What do you do if your virtual event isn't meeting expectations and needs improvement?

The key to improving virtual events is defining clear objectives and measurable metrics beforehand. Goals like attendance, engagement, leads, or revenue should align with your event's purpose and audience. Tracking these metrics throughout the event lifecycle allows for real-time evaluation, helping identify areas for improvement and adjust strategies accordingly. Practical experiences demonstrate how setting and monitoring specific metrics, such as attendee engagement or lead generation, have been instrumental in optimizing virtual events, driving success, and delivering value to participants and organizers alike.

If you are engaged enough in the event, you should be able to gage why and when people become disengaged. Be present in the events, watch the playbacks and make your own notes for improvements first. Then seek feedback from various stakeholders that engage with the event. This will include: attendees, hosts, sponsors, impartial other voices. Conversations with each of these stakeholders can sometimes be much better than sending a questionnaire. This is because a conversation can help you in knowing where to dig deeper into people's responses. With the responses, you can then decide on some things that need to change in order to get better results from the event. Always bring the new plans of action back to the event objectives.

The best way to gauge the success of your virtual event and identify areas for improvement is by soliciting feedback from participants and analyzing data. Employ various methods such as surveys, polls, chats, Q&A sessions, social media, analytics tools, or CRM systems to collect feedback and data. Inquire about participants' experiences, satisfaction, preferences, challenges, suggestions, or testimonials. Additionally, gather data on event performance metrics like registration, attendance, dropout rates, engagement, conversion, or retention rates. Utilize this feedback and data to understand what's working well, areas needing improvement, and actionable insights to enhance your event.

To address common performance issues in virtual events such as technical glitches, low engagement, poor content quality, or lack of follow-up, preventive and corrective measures are essential. This includes testing technology and platforms before and during the event and having a backup plan in case of issues. Encouraging participant interaction and utilizing various features and formats ensures high engagement levels. Moreover, creating relevant, valuable, and engaging content tailored to audience needs, expectations, and goals is crucial. Lastly, contacting participants post-event to offer additional resources, support, or opportunities to stay connected fosters loyalty and continued engagement.

As any other event, I would assess feedback and analytics. Identify areas for improvement like content, engagement, or technical issues. Adjust format or platforms if needed. Engage with attendees for suggestions. Continuous evaluation and adaptation ensure future virtual events meet and exceed expectations.

I have learned over the years that despite thorough preparation and planning, flexibility at the moment is essential. At the beginning of each event, I encourage attendees to share their expectations in the chat. This allows me to make sure the event is for them, and I can make sure the content meets their expectations. Pay attention to what is going on. During virtual events, I have a spotter to monitor the Zoom main session and breakout rooms. Given the interactive nature of my events, adapting on the fly is easier.

I want to present a different perspective, what do you do when your event is already running, and you can sense it sucks. Believe me, it happens. The best way to go ahead then is to engage with the audience. You are delivering something, and it does not match their expectations. Have audience participation and learn what they came for, and make adjustments on the fly. The audience will respect you for doing this. This might sound scary, but you can do it.

Evaluate whether your platform is truly valuable for your attendees—or if the bells and whistles you’re paying for are going right over their heads. If your audience prefers to focus on the message being delivered and doesn’t care as much about the design elements, you may want to change softwares. If technical glitches were the cause, first identify the problem and whether it was an anomaly or something that could repeat in the future. Then, speak with your tech team (internal and the software team) to see how the issue can be remedied—or not—in the future. Finally, always survey your attendees, speakers, exhibitors and staff after an event. You never know what issues folks experienced that you could plan for in the future.