However, there is a huge difference between running an offline event and an online one as an offline event involves physical presence while an online event relies on virtual engagement. You need a specific approach to hold a virtual event effectively and successfully.
According to a recent analysis by Grand View Research, the worldwide virtual events market is expected to reach USD 262.52 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.8% between 2023 and 2030.
In this blog, we share 10 tried-and-tested tips that work. Get ready to host online events that are not only high-value for attendees but also high returns for your business.
What are Online Events?
Online events, also called virtual events, typically occur through video conferencing platforms. Depending on your goals, you can explore a variety of formats such as webinars, virtual conferences, workshops, trade fairs, and more.
The primary goal of hosting an online event is to engage and connect with potential partners or customers virtually – whether for educational purposes, networking opportunities, or promoting products and services.
According to this virtual events statistics list, in 2021, the virtual event market was worth $114.12 billion and it is expected to continue growing. 99% of companies consider online webinars a “critical element” for their gatherings.
Virtual events provide the opportunity to engage in high-quality socialization while maintaining the essence of an in-person event. They allow you to engage with a global audience, and provide them with immersive experiences, which are often challenging in physical events.
“Online events provide an opportunity to connect with a wider audience and remove geographical barriers.” – Mitch Russo, Founder and CEO of Virtual Summit Mastery
10 Powerful Tips for Hosting an Online Event
The popularity and increase in adoption of online events is explained by their accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and ability to reach a global audience.
To make the most of your online events, here are 10 simple but effective tips:
1 – Define your Goals for the Event:
Setting goals is the initial step. It is important to know whether your goal is to generate leads, drive sales, or build brand awareness. Once you know what you want to achieve through the online event, planning the entire event becomes easier. Ensure your event goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
2 – Create a Compelling Agenda:
Similar to in-person events, virtual events also need a well-planned agenda. Begin this step by identifying the target audience and their specific needs, interests, and pain points. Identify key themes or topics that are most relevant for your audience. Use visuals to display the topic names, the schedule for each topic, and respective speaker names for easy navigation and understanding.
Share a detailed agenda with attendees before the event so they know what to expect and plan their time accordingly. Avoid scheduling back-to-back sessions without breaks. It can hinder a participant’s ability to fully enjoy the event’s offerings. Incorporate breaks so attendees can network or relax a bit and time for Q&A sessions to allow for audience participation and interaction.
3 – Choose the Right Platform:
Select a reliable and user-friendly platform for hosting your online event. Research the potential platforms and consider some of the key factors such as their accuracy, attendee capacity, ease of use, interactive features, and security systems as all of these things are important to deliver a smooth and engaging virtual event experience to attendees.
Additionally, check the pricing and functionality of each platform before finalizing it. This careful assessment will help you choose the cost-effective and functionally suitable platform.
4 – Pick the Appropriate Day and Time:
Selecting the appropriate day and time for an online event is crucial for maximizing attendance and engagement. The best day and time for an online event depend on factors such as the target audience, their work schedule, and location.
Avoid scheduling events during holidays, weekends, or peak work hours. Consider time zones if you are targeting a global audience, across different time zones. Choosing a day and time that works well for your target audience can maximize attendance rates.
5 – Test the Platform in Advance:
It is important to test the event platform ahead of time to identify any technology glitches or interface problems. Making sure the platform’s features are working as they should – such as video and audio quality, attendee management tools, screen-sharing abilities, interactive features(chat, polls, and Q&A), and such.
Schedule one or ideally two rehearsals with speakers, moderators, and the technical support team, and familiarize yourself with the platform. This proactive approach will help prevent technical glitches, minimize disruptions, and guarantee a seamless, professional experience for attendees as well as the organizers.
6 – Promote Your Event:
Promoting an event is as important as hosting it. To effectively promote an online event, there are several strategies that you can use. First, optimize your event website or landing page and create a buzz around the event through blog posts, social media, and newsletters. Secondly, make use of email marketing. Create a list of email subscribers and send out invitations highlighting the key benefits of attending the event.
Leverage social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote your event to a wider audience. Create engaging posts, graphics, or videos and upload them to encourage your followers to join an event. Use event-specific hashtags to increase your reach of the event.
You can also invest in paid advertising to drive traffic to your event registration page. In today’s world of influencer marketing, don’t overlook collaborating with relevant influencers who can help you extend your event’s reach and credibility.
7 – Engage Your Audience Before The Event:
Engaging with the audience prior to the event is an amazing approach to boost event attendance. Arrange pre-event sessions and encourage attendees to share the topics they want to discuss during the event.
Provide exclusive access to pre-event content, such as whitepapers or bonus materials related to the event topic. This will help address relevant topics and foster engagement among your audience.
8 – Record Your Event:
Record your live online event using the in-build recording features of the chosen platform. Recording the event will help you analyze how everything went overall, the impact created, and also the gaps you need to address, if any. Repackaging the event recording into other formats like a summary report, a video, etc allows you to extend the shelf life and maximize your ROI.
You can repurpose the recording for more content to help build your marketing efforts, such as promoting similar events or showing key highlights to attract new attendees.
9 – Follow-Up After the Event:
Following up with attendees after an online event is crucial for maintaining engagement and building partnerships with them. First, send a personalized email to all attendees, expressing gratitude for their participation and support.
Include highlights and key takeaways from the event. Then, provide participants with access to resources discussed during the event, such as presentation slides, recordings, and relevant links.
In addition to this, send them feedback forms and gather valuable insights from attendees on the overall event. Invite participants to connect with you on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter, to stay updated on future events.
10 – Measure the Success of an Event:
Evaluate different metrics and data points to see if your event met its goals and offered value to stakeholders. Start by comparing the number of registrations, and actual attendees. Then, analyze attendee engagement during the event, such as participation in polls, Q&A sessions, chat interactions, and more.
Track the number of leads generated during and after the event. Also, check social media engagement metrics, including likes, shares, and comments to measure its reach and impact on online communities.
At last, calculate the ROI of the event.
Based on these findings, list down takeaways and observations you need to pay attention to while planning and executing your next event.
Taking a data-driven approach helps eliminate guesswork and deliver successful events, consistently.
How Airmeet Can Help in Hosting an Online Event?
Airmeet is a versatile virtual event platform designed to help organizations host engaging and interactive online events. It is a platform specifically designed to deliver a rich virtual experience. Let’s see how Airmeet can help with hosting an online event:
- Easy Setup and Management: Airmeet has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for event planners to host and manage online gatherings. The wide range of features and customizable templates Airmeet provides will let you set up online events a lot more quickly and effectively when compared to other online event platforms.
You can effortlessly craft event agendas, set up session schedules, and adjust event settings as per your unique needs. Plus, you get a chance to send personalized invitations via email or generate registration links to share on social media or other channels. This way, participants are able to attend the online event through the Airmeet platform. - Variety of Event Formats: Airmeet supports a variety of event formats such as webinars, workshops, conferences, town hall events, hybrid events, virtual fairs, and more. You can choose the format that best suits your event’s objectives and audience preferences.
Plus, you get the option to customize each event format according to preferences and requirements such as adjusting session lengths, presentation styles, and interactive elements to create a rich and memorable experience for participants.
Apart from this, Airmeet enables you to smoothly transition between different event formats within the same event, providing adaptability and versatility.
For example, if you start the session with a keynote presentation, you can move on to a breakout session where people can learn more about specific topics. After that, end the event with a networking session to build connections among participants. This freedom lets you use various formats and materials to keep attendees engaged throughout the event. - High-quality Audio and Video: Airmeet offers high-quality video and audio streaming capabilities, providing clear and exceptional communication for online events. Participants can attend sessions using any device with an internet connection including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones, without compromising audiovisual quality.
Airmeet’s adaptive streaming technology ensures that the connection is stable and reliable, even in low-bandwidth environments. It means there are lower chances of interruptions and buffering during live events. Participants can adjust video resolution, audio volume, and camera settings to optimize their viewing and listening experience when needed. Event organizers can also control video layouts, screen-sharing options, and presentation modes to enhance the overall event presentation. - Branding and Customization: Airmeet has superior branding and customization options compared to other platforms. You can modify logos, colors, and backgrounds to match your brand identity. Also, you can add a welcome video to greet attendees as they enter the event.
Moreover, Airmeet allows you to edit the event’s landing page and registration form as per your brand information and style. This robust feature empowers the host to deliver compelling and unified brand experiences. - Interactive Features: Online events are all about engagement. A great event is one where attendee engagement is prioritized and ensured throughout the event. Airmeet offers a variety of interactive features to keep your audience involved, improve user experience, and increase active participation.
Here are some of our most loved interactive features:- Breakout Rooms: This feature allows people to engage in small group discussions.
- Live Polls: During the event, you can conduct live polls to gather feedback and insights from attendees.
- Q&A Sessions: With this feature, participants can ask questions to the speaker or the host in real-time.
- Live Chats: Live chat enables instant communication between participants, speakers, and organizers during online events.
- Real-Time Audio Translation: Language translation features allow organizers to connect and engage with participants from across the world.
- Breakout Rooms: This feature allows people to engage in small group discussions.
- Networking Features: Airmeet provides numerous networking opportunities within its virtual event platform. This feature is specifically designed to encourage professional relationships within the online event environment. They allow your attendees to build meaningful connections and relationships with fellow attendees and others through some impressive interactive features, like:
- Themed discussion groups: where similar interests of people with similar interests can connect and engage in focused discussions.
- One-on-one meetings: where participants can schedule virtual meetings with speakers, sponsors, or other attendees to discuss specific topics and explore potential collaborations.
- Speed networking sessions: where you can engage in informal conversation and make new connections.
All of these features will assist your participants in expanding their professional networks effectively.
- Themed discussion groups: where similar interests of people with similar interests can connect and engage in focused discussions.
- Analytics and Insights: Airmeet has a specialized analytics dashboard that provides you with valuable information. Some of the key metrics you can access with Airmeet are event attendance, participation rates, audience feedback, session duration, engagement levels, and Q&A participation.
These insights help you measure the success of the event and make informed decisions to optimize future events. - Security and Privacy: Airmeet prioritizes security and privacy, offering features such as password-protected events, end-to-end encryption, and attendee moderation controls. With features such as password-protected events, you can restrict entry to authorized participants only, preventing unauthorized users from joining the event. End-to-end encryption secures your participant’s communications, protecting sensitive information and ensuring that data remains private, confidential, and inaccessible to third parties.
Furthermore, moderation controls allow you to manage participant interactions and behavior during the event. You can mute individuals who seem to disrupt the flow of the event, monitor chat conversations, and follow the event guidelines to maintain a positive event environment for the attendees.
Airmeet also provides dedicated technical support and troubleshooting assistance to ensure that participants have a smooth and hassle-free experience during online events. Support staff are available to address any technical issues, answer questions, and provide guidance on security.
Conclusion
Hosting successful online events requires careful planning, thoughtful execution, and effective engagement strategies. Online events not only encourage interactions between attendees, but they also help transfer knowledge and drive business results. All you need to ensure actively is that your participants are involved and delighted, while also gaining something of value for them.
By implementing these tips, you can create engaging, interactive, and memorable virtual experiences for your attendees. From choosing the right platform to providing networking opportunities, each tip will a crucial role in maximizing the impact and success of virtual events. With proper preparation and execution, you can host successful online events that will inspire, educate, and connect your participants.
Frequently asked questions
Online events have become popular because of their convenience, accessibility, and global reach. They allow participants to attend an event from anywhere with an internet connection and at a lower cost than traditional events.
The main difference between an online and in-person event is the mode of delivery. Online events take place virtually – over the internet, allowing attendees to participate from anywhere with an internet connection, while offline events occur in physical locations, where attendees gather in person.
To attend an online event, simply register or sign up through the designated page or website. After signing up, you will receive the details to access the event, typically a link or some login credentials. Later, log in at the given time to join an event from your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
