Webinar Wire

6 Tips for a Successful Virtual Event

The folks at Conferencing News reported on the launch of the iLinc blog, (thanks for that) and in their post, asked that we talk about EventPlus, our proprietary web-based event management software. 

For many of us in the web collaboration industry and most of you utilizing our products and services we have all heard for years now the cost-saving argument of using collaboration tools versus traveling to live seminars. If truth be told, I’ve used this argument at least a thousand times if I’ve used it once. Well, in fact this argument is not without merit. You can truly save a lot of money using virtual collaboration tools. Plus, let’s be honest—traveling is brutal these days. 

Along with cost-savings there are a number of other benefits of virtual seminars:

• no travel
•  more convenient for both the host company and participants
•  less logistics to deal with
• you get to spend your evenings with your family vs. with some stranger at an airport terminal or hotel convention center. 

With this said, facilitating a virtual event is not without its challenges. Some of these challenges include managing the registration process, capturing payments and processing credit cards, keeping the registrants informed and excited about the upcoming event, coordinating and training speakers, and capturing post-event feedback. It’s a lot to manage for even the most adept events person and/or team. Events management software (like EventsPlus) can help you facilitate and manage the numerous facets of hosting multiple webinars and/or teleseminars all from your desktop computer. 

When hosting a virtual event we recommend you approach it very similarly to putting on a live event. In other words, recognize that proper planning and organization will increase your chances of success. For us at iLinc, we take very seriously the importance of proper planning and organization when it comes to hosting a successful virtual event.   

Some tips to consider as you plan your virtual event:  

1. Plan ahead – One of the benefits of working in a virtual world is that a convention center (i.e. a place to hold your event) is available anytime. This can sometimes make one believe that it’s OK to plan an event without much notice. Most successful events are planned 6-8 weeks in advance at minimum. One of our most successful clients uses a 10-week planning schedule and will not deviate from it in the slightest.  Again, following best practices is always the best approach.  

2. Set the appropriate Price Point – When considering how much to charge for an event consider the following: What’s the topic? Is it a subject that will be of interest to your target audience? Who will be presenting? Is he or she considered a Subject Matter Expert (SME)?  I also recommend you consider the true cost of attending a live event of a similar nature. For instance if someone is paying $495 to attend a live seminar but another $500 in travel expenses then they are really paying $995 to attend, not to mention the other costs and inconveniences associated with travel. I mention this because I have witnessed a number of situations where a virtual event has been undervalued because the total cost is not considered. Their reasoning is this: If someone is willing to pay $495 to attend a two-day seminar then I cannot charge more than $95 to attend a 90-minute session. Wrong! If the content is of interest and the speaker is considered an SME, by evaluating the true cost of attendance you’ll see that you can easily charge 2 or 3 times that amount and still save your attendees a ton of money and time for the same material. 

3. Promote your event using a PLAN – A good approach to marketing a virtual event is by using the PLAN method. PLAN is an acronym for Promote, Learn, Adjust, and Network. PROMOTE your event to your target audience. Then evaluate your registration numbers and registrant feedback to LEARN if changes to the message are necessary to attract more attendees. ADJUST your message accordingly and continue to promote it. Finally don’t forget to invite your NETWORK of friends, family and colleagues. You’ll be amazed at how many attendees come through this network by a forwarded email.  This is also where planning ahead can play a critical factor. If you don’t allow yourself time to adjust your promotional message it can and will cost you in low attendance numbers. 

• Call flow – Is there good transition between introductions, topic changes, Q&A sessions, etc.? Do you need to add some participant interaction by gathering feedback or incorporating a polling question? 
• Speaker(s) skill-set – Is the speaker comfortable presenting in a virtual setting? Is he or she familiar with the tools within the Web conferencing application? Are they prepared to handle possible glitches (i.e. you lose power at your facility, or the loss of internet connection) 
• Technology – Make sure you are testing the actual equipment that will be used for the event. If you plan to present from a conference room then use the conference room to run your dress rehearsal. Sound quality and bandwidth varies from computer to computer and from room to room. Make sure this is also conveyed to the speaker(s) as well. If they are testing from an office yet plan to present from home this can make a difference.  Many events have failed for not following this simple advice.  

5. Gather appropriate and useful information – By using good registration, interaction and follow up processes you can learn a lot about your audience. For instance, a simple event registration question about content knowledge can speak volumes on what the speaker should really focus on. You can also quickly access your attendees’ knowledge or level of interest by gathering real-time feedback using feedback, polling or Q&A tools. And finally, every event should be followed by an evaluation or survey. Assessing this feedback is how you continually improve.  

6. Crawl before you walk – My point here is to only use the necessary tools to support your message. Don’t overwhelm yourself with technology by trying to use video, application share, or other tools that are not necessary to deliver your message. As you become more comfortable with the technology you can then consider incorporating more advanced features. In doing so remember that these more advanced tools also require more internet bandwidth to support them and dealing with the free internet can introduce latency or other bandwidth related challenges.

Consider these questions when determining how advanced the session should be set up: What’s the topic and what message are you trying to convey? What is the size of the event? How skilled is the speaker in a virtual setting? What is the outcome if the event does not come across perfectly? The answers to these questions will help you align the delivery method to the desired outcome.  

In a lot of ways a virtual event is “better than being there” in person. For example gauging your audience through real-time assessment tools is much easier and more effective in a virtual setting. Another and probably more impactful example is that attendees in a virtual seminar tend to be more open and willing to ask questions and participate in feedback. This creates a more “real” learning environment, which leads to better attendee experiences, which leads to higher attendance in the next event, which leads to…you get where I am going with this. Good luck! 

Gary Moulton
Senior Vice President
iLinc Communications