3 Building Blocks of Hosting Online Events
As Covid – 19 pushes marketers, managers, leaders and sales teams into online environments the push for Digital/Online Events has never been stronger. The real challenge though for most people is a lack of experience, knowledge and understanding of the platforms and processes in going from the physical environment into the digital realm. With that in mind we’ve put together a quick guide to what we believe are the 3 Building Blocks for Online Events.
Content is KING
“Considering the decrease in budget spend in areas like venue hire, catering etc, the opportunity to over index in the content offering exists and in my opinion has become critical.,” says John Paul Waites, Worx Group’s CEO. “Consider how easy it is to be distracted when you’re watching content on a screen in the privacy of your own home. It has never been more challenging to hold your audience’s attention or more critical to create an engaging environment.”
Paired with your content’s importance is its context, the flow and structure of your presentations needs to take into mind your audience’s current circumstances and where their own focus may be at present. Offering value, empathy and being authentic is always important when requesting your audience’s attention but now, more than ever, it is a critical unwritten message to the world.
Not having that physical connection of an audience in your room places immense importance in strategy & structure of your digital event, you no longer have venue décor and stage design to add to your event theme. Content strategy, speaker briefing, event structure, audience measurement and engagement are everything in this digital event environment.
Production Value
What do the social distancing changes mean for eventing? “If you’ve focused your energy on decor and catering and have ignored digital advances and content improvements, you’re about to experience a heap of pain as the latter has become the most critical elements, closely paired with the ability to deliver a high quality production,” says JP. “It goes without saying that high quality broadcasts will definitely help to keep your audience engaged. I really suggest everyone considers upping the budget and quality of their presentations and videos as they are going to be crucial in holding people’s attention.”
Some easy production value elements to pay attention to include:
- Good quality lighting
- Good Microphones
- High quality animated transitions between presenters
- Varying camera shots
- Quality platforms for viewing and recording purposes
All of the above will make it feel more like a live event and makes it more enjoyable to watch. High quality content can be created remotely during the lockdown periods and is an element well worth the budget spend. Quality content brings audience, quality production keeps them.
Human Connection
This is huge. It’s our purpose for being. We are all about bringing people together.
Social distancing is upsetting the industry, but it’s really happening at the best possible time because almost every online platform supports some kind of human connection. That could be as simple as a chat platform, which you can use social media for, most of the event tech platforms have moderated Q&A and instant polling as a basic feature. You can even add elements of gamification and do networking events and breakout sessions with some creativity.
It is really important that, no matter what, your attendees feel like they’re heard and like they’re part of the event. This is what makes it feel like it’s an engagement not a pre-recorded webinar.
We hope this piece on the 3 core building blocks of online events is helpful. Look out for our next piece on the strategy of delivering an online event.