Can you imagine sitting in a small congested room, full of people? What if one of them coughs or sneezes? Will you be okay with that? Of course not.
To prevent this and other similar issues, virtual events, conferences and seminars became quite popular as they made these meetings possible in the time of this global pandemic. But it is quite a challenging task to host these virtual meetings.
Here are a few basic things you should follow while planning an online event;
1. Laying out event Agenda
The first step is to decide what do you want event to be about? You have to choose an agenda around which you want the event to revolve.
The event can be focused on improving some skills for your employees, it can be a discussion about some online or business trend going on around the globe. It can be to throw light on an achievement you made in the recent present. Or it can be a marketing event to promote your brand.
You need to decide the topic of the event, the date and the time you want it to be held on, the time zones to be involved if it’s a global event, etc.
2. Finalizing the Speakers
After you finalize a topic, you can make a list of sub topics involved or related topics and then look for people who specialize in them or can speak about that topic with great interest. The speakers can be the people of your organization, the CEO, the CMO, a department head, based on the need of the event.
The speakers act as the major attraction points of the events, they are the ones whocan market your brand, and persuade sponsors and attendees. Their treasure of knowledge just takes your event to another level.
You can go for someone who is already an influencer in their respective fields, it can attract further more people.
3. Bringing the Sponsors and Exhibitors
You need money to organize events, whether it is a physical or a virtual event. Every event needs to have some sponsors and to attract those, you need to have good exhibitors to attract them. Sponsors support your event by providing you the required funds, in exchange for an advertorial space, a share of profit or data.
It’s the job of exhibitors to showcase their products or services with an objective to attract and convert potential sponsors. Therefore, exhibitorsare very important stakeholders for your event’s success.
Your part as in event manager would be to acknowledge your sponsors and promote them through various channels. You can also arrange separate sessions for the audience to engage with your sponsors.
4. Calling the Attendees
Obviously, the people attending the event are the most important part of it. They are the reason the event is being held in the first place. The more the number of attendees, the more successful is the event.
You need to attract a lot of people to attend your event through smart marketing.
You can run google ads, facebooks advertisements have outreach emails reminding people about your event, make a content strategy.
You also need to make sure that you choose a catchy and attractive subject or agenda so that the target audience is keenly awaits to be a part of it.
2021 will mark itself as the year of HYBRID (both online and offline) events.
What are your thoughts?
