Virtual events have become increasingly common due to the travel restrictions placed around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. An exponential rise in virtual exhibitions and virtual trade fairs has taken place ever since the advent of the pandemic as large physical gatherings have been stopped completely. At first, hosting a virtual exhibition online seems skeptical to exhibitors due to the complete change in the event formats and involvement of the technology. But, the merit offered by virtual event formats made them leverage virtual event technology. If you’re planning to be a part of one, you should prepare accordingly.
Being a part of virtual events or a virtual exhibition has its own challenges and in this blog, we break down some of the key success factors that you should pay attention if you or your organization is planning to take part in a virtual exhibition or an online trade fairs.
#1. Make sure the content you create for the virtual trade fair is digital-friendly.
If you participate in trade fairs and exhibitions, you probably know the importance of creating content for attendees. However, the content you create for an online exhibition has to be optimized for the digital format.
What this means is that if you just provide a pdf version of your company’s brochure to attendees of an online trade fair or exhibition, it might not be enough. It is important to fully adapt to the digital medium and include things like links or videos in the content.
Additionally, the content copy that you use in a virtual exhibition or trade fair also needs to be optimized. For example, it is common for a lot of brochures to use a small font and have a lot of text but when it comes to digital media, it is better to use a larger font and write text assuming the attention span of the attendee would be shorter than what you expect from the attendee of a physical event.
Create an Extraordinary Event Experience
Across All Event Formats
Lastly, a virtual trade fair is meant to be an interactive process. It is better to add some elements of interactivity in your content to make it more engaging for the viewer.
Also Read: Why Do You Need To Host A Virtual Event?
#2. Understand and use the virtual exhibition platform to your advantage.
A modern virtual exhibition platform comes with many features that simulate the experience of real events in the virtual space.
It might be a good idea to understand how modern virtual events platforms work. For example, Dreamcast’s virtual event platform has so many features like a virtual lobby, independent virtual booths, support for rich content, and more!
You want to make a solid impression at your first online exhibition or trade fair? The best way to do that is to ensure you’re taking full advantage of the features of virtual event platform.
The best way to do this would be to take a good solid look at the underlying platform that would be used for the online trade fair and then base your strategy for the event around its features and making the most out of it.
Virtual events like online trade fairs and exhibitions are still a pretty new development. The entire world is still learning about how to optimize their performance at these events. So, it’s a good idea to work on getting a full understanding of the entire concept and processes involved.
Also Read: How To Plan A Virtual Trade Fair
#3. Offer enormous opportunities for attendee engagements
Engagement is crucial when it comes to virtual exhibitions. The chances of getting distracted are relatively high when one is attending an exhibition virtually via a screen.
While selecting a virtual exhibition platform, look for the engagement features offered by the platform that helps in keeping attendees interested and engaged with the event throughout.
Dreamcast offers an extensive list of engagement features right from AR/VR photo booths for attendees to get clicked with branded frames at the event and take event memories back home to virtual games such as spin the wheel, shooting game, dart game, word finder, and more.
Additionally, a leaderboard challenge integrated into a virtual exhibition motivates attendees to navigate every aspect of the exhibition and visit every booth to earn more points. The points earned by every attendee are displayed on the leaderboard. The organiser may offer a chance to top 5 scores to redeem their points in the form of gift cards or discount coupons.
A virtual exhibition that offers an array of engagement opportunities is likely to be successful and generate quantum leads and business revenues.
#4. Facilitate attendees to have 1:1 and group networking in real-time
Networking is one of the prime success factors for any exhibition be it physical or virtual. Allow your attendees to have open discussions in real-time with speakers, exhibitors, booth representatives, and other attendees during the virtual exhibition. Make sure the platform you opt for, offer enough opportunities for networking just like physical exhibitions. Live audio/video chats, networking lounge, virtual networking tables, AI-matchmaking, business card exchange, B2B meeting scheduler, and more are some of the most efficient features that facilitate attendees to interact in real-time in a virtual space.
Create an Extraordinary Event Experience
Across All Event Formats
#5. Create a holistic event ambiance in a virtual environment
Deliver real-life event experiences to your attendees. Make them feel they are attending an exhibition physically by creating a holistic event ambiance in a virtual space and deliver immersive event experiences. Curate a dynamic lobby just like physical ones with music suiting the event vibe, animated lighting, and dynamic sponsor banners. It helps in grabbing the attendee’s attention instantly and deliver breathtaking event experiences to attendees.
#6. Easy navigation and teleportation
Allow your attendees to navigate throughout the virtual venue with utmost ease. Offer them a video guide at the start of the event to direct them accordingly. Customise touchpoints as per your exhibition needs for a seamless user journey. If your attendees are satisfied with your virtual exhibition, it is most likely to be successful. Offer easy teleportation options that teleports attendees direct to the dynamic exhibitor booths without hustling much during the online exhibition.
7. Complete professional assistance
There are many attendees who are not tech-savvy and are not familiar with the virtual aspects. A virtual exhibition that offers 24*7 professional assistance helps in making the user journey easy and virtual exhibitions successful. A well-curated virtual exhibition consists of a help desk with real-time live tech chat support that allows attendees to ask any question during the exhibition.
#8. Independent virtual booths
Just like physical trade fairs and exhibitions, it’s likely that there will be a lot of companies at the event. Depending on the event, it might be possible to negotiate for an independent virtual booth just for your organization.
A lot of virtual trade fairs or exhibitions might have only one booth for all the companies of a particular industry or have a few different booths with each of them containing various companies and their content. However, some events will allow you to have a completely independent booth just for your brand.
Having your own booth is obviously better as you get the complete attention of the attendee. Other than just providing your content at the booth, you can also do a number of other things. You may include a live chat option with a representative, upload various video files, or even create a fully immersive online experience.
While you might have to pay more to get an independent virtual booth, it is well worth the cost as you get to make the best impression on the attendees and grab their attention to a larger degree and engage them better!
Also Read: 10 Tips to Engage Attendees at Virtual Events
#9. Create custom virtual booths with various options
Having custom 3D virtual booths as per your company’s branding is likely to attract more attendees to your booths. Replicate live physical booths in a virtual environment by customising them right from banners, images, button colors, fonts, sizes, and more. Additionally, you must offer various networking and engagement options at the virtual booths to engage attendees. Offer business card exchange, live chats, and external plugins at virtual booths for seamless communications and foster meaningful relationships.
Create an Extraordinary Event Experience
Across All Event Formats
Apart from this, you can even offer various other options at the virtual booth such as video displays of the product, an option to download product brochures, schedule a meeting with booth representatives, and more to generate qualified leads and make virtual exhibitions successful.
Dreamcast – A flexible platform for all things virtual!
If you’re looking to host a virtual event like an exhibition, a trade fair, a conference, a networking event, or anything else, take a look at our virtual events platform to take your next virtual event to the next level!
