Steps To Launch A Successful Virtual Conference

In challenging times like today, face-to-face events have been put on a hold for some time, all due to COVID-19. The global pandemic has affected all the nations, resulting in the cancellation or rescheduling of various events planned for upcoming months.

To walk ahead of the time, virtual events come to aid. It has been prevalent long ago, but a sudden spike in virtual events and virtual conferences has been witnessed recently. A large number of organizations globally are relying on virtual event technology to connect with remote employees and global delegates.

Today, hosting a virtual event has become the first choice of marketers, planners, and organizers. Marketers are tapping on the powerful tool to connect with audiences residing in any corner of the globe. Here is more about virtual events in COVID-19 world.

Virtual Conferencing and Meetings

Nowadays, an ample number of virtual conference platforms are available on the internet today that offer the best possible features. A massive competition is going on between the platforms to serve the best for business. Who wins the battle is yet to be witnessed.

Virtual conferencing helps in bringing the audience residing in varied remote locations under one roof virtually. It enables them to have one-on-one interactions in real-time. Select a platform that offers engaging features that helps in virtual audience engagement throughout the event, while keeping the audience hooked.

Virtual conferencing and meetings have become an integral part of almost every sector to keep the business running. Organizations that have never thought about moving their physical events and conferences online are now hosting their recurring day to day meetings and conferences on virtual conference platforms. Read this quick comparison of Virtual Events Vs Physical Events.

Here, we have covered how to host a successful virtual conference while maintaining the original value of on-ground conferences. Scroll down to understand the steps of the virtual launch of an online conference.

Time to get started and embrace virtual conferences!

Steps to Launch a Virtual Conference

Step 1: Recognize Your Target Audience

The first and foremost step for a virtual launch of a conference is to identify your target audience. Before anything else, you must be aware of your audience for whom you are hosting an online conference. If your business demands to take your conference online in a digital space, you must be well aware of your audience group. Well, if you are not aware take some time out and do a little extra research to identify your audience. New to virtual conferencing? the audience you have targeted for a physical conference is worth reconsidering for a virtual conference.

Virtual events open the realms of a wider geographic frame, thus allowing you to touch a wide spectrum of audiences. Virtual conferencing works the same way as in-person conferences but in a more refined way. It helps in eliminating various geographical constraints and space limitations associated with in-person conferences, thereby expanding your audience base. Before you determine the objective and plan out your vision, recognizing & understanding your audience is a must.

Step 2: Determine Your Vision

Determining the vision and goal is the next step in line to launch a successful virtual conference. Once you decide to move your conference online and identify your audience, determining the vision comes next. Once you are well aware of your audience, you take some time out for planning on other things.

How does your event look like? What topics do you need to address during your online conference? Type of questions that holds value to you? What type of questions do you need to answer during virtual conferencing? And so on. These are some of the questions you need to keep in mind while hosting a virtual conference.

Once you are well aware of your audience and understand what entices them, looking for speakers & sponsors becomes easy. Holding a strong vision is a must as it would become easy to approach speakers and sponsors to participate. Apart from it, selling registrations, approaching vendors, attracting an audience all becomes a hassle-free process with a clear & strong vision. Here are some tips to make your virtual conferences successful.

Step 3: Decide Upon Your Content

Next in the process comes up the content that will display during your virtual conference. Once you have identified your audience and set your vision, start connecting with vendors and speakers. If you have shifted your physical conference to a virtual space, you need to inform the attendees and speakers about the same and ensure that they are still interested in participating in the same.

Decide upon the most engaging and relevant content for your virtual conference. Unlike physical conferences, the content displayed during the virtual conferences remains accessible to attendees, even after the event gets over. The valuable content remains on the mind of the attendees thus resulting in more visits and better lead generation. The better-curated content that engages the audience helps in delivering the positive outcomes and immersive experiences to attendees. However, virtual conferencing overcome various barriers such as geographical constraint, travel obstacles, space limitations, and so on. The scope of conferences gets expanded with valuable content shared during virtual conferences.

Step 4: Select The Right Virtual Conference Platform

Selecting the right platform to host a virtual conference is the biggest challenge faced by the organizations. Even though the internet is full of a variety of options, selecting the right platform is a bit tricky task. Choose a platform that offers interactive, engaging and immersive virtual event features that allow the audience to interact in real-time. As technology has advanced, various engaging features such as live chats, polls, surveys, ability to organize Q & A sessions, quizzes, games, twitter walls, etc. are offered by virtual event platforms. The engaging features keep the audience interest alive while preventing them from falling amid long conferencing sessions. Comprehensive virtual conference platforms are backed by 24*7 tech support and pre-records all the video content that can be assessed later by attendees on-demand.

Step 5. Promote Your Virtual Conference

Now you are all set to promote your virtual conference. Even if you are hosting your online conference on the best platform with the most engaging content ever, it is of no use if your audience is not aware of the same. However, promoting the conference comes into play. Promote your virtual conference through various channels to make your audience aware of the same. Marketing your online conference on the companies website, social media channels, through direct mails, public relations, and so on. You can even create an event hashtag and share it across social channels to make the audience aware.

Step 6. Launch The Virtual Conference

Once you are done with all the above steps, you are all set for a virtual launch of an online conference. Before the actual day of a virtual conference, run a test to check for any technical glitches. Test all the links, audio & video equipment, portals, virtual booths, etc. for seamless delivery. Get your tech team ready for last-minute technical interruptions. You are now all set to launch a virtual conference and connect with attendees remotely.

Conclusion

The changes in the current scenarios have resulted in hosting virtual events and conferences. As restrictions have been imposed on public gatherings and traveling, event organizers and marketers have shifted their events online. As a result, virtual conferences prove to be beneficial for organizations. It helps in amplifying event reach and magnifying revenue rates. There is no doubt about the fact, virtual is the future of every industry and is here to stay!