Hosting the right virtual event for the right audience
It’s Q4 2020. The year definitely hasn’t panned out as you had originally hoped. Your big kick-off event in Q1 with your sales team was inspiring and the planning you did in Q4 2019 looked promising enough to catapult your business into the next threshold. Your team was ready to deliver big results. And then things started to change. At first slowly… As March wrapped up you still had high hopes of building your business, hiring new team members and reporting on growth for 2020. As the months have rolled by, it seems quicker than ever, you finally acknowledged that you need to make changes to your business model.
You’ve shifted some of your business practices to adjust to the pandemic; added capabilities and maybe some new products to your business solutions, all in an attempt to move forward. But perhaps the biggest challenge is that you haven’t had an opportunity to get in front of a large group of your customers for months. The key tradeshows that you attend annually have been cancelled, which is typically 80% of your marketing activity. Knowing that your influence and special attention to your clients is critical in keeping your business afloat, you’ve decided that you need to start hosting virtual events.
While, in-person social events and corporate meetings are slowly starting to return, it’s still difficult to host large groups, you still need to apply social distancing rules, and some people are still nervous about gathering in person. There is definitely a need for your business to host virtual meetings and events but at this point in the year you try to weigh the benefits of hosting events for clients that may have had their fair share of Zoom meetings already. Picking the right solution and the right content for your business is essential in finding success in the virtual world. To determine the right approach, consider your goals and the level of interaction you want and expect from your clients.
1. Online Meeting or Virtual Training. When you want to have a lot of audience participation or even break out into smaller groups for greater discussion, hosting a virtual meeting is the way to go. This is ideal for collaborative meetings where you may want to assign side sessions but ultimately bring attendees back to the primary meeting. Among other platforms, Microsoft Teams or Adobe Connect provide breakout room opportunities, some of which can be customized with chats, polls, and other features to prompt engagement.
2. Webinar. If you are interested in sharing new capabilities of your business, or providing strictly educational information, and you intend for your audience to simply listen and ask questions when prompted, you likely need to host a webinar, via Zoom, WebEx Events, or a similar platform. A webinar is ideal for addressing a large group at once where the attendees do not typically interact with one another. You are typically sharing information out to your audience.
3. Virtual Roadshow. If you are launching a new product or need to demonstrate your services to a large audience, you can turn your roadshow into a virtual experience. Take the format of the traditional in-person tradeshow, with keynote speakers and executive round tables and share new content that will entice your clients to come do business with you. Keynote speakers can be live or recorded to ensure a buttoned up, positive message to your clients. Round tables and panel discussions are just as effective in the virtual world, and with everyone using their computer camera it will feel like a seamless discussion all happening in the same room. Using a moderator will allow for your audience to ask questions and interact with the panel. Some additional best practices for virtual trade shows and road shows include offering promotional swag to encourage engagement, creating sponsorship packages for your clients to sponsor different parts of your event, and running your event at different times that will accommodate all time zones.
And don’t forget about capturing leads. Your virtual road show is an opportunity to expand your audience and bring in new clients, either from promoting your registration links to a wide audience or from people sharing information and contacts to others.
Whatever your needs, 3P-Events is equipped to help you determine the best approach to accomplish your goals for your virtual experiences. Reach out and let us start helping you plan your next event!
