Nine Steps to Virtual Event Nirvana

Quint recently hosted an online meeting to explore how marketing and event professionals are pivoting their live events to virtual events. Let’s be clear: this is not an easy undertaking. 

We sat down with DevNetwork’s CEO and VP of Growth to discuss their journey from in-person events to virtual ones. DevNetwork is a professional conference organization that produces events for the worldwide developer community and is currently planning to launch multiple virtual events for their 20,000+ community members. They are working around the clock to figure out how their new format can provide the same benefits to attendees, sponsors, and partners as their live event experiences have done in the past. We also had Empathy Communications, a brand affinity agency specializing in video production, join us to share insights on the tactical side of virtual events.

The hour-long conversation was packed full of great information, learnings, and thought-provoking questions. From this conversation and our experience producing virtual events, we’ve come up with nine (9) steps that will get you on the path to Virtual Event Nirvana. We’ve tried to list them in order of importance, according to us :)

1. Establish clear goals and objectives for your event. Once you decide an online event is the right direction to take, step back, and set your goals and KPIs. Share this with all of your stakeholders to ensure you have buy-in from them -- this part is SO important and vital to the success of your event.
2. Determine the kind of virtual event you need. Not all virtual events are created equal. Understanding your goals and objectives will help you determine the style of the virtual event you need. We see three styles of events the most: online meetings, webinars, and virtual events. These three styles offer a range of experiences and functionality - so make sure you match up your goals with the right kind of virtual event.
3. What story are you trying to tell? No matter what format you decide on, your virtual event needs to tell a compelling story. What’s in it for your audience? What lessons will they learn? How do you want them to feel afterward and what do you want their actions to be in response to the content? Without a strong content strategy and a compelling story to tell, your event will fall flat.
4. Pick your event type and platform. Every type of in-person event has an equal and opposite virtual component. Now that you have completed the first three steps, you can move on and decide the kind of event you intend to host - what kind of platform do you need. As mentioned in Step 2, virtual events range from simple Zoom meetings to more complex digital experiences using a virtual event platform with lots of features and functionality. Depending on the type of experience you want to create (and the budget you have to invest), you'll need to do some vendor research to find the right solution.
5. Decide when and how long. Picking a date and time for your virtual event requires some crucial thought and should not be taken lightly. Challenge yourself to think critically about how much time you need to reach your network and community to effectively promote and drive registrations for the event. If you are trying to replace a multi-day event, consider creating an event series where you can broadcast content over the course of multiple days spread out. Video conference fatigue is real, so make sure you aren’t expecting too much out of your attendees and partners. In an ideal world, you would have as much time to plan a virtual event as you would an in-person event. That may not always be possible for a variety of reasons, but try to give yourself ample time to secure speakers, set up and train on the platform, promote the event, etc. Don’t rush it.
6. Get all of your stakeholders involved. Just like a live event has a planning team with members across multiple departments, you should approach the online event planning the same way -- other departments included could be Customer Success, Product, Sales and Sales Enablement, Teammate Success, and others. Events impact every aspect of a company - treat your online event with that same level of importance.
7. Allow for extra speaker prep. Once you have your speakers secured, take extra time to prep them. Yes - we believe extra prep time for speakers of a virtual event is incredibly important. It is a completely different experience than presenting to a live audience. It may surprise you to know that some speakers get more nervous on a video call vs. talking to a live audience. Showing them a lot of TLC will not only make them feel more comfortable but help to ensure smooth delivery of the very valuable content they are presenting.
8. Think about audience engagement. It is just as important as a live event - but audience engagement is still evolving in the virtual event space. Interactions can be a simple chat window and commenting via emojis or a more complex form of engagement with polling and networking features. You want audience engagement to be meaningful, so figure out what that means to you and be sure to consider it as part of your platform research mention in Step #4 above.
9. Prioritize sponsor fulfillment. We encourage you to think of your sponsors as part of your extended event team. They are invested in the success of the program - just as you are. Be sure to develop ways for sponsors to interact with their target audience. Work closely with each sponsor to understand what success looks like for them and come up with innovative ways for them to engage. Remember that virtual events may allow for far more tracking and data than in-person and this will be a huge benefit to a sponsor who is looking for lead generation.

This is just the beginning. The full production plan for an online event has a lot of other action items and questions to consider, but this list will get you started. These are the big questions - dare we say some of the most important ones to ask at the very beginning.

If you are planning a virtual event and need some advice or struggling with getting started, don't hesitate to reach out. We are here to help. hello@quintconnect.com

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