How Virtual Event Management Ensures Attendees Actually Want to Attend

Events like expos, user group meetups, conferences, and roadshows are great opportunities for companies to connect with their employees, partners, and prospects. Many businesses invest a great deal of time and money contracting for event management services, venues, keynote speakers, refreshments, and equipment to optimize attendee experiences in the physical world. 

During the pandemic and subsequent variants, businesses worldwide turned to virtual tools, held events, and learned lessons about the power of virtual events. However, without being able to emulate the in-person experience, many virtual corporate events simply fall flat. 

Virtual event management helps make sure these events are delivered effectively, with high impact. When this is achieved, virtual events help attendees make valuable business connections, maintain relationships, and discover new business opportunities. As more professionals have adjusted to remote work and lifestyles, they have become more enthusiastic about attending, hosting, and speaking at online events. 

Here are four key reasons forward-thinking businesses utilize expert service providers for virtual event planning, production, and management.

1. Virtual Event Production Quality

Virtual corporate event attendees have raised their expectations in recent years, as they have grown accustomed to 

• Watching speakers deliver sessions with branded backgrounds and complementary graphics.
• Seamless transitions between speakers on the agenda. 
• Tools and processes for mitigating disruptive audience noise
• Compelling, in-demand speakers with recognized domain authority.
• The ability to access and share event sessions both live and on-demand and to share these with colleagues.
• Easily accessing digital “takeaways” such as presentations, whitepapers, and ebooks.
• Opportunities to interact with speakers via moderated Q&A 

Some organizations that have tried to host their own events have struggled with virtual event logistics, including coordinating presentations with speakers, optimal and flattering framing of speakers, managing attendee interaction pre, during, and post-event, and encouraging audience participation. 

Virtual events do not require the same planning or logistics management of tradeshows, sales kickoffs, or conferences in the physical world. Yet, virtual event management and production require significant attention to detail, organization, and experience. Virtual event preparation includes content development, event promotion to a defined audience, scheduling speakers, sponsors, and post-event follow-up tactics.

Virtual events enable host company employees, attendees, and guest speakers to minimize the disruption to their personal and business lives that travel can cause. This can result in higher-caliber speakers and attendees who may not otherwise participate due to budgetary or time constraints.

2. A Webcasting Service for All Major Video Conferencing Providers

Getting all attendees to standardize their event participation on a single virtual meeting room (VMR) platform like Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Pexip, or Zoom can be challenging. Partnering with a virtual events platform service provider with a webcasting service that can serve attendees on their VMR of choice makes registering for an event, participating in it, or watching the replay stress-free and straightforward.

Leading virtual event management companies have remote and onsite production crews who can ensure your event is professional for participants wherever or however they choose to join. 

3. Event Performance Analytics

Post-event analytics are critical to understanding KPIs around meeting company goals for a virtual event, including 

• The number of attendees that registered and attended, including how long they were connected to the event. 
• Where event attendees attended from geographically, 
• The types of devices they used to participate, such as laptops, mobile phones, or tablets. This can inform presentation formats for future events and other technical preparations. 
• How attentive participants are throughout the presentations.

During events, polls and surveys are great ways for host companies to engage attendees and gather information for future events. For example, it is vital to understand the topics attendees care about. 

4. Virtual Event Best Practices

Virtual event management and production experts are well versed in virtual events best practices making them better positioned to help organizations produce successful events. Here are some of the best practices that can make a difference to your event: 

• Showcasing your company’s brand, along with those of event sponsors, guest speakers, or co-presenters is critical. Contracting the services of a virtual event management service provider ensures your corporate logos, background colors, “lower thirds,” and those of your partners or customers adds an air of professionalism that a DIY approach won’t achieve. 
• Ensuring presenters have invested sufficient time in preparing for the event may seem easy. During the event, presenters can forget finer details like properly framing themselves on the screen, removing distractions that will interfere, decluttering their computer desktop or physical environment, and taking appropriate steps to ensure the best audio and video quality is sent. An experienced event management company can help with everything from audio and video technical execution to broadcast-quality speaker environments. 
• Delegating “behind the scenes” production and on-screen talent preparation can be the difference between building credibility with attendees and diminishing your brand equity, with the creation of a professional, smoothly run event.
• Hybrid events are increasingly popular as businesses present to in-person and online audiences, often simultaneously. Ensuring events deliver consistent content and messaging to both audiences is critical and requires the kind of deep expertise only leading event management service providers like Yorktel possess. 

Are you preparing for a virtual event or a targeted series of online meetups for your internal or external audience? Yorktel’s Event Production Services and Creative Media team can bring your vision to life. For more information about corporate Video Production Services and Event Management contact us to get started.