As associations continue to fight the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, they must find new ways to thrive and succeed through innovative and successful event execution.
Technology plays a significant role that points the way forward for them to continue hosting events online when physical events are on hold. Today, many organizations have shifted to virtual events as they have incredible potential for growth in audience engagement and offer more flexibility.
In this article, we will list down the different types of virtual events your group can run and discuss some of their benefits. Let’s dive in.
Quick Reads
What is a virtual event?
A virtual event is any event where you can find people communicating and interacting in a virtual environment rather than in a physical location.
This highly interactive environment lets attendees enter video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams for a panel or a small group discussion, a live-streaming workshop, or an online video calling.
Virtual events are becoming increasingly popular but are not limited to video. You can now find some audio-only virtual event platforms that have similar features to live video ones.
The latter eliminates visual distractions and doesn't require a high-bandwidth network connection. Plus, you can enjoy more location flexibility offered by audio.
With the key developments in online events that are in line with today's digitalization, they are on the rise and are here to stay.
Whether you're holding a conference or a networking event online, virtual events are just as effective as physical ones.
You can take the most advantage of their cost-effectiveness, improved attendee feedback, and ability to generate leads on a scale that is simply not possible with physical events.
Most importantly, events can be a great source of content ideas. You can turn every successful event into blog posts, whitepapers, or even use it as an inspiration to improve products to serve a new use case.
Different types of virtual events
There are many ways to offer a great event experience to your members online through technology innovation. Here are the four popular options you can explore and launch virtually.
1. Webinars
A webinar is an event, workshop, training session, or seminar in the form of a video. In this format, speakers also present and discuss a topic using web pages web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or other multimedia content online.
Most webinars are interactive with the audience who submit questions, respond to polls, and talk to each other.
There are two types of webinars: live and on-demand. A live webinar is when you host and present content to a live audience through a digital web event in real-time.
This method is advisable if you want to boost engagement and interaction among multiple attendees all at once.
It’s also a good option if you have presenters from various locations or want attendees to participate and interact with speakers live.
On the other hand, an on-demand webinar is when you manage a live webinar event recording that's available for others to watch. While it uses software to record, attendees can still have similar experiences they get from live webinars.
You can attract more people to sign up for your event with an on-demand webinar. It gives you more opportunities to promote the event after the live date and generate more leads.
Make sure to record a live event that can be accessible to other members. This is important especially when they missed to attend but are willing to spend money to watch the on-demand webinar.
Glue Up’s Webinar Engagement Solution lets you run webinars and provide your attendees with a premium and seamless membership experience.
It gives attendees easy access to the presentations and agenda. They can also exchange business cards, request meetings, connect and chat with each other with it.
What’s more, it allows them to speak and share their insights with panelists during webinars or conferences.
They also have the ability to show their screens to others, which lets them bring more depth and power to the ideas they want to express clearly and effectively.
Powered by a reliable network, it ensures that real-time voice and video conferencing are clear, safe, and secure.
2. Virtual conferences
A virtual conference lets members access live onsite meetings and events remotely from their computers. In this type of virtual event, all keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking events are hosted entirely over the Internet.
Expect to do extensive coordination in this type of virtual event. And if you want to organize one, you have to invite different speakers, set up various sessions, and encourage communication among members.
One of the many benefits of hosting a virtual conference is that attendees can access it on any device from anywhere.
Also, it lets you reach a wider audience. It is more appealing to participants as it won’t require them to make time for travel and spend money on accommodation.
3. Hybrid events
A hybrid event is a combination of live in-person events and some virtual components that can happen either live or recorded.
According to study, nearly 98% of attendees at a hybrid event didn’t have initial plans of joining. Meaning, there’s a high possibility for you to reach even the uninterested ones to your live event with this format.
Additionally, it’s a great way to transform virtual events with more accessibility while maintaining the traditional in-person event structure.
Your event is no longer limited locally, and you can now connect to a global audience. You can also enable chat messaging to allow virtual attendees to talk to each other during live streaming.
Both your speakers and other special guests can even initiate and run a Q&A session online to encourage participants to communicate with each other.
You can create virtual communities in the form of discussion forums if you have plenty of remote attendees.
Additionally, you can opt to put on a virtual reality tour of the venue space to immerse them fully in the environment.
4. Virtual networking events
Virtual networking is the process of building, maintaining, and strengthening professional connections online.
Active professional networking should be at the core of your career as it lets you raise your profile, obtain fresh ideas, generate leads, have access to job opportunities, and gain a different perspective in the industry.
Compared to traditional networking, you have to utilize digital tools to form meaningful relationships with this type.
At Glue Up, our Speed Networking solution allows you to meet new professionals and connect with other members virtually when in-person interactions are not possible.
Since networking opportunities are broad, finding an event that can help you find mutually beneficial relationships can be challenging.
However, there are various business networking events that you can attend to generate business referrals, increase sales, and share knowledge.
There are also some virtual event ideas for networking you can organize or participate in to mingle with others for online fun.
Conclusion
Hosting a virtual event allows you to reach a wider audience. Additionally, you can take advantage of its other benefits like saving extra expenses, better use of time, and more networking opportunities.
While planning an event online requires a significant amount of time and effort, a well-thought-out one can give you invaluable results useful for your organization.
We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of running a virtual event and learned the type you should consider if your association plans one soon.
If you want to streamline your event processes through innovative solutions, be sure to book a demo with us. We are more than willing to assist you in modernizing your event strategies to success.
