Tips To Keep Your Virtual Attendees Engaged
Virtual event fatigue is real.
Attendee engagement has always been a fundamental component of any event—and the best ones know that it is more than just providing exciting content.
Given the situation of the current global pandemic where a person’s interactivity is limited, virtual events is almost the only way to attract audiences and showcase your services or products. As almost all companies and organisations worldwide are working from home, there is an opportunity to attract a global audience remotely.
Here are some ways to design a great attendee experience and keep your audience (and potential clients) engaged with virtual events, from wherever they are in the world.
Keep It Relevant To Your Attendee’s Needs
The challenge that many companies face when they organise or host large scale conferences is the diverse range of attendees. It is easy for attendees to get lost in the masses and become overwhelmed with abundance of options.
Virtual Events allow you to cater to a specific audience where you can ask a series of questions that will help curate the experience for attendees then personalize the experience for an attendee before they attend your virtual event.
Put yourself in an virtual attendee’s shoes and ask yourself:
- What are my goals for attending?
- What kind of engagement would I most likely be interested in?
- What is the most valuable content?
These questions will identify the key focus areas as you put together event content, speakers, sponsors, and procure the suitable technology to keep your attendees engaged.
Encourage virtual networking
You have all the new, cool technology, but if there are no interactions or participation among the audience, why would they want to stay to find out more?
To keep attendees engaged and tuned in, break up event sessions with engaging networking opportunities such as virtual networking lounges that will bring attendees, exhibitors and speakers together. You can also cater networking spaces through a dedicated chat feed, mobile event app or video meet-up area away from event sessions.
Event organizers can also allow attendees the ability to connect with each other and share virtual business cards.
Increase flexibility to limit fatigue
Just like being at a physical event, attendees learn better with breaks throughout the day. Even with the best online engagement tools, people may not want to sit through a full conference day. Consolidate and livestream keynotes and sessions you expect will inspire the most conversation, and pre-record the rest.
Create an on-demand library for recorded sessions at a dedicated time with live Q&As in a chat room, and make every experience interactive.
Since many of your virtual attendees will be tuning in from their homes, making the event available on-demand helps to cater to your audience needs by allowing them to revisit topics that were raised which they have missed or would like to refresh their minds on.
Post-Event Interactions
Depending on the technological tools and virtual service you choose, it’s possible for the event to continue as long as you’d like. When you leave networking platforms open after the event, you can build an ongoing community from the pool of attendees and create buzz for future events.
Engagement can continue even after the event has ended, so take time to share photos or screenshots from during the virtual event and share them over a period of time.