In the present-day business world, various kinds of remote interactions are gaining traction worldwide. For international companies, in which departments and units are located all over the globe, virtual events are basically the only option available to have regular team meetings. For others, it’s a matter of acquired taste. The pandemic and its aftermath have convinced even the most hard-core skeptics that remote mode is the best variant one can possibly think of, and it really works. Whatever the reason behind organizing such activity is, virtual spaces can always offer a lot of benefits. However, to make it happen, the event in question must be well-planned. The thing is that organizing a virtual function is a totally different scenario, when compared to hosting one offline. On the bright side, when hosting a remote activity, you no need to be concerned about the venue, catering, and attendee accommodation. Yet, there are a number of other issues you need to be prepared to take into consideration. When you have a step-by-step planning and execution strategy, you can rest assured everything will go smoothly and without any major challenges.
#1: Prepare an Agenda
Having a detailed event agenda is an important prerequisite that guarantees the success of your event and ensures all participants are on the same page. While improvising during in-person conferences and workshops may work nicely, given the speakers are experienced and know what they are doing, being unprepared for a virtual function in all likelihood will end up in a disaster. Today, having an unstructured event is a sure way to have people leave early. The best way to tackle this issue is to prepare a detailed agenda well in advance and send it out to all participants concerned.
#2: Advertise Your Event
Today, promotion activities are key to the high productivity of any event. When one considers a virtual mode, the main challenge observed here is a lack of personal touch. The right approach here is to make emphasize providing as much condensed relevant information about the upcoming activity as possible so that every potential attendee can get a clear understanding of why this event is of value for them. A poster maker allows you to effortlessly create your own designs to reflect the crucial aspects of your planned event.
#3: Focus on Interaction
The most memorable event is one where there is a high level of interaction and networking between participants, hosts, and speakers. When you plan to deliver your event remotely, you need to put interaction in the spotlight. Providing your participants with an engaging experience will guarantee a fulfilling customer journey. Make sure you include some interactive elements into your activity, for example, a brief poll or audience survey, Q&A exchange, etc, adding short self-introduction for attendees, etc.
#4: Plan Opportunities for Networking
Many people attend various professional conferences and workshops primarily because of their networking potential. Visual events normally don’t have the same appeal to networking, when compared to in-person presentations. Thus, it’s imperative to set up a space or time slot where organizers, speakers, and attendees can connect and build rapport with one another.
#5: Keep It Short
Sad but true, during public events people tend to get easily distracted with social networks and instant messengers. In a remote environment, this risk is even higher. The only solution that works under these circumstances is to make your event as short as possible. Standard 60-minutes sessions won’t be effective here.
#6: Plan Breaks Carefully
Sitting in front of your laptop or web camera might be a daunting experience for everyone. Of course, it can be compared to attending a real-life event somewhere in a conference hall. Including breaks into your delivery is a must, if you want your audience to be focused throughout the whole activity and make it to the very end. On the other hand, there is no need to treat the participants as children and rely heavily on the gamification of the process.
#7: Practice a Lot
In general, interaction with people is practice-based. The more practical experience of organizing and hosting public speaking events you have, the better you can plan everything. Yet, being experienced with in-person activities is different from delivering a workshop or presentation remotely. You need to allocate time and practice a lot before the event commences. Probably, everyone can remember a time when a lack of preparation causes technical issues or content timing concerns. And preparation is meant in the broadest scope here. Testing your technical audio and video equipment before the beginning is vital and can help avoid many issues.
Wrapping Up
Reserving enough time for preparation, careful step-by-step planning, and delivering high-quality relevant information is a sure way to turn the virtual event you host into an overwhelming success. However, even the best-laid plans can get interrupted by some unexpected last-minute issue. Don’t panic, stick to the plan anyway, and never doubt your skills – and you will manage!