How to Plan For a Virtual Event – With Marc Belaiche
If you’re thinking about starting a virtual event yourself or you’re attending a lot of virtual events in 2022 and want to know some best practices on preparing for those events, you’re in the right place.
Marc Belaiche is President of TorontoJobs.ca and EventLogik.ca. He has been in the recruiting industry for over 25 years and has many years of experience organizing events.
Mentioned in This Episode
- Toronto Entrepreneur Conference
- Event platform – Hoppin
What you will learn:
- Marc’s story (1:01)
- Are virtual events here to stay? (6:04)
- Preparing for a virtual event as an attendee (7:45)
- Know the details
- Experiment with the platform
- Platforms and features for virtual events (15:01)
- Leveraging virtual events to market your business (18:44)
- Getting the lay of the land
- Marketing the event (20:32)
- How do you find speakers? (25:55)
- Building a database
- Get in touch with Marc (28:25)
Running virtual events has become a common practice for both companies and individuals.
However, virtual events offer their own challenges: the lack of physical presence and face-to-face conversations can make virtual communication more difficult and result in virtual event failure. This guide offers some best practices to plan successful virtual events.
1 . Choose your tools wisely
Virtual events are virtual, but that doesn’t mean they have to be sloppy. The tools you choose for virtual events are very important. You can use virtual event tools on sites like Zoom or Google Hangouts, which are good if you need a no-fuss virtual presence with online audio and video calls, or virtual event software on sites like Hopin or Brella which are good if you need better event planning and management functionalities.
2 . Plan your virtual agenda carefully
Make sure that you plan your virtual agenda in advance: virtual events can’t be interactive and engaging if participants don’t pay attention and follow the virtual agenda. You can use virtual event software on sites like Hopin and Brella which include virtual agenda templates so you save time and edit them online.
3 . Be creative
Having a virtual event doesn’t mean it has to be boring! Virtual events are the perfect opportunity to get creative, funny virtual event ideas are always welcome. You can use virtual event software on sites like Hopin and Brella to get online virtual event suggestions based on trending virtual events.
4 . Don’t forget the virtual gifts!
Virtual events are virtual, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about your participants’ experience. One way of creating virtual engagement is virtual gifts: some virtual event software include virtual gift templates which you can use to send virtual gifts online!
5 . Ask for virtual feedback
Virtual events are great, but they’re not perfect. Don’t forget to ask your participants for virtual feedback after the virtual event: this way, you can improve your virtual events for the next ones!
6 . Celebrate virtual success
Virtual success is still success, so don’t forget to celebrate virtual accomplishments after virtual events are over. It’s one of the best virtual event ideas to make virtual events fun and interactive!
7 . Promote social media posts of virtual attendees
Virtual participants are virtual, but virtual events aren’t that virtual if virtual attendees don’t have a virtual presence too. Virtual event software with virtual social media wall can help promote virtual event success by promoting virtual participant posts after the virtual event is over.
8 . Measure results to plan better virtual events
Virtual events are hard to measure, so you should always try and find virtual metrics to measure virtual event success. Virtual event software can be very useful for virtual metrics tracking: some virtual event platforms include virtual attendance counters, virtual social media wall analytics and virtual voting polls functionalities!
Book a discovery call today if you need some help planning, organizing and marketing your own virtual event.
Marc Mentality – Quotes From the Show
“Hybrid events are tough”
“Doing your own virtual event requires a lot more time than you think it may”
“People’s time is valuable and they have options – what makes yours stand out?”
“If it’s our event, we should be front and centre”
