5 Tips for Avoiding a Virtual Events Disaster

Getting people together for a memorable event is no mean feat. As Murphy’s Law states what can go wrong will go wrong. With this in mind we’ve written this blog to to share some best practice when it comes to organising your virtual event. We all want to avoid the stress and strain of live events that can go wrong. We hope these lessons learnt help you you plan and promote your virtual events for success.

1. No Shows

Getting people to sign up to virtual events is easy especially if it’s free. Having people show up is another issue. Charging for tickets gives you a level of commitment from attendees. However if you’re promoting a free event how do you get people to show up?

People attending virtual events are just a click away from their favourite new site or social media platform. How do you get people to sign up and show up?

One movitator to try is that loss aversion. People are driven by the fear of missing out. Building your virtual event reputation with fantastic speakers and sharing some of the attendees list is a way to demonstrate the strength of your community.

You should also send email events of the event start time 1 day and 1 hour before your event kickoff.

2. Firewalls

Large Banks, law firms and accountancy practices often have blocked IT systems. Whilst most firewall ports for the Internet are left open there can be problems with video connections if your IT Department locks it down. It’s therefore very prudent to ensure that you do a test run of your technology before the event. Pre-conference sessions can help mitigate against this risk.

3. Introductions

Before your event starts getting people to register and then introduce themselves with a short video, voice note or text bio will increase the chances of good attendance for your online event. People who register and introduce themselves are more likely to turn up to the event on the day.

4. Speakers

People come to events for content and connections. Having a well-known speaker give a keynote allows you to Leverage the speakers network and reputation to drive registrations and attendance to your virtual event. If you can get your speakers for free that’s great but quite often to the best known people you got to. you should get your paid speaker to do a preview of their talk as a short video because it is shared on social media to help promote your event.

5. Feedback

Your virtual events can get better over time. Once your event has come to an end get people to leave their feedback either on the public timeline or by sending out a push email to attendees asking how your event could be improved. These insights will help you plan your next event.

Planning a virtual event right now?

Speak with our virtual event consultants who are on-hand to you can get started with Event Anywhere’s virtual event management software solution, and how it can help you maximize return on investment from your events.