10 tips for hosting a virtual event for beginners | Host your webinar effectively
We are used to a traditional event, face-to-face communication, gathering in one place, meeting physically, and so on. But because we are now in a new normal, some of us left no option but also turned into virtual.
They turned into virtual even though they don’t have enough knowledge yet into this one, they are still in the process of how they cope up and do some virtual things. Are you one of those people who want to grow and organize virtual events, online meetings, virtual meetings but don’t know how and when to start?
But hey! Worry no more! We are here to give you some tips for hosting virtual events for beginners.
What is a virtual event?
A virtual event is an interactive meetup that is done online. This virtual event can hold up small and large conferences with thousands of participants.
There are different types of virtual events, such as webinars, online meetings/virtual meetings, and virtual summits. These types of virtual events have video conferencing tools that can be used in corporate events or any event you want, maybe for business, seminars, for workshops for training, and so on.
They also have some features like to present presentations, lectures or sessions, interactive tools such as polls, Q&A sessions, live chats, and many more. Anyone can attend and join wherever they are in the world, they just need to have access to the internet.
How are virtual events beneficial?
There are a lot of reasons why virtual events are beneficial. First, virtual events allow not only individuals but also companies and businesses to grow and expand, to seek and interact with new potential clients and customers.
Second, virtual events reduce the cost of travel for a meeting, seminar, conferencing, workshops, training, and so on. Instead, they just need to face their laptop or computer and there, they now have virtual meetings, online meetings, online seminars, video conferencing without having travel costs.
Third, virtual events are measurable, not only ordinary people can use virtual events. Businesses and companies can also use virtual events. Companies and businesses can conduct sessions that are available for large scales of attendees, can attend live or if not, can access the recorded one and watch it.
Virtual events allow individuals, companies, and businesses to promote their brand/product, meaning the virtual event is one of the effective strategies as marketing tools. These are just some reasons and benefits of virtual events.
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Tips when hosting a virtual event
- Create a game plan
It is a must that you have a plan whenever you are going to start an event. No matter how big or small it is, make sure you have your well and best strategy with you.
Strategic answer to who, what, when, where, and how of your event. This will help you define your goals and your objectives.
It is also better to create your game plan ahead of time, so you will have more time to think and decide the best for your event.
- Choose the right time
Selecting the best time is another important point for your event. Choose the right time that is convenient to your audiences as much as possible.
Do consider your audience availability, your audiences’ different time zones. Why don ‘t you ask them the best time for them, you can conduct this through polls.
One more thing, make sure there are no other big events or holidays that might occur at the same time as your event. If this some consideration seems impossible, why not make your content accessible after live, for the sake of your other audiences’ that did not attend your live because of some reason.
After choosing the best time for your event, you can now spread the word to your audiences.
- Promote the event
Having the best plan and time for your event is not enough. Who will see your effort for your event if you do not have audiences?
So, what you will do is promote your event. If you are asking how will you promote your event? Well, think of this, what is the use of social media anyway? Social media is one of the best event marketing tools that you can use.
Therefore, you can promote your event through the use of social media. You can share your event details by email and posting. You can also run ads if you want to.
There is Facebook, Instagram, Podcast, and other social media that will absolutely help you promote your event.
- Choose your platform wisely
There are a lot of video conferencing tools and social media platforms that you can choose from in hosting a virtual event. But the question is how will you choose your platform wisely?
Your chosen platform should showcase your event’s needs and wants for your audience. It should have features and tools that are user friendly.
By choosing your platform, it should have some standard. For example, you can connect and interact with your audience easily, you can also customize your event site and templates, service platform, and many more.
When it comes to seamless webinars or virtual events, it’s best to choose Jetwebinar. They offer:
- Convenient webinar hosting and automatically converts your webinar to recurring simulated live webinars.
- No tech difficulties even with high number of attendees
- High quality video and audio to provide quality user experience.
- Prepare for tech difficulties
Since it is done virtually. Do not expect to not encounter some technical problems. Before you go to a live event, make sure you test all your equipment.
Check your internet connection, your laptop if it is fully charged and not going to update and restart during your live, check your audio and video tools if it is clear and loud enough. Because tech difficulties cannot visualize and prevent.
Do some presentation back up in case of an emergency. It is better to be ready than sorry.
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- Incentivize event attendance
If you are wondering how you incentivize the event attendance. The answer is you just need to offer some interesting things for them.
It can be some souvenirs or what. Now, the cost needed to incentivize your event attendance will depend if you are having a free event or you will have an admission fee.
If it is free, then the incentives you will give to them is the information you have shared with them, if your event has an admission fee, then the incentives you can offer would be a coupon code or extended free trial for your attendees.
- Make it inclusive
Make your virtual event inclusive. Make them feel that everyone is welcome to your event. Give equal attention and effort to give what they need no matter what their gender is.
If they are a newbie, a young professional, or veteran, or even if they are coming from different races, and have disabilities, they still deserve to be treated like a human. The virtual event should also be as accessible as possible.
Use clear language, large fonts, readable captions, and so on. Take note, being a good and efficient host is one way to be successful someday.
- Engage with your audience and speakers
Engaging with your audience and speakers is more fun. But there is more why you need to engage with your audience and speakers.
Engaging with them will make your event more interactive, livelier, and more active. If you let your audience experience the boring event, no matter how your content is informative and good, they did not stick with you until the end and will leave you quickly.
So, you need to think about some opportunities for engagement. There are a lot of interactive features you can use in an online platform.
You can also use a poll, Q&A sessions, quiz, live-tweeting, online chatting, and many more. You can also do shout outs for the ones who are requesting it.
- Promote the event during the event
Don’t you know you can still promote the event during the event? How? By using social media. You can use the hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, or even Facebook to catch and encourage more potential audiences.
This is also suitable for paid events, your sponsor will promote your event to get more audiences and attendees interested in your event.
- Get feedback from attendees
Collecting feedback from your attendees will help you a lot in the future. Their feedback will help you achieve your dream successful event.
Your attendees are the ones who saw and experienced your event, that’s why they knew where you lacked, and your event was good. So, indeed feedback is an important part of an event, feedback allows them to give some suggestions that can help you improve and develop more by your next event.
This will be easy to do with JetWebinar’s email automation. You can let your audience know about the upcoming webinars, send them reminders and also personalize your emails that will be sent after the event for the post webinar survey.
Conclusion
Virtual events offer flexibility and many benefits for both host, speaker, and audiences. Now if you are saying, you are just a beginner only.
Well, it is not a big deal if you are a beginner. As long as you follow these tips for hosting virtual events, you will no longer worry. These powerful tips will help you feel like an expert in the field.
Just focus on your goal and eventually you will achieve the successful event hosting you are dreaming about.
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