How to Turn Your Live Event into Virtual Using Zoom
In this day and age, everything people do is virtual. Meetings, seminars, conferences, classes, and the like are now happening with just a click away thanks to video conferencing platforms like Zoom. With the rise of the pandemic, virtual events are now trending worldwide. If you host a live event, you probably want to make it virtual. No worries, Zoom got you covered!
Before we dig in, let us first define what is a virtual event. It is an event where attendees interact with each other in a virtual setting on the web. It may be as small as a webinar with five to ten attendees or as huge as a digital conference with thousands of participants. Virtual events are not only supplementing in-person events. They help reduce hassles and increase audience engagement in innovative ways.
Furthermore, transitioning to virtual events is a popular alternative to canceling them. Aside from prioritizing the health and safety of the speakers and guests, virtual events are also a more cost-effective and inclusive option than in-person gatherings. That is how wonderful virtual events are.
There are stages to consider making virtual events a success
Planning
The first thing is creating a plan. Note that failing to plan is like planning to fail. The planning stage plays a vital role in settings clear and achievable objectives. It is essential to picture out what we want to achieve. Otherwise, we cannot measure the outcomes and verify that we achieve what we have planned. To create a plan, we also must look into the following aspects:
I. Audience. Who is your target audience? Every decision you make about your virtual event, from the date and time to the platform you broadcast it on, should be influenced by your target audience. That said, you must have a clear view of whom your event is. Try to be as detailed as possible when describing your desired audience. Essential details might include their age, employment, level of technical skill, and more. The better you know someone, the more likely you can give them a beneficial experience. After all, if you do not provide something of worth, people will not attend!
II. Content. In a virtual event, your content is the king. Your content is your event itself. Once you have determined who you are going for, consider what your target audience wants to hear. Perhaps they wish to be educated on a specific topic, or they want a place to raise inquiries about an ongoing industry issue. Consider conducting some research or simply asking them questions on social media to learn more about what your audience wants and to get to know them better. Powerful keynotes and engaging sessions tailored to your attendees are critical. The following questions will help you brainstorm good content.
-Will the content be live, on-demand, or a mix?
-Why should they attend?
-What is the value they can get?
III. Objective. Your objective might be anything from earning money to growing brand recognition, creating a brand community, or just helping your attendees. You might even strive to accomplish more than one of these goals at the same time. What sort of experience do you want your event participants to have? Is it immersive, interactive, or collaborative experiences?
IV. Team. Two is better than one. You can invite a team of experts to help you better. You may look for someone who can help you succeed in a virtual event you are hosting. It can be an emcee, producer, event coordinator, technical support, and the like.
V. Budget. It is also significant to determine how much your budget is. You better plan how to advertise your event to encourage people to attend. Will it be through paid ads or organic social media platform marketing? Think of some rewards or gifts for your attendees. It can be a free eBook, where they can pursue learning about the topics you chose to discuss with them. Do not forget to also think of standard video and audio equipment.
VI.Backup Plan. Technical issues and other problems may arise. Though we always hope it will not happen, it is still unpredictable. Therefore, it is a must to have a backup plan. Brainstorm ideas with your team on what to do if something happens.
2. Utilizing the Right Tools is the Key!
Having the right tool is imperative to a successful virtual event. The following will help you get it done.
Should you use Zoom Meeting or Zoom Webinar?
Make all the required preparations so that your audience finds your event convenient. Prepare links for registration, schedules, directions, and even payment methods, so that they can see it all in one place. You may use Zoom Events and connect it with PayPal or Stripe to streamline the payment process.
You may also use Eventbrite to let people book your event more conveniently.
Integrate with marketing platforms like Marketo, Pardot, and HubSpot to automatically capture Zoom Video Webinar attendees as leads.
Kaltura and Panopto integrations allow you to transfer Zoom recordings and share them with them to accommodate numerous attendees.
3. Pre-Event
Before the scheduled virtual event, make sure that you are a hundred percent prepared. Let your attendees know the topic. A virtual event should have a quicker pace that keeps attendees engaged and helps prevent drop-off.
Email Marketing. Before the event, send a mass email to your database to let your attendees know about it. Keep attendees informed, provide them instructions to connect to the session, and deliver feedback questionnaires. You may use Mailchimp to accomplish this.
Newsletter and Blog Articles. You may also mention the said event in your blogs and news articles. This method is a great way to promote your event without spending much.
Social Media Platform. This method is a common way of advertising. You can post it on your social networking sites such as Facebook Page, Twitter, or Instagram. Take advantage of strategies such as sponsored social, hashtags for optimum exposure, and sharing the profiles of speakers you previously had. There are many options! And, while it may seem apparent, if you are organizing your event on a social media site, be sure to advertise it on that platform as well! There is a large audience out there ready to be engaged.
4. During the Event
Schedule a dry run about one week before your event with your production team, event hosts, speakers, and anyone else with an active role, to address any issues before the big day.
Opening script. Begin your event with a brief statement informing guests if you will record the webinar and how to submit questions. Remember to thank the speakers and sponsors!
Drive engagement during your event. One of the most challenging aspects of virtual events is keeping your guests interested when you cannot see their reactions to your presentation. Make sure to maximize the Zoom features such as the polls, breakout rooms, whiteboarding, in-meeting chat, Q & A.
Standby Technical support. If panelists, speakers, and participants face any issues, chat privately with them on the Zoom client or the in-session private chat feature.
Furthermore, do the following:
Keep session length to less than an hour — and allocate time for the Q&A portion to maintain engagement through the end of the session.
Schedule breaks between sessions.
For multi-day conferences, consider ending your day earlier than you would in person.
Are you expecting a global audience? Create a follow-the-sun agenda with region-specific sessions.
Include networking sessions using Zoom Meetings and the Breakout Rooms feature.
Create a checklist. Have you prepared everything? Hmmm. Maybe yes, or no? That is why you should also have a list of the things needed.
An engaged audience will see you soon at your next event. Keep your attendees engaged by giving polls or creating an interesting Q & A activity. Let your attendees know their worth by welcoming them as they join the Zoom Event. You may also use tools like Slido, Kahoot!, Mentimeter, or a Wheel of Names to bring more fun and interactivity to your event.
5. Post-Event
Post-event survey. Capture feedback from attendees on what worked well and areas for improvement. Use it to collect the Net Promoter Score from attendees for the overall event and each session.
Recorded content. Edit recordings and transcripts and make them available on your website or event page. If you like, you can gate it to collect user data from viewers accessing the recordings.
Attendee follow-up. Send an email to attendees with a link to the event recordings and additional resources.
Event reports. If you are utilizing Zoom Events, go through your Event Summary dashboard and produce meeting reports that include registration and polling data or webinar reports with registration, attendance, Q&A, polling, and event performance data.
Marketing leads. Leverage insights from reports to qualify leads and utilize the integrations mentioned above to funnel leads to sales.
Evaluation. Make your next online event even better than the last by assessing what worked and what didn’t.
In hosting virtual events, keeping audiences engaged plays a vital role in accomplishing the goals. We must keep our audience interested throughout the event, especially if it lasts more than 3 hours. Otherwise, they may lose interest.
We are now living in a digitalized world. Virtual events are one of the things that are taking place, and it's happening everywhere. With the help of the Zoom platform, hosting virtual events is made possible.
If you want to reach out about your virtual events, click this link: https://www.jumpwiremedia.com/contact and fill-up the form. Let’s discuss how we can help.