Tips to set up a successful virtual conference

With the upheaval of events caused due to COVID-19, many businesses moved their events online in a virtual space. Many organizations that have never thought about moving their meetings and conferences online are now replanning their upcoming events.

Virtual conferences have been prevalent for long, serving many industries. But a sudden boost in virtual conferencing & virtual meetings has been witnessed in the past few months. Nowadays, as virtual is the new normal, carrying out online virtual conferences has become an integral part of every industry. It enables organizations to connect with global delegates residing in any corner of the world from the comfort of their own space or desk.

Today, the internet is flooded with a number of virtual conferencing platforms such as JioMeet, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and that offer interactive, immersive, and engaging features. The functionality and engaging features offered by the platform helps in replicating on-ground conference experiences to attendees.

Moving an in-person conference on a virtual event platform is a challenging task to achieve the desired outcomes. The worth of face to face interactions holds its own importance, but virtual conferences try to recreate the same look and feel of on-ground experiences while upholding the original value.

In this article, we have shared a few powerful tips to surge your virtual conference and achieve your set business goals. The merit is, now you do not have to travel and worry about venue capacity anymore with virtual or hybrid event solutions!

Powerful Tips for a successful virtual conference

1. Determine the objective of hosting a virtual conference

The objective of hosting an online virtual conference should be clear in the mind of the presenter. One must be clear about the issues they want to address before hosting a virtual conference. Do you want a cost cut or want to reach a wide spectrum of audience, discuss business plans for the upcoming year, business proposals, etc. the agenda should be clear in the mind. If you have the answer to why you want to host an online virtual conference, it helps in achieving the set goals.

2. Identify your potential target audience

Recognizing your target audience is a must to make the most out of your virtual conference. If the event was already planned online, you must be aware of the audience. But if you plan to move the in-person conference to a virtual conferencing platform and are willing to expand your reach, identifying your target audience is a must.

Virtual conferences enable attendees to tune in from remote locations from the comfort of their own space, a major perk of virtual conferencing. It allows people to tune in from their desks irrespective of geographical locations who might miss attending a physical conference. The online virtual conference provides value to its members, of course along with comfort.

3. Determine the content and line up the speakers

Once you know the purpose of hosting a conference, what content is to be displayed comes next. A strong content may even fall flat on the face if it is not communicated properly. Line up the speakers for your virtual conference that engages attendees with the most relevant information and facts. Make sure that speakers are on board with you if you have suddenly planned your on-ground conference to move online.

4. Select the right virtual conference platform

Selecting the right technology that offers comprehensive virtual and hybrid event solutions is a must. To make the most out of an online virtual conference selecting the right platform plays a major role. A virtual event platform that offers interactive and engaging features such as live chats, polls, Q & A sessions, etc. is the best bet to rely on.

It enables attendees to have one on one interaction with other attendees as well as with the presenter or speakers. The best virtual conference platform is backed by 24*7 tech support and offers on-demand video content if one missed it. It offers everything one needs for boosting engagements.

5. Promote it right

Even if you are hosting your online conference on the best known virtual event platform, have the most relevant content and the best-known speakers, if attendees are not aware of it, it’s of no use. Promoting your online virtual conference and spreading a word about it beforehand is a must. Send emails, promote it on websites, share on social media channels, and so on to make your attendees aware and expand your reach.

6. Keep the sessions short and interactive

To make your virtual conference successful and achieve the desired outcomes, try to keep sessions short. A session of 15 minutes is good to go. If the session is long, try to incorporate engaging features such as organize quizzes or live polls to keep the attendees hooked.

7. Launch your virtual conference

Now you are all set to launch your online virtual conference when you are done with all the planning. Now it’s time to showcase and execute your online conference. It can be scary if you are not handy with technology. Here the role of the virtual event platform holds its importance.

If you have partnered with the right technology your work is half done, they provide you with the training to make you comfortable with the platform. The perk not only ends here, but they will also carry out the event right from the registration process to execution to measuring the analytics.

A little planning, right content, efficient speakers & good technology is all you need to carry out a virtual conference successfully!