May

From A to Zoom: tips for planning virtual events.

In four months of 2020, among all video communication services, Zoom became the main sensation. Zoom's stocks grew exponentially during the quarantine period. In the first quarter of 2020, more new users appeared on the platform than in the whole of 2019! In just the last month, the number of users increased by 20 times: from 10 million to 200 million. And the number of search queries in Yandex for a month is approaching 3 million. Other video communication services are also experiencing increased demand.

Undoubtedly, the global tense situation worldwide directly contributed to such a surge in popularity. Most employers have transitioned employees to remote work. Doctors from different countries virtually conduct meetings and share experiences, students attend video lectures from home, ordinary people can easily attend an online party or even a concert, and some find a match at blind dates.

This is the new reality, and it's important to adapt to it in time. How to quickly integrate into the new online environment? How to prepare event without a beautifully decorated venue, without a pleasant coffee break, and without the emotional impact that you feel in person? We will tell you how to plan a successful online event: what to pay attention to and what mistakes to avoid.

Goal and strategy

At the very first stage - developing the idea - you must clearly define the goal and objectives of your online event. What do you want to achieve in the end? Who is your target audience? What results do you expect? From here, you will understand which platform is best to choose, what functionality you need, and what additional services need to be involved (networking, document exchange, event agency, etc.).

Video communication platform

Explore possible options of different platforms; choose according to your needs. The main thing is that it should be convenient and easy to use, not require complex registration for participants, and have the ability to export content to YouTube.

Test all the functionality. Explore the possibilities of multimedia exchange, interactive webinars, chats, polls, gamification, and other necessary extensions.

Explore possible options for different platforms

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Interaction and engagement of each employee should remain priorities even in a virtual event. First, future participants need to be motivated to join the event. It's important that it is expected event, not "voluntarily mandatory". Create an advertising page for the event, come up with an enticing logo and name, a brief and concise description, provide a link to the broadcast in advance, remind about the date and time.

Ensure moderation of built-in chats during video communication so that they are not overloaded and provide feedback. Invite interesting or popular personalities, experts, to ensure attention switching. Spice up your event with distracting details to maintain attention (quotes, videos, photos, memes).

It is important to constantly appeal to participants through voting, polls, to demonstrate the importance and involvement of each.

Safety comes first

A virtual environment where a huge number of participants gather at the same time is a tempting target for uninvited visitors and hackers. Inadequate protection can lead to negative consequences - from insults and aggression in chats to leakage of participants' personal data. Double-check the security of your internet provider's router in advance and provide additional protection from hackers if necessary.

Safety comes first

Comfort and pleasant details

Remember that a video session should not exceed an average of 3 hours; longer than that is simply not perceived by participants.

Allow those interested to ask "questionsquestions from the audience, such interaction provides an understanding of active influence on what is happening.
Use a tool for online votingThis will help you track the effectiveness and emotional impact on the audience.
Offer additional networking opportunities (building business connections). This always attracts attention because finding contacts and connecting with useful people remotely has become even more challenging.
After the session share useful materials, case studies, presentations, photos, and videos. Don't forget to record the video broadcast so that it can be used later on your resources.

Don't be afraid to attract sponsors and integrate their functions and offers into your event. This will be beneficial not only to you, but also to the participants themselves, who will be able to receive some bonus from the sponsoring company.

As noted by Evgenia Glushenkova, the executive director of the event agency "Aventura," companies simply need to quickly adapt, moving all their work tools online. After all, it doesn't matter where employees, partners, and clients are located; only internet access is needed.

Use the new conditions to the maximum: erase boundaries, break and create new rules, step out of the comfort zone. Make every event participant (even if there are thousands of them) an active part of your event. And then you will get productive high-quality events even during a global crisis. And our employees will gladly help you organize any event and do it at the highest level. Shall we create a new reality together?..