It’s no secret that digital (formally virtual) events have recently taken over from many traditional in-person events. Hosting a successful virtual event takes a different kind of planning. One question on the top of the event manager’s mind is, “How can I keep my virtual attendees engaged?”

It’s certainly more manageable when you have a large group of people in the same place. Networking happens organically. Plus, people are drawn to music or laughter and find entertainment opportunities easily.

If you want to sponsor a successful virtual event, increasing engagement is a must. Use these nine tips to ensure that your virtual event is the one people will remember.

Conduct a Pre-Event Poll

You can start getting attendees involved even before your event formally starts. Conduct a pre-event poll to understand how they heard about the event. Also, be sure to include some questions that will help you create an even better experience for attendees. You may find unique digital event ideas to address their feedback. You can ask things such as:

• Which social platforms do you use most often? Your analytics will let you know where to promote your event.
• How interested are you in . . .? Ask the attendees to rank different factors such as the topics covered in the sessions, networking, and talking to vendors. You could gauge their interest in the issues you’re discussing to give you some insight into which sessions might have the high numbers of attendees.
• How easy was it to access information about the event? If there is an opportunity to respond to this type of feedback before the event, it can be constructive. Easy access to events and information is crucial because people don’t want to spend personal time digging through useless information. The easier the accessibility, the happier the attendee.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that you’ll need to respond to the feedback you receive.

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Encourage Presenters to Prepare for the Virtual Sessions

Speakers accustomed to presenting to a room full of people need to change their presentation approach to keep attendees at a digital event engaged. Here are some of the issues you’ll want them to consider:

• Lighting and camera placement. The presenter’s face should be well lit to avoid having them look like the allusion of an apparition. A camera set at eye level will help the audience make virtual eye contact.
• Background. Minimize background distractions to help the virtual audience maintain focus on the presenter.
• Body language. It’s challenging to pay attention to a talking head. While the camera should be at eye level, an angle that lets the presenter use their hands, as this audience will find this to be a more natural and inviting look.
• Use visuals to good effect. Encourage presenters not to read from a set of slides but encourage them to use graphics to expand or go more in-depth on their topic.
• Look at the camera, not the monitor. Eye contact is still critical, even in a virtual setting. Presenters shouldn’t look at their monitor but focus on their camera. 

Consider Shortening Session Length

It’s far more challenging to hold the audience’s attention when they aren’t seeing the presenter in person. The hour-long presentation that makes sense in a face-to-face event may seem unusually long for a virtual attendee. Besides that, the presenter must maintain a good level of enthusiasm that wanes without in-person feedback. Consider reducing the length of the sessions at your event by 15 to 30 minutes. Keeping a session short is always better than losing attendees who will leave if it goes too long. And plan to include pauses in the session to make sure the audience is engaged and understands the material.

Encourage Questions Throughout Sessions

Some presenters traditionally ask their audience to hold their questions until the end of the formal presentation. Waiting until the end of the session can have some merit, but it’s easier for the attendees to lose concentration in a virtual environment. Setting up a moderated chat other than the speaker can keep the audience more motivated. The moderator can ask the presenter questions if they come in a natural place in the presentation. For example, if a question comes in after the presenter has changed topics, the moderator can hold the question until the end.

Schedule Live Q&As

Nothing will keep your attendees engaged more than the chance to participate and get their questions answered. Some presenters like to have a live Q&A session at the end of their presentations. But, sometimes, attendees don’t have questions until they’ve had a chance to think about what they’ve heard. It may not be reasonable to have a separate Q&A for every session, but scheduling one on a broader topic that covers several sessions is an excellent way to let people participate.

Consider Priming and Synthesis Sessions

Providing context for event attendees is always a good idea. But, again, the concept of priming and synthesis sessions can help. At the start of each day, schedule a short session hosted by a knowledgeable organizer or expert to point out the relationship between the day’s sessions and the event’s theme. Next, schedule a challenge session where you encourage attendees to share their experiences and how they plan to take action based on the day’s information.

Use Mobile Apps

Attendees aren’t always sitting in front of a computer; they’re on their cell phones or tablets. Creating a mobile app for attendees will keep them involved because they can view interactive floor plans, search for exhibitors, take notes, participate in games, and more.

Take Advantage of Chat Rooms

Chat rooms promote engagement. You can set up chat rooms on specific hot topics while having a moderator or subject matter expert manage the interaction. You can also use chat rooms to help vendors talk in more depth to interested prospects.

Use a Tool that Drives Engagement at Virtual Events

An all-inclusive virtual event management tool like VEM™ from eShow will let you manage the entire event experience. It’s a tool that drives engagement by offering virtual exhibits, video chats, interactive polls, chat tools that promote two-way communication among attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors, and much more.

How Can You Increase Engagement at Virtual Events?

It is possible to promote engagement at a virtual event! As technology evolves to adapt to these new landscapes, it is becoming easier to achieve your goal for any virtual event. eShow applies its 25 years of collective experience in the event industry to continuously developed professional solutions and web-based tools to help you manage any size event from start to finish.

eShow’s Virtual Event Management platform gives you the tools you need to increase engagement and to manage your virtual event in one place, regardless of its size.

As you present more of your events online, you may need to reinvent your approach. While you can use the latest technology to help you craft a stunning virtual event and potentially reach far more people than ever before, you still need to ensure that your attendees are engaged. Here are eight ways to keep those eyes glued to the screen so that they absorb your content and stay on track.

1. Virtual Networking | Attendee Chat

There is nothing like a live event when it comes to building camaraderie and enhancing the shared experience. It may be hard to replicate some of that “magic” for virtual events, but that does not mean that attendees need to feel isolated or somehow distant.

You can make sure that they interact with each other by setting up ways to connect. For example, you can open topic-specific chat rooms if your events cover many different areas. In addition, you could post a list of attendees in each chat room to spur others to join.

Make this part of your mobile event app’s functionality, ensure that this asset has the messaging capability, and look at the many solutions from eShow to help get you started. Interact with attendees before, during, and after the event to plant comfortable seeds with conversation starters in each chat room if necessary. It gives it not only a personal touch but shows you care by being in the chat as well. That should get the ball rolling!”

2. Getting Their Input | Live Surveys and Polls

For best effect, you should constantly interact with your attendees in the run-up to the event. This effort will help build interest and engagement, and this process will be even more potent if you celebrate their perspective. Continue this interaction through your virtual events by running live polls or surveys. It could be helpful to look back on these as a case study or reference point when planning and implementing new ideas for your next major event, as they can help you improve the structure or content for next time.

You do not need to make all your polls or surveys serious, either. Instead, throw in some fun questions to break the ice, and prompt further interaction.

3. Introducing the Fun | Gamify Your Event

Everyone likes a challenge, and you can engage your attendees by throwing in a game or two during the event. You will need to be creative, though. Draw up competition and allocate each attendee a score depending on their performance. Perhaps you can make this challenge last throughout the event and use a pop-up screen to post the ever-changing leaderboard. Motivate your attendees to score by giving away interim prizes and offer a lovely award for whoever scores the highest points. Put the icing on the cake by presenting these awards in a virtual ceremony.

Combine the ceremony with a significant announcement of some kind, keeping everyone on the edge of their seats and encourage them to stay until the end. Do not be afraid to weave Social Media into your games! It can help spread the word even further and make it even more worthwhile for your attendees.

4. It’s All in Presentation | Focusing on Your Platform

When you run a live event, you often have the luxury of working with the design team (both in-house and at the venue) to ensure that everything looks spectacular for your attendees. When you stage a virtual event, it may be difficult to replicate that type of “wow” factor, but you certainly need to focus on your platform to encourage engagement.

A well-designed portal will impress your attendees. If you can demonstrate the ease and simplicity of navigating your portal, you can worry less about your audience getting on and focus on the topic at hand by keeping them engaged. You will want to avoid confusion at any stage, or it may discourage your attendees, and they may surf elsewhere in the background. Only use the most effective platform for your virtual event if you want to keep people glued to your content. Have a look at the Virtual Event Management (VEM™) Platform from eShow for inspiration.

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5. Content | Remains King in the Virtual Landscape

While it may be more challenging to design your online portal than your live event, you certainly need to make sure that your content is as powerful as possible. You may want to take an entirely different approach. For example, focus more on visual aids or interactive devices instead of a talking head to garner attention. Remember that your attendee may encounter distractions on the other end of “the line,” and you may need to exert some additional effort to control their attention.

Keep those sessions short for best effect. While a live attendee may nod off briefly if a session goes on too long, a virtual attendee may disappear altogether in that case.

6. Push it | Getting Instant Engagement

Everyone walks around with a smartphone today, so use this as a tool in capturing your audience’s attention. Thank your attendees for their competition entry or congratulate them as you push out the results. Warn them that a keynote will start soon, so they get any other distractions out of the way first.

7. Provide the Answers | Handling Those Questions

Ensure that you have all the collateral at hand so that attendees can get answers to their frequently asked questions as painlessly as possible. Put a clear link at the top of the event portal but make sure that you do not encourage them to go down a rabbit hole when accessing this information. In other words, please do not include any other links on your FAQ page but give them one option that will take them back to the portal. Alternatively, make the FAQ a pop-up instead, and think about using video as a medium to answer those questions more succinctly instead.

8. Cameras on – and Ready!

Finally, add the element of surprise. In the beginning, advise your attendees that they should always keep their cameras on during the event. Then, tell them that you will call a few of them out by name during the session. This threat should keep them awake and engaged and ready to hold up their virtual hand if called upon to do so!

Maintaining their Attention  

We put the “E” in engaged! There are many ways to bolster engagement whenever you run a digital event and some great tools to help make your job a lot easier.

Available Solutions

Check out the solutions or products from eShow. Many of these tools work together seamlessly or are purchased separately to help make your event a success. For example, look at the event website offering – a customized website with no reason to worry about code. Or investigate the Virtual Event Management (VEM™) Platform that converts all the traditional offline event elements into a highly customizable virtual world.

As an event manager, it’s important to know if your hard work planning the event paid off. Therefore, you need to collect and analyze relevant data to measure the success of your event, whether it’s in person, virtual or hybrid. Attendance is frequently used to gauge event success; however, this metric alone can’t provide you with enough information to ascertain the event’s true success. For example, the number of attendees isn’t enough data for measuring engagement or satisfaction — metrics that’ll prove useful in securing sponsors for future events.

Before you can measure your event’s success, you need to define its goals clearly. For example, do you want to increase brand awareness? Increase traffic to the company website? Although event goals will vary from one company to the next, there are nine types of data you should collect before, during, and after your event to measure its overall success. This data will show you what went right and what you can improve in future events.

1. Ticket Sales, Registrations, and Check-Ins

The number of tickets sold (or registrations for free events) is an important metric in determining an event’s success. This number shows the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. The number of check-ins is another metric to consider, as it’s not uncommon for people to buy tickets or register for an event and not show up. If check-ins are substantially lower than registrations, you likely need to interact more with attendees between registration and the event date. 

2.  Mobile App Downloads 

Mobile event apps can provide event managers with data points for measuring event success. For example, calculating the number of app downloads, return app visits, and level of engagement will give you valuable insight into an event’s success. This will allow you to implement strategies for future events relevant to those interacting within the app.

3.  Repeat Event Attendance

Returning attendees are an indicator of your ability to provide enough value to keep people coming back for more. In addition, returning attendees are likely to be brand evangelists and prone to not only convert but to spread the word about your brand.

 

4. Visits to Event and Company Websites

To measure the level of interest in your event, keep track of all event and company website traffic (unique visitors, page views, and conversion rates) for up to a month following the event. If your event was successful, you should see a rise in direct traffic numbers. This indicates that people are either seeking additional content or looking to buy your product/service.

5. Social Media Engagement

In today’s digital environment, monitoring the social media activity of event attendees will give you an indication of your event’s success. Before and after the event, ask attendees to use a specific event hashtag when posting on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This will allow you to measure audience growth and track the number of times the hashtag is shared across these platforms.

As a qualitative means of assessing event success, review attendees’ social media posts for positive or negative feedback. For example, which sessions, speakers, or exhibitors garnered the most interest? Did attendees have pain points that you failed to cover?

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6. Post-Event Surveys

Send post-event surveys to attendees to measure experience and gauge satisfaction. You can increase the number of responses by keeping your surveys short — asking only the most pertinent questions. Your survey can be as simple as:

• Is there anything you feel we need to improve for future events?
• How likely are you to attend another [company name] event?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to recommend attending [name of event] to a friend or associate?

An online resource such as Survey Monkey makes it easy to create and distribute your post-event surveys and calculate your Net Promoter Score (NPS). This metric will give you an idea of how many attendees were satisfied with your event enough to attend future events and encourage others to participate.

7. Cost to Revenue Ratio

If you’re organizing a corporate event, you’ll likely want to generate revenue in addition to building brand awareness and sustaining customer loyalty. Ideally, the costs (money, time) of carrying out your event will be less than the revenue generated (ticket sales, sponsorships, exhibitor fees, etc.).

The cost to revenue ratio is expressed as cost/revenue. Thus, a favorable ratio will be less than 1, and the lower it is, the better. To calculate this metric, you’ll need to measure:

• Forecasted cost; forecasted revenue
• Actual cost; actual revenue
• If your cost to revenue ratio is higher than anticipated, your event wasn’t necessarily a flop. For example, did you obtain a substantial number of newsletter signups? That’s one way to reach potential customers who could give you repeat business for years to come.

 To encourage sales and keep track of revenue resulting from an event, give attendees a promo code to purchase your products or services.  

 

8. Sponsor | Exhibitor ROI

Providing sponsors and exhibitors with favorable Return On Investment (ROI) data will encourage them to participate in future events. Track visits and conversions on sponsors’ websites. The more data you can provide, the better.

9.  Marketing ROI

Depending on your audience, email marketing is still a viable method of reaching prospective event attendees. If you market events via emailed newsletters, measure the open rate to gain insight into the event topics attendees are interested in.

Wrapping Up

When evaluating success metrics for your event, compare your most recent event to previous events to see where you’ve hit the mark and where you need to step up your game.

According to a study by event research firm Freeman,  collecting and analyzing event data is a major pain point for event managers, with 46% of respondents reporting a lack of effective data analysis. In addition, 37% reported significant challenges in accessing comprehensive event data.

With our robust yet flexible solutions, eShow can help you cost-effectively collect the data needed to accurately measure your event’s success. Select a singular product or bundle products to meet your data needs. Think of eShow as your one-stop shop for all of your event management needs. We give you everything you need to fly solo, but we’re always here if you need us.

From a complete industry shutdown to the rush into the virtual world, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly kept event professionals on their toes. As more and more people get vaccinated, the interest in in-person events has returned. However, this has created new challenges.

Many event managers are unsure of what the future holds. In a world where the COVID-19 virus remains relevant, how do you balance the desire for human contact with the need to ensure safety and comfort? As we continue to navigate this “new normal,” you can expect to see a host of new trends arising.

For event managers, it’s essential to prepare for what’s coming next and lead the way. So here’s a closer look at some of the most crucial industry shifts happening right now.

Hybrid Events

As things slowly begin to open back up, hybrid events are positioned to be this year’s hottest trend. While this isn’t a new concept, the value has become highly apparent in today’s contemporary world. Offering both in-person and virtual event options allows your guests to choose the level of engagement that makes them feel most comfortable. In addition, since more people can attend without the expense and hassle of travel, offering a virtual option also makes your event accessible to a far larger audience.

Hybrid events offer many benefits. However, planning them creates some challenges. It’s critical to set up these events in a way that makes both in-person and virtual delegates feel welcome and engaged. Providing the best possible attendee experience also requires a significant amount of planning and preparation.

Forward-thinking event planners and managers are already procuring the tools and skills they need to create and execute stellar hybrid events. So not only is this format not going away any time soon, but it’s also likely to become standard practice rather than an exception to the norm.

Interactivity

One potential drawback of a hybrid event is the challenge of keeping your attendees’ attention. While it’s easy to pack a three-day, in-person event with fun and exciting activities, recreating this experience online is a bit more complicated. Your virtual attendees may not be thrilled about spending an entire day staring at a screen and are even less likely to want to commit to a multiple-day event.

Shortening your event is a great option. However, it still may not be enough. When planning a hybrid event, it’s important to keep engaging by adding plenty of interactive activities. This may include question and answer sessions, tutorials for hands-on projects, breakout sessions, and networking opportunities.

Investing in a virtual event management platform is one of the best ways to ensure your off-site guests enjoy a fully interactive event experience. This will also allow exhibitors to promote their products, provide sponsorship value, and enable two-way communication between remote attendees, sponsors, and exhibitors. 

You may also consider providing perks for your virtual attendees to make the experience as close to the “real thing” as possible. For example, you may consider providing vouchers for food delivery services, like Grub Hub or Uber Eats, or having physical swag bags delivered right to the attendee’s front door. 

Focus on Safety and Sanitation

Despite the increase in vaccinations, it’s still critical for event planners to stay vigilant regarding safety and sanitation. In addition, for the time being, the need for social distancing remains. This makes event design more complex and requires additional planning. For example, you’ll need to stay conscious of the layout of open spaces and consider using a seating management program to maintain proper separation during seated portions of your events.

It’s also critical to ensure your venue has cleaning protocols in place and communicate them clearly with your event attendees. Other accommodations, such as mobile app technology to limit physical contact between attendees and staff, will also remain the norm for the foreseeable future.

Smaller Regional Events

For now, mega-events will likely remain on hold. Instead of national conventions and tradeshows, companies are more likely to host separate regional events. As more people get comfortable, you may see a shift back towards more significant events. However, this possibly won’t occur until 2023 or later.  

In the meantime, you may see events slowly getting more prominent. So, for example, while a company may host four to five events across the country this year, they may cut it down to separate east-cost and west-coast affairs next year.

Data-Led Decision Making

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything. Old assumptions are no longer valid, making data-driven decision-making even more critical. Not only do event planners and organizers need to analyze new information coming in, but you’ll need to do it with far greater attention to detail.

Studying your data will help you clearly understand what’s going on in your regional area, across the nation, and around the globe. This will allow you to stay ahead of changes and prepare you to adjust your approach when the need arises proactively.

Continued Need for Flexibility

If recent events have taught us anything, it’s that we need to expect the unexpected. Whether it’s a resurgence of COVID-19 or another serious issue, there’s always the chance that something could throw a wrench in your best-laid plans.

Now, more than ever, event planners and managers need a way to clearly and efficiently communicate changes with event hosts, sponsors, and attendees.

Using a meeting logistics manager will help you orchestrate all the details of your event and serve as a single point of communication. Not only will this allow you to keep all the details you need at your fingertips, but it will also help you quickly make adjustments as needed.

The Next Generation of Event Planning

As the world continues moving forward, it’s critical to make sure you’re prepared for the next era of events. Whether you’re hosting in-person, full digital/virtual, or hybrid events, eShow offers various products and services that will help ensure they’re both engaging and effective. Contact us today to request a full demo!