We are hopeful that later in the year we will see a safe return to live events once again (we have everything crossed!), but given the restrictions still in place for the foreseeable, we are continuing to focus on delivering engaging and inspiring virtual conferences and team events for our clients.
We are pleased to share some of our insight and experience in how you can achieve maximum engagement with your event online, to avoid losing the networking and interaction that we so miss from face-to-face event.
- Prepare your speakers
Presenting to a screen (with the audience on Mute) is obviously not the same as presenting to a live audience, where you can see people’s faces and facial expressions and hear their reactions and responses and ‘sense’ the atmosphere.
To help speakers, we advise them on how to adapt their content and presentation style for a virtual audience, and ideas for where and how to incorporate audience interaction, such as q&a, polls, depending on what platforms and tools they have access to. We would recommend every 10-15 minutes there should be some form of interaction with the audience.
Mentimeter and Slido are two great tools for audience interaction which can give instant results.
We also give speakers tips on delivering their talk on the day, including pointers about their camera, lighting and background, all of which makes a big difference to how they can captivate their audience.
- Set up a communications channel
Running a channel alongside the event using a platform such as Slack, is another great way to get discussions going between the delegates and speakers before, during and after the session. You can allocate someone to moderate this to monitor the chat, and to generate discussion by asking questions and opinions.
At the end of a talk, you can encourage the speakers to continue the discussion on here with the delegates – this would be an alternative to people being able to grab the speaker for a chat over coffee!
- Breakouts are a good way of getting people talking in groups, giving them short tasks and activities to work on together before coming back to the main group. You can allocate facilitators to each room to guide the conversation and draw people in too. Most platforms allow you to randomly put people into breakouts (or put them into pre-determined groups), and then bring them back to the main room again.
- Inject an element of fun
There is a limit to how long people can concentrate and focus when sitting at a screen. As well as making the talks interactive, make sure the programme is interspersed with different types of sessions and activities which can add a more light-hearted, fun dimension. You can start the day off with an ice breaker (something which gets people out of their chair is always good!), and end with a quick-fire quiz. The opportunities now for adding in teambuilding and competitive elements to an event are endless, we have had escape rooms, gameshows, scavenger hunts, to name a few, and these can be personalised/branded accordingly. You can also bring in a professional entertainer such as a magician or a comedian, all good fun and add to the overall experience.
You can also have an optional ‘drinks’ or ‘fireside chat’ at the end of the day, which you may want to theme for a bit of fun – as people are at home, they could ‘bring along their pet’, for example!
- Get your audience ready
As well as making sure the audience have all the information they need ahead of the event, where possible we include some form of pre-event preparation for the delegates.
Make sure they know what tools they may need to access and give them some tips about how to get the most out of the event. If you are running any kind of game or competition, let them know in advance what they need to do and what prizes are at stake – to get them fired up to take part!
- A host with the most!
Virtual events need a host who can run the day and introduce the various sessions and activities. If it’s going to be an internal member of staff, this should be someone who can be upbeat and set things off with the right tone/feel from the outset – otherwise, you can bring in a professional host.
- Motivate/educate with inspiriting content
There are lots of fantastic speakers you can bring in to add a real wow-factor to your event. It doesn’t have to be someone high-profile, depending on your audience and your budget. In the difficult times we are experiencing, we find that bringing in someone inspirational, perhaps someone who has overcome adversity themselves, can help to leave your audience feeling inspired and motivated.
- Technical support
Finally, make sure everyone (speakers and audience alike) are clear where to go if they are having any technical difficulties during the event so that these can be resolved asap. Otherwise you can easily lose people who will give up and go and do something else unless they can get help quickly!
And of course, if you want to run something online – for staff, customers, members – whether a conference, meeting, teambuilding event – we can help you, so get in touch -sharon@eventworkseurope.com