With the pandemic playing out differently and various public health measures or restrictions in place, events require a hybrid or purely virtual approach. Event hosts need to be thinking about how best to cater to both physical and especially online attendees. With the continued growth of hybrid and virtual events, event organizers are constantly finding new and creative ways of engaging their audiences.
Some may think that a virtual event is as simple as hosting a presentation live on Facebook or YouTube. Although these are possibilities, connecting with your audience in a meaningful way means delivering an experience. In other words, events need variety, amazing content, and personalization. Through a combined use of webinars, video call capabilities, chat tools, and integrated online games, you can develop an attendee experience that is both powerful and memorable.
The demand for virtual conferences has continued to rise over the course of the pandemic. With platforms that facilitate events that participants and presenters from all around the world can attend, lowered costs and larger audiences are beneficial. Virtual trade shows and exhibitions are a specific type of conference that’s gained in popularity and these same conference platforms also have built-in data and marketing tools that make following up with potential leads incredibility organized and easy.
Another hybrid and virtual event format that’s on the rise is the career or job fair. There are even education and onboarding fairs that follow this same format but with a slightly different focus. Leading organizations are finding out that their best approach for recruiting global talent is through the expanded digital reach of online job fairs. Combining presentations with one-on-one chats, surveys or assessment tools, and networking activities results in a larger chance of meeting higher quality applicants.
Once a new employee is found though, virtual events can still be leveraged for onboarding purposes as well. With remote workforces becoming the norm in a lot of industries, having a consolidated event that everyone can attend and receive the same onboarding and training is a sure-fire way to enrich the new employee experience.
Similarly, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions can set up virtual fairs to help students get the information they need and provide them engagement opportunities they’d otherwise have to be on campus for. Whether it’s allowing prospective students to learn more about the school, programs, and faculty or connecting students with alumni and possible career opportunities, virtual events make this easier to do at scale.
Some other interesting formats in the virtual event space are online concerts and virtual malls. Online concerts will definitely continue in 2022 and have been allowing artists and fans to still interact when touring has otherwise been precarious. Artists have also been doing joint events or coming together for cause-based concerts and charity performances.
The virtual mall concept (following the online trade show format) has also picked up steam where vendors can essentially pay for a virtual storefront. Incorporating 3D product visuals, ads that can be more interactive in nature, and the ability to chat with someone easily, consumers can have the best of both online shopping and in-person mall experiences. As you can see, the possibilities for what a virtual or hybrid event format can facilitate are only continuing to grow, so how will you leverage them in 2022?
The events industry may seem more complex with all the options available but that’s where we come in! Contact Baldwin Audio/Visual Solutions today to learn more about our event solutions.