the pros and cons
events into the digital realm, in a very short time frame with
of the different solutions in terms of features, user experience
limited previous experience. It was such a challenge for all
and economics. The right platform needs to be chosen for
event professionals. One year later, after organising hundreds
each project and customised so that it is a functional, useful
of digital events, we have tried different ways and used
and intuitive platform that guarantees an excellent user experi-
different tools to create emotional connections and valuable
ence and an economic return for sponsors. It is also important
and engaging digital journeys for all parties (delegates,
to train speakers, making them comfortable with the new
speakers, sponsors).
technology and tools and learn how to make a speech in front of a video and how to engage participants remotely.
Here are some takeaways from our recent experience and six
Traditional sponsorship opportunities need to be completely
tips to make your virtual and hybrid event more successful:
transformed into a digital sponsorship offering. A flexible and innovative platform can provide opportunities to create new
1. INNOVATE EVENT FORMATS
and alternative forms of sponsorship that you may never have
Attendee expectations have changed considerably since
thought of for in-person events.
the first digital events. To cope with Zoom fatigue, events are moving away from their conference format to TV show
3. ENSURE GREATER QUALITY CONTENT
formats. Speakers are expected to act more like performers.
Providing strong content is what is going to attract
Lively anchormen or facilitators are used to introduce speakers
attendees and pique their interest and attention. You must
and sessions, to encourage discussion and interaction and
deliver something special to give them a reason to be online
summarise the “take-home messages”. Resources are now
for several hours. Plan a captivating event marketing and
being targeted at the quality of the production and meeting
communication campaign (pre-event session trailers, video
rooms are being transformed into TV studios.
clips from the speakers, innovative highlights) tailoring the content and campaign to reflect the interests of the expected
Since people’s attention span is shorter online event sessions
participants. You need to generate FOMO, a fear of missing
are being kept shorter with more breaks. Social platforms,
out, to increase curiosity and ensure attendance.
such as Clubhouse, Twitch, Tik Tok are becoming more and more popular and should be incorporated into virtual and
4. FOCUS ON THE DELEGATES’ INTERACTION
hybrid events. Clubhouse for example is offering an attendee
Participants were kings of in-person events, but it now
centric structure with new attendance options for those who
becomes more important to involve them remotely, while
feel overwhelmed by traditional virtual events and video-chat.
they are participating from their desks. Give more time to discussion (keeping the sessions shorter) and include
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| May 2021
