How to organize a good online event?
In the circumstances that arose as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, very quickly there were negative consequences in the implementation of projects that involved the creation of offline events. The events were usually postponed and then canceled. This put at risk the goals of the projects and it was necessary to find a way for realization of projects, despite the circumstances, and without compromise when it comes to quality.
In this and similar situations, it is important to react in an agile and creative way and to be open to new options and solutions. Adhering to this approach to the situation, we have proposed multiple useful solution to the clients who have had a need to organize large offline events at a time of strict measures caused by the pandemic – a quality online event.
Although many of us initially perceived online events as a necessary response to the current situation, experience has shown that it is still an advanced solution with numerous benefits.
But how was it at the very beginning? – Let’s go from the start.
Offline VS online events
For starters, we can present the advantages of online events in relation to offline events, which are familiar to most clients, a safe terrain and a way to successfully organize conferences, workshops or to present and promote new services and products.
The advantages of offline events are quite clear – live networking, making new acquaintances and refreshing old ones with new encounters. There is also one psychological moment, especially important for offline events where we travel from another city or more distant place – precisely because of this geographical distance, we would seldomly leave the event, even if the content does not meet our expectations or interests. We are not ready to let our investment in the event – in the form of time, travel, preparation, maybe even registration fees, to “fail”. Then, as advantages, there is the pleasant atmosphere that is influenced by the interior in which the event takes place, service, gifts for visitors, direct and spontaneous interaction between visitors and participants or exhibitors during breaks at the event and the like.
However, these benefits do not exist or are a less important factor at online events. They usually mean comfort from a home armchair, a relaxed and less formal atmosphere. The online event can be “reached” with one click, so it takes minimal effort to leave the event easily and quickly. There are no direct, conversational interactions that are an important and dear feature of offline events. Consequently, a sense of closeness, dynamism and community gathered around the same goal or common theme of interest may be absent. How is it then even possible to make a good quality online event?
Good quality online event
The first step involves choosing a good streaming platform. Which would mean – to find a stable platform, which responds to the needs of the project and whose technical support is very responsive and ready to react quickly due to any interference on the platform during the actual transmission of events online. Aspects of the platform that we should also consider are the complexity of the registration and login process, the compatibility of the platform with different devices, the stability of the stream for participants, the length of the online session, and the total number of lecturers and participants that the platform can support. In addition to the technical characteristics, the choice of platform should be influenced by what user experience our lecturers and participants will have. A good user experience will help lecturers to focus on their lecture, not the platform, and participants to have easy access to the event and send topics that interest them without technical problems.
The next step comes from the now well-known “Content is king” motto of Bill Gates. In fact, it would be more correct to say – this is the step that precedes all the steps – and that is designing the content of the online event.
The content of the event must be of top quality and interesting so that a simple click to exclude from the live event, completely go into oblivion and provide us with loyal followers of the online event. To make sure that attendees do not easily leave our live event, it is crucial that skilled speakers and industry experts from which the content originates respond to quality, relevant topics.
It often happens that experts from certain fields are known only to a small circle of visitors, however, if the goal of the event is to attract as many participants and make them aware of a particular problem or topic, a great way is to include appropriate influencers or prominent, well-known members of the public. They would, supported by their popularity, attract a larger number of target groups by encouraging them to sign up and attend an online event.
One of the significant benefits of an online event is greater availability of the lecturer, which we can now more easily include in the event and discussion, even if they are somewhere remote; but as well as participants who, despite busy schedules, can send our event wherever they are.
After preparing the agenda of the online event, it is important to plan an appropriate period for promotion on online channels – which will provide the target group with all service information about the event (duration, method of registration, topics, who are the lecturers and speakers). If the planned announcement of the online event is missing, it is very likely that we will face a low attendance of the event, despite the fact that the content we offer reliably brings quality to the followers. The optimal duration of the promotion that can provide solid results is 3 weeks to a month.
In order to provide the participants of the online event with the most pleasant atmosphere possible, it is necessary to compensate for the lack of a sense of community that is characteristic of offline events through various animation mechanisms. Therefore, in the breaks between lectures, “speed dating” activities are welcome, which encourage online networking between event participants, then various polls and interesting activation quizzes, Q&A programs and panel discussions, which will awaken the dormant element of online event interactivity. With quality content and speakers, encouraging interaction during online events and good promotion, which will affect the volume of visits to online events, we are on the threshold of online events whose mass and quality can not only match but also overcome offline events and their possible limitations.
The positive side of organizing an online event is that the costs of organizing the event itself, which is relieved of high production and inviting participants and speakers to the event – are much more favorable, because e.g. there are no costs of renting studios, transportation, accommodation, hosting event participants and the like.
Online events in the future
The pandemic has greatly accelerated the digitalization of all industries around the world, so it has had a strong impact on events as well. Various online conferences, webinars and trainings exploded during this period, and the benefit of this accelerated development was felt by all – lecturers who opened completely new channels where they could say what they have; and participants who had a large selection of topics and formats that they could send from the safety of their home. In the end, online events also contributed to the quality of the lectures themselves – because it is not the place we came to that keeps us going, nor the catering that awaits us, but what we listen to and learn.
While we all hope to stabilize the situation and return from the new normal to the normal, the fact is that the practices that have been revealed to us in situations where we have been forced to use them – such as organizing online events – have certainly become good and desirable for the future lies ahead.
In addition to the fact that online events are more affordable in terms of total cost, they proved to be a positive experience because, specifically in the case of organizing this type of event, they shift the focus strictly on content quality, without wasting energy on “packaging”, which is very common practice in the preparation of offline events. If you want to try your hand at organizing such events, one thing is for sure, it would be our pleasure to be your support and partner in the realization of successful online events – contact us!
Will the online events as we know them disappear in the future?
The pandemic has taught us to monitor and analyze the situation all the time, react quickly and adapt, and be open to new solutions. With that in mind, online events will most certainly not disappear, but will continue to evolve and transform.
We already have the so-called hybrid events, where a virtually offline event (recorded in the studio) is streamed for participants who are online. This concept will certainly be further developed in the direction of greater integration of these two “worlds”. Whether future events will have both offline and online participants, or whether we will boldly include online lecturers in offline events who for some reason cannot reach the venue, remains to be seen.
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