This makes it difficult for event organizers and marketers to use a one-size-fits-all approach to engaging diverse audiences. Strategies that work with Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers simply won’t be compelling for Generation Z. Fortunately, there’s an answer to this problem!

Amenah Rizwan is the founder of Picnics Toronto, a company that specializes in micro and experiential events for younger generations. In other words, she’s the perfect person to talk to about engaging Gen Zers at your in-person, virtual, and/or hybrid gatherings.

Some of the strategies Amenah shares in this article include:

• Sending personalized invitations
• Using eye-catching aesthetics
• Meeting attendees where they are
• Daring to have a little fun with your events
• Taking a non-traditional approach from time to time
• Leveraging social media platforms the right way

6 Strategies to Engage Younger Audiences in 2024

How do you appeal to younger generations? Plenty of association and corporate event planners have asked themselves this exact question in recent years. The good news: it’s really not that difficult.

The six tactics below will help you reach Gen Z in productive ways—without forcing you to completely redesign your entire event experience. Even better, they come from an event planner who specializes in helping her clients engage a young demographic at their events.

Let’s take a look!

1. Personalize Your Invitations

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in; personalization is essential.

When it comes to live events, personalization can help create buzz around your gatherings and engage attendees even better during keynote speeches and breakout sessions.

“We generally try to really create a lot of buzz and we do it by focusing on personalization.“

-Amenah R.

In fact, personalization is a key component of Amenah’s event strategy—and it all starts with the custom invitations she sends to every person on her guest list.

“We will send [attendees] personal invitations, very aesthetic invitations, so they feel like they’re not just getting invited to just another event. It feels a little bit more tailored and personalized to them, and that’s one of the ways we really strive to create that.”

-Amenah R.

There are many ways to personalize an invitation. Obviously, you can address each attendee by name. But you can also design your invites in a way that connects with your target audience.

Who is your event for? What do these people care about? And how can you incorporate these things into your invitation emails? These are the kinds of questions you should ask yourself.

Of course, personalized invites aren’t the only way to appeal to younger generations. You can also make sure your events look good. Let’s talk more about that…

2. Use Eye-Catching Aesthetics

Put yourself in Gen Z’s shoes.

They’ve grown up with the internet. Social media is their preferred form of entertainment. And influencers are more revered by them than most Hollywood celebrities.

Younger generations are also inundated with content. As such, they tend to gravitate towards things that look good. Put another way, they like content that has a pleasing aesthetic.

“I think aesthetics is incredibly important for Gen Z. They’re a very aesthetically-conscious generation because they’ve grown up in a digital age.”

-Amenah R.

When Amenah plans an event, she pays special attention to the imagery her team creates. Her invitations, venues, decorations—even the merchandise—all work together to create a cohesive experience that speaks to Gen Z’s well-cultivated visual tastes.

“Aesthetics is very important to Gen Z… It really makes them feel like it’s more than just another corporate event. It’s something tailored to them.”

-Amenah R.

3. Meet Attendees Where They Are

Contrary to popular belief, Gen Z wants to engage with your events. You just have to plan content and activities that feel relevant to their interests and stage of life.

“We’ll look at what their interests are, what their hobbies are, what type of little engaging activities we can do.”

-Amenah R.

Amenah has found a variety of effective ways to do this. For example, she’s booked specific venues that Gen Zers will deem social media-worthy. Or made sure Daydream and Sapsucker beverages were available. Or planned in-person bingo activations that make it fun for event attendees to network with one another.

According to Amenah, your event merchandise can be used to engage event attendees, too. The key is creating merchandise that Gen Zers actually want to wear—even after the event is over.

“And then for Gen Z, they have no problem wearing [merchandise] they just want it to integrate a little more into what they would regularly wear. So if we have an event… We would have merchandise in neutral colors that go along with the brand that they could wear regularly outside of the event and outside of the workplace as well.“

-Amenah R

4. Don’t Be Afraid to Have Fun

Even the most serious attendees, regardless of their age, see events as a break from their day-to-day work. This is particularly true for Gen Z. 

“It’s essentially just being okay with having a little bit of fun. You can still have a very professional event, but still showcase a little bit of your fun side.”

-Amenah R.

Gen Z wants to learn, network, and have a great time at the events they attend. The question is, how do you host a professional gathering that adequately entertains your younger guests? To achieve this, Amenah encourages her clients to look to pop culture for inspiration.

Speaking of which…

5. Take a Non-Traditional Approach

Older generations often treat Gen Zers like aliens. The truth is, they’re not that different from Millennials and Gen Xers. They simply grew up in a radically different environment.

“I think the gap, it’s not honestly too big to bridge. It’s just essentially creating space for Gen Z as well… So it’s not necessarily very different.”

-Amenah R.

According to Amenah, one of the best ways to connect with younger generations is to step away from traditional venues. Why host your next meeting in a hotel conference center when you could host it at a lakeside retreat center? The second option will be much more appealing to your younger attendees.

“We’ve arranged beach days or outdoor movie nights for even senior and C-suite level staff, and they’ve always had a great time.”

-Amenah R.

Now, you don’t have to abandon everything you’ve ever learned about event management to appease Gen Z. Small gestures go a long way. For example, you can host your event at a traditional venue. But try to set up a unique outdoor space that lends itself to content creation for your younger attendees.

Or, go ahead and work with your favorite caterer for your next event. However, purchase trendy beverages that Gen Zers will want to post about on TikTok.

“You can keep the traditional, but then you can also just add in little pockets being able to step outside of the box.”

-Amenah R.

6. Leverage Social Media Effectively

Finally, to appeal to a younger generation, you have to ace your social media game.

Gen Zers spend a lot of time on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. If you want them to attend your event, you need to create content for these platforms. Just do it the right way.

“Leverage social media and, just like I was saying, leverage it in a fun way.”

-Amenah R.

The content you create for social media should be fun to engage with. That way, when a younger person in your target audience sees a post about your upcoming conference, they think to themselves, “Hey, that seems pretty cool. I’d love to buy a ticket to their next event!“

According to Amenah, Duolingo is one of the best brands on social media right now. Why is that? Because they create awesome social content that elevates their live events.

“Look at Duolingo, look at how insane they’ve blown up over the past couple of years. And they’ve also maintained that growth with how they create for their social media perspective. It’s not so they’re informing their audience of what they’re doing. They’re just resonating with their audience and getting them to want to participate in their events.”

-Amenah R.

Wrapping Up

You can appeal to younger generations with your events. You just have to think outside the box and adopt new strategies. After reading this article, you have a leg up in that regard.

Here’s another idea you can use to connect with Gen Z attendees: use a fully customizable Event App.

The EventMobi Mobile Event App is loaded with features you can use to keep attendees informed and engaged during your next event. It’s also easy to create a totally unique and eye-catching design that will differentiate your events from the competition. Oh, and it’s extremely user-friendly—which means your Millenial, Gen X, and Boomer attendees won’t have any issues using it, either!

To learn more about EventMobi, sign up for a free demo!

Book a Demo

The post Tips from the Trenches: 6 Ideas to Make Your Events Appeal to Gen Z  appeared first on EventMobi.

But what if you’re looking for something different? You’re in luck!

Karen Hill is the Director of Meetings and Events & Engagement at Barcami Lane, an Association Management Company (AMC) that works with national and regional nonprofit associations. She recently spoke at EventMobi’s ‘The New Rules of Engagement’ webinar, where she shared numerous audience engagement strategies—each tried and tested over her 19 years of experience delivering engaging association events.

Some of the insights Karen shared include:

• Leveraging your event’s location to amp up the fun
• Sourcing inspiration from diverse voices as you design your program
• Adding mystery and intrigue to build anticipation

Keep reading to learn three new event engagement tactics that actually work!

3 Unique Ways to Increase Audience Engagement

You want to increase engagement levels at your next event. But you’ve already exhausted your usual tactics. Karen has a few outside-the-box ideas for you:

1. Pick the Right Location

Any real estate tycoon will tell you, it’s all about location, location, location.

Well, location matters when it comes to event engagement as well. The right city and/or venue can surprise and delight your audience. Take inspiration from your host city’s unique locations, scenery, and landmarks to create more engaging and memorable experiences.

Karen recently helped plan the annual conference for the Association of Academic Surgical Administrators, which was held in Boston. This was a new city for many of the attendees.

“I think one of the things was a lot of them had never been to the city—or if they were in the city, they were just stuck in a meeting room…. This was just the opportunity to almost push them, go out, go see the city, team up with other attendees, and just explore.”

-Karen Hill

Karen and her team used the city to their advantage, planning fun activities for attendees that encouraged them to explore their surroundings.

You can do something similar. Take a page out of Karen’s book and plan a city-wide scavenger hunt for your audience (more on this below). Or take a small-scale approach and use your pre-event communications to highlight unusual facts about the location where your next industry conference will take place.

If you’re lucky enough to have your host city’s Destination Management Company (DMC) as an event sponsor, you could collaborate to ensure your attendees experience exclusive locations or activities highlighting the city’s most unique and exciting aspects.

Any of these approaches will give your attendees something special to get excited about.

“We presented a list of 10 different items throughout the city of Boston… We had to get them to go out, explore, try new things, new foods. We would have them actually upload them in the app and then we get all their photos immediately… So we cut out social media completely and just focused on having people engage more in the app and share their experiences.”

-Karen Hill

As an added bonus, the scavenger hunt required attendees to upload photos of their progress to the Activity Feed in the event’s mobile app. This was a great way for participants to break the ice and make new connections with other attendees.

To participate, attendees had to log in to the app, which was a win-win scenario for Karen because it guaranteed attendees could also access all the event information, content, and engagement features that would help them make the most of the annual conference.

2. Listen to Diverse Voices

To ensure her events offer real value to all attendees, Karen taps into her volunteer base. This enables her to source inspiration from diverse people representing the event’s target audience. 

A group of committed volunteers can help you handle administrative tasks, raise funds for future events, and market and deliver your association’s next gathering. They can also be a rich source of information about their own demographic. Since your most engaged members are likely to be your volunteers, gather their insights into what activities will be most compelling to people like them who may be considering joining your association—or exciting to existing members.

“So we work with a committee to come up with and brainstorm different ideas to help new members or first-time attendees engage with each other and also get out and enjoy the city that they’re in.”

-Karen Hill

The question is, how do you connect with and recruit volunteers? First, ensure the people in your association know the benefits of volunteering. For example, they’ll be able to make a difference in their industry, connect with other professionals, and develop new skills. In certain situations, they may be able to enhance their resumes, too. Plus, it will be a ton of fun!

Second, supercharge the recruitment process. A simple way to make it happen is to streamline the application process. The easier it is for people to apply, the more volunteers you’ll get.

Also, make sure to define each volunteer’s responsibilities. What do you expect of them? Total clarity in this regard will help keep everyone on the same page.

Next, promote your volunteer opportunities across your association’s website, your event’s registration website, community app, and social media channels. Explain the benefits of volunteering, highlight the fun, and include your events’ hashtags in your social posts to drive registrations. 

Finally, consider rewarding your volunteers for their efforts. What can you offer them? Potential options include hands-on training, industry-wide recognition, and networking opportunities.

3. Add Mystery and Intrigue

There are two ways to drive excitement before your event: tell them exactly what you have planned with your activities and hope they get excited. Or, keep key information under wraps so the element of mystery builds a new level of anticipation. Karen took the latter approach.

“We didn’t release any information about the actual photo scavenger hunt until the day of… We wanted to make it exciting—like this is what you have coming up.”

-Karen Hill

We know what you’re thinking, “Did this approach actually work?” Absolutely!

The scavenger hunt was designed to encourage networking and direct attendees to must-see spots in the city. Instead of providing a list of recommendations in advance—a more common approach—Karen ensured attendees had dedicated time and a great reason to get out there and see them.

“We saw an increase in engagement and people downloading the app and getting involved… They’re actually looking for recommendations on what place to go to get the cannoli or get something, some chowder or something else. So it went well.”

-Karen Hill

A scavenger hunt might not work at every event. Rather than copying Karen’s exact playbook,  you can use mystery and intrigue to increase engagement with just about any fun activity you have planned for your attendees.

Elevate Audience Engagement With a Proven Event Platform

There are many different ways to engage your attendees. Thanks to Karen Hill, you now have a few more unique strategies to help capture their attention.

Want an additional tip? Invest in a proven Event Platform to keep your audience engaged and excited during your events—as well as in the weeks or months between gatherings.

Your association can use EventMobi to manage events, host content, build an engaged community, and communicate with members year-round. A single platform where your members can log on to register and attend events, learn, and network throughout the year and across events.

To learn more about EventMobi and see how the event platform can help you engage your members at and in between events, sign up for a free demo!

Book a Demo

The post Tips from the Trenches: 3 Outside-the-Box Engagement Strategies for Your Next Event  appeared first on EventMobi.

Many keynote speakers and breakout session facilitators have extensive, active networks both on and offline. 

By enlisting the aid of speakers to reach out to their existing connections, event planners can tap into an unmined pool of potential attendees.

But you can’t expect your event speakers to do all the work themselves. To get the most out of our event speakers, you need an event marketing strategy that equips them with the right information, tools, and resources to draw their network to your event. 

Here are 8 tips to engage event speakers and facilitators in pre-event marketing. 

1. Make it easy to share content

As you release information about the event on social media, through email, and via other channels, make it easy for your event speakers to share it as well. 

Instead of simply sending them a link to your latest promotion, give them assets they can share in one or two clicks. Consider sending them weekly or monthly promo packages, including: 

• Promo graphics sized for social media posts 
• Pre-written Tweets and image captions
• Customized assets featuring their name, topic, and event details 
• Clear instructions for deals and updates you’d like them to share

By giving them all of these important items in a way that’s easy to share and understand, you’ll greatly increase their participation rate.

2. Conduct pre-conference interviews

Creating “sneak peek” content is a great way to grab the attention of your potential audience before the event begins. 

Have someone from your organization interview each event speaker, asking them questions like: 

• What are some topics you’ll touch on at the event? 
• What are you most looking forward to during the event? 
• What questions will you answer for people who attend your event? 
• What’s something attendees can look forward to from your upcoming talk? 

You can record these interviews over Zoom, or host them on a streaming platform like YouTube Live or Streamyard. Your event host will have a chance to promote themselves and your event, and you’ll have heaps of content to use for further promotion prior to the event.

Recommended Resource:  Planning to live stream, record, and share your event content? Download the free Release Form Template for Event Recordings to ensure there are no limitations on your right to publish your event content!

Download Now

3. Host a social media takeover

If you are already using social media to promote your event, consider hosting a social media takeover, where event speakers post on your social media channels. 

Hosting a takeover is quite simple. Ask each event speaker to submit content for a set number of posts: Perhaps three or four tweets, an image or two of their books or day-to-day life, something they want to promote, etc. 

Once you have all of their content, schedule it onto your social media channels, along with a few posts prior to let your audience know when the takeover will be happening. Ask each event speaker to do the same, and you’ll see a lot more activity on your event social feeds. 

4. Collaborate on a guest blog post

If you have a blog for your event or business, then you have an opportunity to feature your event speakers prior to your event to drum up excitement. 

Once again, it’s all about making the process easy for the guest speakers. You can ask if they have a blog they’ve already written that you can repurpose, or you can offer to send them questions via email or conduct a live interview that you can turn into a blog. 

When it’s done, send them a few promotional images and suggested social post text, or ask them to share the blog in their newsletter. Be sure to provide a valuable backlink to your event speaker’s website within the blog, to give them credit for their work and provide them with some enhanced online visibility.

5. Give attendees pre-event Q&A opportunities

Want to get your attendees engaged well before the event starts? Then give them the chance to pose their questions to your event speakers before the launch date. 

You can collect questions by surveying your social media audience or creating a survey with your Event CMS to send out to all registrants before the event begins. You may want to save some of the best questions for the event itself, but select a handful for your event speaker to answer via social media or in a pre-event video interview or live stream.

6. Promotional video clips and pre-roll

With a creative approach, video has the power to go viral. Make it clever and upbeat. Use clips from your speakers. Share the video both on and offline. Vimeo, YouTube, and Instagram are just a few possibilities. YouTube offers targeted pre-roll: short clips that run before viewers access the content they have requested.

Once you have videos, definitely Tweet them. Don’t forget to post them on LinkedIn where videos are underutilized but highly visible.

7. Keep promotion going after the event has ended

When your event is over, your job as an event planner isn’t over. If you use event management software like EventMobi, you now have a library of content to share with your audience or use in future marketing campaigns. 

You can include your event speakers in post-event marketing as well. Share any footage you’ve created with them to pass on to their network, again providing them with the assets, text, and captions you’d like them to include for ease of uploading. 

Give them plenty of warning when you plan to feature them in your post-event marketing campaigns and be sure to keep them informed about future opportunities to speak again.

In Summary

Speakers can be your best event advocates if you let them know what is expected and find effective strategies to manage the relationship. Event speakers can help build excitement for your event and ensure that event marketing efforts go more smoothly.

Recommended Read: Discover 7 Smart Ways to Add Video Into Your Event

Recommended Resource: Watch 8 short videos to learn how to you can easily design and deliver in-person events that engage attendees and offer sponsors more value.

Watch Now

The post 7 Tips for Leveraging Your Speakers as Event Advocates appeared first on EventMobi.

Before jumping on board, it’s important to know how to live stream your event without unintentionally falling victim to privacy or copyright infringement. Just because it is your event doesn’t mean you automatically have the right to use the venue, copyrighted material, or individual’s likenesses in live stream content you may profit from.

In the following article, we provide an overview of the legal risks that come with live streaming video at events, and how to protect yourself.

The Legality of Live Streaming Your Event

Live streaming events is another instance of technology far surpassing legal protocol. Today’s complex network of wirelessly connected cameras, screens, and devices offers endless opportunities to easily create and share live stream content.

The commercial and promotional opportunities for live streaming your event are growing with the popularity of hybrid events. However, the uncertainty surrounding the raw nature of the content threatens event planners’ potential to incorporate and monetize live stream content in post-event media, sponsorship packages, or other video opportunities.

This is why it’s also important to have a strategy when you live stream your event, to ensure you are abiding by the law.

Recommended Resource:  If you’re planning to live stream, record and share your event content, you may need permission from your event stakeholders to release you from liability.

Download the free Release Form Template for Event Recordings now to ensure there are no limitations on your right to publish and share your event content!

Download Now

For events, the legal aspects of streaming you should consider BEFORE you start include:

• public vs. private spaces and whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy,
• every individual’s right to publicity, and
• intellectual property, or copyrighted material that may be captured in the stream.

Intellectual property includes copyrighted or trademarked material, trade secrets, sensitive company material, and any performance of a work of authorship, which includes but is not limited to keynote speeches, live performances, movie/t.v. clips, and background music.

But before we dive into the challenges and solutions of this tech, the ability to broadcast live video from any personal device to whoever is willing to watch raises the question: How do you police thousands of attendees who might be live streaming your event?

The answer is…you don’t.

But with the potential to accidentally commit copyright infringement and no easy way to moderate the experience, how can live streaming platforms be legally used at events?

The DMCA & Legal Onus of Live Streaming Your Event

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) “safe harbor” provision protects services and providers as long as they don’t have prior knowledge of the activity and quickly respond to the rights owners’ takedown requests. However, this poses a timing issue for events or performances that are affected by live streams. After live streaming your event, the takedown request could be applied to archived material, but the damage would have already been done in real-time.

The DMCA has been YouTube’s saving grace, though the platform has systems in place to catch and cut off broadcast copyright violators with regard to background music and embedded videos.

Big live streaming platforms like YouTube are not only protected by DMCA; their own ‘terms of services’ pushes the blame onto the host so policing the thousands of streams isn’t a priority for the providers. Unfortunately, all the legal onus on the host of the stream puts event planners into the line of fire.

Capturing the Venue

A good place to start understanding the legality of live streaming your event is that it’s very similar to the legality of photographing or recording video at events. The location where the live streaming is taking place will play a factor, as well as indicate the reasonable expectation of privacy. If you’re not on company property, you’ll likely need to get a location release from the property owner in order to legally broadcast the venue space. This is probably included in your venue contract but it’s good to double-check.

What is Considered a Public Place?

The reasonable expectation of privacy refers to the illegality of photographing or recording someone on video, without their consent, while on private property and live streaming is no exception. If there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as in a personal office, closed meeting room, or private residence, live streaming your event without permission is a no-go. Whereas if you’re photographing, recording, or streaming in a public place (including conference halls, sports arenas, or concert venues) there is little to no legal action to be taken.

Since most events take place in what would be considered a public place, you’re in the clear, right? Well not so fast…

Recommended Resource: Are you planning to live stream your in-person event to a remote audience?

Learn how the member-based organization Peerscale broadened their reach by broadcasting in-person sessions to a remote audience, and seamlessly delivered virtual speaker presentations to their attendees onsite. And if you’re considering running a hybrid event, EventMobi’s hybrid event platform can help you. 

Right of Publicity Restrictions

The distinction to be made for streaming in public and an important note for live streaming, in general, is the “right of publicity” which dictates that any recorded video that’s used for commercial or promotional purposes, requires the permission of individuals shown in the video. Therefore if you were to live stream your event with the intent to profit or promote, it and don’t obtain consent from those shown during the broadcast, those people could potentially sue you or your event.

There haven’t been any public examples of legal actions being taken with events over the “right of publicity” but the potential is very real. Avoiding legal complications could be as simple as including a release form as part of your registration or posting a crowd release notice outside the event space.

A crowd release isn’t as legally concrete as signed permission but it will notify attendees of what’s happening and allow them to leave if they don’t want to be a part of the broadcast. Ensure you notify attendees before the event that you will be broadcasting as well as periodically throughout the event to avoid any confusion or issues in the future.

Example crowd release:

Plan Ahead to Avoid Problems When Live Streaming Your Event

Once you have the location release and attendee’s consent forms posted or collected, the other red flag you’ll need to be wary of is any and all intellectual property that may be captured in your live stream. To best guard yourself against trademark or copyright infringement, check the area that will be visible in your stream for any screens, posters, logos, or artwork, and schedule your broadcast around performances, loud music, or sessions that may be covering sensitive material.

A best practice is to avoid high-traffic areas where attendees might not realize they’re being streamed because they may say or do something you’d rather not be affiliated with your event. This is where having a contingency plan would come in handy, such as having a secondary location to stream from with safe sight lines that are out of the way of your attendees.

At the end of the day, live streaming your event is generally legal if you’re careful to avoid copyrighted material and collect the appropriate consent and releases. However, in addition to the murky legal waters, the live element of live streaming carries inherent uncertainty.

Not having control over the content that’s being instantly transmitted to your trusting followers and potential leads is definitely something to consider. Despite the risks, ephemeral content and providers are rapidly gaining notoriety and followers. So do your due diligence and add another arm’s length to your social media reach.

When you decide that live streaming your event is the right choice, here is a checklist for what you should do to ensure you’re doing everything legally.

1. Have the appropriate release forms and consent ahead of time eg. Crowd release form, location release, and written permission from featured individuals.
2. Plan ahead and check the area surrounding where your stream will be taking place for posters, logos, artwork, and screens.
3. Schedule the broadcast to avoid music or sensitive material in a session or presentation.
4. Request written permission from speakers and performers before you include them as part of a stream and ensure they have the rights to all of their own material.
5. Have a contingency plan, in case the original streaming area is compromised by copyrighted material or crowded by attendees.

Are you looking for a single vendor who can support you with the right mix of event management software and live stream, video production and support services for your next event ?

Book your personalized demo of EventMobi to discover how you can easily deliver your best event yet!

Book a Demo

The post How to Legally Live Stream Your Event appeared first on EventMobi.

In short, yes. To meet this demand, event organizers need to balance carefully planned in-person meetings with year-round, online engagement. And an event community could be the answer.

The event community model has been touted as the new promised land, but despite all the buzz, there hasn’t been a lot of practical insight into what that really means. In broad strokes, it’s about understanding the difference between an event community and other online communities. When you dig a little deeper, it’s a matter of realizing just how versatile your event platform can be.

Whether you run association events or corporate meetings, creating an event community within the same platform you are using to build and manage your events means less complexity and effort for you (and for your members!). It also means more opportunities for engagement and revenue generation.  Your attendees and sponsors will thank you as they rediscover what it takes to make—and keep—meaningful connections.

Recommended Resource: Looking for detailed strategies for building an event community that keeps attendees coming back time after time? Download the free guide, The Secret to Successful Attendee Retention: Year-Round Engagement.

Download Now

The Best Online Communities for Today’s Professionals

Online communities connect like-minded individuals—people who share similar challenges, concerns, and successes. 

In the professional world, many companies and associations create branded online communities to keep members engaged in their organizations. Ideally, your online community should provide a platform for peer support and knowledge sharing. But what kind of community presents the best solution?

After weighing your options, we’ll explain why an event community is the best solution in most situations.

4 Types of Online Communities

To help provide some clarity, we’ve broken down professional online communities into four main categories:

1. A private employee community
2. An exclusive paid user/customer community
3. A private association or member community
4. A public shared interest community/forum

3 Types of Community Platforms

In turn, there are several different online platforms that can be used for community building:

1. Learning management systems (LMS)
2. Social networking platforms
3. Event platforms

Finding the Right Online Platform for Your Community

The first option, Learning Management Software (LMS), is great for private employee communities and consumer clubs. That’s because these communities are focused on professional development and product training. With that said, these learning platforms generally lack the networking and engagement features of other online options.

The second option, a social networking platform, is one of the most obvious choices for communities based on shared interests. When it comes to professional communities and organizations, however, there are some clear downsides to using public platforms. From the user perspective, public platforms often have the disadvantage of blurring the boundaries between our personal and professional lives, even on LinkedIn.

For that reason, public platforms can create pressure for community members to be ‘always on’. This approach can lead to the erosion of a healthy work-life balance, and the risk of burnout is real.

The third option, an event platform, offers an alternative that strikes a balance between these two competing approaches. By offering year-round access to your event platform, professionals can enjoy a single, digital point of access where they can upgrade their skills through webinars and on-demand training content, and network with other members even after the main event is over. Event organizers or community managers can easily leverage the platform’s content management, communication, and engagement features to streamline how they host content, share important information, foster new connections, and keep their audience engaged in-between events.  

Most importantly, using your event platform to host your event community maintains a healthy separation from public forums while still offering avenues to continue the conversation around shared topics of interest.

For all these reasons,  event platforms are the ideal choice for association event communities. Because of their ability to combine a high-touch experience with exclusive access, they can also work well for private employee communities, paid consumer clubs, and shared interest groups.

8 Practical Benefits of Using an Event Platform

To help inspire your own event community, we’ve put together 8 key benefits of using your event platform for year-round community engagement—complete with practical tips for how you can make it happen.

1. Build Connections with Events & Meetings

Your event platform should make it easy for you to combine engaging in-person experiences with ongoing online connectivity. More than any other marketing channel, face-to-face experiences—whether in-person or via curated virtual meetups—will solidify a sense of community and help sustain them in the long run.

Events are a natural launching pad for communities, and your event platform can help you keep the momentum going.

Your event platform not only allows you to organize gatherings with the help of agenda tools, session pages, and invitations for select member groups—it also means you can host those meetings on the same platform you use to schedule them.

How to Make It Happen

Use your event platform for more than just a one-off event app, and create a single, central hub for regular events and meetings, including:

• Association events and conferences
• Annual general meetings
• Committee, chapter, and board meetings
• 1:1 video meetings
• Interactive virtual meetups for different groups

2. Keep the Lines of Communication Open for Attendees

Think about the word ‘community’—it shares the same root word as ‘communication.’

The best event platforms are designed to make it easy for your community members to connect with each other in a variety of ways, whether it’s liking a comment in a chat thread, booking an appointment to meet in person via booking apps, or joining a 1:1 or group video meeting. In other words, you can think of it as your own private social network where you maintain full control of the branding and community standards.

This offers benefits at every stage of the attendee journey—which now extends all year round. Allowing attendees to connect through their common interests before the event helps to break the ice leading up to the big day. At the event itself, attendees will have even more opportunities to share thoughts, common challenges, and ideas through discussions and interactive breakout sessions on the event platform. And you’ll know that you’ve successfully engaged your audience when your attendees choose to keep in touch and share learnings throughout the rest of the year.

How to Make it Happen

Let your community members connect with each other on an exclusive professional network that includes:

• Virtual social events for remote teams
• Watch parties for on-demand content
• A social media wall that collects posts related to event hashtags
• Gamification that drives community and sponsor goals 
• Member profiles with key professional information

3. Increase Brand Awareness with Platform Customization

For recurring events, it’s crucial to drive up brand awareness wherever possible. TED Talks are a perfect example of an event brand that has built a robust market for on-demand video content, long after the live event is over. A strong brand will keep attendees coming back to a tight-knit community of supporters, who in turn become brand ambassadors.

On an event community platform, members can sign up for events, browse your content, and access your messaging in a centralized online space that fully matches your brand. 

In contrast to social networking platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, the best event platforms let you customize your entire online space, from the color theme to the background images.  And as more and more media features are added, more and more branding opportunities arise. 

In turn, this helps to build loyalty for your association, corporation, or not-for-profit organization.

How to Make it Happen

Let your community members connect in an event space that drives brand awareness by:

• Adding branded production elements to live streams and pre-recorded videos with tools like EventMobi’s self-service live stream event software
• Working with a professional live stream production team that can create custom branded motion graphics for you
• Leveraging your event platform’s event branding and design tools to create an event space that showcases your organization’s or community’s unique visual identity 

4. Grow Your Sponsorship Revenue with an Event Community Platform

Just as importantly, all of these branding opportunities can easily be redirected toward sponsor goals. 

Instead of offering your sponsors a limited-time period for brand exposure, create a new year-round package. Outside of banner ads, sponsored sessions, and virtual exhibitor booths, the package can include sponsored video libraries, full-page ads, and gamification challenges. Let them browse your customized event platform, and they’ll have firsthand evidence of how effective it can be for driving brand awareness.

How to Make it Happen

Grow sponsor revenue opportunities by:

• Selling year-round access to banner ads and home page real estate
• Allowing sponsors to brand webinars and other live sessions
• Including product demos and sizzle reels in dedicated sponsor video libraries
• Hosting raffles with sponsor giveaways
• Designing monthly game challenges that encourage interaction with sponsor content
• Demonstrating event ROI with clear data on user engagement

5. Track Engagement for Better ROI Reporting and Market Segmentation

It used to be a challenge to measure and prove to senior management that attendees were engaged and making the most of the networking opportunities at your event. But with developments in event technology, it’s become much easier to measure event success and report on ROI.

As you extend access to your event platform, you allow yourself to learn more and more about your attendees. This data is not only valuable for demonstrating your event’s success to both sponsors and your marketing department—it also provides future sponsors with valuable information about attendee preferences. In other words, your event platform will help you segment your audience into target markets.

For example, attendees who watch an entire session on accounting software are likely to be interested in similar products. And this kind of information is highly valuable to prospective sponsors and event partners.

How to Make it Happen

Monitor and quantify attendee engagement by tracking:

• Participation in live chat, Q&A, live polling, discussion groups, event gamification challenges, activity feeds, etc.
• Session attendance and viewing time for live stream sessions and on-demand videos
• Virtual booths visited and appointments booked
• Social media posts (shares, hashtag usage) from the event community before, during, and after the event
• Responses to pre- and post-event polls and surveys

6. Strengthen Your Messaging & Marketing Strategy

Your event community can double as a marketing channel.

Regular updates and reminders will not only build buzz around the event itself but will also strengthen your organization’s overall marketing strategy. Leading up to the event, try producing and promoting content that helps to create excitement and build anticipation for the main attraction. For example, run webinars featuring upcoming speakers, or publish blog interviews with high-profile attendees or speakers.

How to Make it Happen

Make sure that you keep your communication channels open throughout the year with:

• Push notifications for upcoming events and important news
• Email campaigns segmented by attendee groups
• Post-event wrap-ups (roundtables, networking, etc.)
• Inspiration and insights from crowdsourced content and trending chat topics

7. Provide Easy Access to Community Resources & Research

With our increasingly digitized lifestyle, the importance of community is becoming more widespread as individuals see the value of creating, learning, and sharing together — both online and offline.

Event communities connect like-minded people, providing opportunities for moments of inspiration that encourage members to engage and commit. In the process, event community members deliver added value back to fellow attendees, event sponsors and partners, and the event organizers.

Your event platform is easily transformed into an online home for all of your community’s resources, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.

How to Make it Happen

Let your community members benefit from knowledge sharing with:

• An online portal for association resources, with easy mobile access
• A searchable hosting platform for on-demand content
• An online portal for accessing presentations and other meeting files
• An avenue for attendees to share and comment on research
• A channel for ongoing seminar presentations

8. Offer More Opportunities for Professional Development

As we mentioned earlier in this article, your event platform can incorporate many of the benefits that come with Learning Management Software (LMS).

Your event platform can host your community’s webinars, interactive workshops, training modules, and more. With the help of analytics, you can even track how long each attendee watched a given video. This kind of hard data is invaluable when it comes time to award CE credits to your community members.

How to Make it Happen

Give your members added value with opportunities to upgrade their skills with:

• Virtual workshops and online courses
• Educational content, training videos, and webinars
• CE credits for watching webinars

How Do I Manage Membership on An Event Community Platform?

With so many benefits to creating an event community, it’s hard to turn a blind eye. But how exactly do you go from hosting periodic events to building a year-round event community?

The first step is to invest in an event platform that has all of the features needed for ongoing events, meetings, and engagement activities. Then, you have to figure out how to design your membership model. For example, you could:

• Charge a fee for an annual membership (or include event community access in existing membership fees)
• Offer non-members paid tickets to single events, with time-limited access to the community space
• Give members free or discounted access to ticketed events
• Gate access to special resources and content available to members only

For monetization purposes, it’s important to have a platform that allows you to divide attendees into groups with different levels of access to content and other community features. EventMobi’s event management software, for example, makes it easy to set conditional visibility rules for each of your attendee groups.

Why You Should Get Started Today

To say that pivoting to virtual events at the beginning of the pandemic was challenging is an understatement. With that said, the same pressures that challenged event professionals also led to rapid advances in user-friendly event technology. As a result, you now have more opportunities to engage attendees all year round. In short, event technology helps you put the ‘unity’ in ‘community’.

The real power of events comes from their ability to create shared experiences by bringing people together at the same time and in the same place. An online community doesn’t replace those events⁠⁠—it simply allows you to create a line of connection between them, so you can build on that first shared experience to create a true sense of community. That way, you have a loyal base of attendees waiting for you whenever your next in-person event happens.

Interested in learning more about EventMobi can help you create a thriving event community? Book your personalized demo today!

Book a Demo

The post Why Building an Event Community is a Hot Trend for 2023 appeared first on EventMobi.

1. Customize the event app with your own branding 

Your event app is in many ways the face of your event. Attendees will be logging into it before the event starts, every day during the event, and after the event comes to a close. So it’s vital that your event app reflects your brand. 

When shopping for an event app provider, make sure you’ll be able to easily customize the app with your own branding and logos, and that you’ll have control over the wording and tone of voice across the app. Look for event apps that make this process simple—too much custom coding can be a drain on your resources. 

2. Use pre-event marketing to boost attendance

To earn a high ROI on your event, you must effectively spread the word about your event to your target audience. Your event app should make this easy. 

Within the app, you can feature the highlights of your events, from high-profile speakers and sponsors to the various events and networking opportunities attendees will have. 

You can also use the app to send information as the event grows closer, with exciting updates to the schedule or information about the location of your event and what to do in the area. 

Your event app should help sponsors promote themselves as well, with banner ads or widgets on the home screen, so they can have a better return on the investment they made in your event. 

Recommended Read: Looking for detailed advice on designing an event sponsorship package that will be competitive in today’s market? Download the free Sponsorship Strategy Guide to learn how!

Download Now

3. Build clear and accessible agendas and event info 

Attendees will have a more enjoyable experience at your event (and be more likely to come to future events) if it’s easy for them to navigate the physical or virtual space and the different speakers and activities on the schedule. 

The right event app will put all the vital information in one place; you can show users an interactive map of the venue, give instructions on how to get there, and allow them to review the agenda and select the sessions they want to attend, right in the app. 

4. Simplify registration and check-in 

The registration and check-in experience is the first impression attendees will have of your event. Without the right event app, the check-in process may be messy, complicated, and confusing. 

But with the right solution in place, attendees can check themselves in using the app and a tablet computer. They can even receive custom, branded badges once they’ve arrived—and you can use these badges to drive engagement and networking among attendees. 

5. Add value with boosted networking experiences 

As an event planner, one of your most important jobs is to give your audience plenty of ways to make new connections—and the best event apps play a big role here. 

With the EventMobi app, for example, the built-in chat function allows attendees to send private or public messages, meaning they can connect no matter where they are. Attendees, speakers, and sponsors can create a public profile showing their background and contact details. With the tap of a button, users can request an in-person or virtual meeting. It’s truly networking made easy. 

The most powerful event apps also offer gamification to not only make networking easy, but fun. They allow event planners to build challenges and some friendly competition amongst their audience, with the ultimate goal of making new connections. Audience members can also use the app to participate in live polls and surveys or ask questions during sessions. 

6. Extend the lifespan of your event

A strong event app is so valuable because its purpose extends well beyond the end of your event. Once your attendees have gone home or logged off, you can turn your virtual event space into an evergreen content platform. 

Instead of losing all that wonderful content you captured during the event, you can turn it into an ongoing resource. Your attendees can return to watch any sessions they missed, or review those that truly resonated with them. And your marketing team will have a mountain of fresh content to repurpose. 

7. Gather feedback and start planning your next event

For event planners, the most valuable part of any event may come once the curtain has closed. 

This is when you can use your event app to gather valuable feedback from attendees, speakers, and sponsors. With EventMobi, you can customize the questionnaires you send, giving you access to valuable testimonials and constructive criticism to help you build an even more successful event next time. 

Are you looking for event technology tools that make it easy to create on-brand, on-budget events ? Get started by booking your personalized demo of EventMobi today!

Book a Demo

The post 7 Things to Look for in an Event App appeared first on EventMobi.

About the CMEE

For over 25 years, The Canadian Meetings + Events Expo (CMEE) has brought together meeting planners of all kinds – independent, corporate, or government – with event suppliers. As the biggest and longest-running meetings and events show in Canada, the CMEE gives event planners the chance to discover and meet with 200+ companies, gain relevant industry knowledge, and source new event ideas.

Meet the Person Behind the Magic

Melissa Arnott oversees the successful delivery of tradeshows and conferences, including the CMEE, at Newcom Media Inc. As an experienced trade and consumer show executive, Melissa has been the show manager of the CMEE for nearly 6 years.

CMEExpo 2022, Toronto, Canada, August 16-17

Event Goals and Challenges

Event Goal

To connect meeting and event professionals with new suppliers offering a range of event planning products and solutions for venue sourcing, special event and incentive travel planning, and event management-related products and services, including technology.

The Challenge

CMEE 2022 was the second event held in-person after the COVID-19 pandemic. As health and safety restrictions had eased, registrations were back to pre-2020 levels. The organizers wanted to ensure event stakeholders made the most of the show by making it easy to navigate the show floor, find educational sessions, and network with one another.

“We discovered EventMobi a few years ago and immediately found that they were just easy to work with and they also enhanced our user experience, both on the exhibitor side as well as the attendee side.”

– Melissa Arnott

How the CMEE Successfully Connected Event Planners With Suppliers

“When we’re planning the event, we plan with the attendee experience in mind all the time. So what the App does is make us very aware of what the experience is going to be. So EventMobi is really enhancing that experience, again, both on the exhibitor and the attendee side.” – Melissa Arnott

The CMEE used the following unique features offered by EventMobi’s Event App to deliver an amazing and unforgettable event experience:

Event App Highlights

1. Interactive Agendas

Education sessions and workshops at the CMEE are designed to provide planners with powerful insights and learning opportunities to deliver better events and progress their careers. Each CMEExpo Education Workshop is pre-qualified with the Events Industry Council so that planners’ time spent at the CMEE can go towards receiving or renewing their Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation.

Using EventMobi’s Interactive Agendas, attendees were able to quickly sort sessions by date, time, and type, and add their favorites to their personalized agenda to ensure no important workshops were missed.

NEED TO AMP UP THE FUN? 

Learn how to make learning and networking
more engaging with gamification.

Get the Ultimate Guide to Gamification

3. Interactive Event Maps

With 200+ exhibiting companies, it can get tricky for attendees to locate an exact supplier on the show floor. With Interactive Event Maps, event planners could pinpoint or search exhibitors for easy wayfinding, as well as see what is in the surrounding area.

“I did check out the floor plan and that was nice how you can zoom in and see, and it has the street layouts and everything. So that was really helpful to find.” –Olivia Popofsky, Marketing Coordinator, Event Attendee

“My favorite feature would be the map. I find it’s very easy to navigate. If I need to find an exhibitor on the show floor, I can click on the exhibitor and it’ll tell me exactly where to go.

– Samantha Nagy

Results

1. Increased Engagement Between Event Planners and Suppliers

With 563 Challenges completed and 59,700 total points collected, the ‘Play to Win’ gamification challenges were a clear favorite among spirited attendees. These statistics, paired with anecdotal feedback collected onsite, demonstrate that this engagement feature created an exciting and memorable attendee experience while driving relevant traffic to exhibitor booths.

2. A Positive User Experience

Reactions from CMEE 2022 attendees were extremely positive.

“People are going towards technology. And as much as we used to love those big, thick show guides that we carried around and, you know, probably injured our shoulders, the Event App is right in their hand and they can use it. They can change their experience as they go.”

– Melissa Arnott

Users noted that the Event App was visually appealing, offered easy access to important information and updates, and simplified navigating the event.

“It was my first time using it actually, but I like the color way of it, and it pops where it should. So it’s been really easy and nice on the eyes.” – Olivia Popofsky

Need to Save & ?
Watch 7 short videos that will change how you plan events FOREVER.
Watch Now

The post Case Study: Canadian Meetings + Events Expo 2022 Uses the Mobile Event App to Drive Engagement With Exhibitors appeared first on EventMobi.

Unless you’ve got plenty of funding, you’ll need sponsors’ support to bring your event to life. The right exhibitors can boost your event’s name recognition, and help you grow your audience. 

Here are three methods to draw in more of the right sponsors and exhibitors, and encourage them to invest in your event. 

Use Lead Capture Technology to Give Them What They Want

Exhibitors and sponsors both want the same thing out of your event: 

Leads. 

They want to know that when your event is over, they’ll walk away with a list of potential customers they can easily contact. 

Making it easy to attract leads at your event is crucial to attracting the right sponsors and exhibitors. 

Fortunately, technology can be a huge help here. You can make your event stand out to potential sponsors and exhibitors by doing away with the archaic forms of lead capture, like business cards or sign-up forms, and replacing them with something new and streamlined. 

EventMobi’s lead capture technology simplifies the lead retrieval process at any event. Here are the benefits you can present when reaching out to sponsors and exhibitors:  

QR Codes Make it Easy

Using EventMobi’s badge printing and design software, you can place a unique QR code on every attendee badge.

During the event, sponsors and exhibitors can scan these QR codes in a matter of seconds, using any mobile device—including tablets. 

Once scanned, the attendee’s information is automatically uploaded and stored in the lead capture portal. No more shuffling through mountains of business cards or manually entering information into a CRM.

Qualify Leads on the Spot or After the Event

Giving your exhibitors and sponsors an enormous list of leads is attractive enough on its own. But you can add an extra layer of value by equipping them with ways to qualify and sort through all those leads quickly and efficiently. 

Qualifying leads can be done on the spot—exhibitors and sponsors can type in any details and reminders they need when meeting a lead, and this data will be uploaded to the lead capture portal along with everything captured by QR code. 

On the other end of the event, anyone who has access to the lead portal can also help qualify leads by adding custom questions to the form, then filtering leads before exporting them to upload into their system. 

These kinds of benefits are hard for sponsors and exhibitors to resist, so if you’re using lead capture technology, put it front and center within your outreach. 

Interested in learning how lead capture will help your exhibitors scale up their event ROI?
Book a demo with one of our event tech experts today!

Offer Multiple Pricing Packages to Attract More Sponsors

The way you package and price your sponsorship offers can make an enormous difference in how successful you are at drawing the right businesses. 

Your pricing structure needs to be clear and benefits-focused, and provide multiple options to choose from. This will give you a much better chance at attracting sponsors who want different things (and have different budgets). 

There are two models for designing an event sponsorship package. 

Tiered Package Pricing: When you offer several different packages, each with more options and a higher price tag. (Example: A bronze, silver, and gold package). 

A La Carte Pricing: When you offer an array of sponsorship options with different price tags, and allow sponsors to build their own packages. 

Both are effective—the best option depends on your event and your ideal sponsors. You can try out both models by downloading these free templates:

Showcase your organization and planning

If you’re courting sponsors who have attended events before, they’ll be on the lookout for any sign of disorganization. They’ve likely been burned in the past, attending an event that was poorly planned, chaotic, or underattended. 

You can increase the number of sponsors and exhibitors you attract by making it clear that you are prepared to throw an incredible event:

• Give exhibitors and sponsors an advance copy of your show plan
• Share promotional materials with sponsors 
• Frequently share accurate ticket sale numbers
• Use testimonials from previous sponsors and exhibitors from your event 
• Be on hand to answer any questions quickly and thoroughly 

This kind of dedication will show exhibitors and sponsors that you’re trustworthy, and that their investment in your event won’t go to waste. 

Need to Save & ?
Watch 7 short videos that will change how you plan events FOREVER.
Watch Now

The post 3 Ways to Attract Sponsors and Exhibitors for Your Next Event appeared first on EventMobi.

The upshot? Virtual conference engagement is here to stay. With that said, there is a steep learning curve for planners who may be inexperienced with virtual conference production best practices.

When in-person conferences were the norm, event organizers could rely on AV teams to ensure that on-stage presentations went smoothly. Plenary sessions were mostly handled by the speakers themselves. Now that many events have pivoted to a virtual format, organizers have to take a more hands-on role in managing the quality of their live sessions and organizing the entire run of show.

Are you planning a virtual conference?

Download the free Virtual Show Flow Template so you can build your run of show like a pro!

Conference live streaming technology has come a long way since the glorified Zoom calls of 2020. Attendees now expect virtual content to be as engaging as in-person presentations—or better. In an increasingly competitive online virtual event landscape, failing to captivate them with professional, polished live stream production means they might not be back next time.

In this post, we’ll cover 

• What is a virtual conference?
• The real cost of failing to invest in your virtual conference production
• Why the time is right to upgrade your live streaming technology
• 12 virtual events best practices for TV-level production at virtual conferences and events
• The benefits of a virtual event producer

What is a Virtual Conference? Our Definition 

A virtual conference or event is an organized gathering of individuals that occurs entirely or almost entirely online. 

Successful virtual conferences use audio and visual technology along with a sophisticated event app to connect people who attend and present at the event. 

Virtual conferences can bring together people who live in different parts of the world, allowing them to participate in talks, networking, and workshops with people they’d never meet otherwise. 

A hybrid event is similar to a virtual conference, but it brings in elements of an in-person event as well. For example, there may be limited in-person tickets offered at a higher price, or a business may use the virtual side of the event to bring in people who aren’t able to travel to the venue. 

The Cost of Low-Quality Live Streams at a Virtual Conference

According to recent EventMB research, engagement was ranked the highest challenge when it comes to virtual conferences; event planners also cited the inability to match onsite engagement value as one of their biggest frustrations with virtual event tech. Why is this such a problem?

Zoom fatigue.
Streaming services like Netflix and educational series like TED Talks have set a high bar when it comes to consuming content online. Production quality makes it easier for people to pay attention and stay engaged. A virtual event on Zoom that consists of two poorly lit speakers in their living rooms talking to each other may as well be a podcast — at least then you can walk the dog. To host a successful virtual conference, planners must go out of their way to make sure they have top-notch streaming video quality, and that technical errors don’t cause people to tune out before they get anything of value out of the event.

Virtual event competition.
Virtual events need to be able to compete with both distractions at home and the many other events available. The virtual event marketplace has removed barriers to entry, and competition from other online content—much of which is free—is rising. Virtual conference planners need to differentiate from the deluge of online content, and high-quality production is a key point of differentiation.

Event brand credibility.
Similarly, with new events popping up, attendees are looking for a way to determine which content is the most authoritative. A professional-looking stream on a dedicated virtual events platform can convey the sense of professionalism you need to separate yourself from the chaff. The last thing you want is for your brand to look unprofessional or unpolished.

The Race Is on for Better Virtual Conference Live Streaming

So what exactly has the competition been doing, and how can you keep up—or even lead the pack?

Just as event technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years, many event professionals are adapting just as quickly. 

While recent EventMB research shows that engagement continues to be the top challenge for virtual event organizers, more and more seem to be closing the gap. Less than a quarter (24%) of respondents cited engagement as their biggest challenge in Q2 of 2021, as compared with over a third (36%) in Q4 of 2020.

Several other positive trends are also gaining momentum in the virtual conference space. Fewer and fewer of EventMB’s respondents now think of virtual event tech as “untested”. Similarly, only 9% said that “lack of tech knowledge” was their biggest challenge (compared with 21% less than a year ago).  Additionally, more than twice as many planners said that their own virtual events exceeded their expectations. 

What’s the Secret to Virtual Event Success?

What happened to account for this growing sense of success? Was it simply a question of event planners adjusting to new technology? That is without a doubt part of the answer, but there is more to it than that. Event planners can’t be expected to raise the quality of their virtual conferences without having the budget to match.

Returning to EventMB’s survey, the number of respondents relying on free virtual event tech went from 14% in Q3 of 2020 to merely 9% in Q2 of 2021. In other words, it looks like many event planners — and the finance departments who set their budgets — heeded the warnings about ‘Zoom gloom.’

What’s more, the number willing to spend $15,000 USD (or more) showed a 70% increase. Almost a quarter of respondents now fall into this top category, compared with only 14% less than a year ago.

How to Budget for Better Virtual Event Technology

All these advances may sound encouraging, but the reality is that not all event planners can afford this level of expense.

In fact, a growing number of EventMB’s survey respondents cite their budget as their biggest challenge — even as they report higher attendance numbers and less trouble securing sponsorships.

How, then, can event planners balance rising event technology costs against their virtual conference revenue?

The answer will ultimately be a matter of finding the right technology to meet their event’s needs. The biggest, most established event organizers might be able to afford professional live stream production services. For many others, however, self-service live stream production may be the best solution.

What Is Self-Service Live Stream Production?

Self-service live stream production software like EventMobi Studio makes it easy to produce professional-quality live streams right in your browser.

Fully integrated with your event platform, the Studio lets you put together your livestream session in just a few clicks. The platform sets up your RTMP streaming connection for you, so you don’t have to worry about copying and pasting URLs into a third-party application. At the same time, you maintain full control over the entire look and feel of your show. Need to juggle multiple speakers and add visual effects? Just toggle simple buttons on and off. Everything is designed in an easy-to-understand visual format, so you don’t need any technical expertise to run a successful virtual conference.

12 Virtual Events Best Practices for TV-Level Production

In a recent EventMobi webinar, Live Streaming Made Easy: How to Create On-Brand and On-Budget Virtual Events, we explained how self-service livestream production works — and we covered several fundamental best practices for online conferences.

Here are 12 highlights from the event that will ensure your virtual conference engagement sets your virtual event apart.

Related Read: The Best Virtual Conference Session Formats for Engagement

1. Assess your virtual conference engagement needs

Are you running a one-off stakeholder’s meeting with someone in the background taking minutes? Or are you delivering sponsored sessions with a variety of speakers, whose contributions will live on as on-demand content after the event? 

If you are planning the former, it may not be worth it to invest in a heavily branded, professionally produced broadcast. However, if it is the latter, you may want to use a self-service live stream production platform, or work with a team of pros. These options will help you achieve a production level that will stand the test of time and do the content justice.

The event is

• Fully live
• Single track, solo speaker
• Interactive

You don’t need:

• Branded content
• To showcase sponsors
• Advanced production elements

You are planning:

• Multi-track, single or multi-day event
• Multi-speaker presentations
• Large number of attendees

You need:

• Branded content
• To showcase sponsors
• To have control over the final content

Production Lifecycle

• Finalize Agenda
• Speaker prep & technical assessment
• Pre-recordings
• Edit videos
• Speaker review (if required)
• Create show flow
• Dry run/rehearsal
• Day of (Geen Rooms)
• Add videos to app post-event

2. Give yourself enough time

While virtual events can take months to plan, many have had to pivot in a time crunch. Many businesses take months to plan virtual events—others are less lucky, having to pivot to a hybrid event with short notice due to unexpected circumstances. Time and budget are also important factors in determining whether TV-level production is a priority—even if you’re hoping for an in-person-only event, it’s a good idea to have a contingency plan to create high-quality virtual content if needed.

As a virtual conference best practice, we recommend that you try to give yourself at least one month to ensure you have enough time to check all the boxes:

• • • Finalize your agenda and design your show flow
    • Gather assets
    • Prep speakers, moderators, and sponsors  
    • Capture any pre-recorded content
    • Edit pre-recorded videos
    • Conduct at least one dry run—and not at the last minute
    • Refine your run of show
    • Ensure you are fully prepared from a technical standpoint

If you’re not sure how to handle each of these steps in a virtual or hybrid context, don’t worry. We’ll cover them individually below.

3. Set the stage for success with a thorough show flow

Once you’ve figured out your agenda with an outline of session topics, it’s important to start developing your show flow — aka your run of show — as soon as possible. 

Ideally, a virtual event best practice is that your show flow should not only provide a detailed timeline for each stage of your livestream but also act as a project management tool for your entire virtual conference. That means it should include a list of your speakers and their titles, a list of sponsors and their assets, as well as your plan for engagement tactics like live polls and gamification.

To make sure you start off on the right foot, EventMobi’s team of production experts is making their Virtual Event Show Flow Template available to download. This template is an essential resource for the team over the past year as they produce hundreds of virtual events every year with audiences ranging from 200 attendees at a private event to over 5,000 registrants at major public conferences.

Designed for event organizers, the template includes:

• • • Responsive Project Timeline and Task List
    • Green Room Checklist with Backstage Tips
    • Charts for Tracking Speakers and Sponsors
    • Classic Event Show Flow with Time Tracker

4. Gather assets to ensure you have the best-branded visuals

Make sure you have high-resolution graphics for any branded slides, lower thirds, overlays, and transitions well ahead of time. 

EventMobi Studio, for example, allows you to choose from a variety of pre-set graphics, or to add your own. If you are not using self-service live stream production software, a technical producer can help you collect these resources and make sure they are to spec. 

You’ll also want to share all of these specs with sponsors well in advance, so they have ample time to give you their logos, overlay graphics, and video clips. Use both images and video clips liberally to visually stimulate the audience so that they’re not staring at a talking head for extended periods of time. Take a page from newscasts that use cutaways and statistics to break up shots of the news reporter.

Strong, clear images on screen also provide opportunities for attendees to screenshot the event and share it on social media.

5. Prep speakers and rehearse your virtual event

Virtual event planners are not the only ones struggling with the learning curve of virtual events. Speakers, sponsors, moderators, and event participants are all adapting to a new format together. This makes for a perfect storm of potential glitches. 

Before you can launch your virtual conference, you have to ask questions like, 

• Are speakers using reliable mics? 
• Are sponsored talks happening in well-lit rooms? 
• Do the moderators have reliable internet connections?

Rehearsing your virtual event is a great way to identify these and many other issues that would make for a less-than-smooth experience during the live event. Test each speaker’s set-up. Make sure all the slides are in order, and that everyone knows where they are supposed to be and when.

6. Support speaker and moderator virtual event setup

Grainy video is not going to cut it for professional livestream content. EventMobi’s GoLive production team recommends that your speakers use a webcam with a resolution of 720p to 1080p, as well as a microphone (headphones are especially good for cutting background noise and avoiding an echo from other speakers). 

The equipment doesn’t need to be expensive; a $20 mic will go a long way to improving audio quality. Lighting is also important. An inexpensive LED light behind the speaker’s monitor will make sure speakers are well-lit. Alternatively, ask your speakers to sit facing a well-lit window. And above all, ask them to avoid backlighting—there is nothing worse than a speaker who looks like a shadowy silhouette.

Our Virtual Show Flow Template includes a handy “green room checklist” that reminds you to double-check all of these elements. Alternatively, a professional producer can be a great asset when it comes to the dry run and speaker/moderator checks as they will know what to look for, field any of the more technical questions that come up, and make suitable recommendations.

For those who use EventMobi to host a virtual or hybrid event, you’ll have access to our GoLive! Professional production team. They’ll handle all the virtual streaming aspects of the event, and work with your live AV team to make you can easily record and/or broadcast any in-person events for your virtual audience.

7. Double-check your platform’s technical limitations

Unfortunately, your virtual event technology may not work as well on the day of your event as it does during rehearsals. That’s because each new attendee joining your live event means a new internet connection plugging into the platform, which in turn puts a higher burden on your servers. Can your virtual event tech platform actually handle the volume of attendees logging in simultaneously, streaming video, submitting Q&A, and engaging in chat? 

You may not be able to do a trial that will match the attendance levels you’re expecting for the event itself, but you can ask your service provider what their maximum capacity is. Be sure to account for the extra data load caused by additional attendee activity like chat comments.

Tip: If you are close to the max number of attendees your platform can handle, avoid prompting your audience to comment in the chat all at once. (For example, try not to ask, “Where is everyone tuning in from?”)

For added assurance, ask your provider for statistics on their platform’s downtime. The EventMobi Virtual Events Platform, for example, guarantees an uptime of 99.9% in its Service Level Agreement (SLA) — and to date, it has never failed to meet this promise.

It’s also a good idea to use a platform that allows you to require a login from your attendees, even if the event is free. That way, you don’t have to worry about being surprised by 3 times more visitors than you were expecting based on registration numbers.

8. Take advantage of prerecorded and simulive sessions

One way to guarantee that a session looks great and runs smoothly is to pre-record it and incorporate it into your live event. This will give you an opportunity to incorporate more visuals and cut or redo elements that contain errors. With EventMobi Studio, for example, you can record your branded speaker sessions at any point prior to the live event.

You can even pre-record the heavier session content and follow it with a live segment such as a Q&A. “Simulive” content delivery refers to this hybrid of live and pre-recorded content within a given session. Use a separate slide—like the speakers’ contact information or even a sponsored message—to cover any visual disruption when transitioning from the pre-recorded section to the live engagement.

Pre-recorded content also allows you to run concurrent sessions without assigning additional producers to each stream. If you don’t have concurrent sessions at your virtual conference, you’ll have extra time to set up the next live portion of the show, queue up live speakers, and give those working in the background a break.

9. Use engagement features and a variety of virtual event formats and layouts

Similar to the point above, avoid leaving your audience to watch the same speaker split-screen for hours on end. Shake it up with engagement features like live polls, a Q&A section, and an active live chat panel. It’s also a virtual event best practice to use different layouts and arrangements of visual elements, like overlays, lower thirds, backgrounds, slides, and charts. 

Related: The Best Virtual Content Design to Inspire Your Next Online Event

Your Virtual Show Flow can help you to keep track of all these moving parts, so your live stream producer can follow a simple checklist of the day of the event. A professional producer can also offer valuable insights into your options and how to execute the most visually engaging layouts and transitions. Here is an example of what a little production help can accomplish:

10. Use a virtual green room to coordinate virtual event speakers

Just like in a live, in-person event, virtual event organizers need to be able to prep and coordinate with their speakers, communicate any changes, and make sure they’re ready when they need to be. 

A green room is a virtual space that is not part of the standard live broadcast where speakers can wait off-screen or move ‘backstage.’ It takes its name from the backstage waiting rooms at live theatres, which are traditionally referred to as ‘green rooms.’ 

EventMobi Studio, for example, allows the livestream producer to move speakers backstage at any time. Additionally, the Private Chat feature means that speakers, moderators, and producers can communicate privately at any point during the session.

11. Consider a virtual venue for higher event production quality

You may be wondering,

“What is a virtual venue?”

A virtual venue is a studio or space set up specifically for the purpose of hosting your virtual event or for pre-recording event content. Virtual venues are typically run by AV companies or virtual event tech providers, so they come furnished with the right AV infrastructure to create and broadcast high-quality, professional content. 

Virtual venues and virtual event studios are good alternatives if you want a more professional live stream without the risks or investments associated with setting up a studio yourself, and they almost always provide consultative services or direct virtual event production support.

12. Be strategic about CTAs and data collection

While a professional-looking event should be one of your top priorities, it’s also important to think like a marketing director. What is the key CTA for each of your sessions, and what sorts of visual elements will you use to promote it? Make sure your virtual event Show Flow keeps track of all these elements for each live stream session.

Additionally, are you using a virtual events platform that allows you to gather analytics on engagement metrics like viewing hours and click-throughs? This kind of information can be crucial to demonstrate sponsor ROI, and it can be equally useful for assigning CE credits to webinar participants.

The Benefits of a Virtual Event Technical Producer

A virtual event production partner can be a huge asset. Many virtual event planners—especially those who find themselves pivoting in a pinch—are still learning the skills and knowledge required to execute a high-production quality, professional-looking virtual event. 

Your virtual event tech platform can be a great resource in that regard. In fact, according to EventMB’s latest research, 33% of event planners outsource their virtual event production, and a further 20% rely on their virtual event tech provider.

The benefits of an experienced virtual event producer include:

• Expertise.
  Virtual event technical producers conduct dry runs and can flag issues that a less experienced observer may not notice or anticipate.
  
• Tech support.
  Technical producers ensure that the AV equipment, internet connectivity, virtual event platform, and any integrated technology are up to par and running smoothly for your virtual conference.
  
• Video editing.
  A virtual event technical producer is familiar with video editing software. If you want to make use of prerecorded video, they can help you record and edit it so that it looks clean and professional.
  
• Coordination.
  Virtual events have a lot of moving parts: speakers transitioning from the green room to the live event stream, breakouts that need to start and stop at specific times, slide transitions, inserted pre-recorded videos, shifting visuals — the list goes on. A virtual event production specialist coordinates them to ensure a seamless experience.
  
• Attendee management.
  Virtual event producers can help to funnel attendees into the appropriate tracks at the appropriate times so they don’t get lost in the shuffle. They also make sure that attendees are muted, moderate chats and Q&As, and manage access to different elements.
  
• Happy sponsors.
  In some ways, sponsors are taking a leap of faith in online virtual events, so it’s crucial that their brand and brand exposure looks professional. In addition to bringing the whole event production to a professional level, virtual event technical producers make sure that pop-ups, overlays, lower thirds, and other branded visual elements appear properly and at the right times.

Conclusion

Combatting Zoom fatigue and differentiating yourself from virtual event competition can be a challenge, but a fast and easy way for your attendees to tell that you’re an authoritative, credible, and professional resource is through beautiful, engaging live streams. 

When it comes to executing your vision with the production quality attendees have come to expect, a self-service livestream production studio can help you get there. And if you’d rather hand the reins over to professionals, technical producers can help you make sense of all the moving parts and keep your virtual conference running like a well-oiled machine.

The post 12 Virtual Conference Best Practices to Elevate Your Production Quality appeared first on EventMobi.

About Mambu

SaaS. Cloud-native. API-first.

These all describe Mambu’s market-leading banking and financial services platform.

Virtual Event Technology

Mambu used EventMobi’s:

• Event Space
• Full-Service Registration

Meet The Person Behind The Magic

Participants

Attendees included internal employees from
across the world.

Event Objectives

Mambu had two primary objectives for their February 2021 “We Own This” Virtual Kickoff Conference:

• To share their 2021 company strategy and vision
• To build community, unity, engagement, enthusiasm

Planning The Event

To celebrate their new status as a unicorn startup and share the 2021 company strategy, Ioana Grapa, Global Events Lead at Mambu was tasked with the mandate to plan and run “We Own This”, a global internal kick-off event.

They’d never run an event of this scale virtually and, as a team, looked at a total of 40 platforms before selecting EventMobi. Ultimately, EventMobi was one of the only vendors with proven event expertise and met Mambu’s data privacy regulations.

“It was important for us to go with someone who has been in the industry and who knows a bit more about the event world. Reputation was important when choosing an event platform.”

— Ioana Grapa

Leading Up to The Event

Ioana knew that their employees had attended many other virtual events, and she didn’t want to settle for “another platform, another link.” Instead, she and her colleagues brainstormed internally to create a unique, fully-branded experience that encouraged attendee engagement.

EventMobi Event Success Manager Pirkko Sprengel assisted the Events Lead with project management,
onboarding, best practices, and queries. Ioana was particularly impressed with the turnaround speed when it came to collaborating with EventMobi on the platform.

The EventMobi Event Space offers versatile live streaming, video conferencing options and native streaming options, which allowed Mambu to work with their audio-visual provider of choice, a third-party production studio in Amsterdam.

“Putting everything into a Virtual Event Space requires a completely different mindset,” Ioana shared. “We wanted to be very daring and creative and come up with some cool interactive elements. I liked the fact that we could fully brand the space with our identity. The platform itself looked great with our colours”.

How Mambu Used The Event Space to Build Community

From broadcasted panel discussions and keynotes from well-known industry leaders, employees shared that the event felt like “watching their favourite TV show with their family.” Ioanahad also brought in a live illustrator whose screen was visible throughout the day while he worked on visualizations of key points in the event content.

Throughout the event, the Live Session Chat was buzzing, and attendees were firing off questions to ask panelists via the Q&A feature; in short, achieving Mambu’s goal to build a sense of community.

Event Space Highlights

Live Stream Broadcasts

To showcase keynotes, panel discussions, and other individual presentations from internal and external presenters.

Session Chat

“We were quite curious to see how well it would work, but the chat option was amazing. It was buzzing all the time; I think in part because it was an internal event, and everyone was comfortable to have fun and banter,” shared Ioana.

Q&A

To collect questions from the audience to ask panelists, and upvote which ones to prioritize.

Live Polling

To ask attendees which songs they wanted the DJ to play during breaks.

Virtual Event Analytics

“For us, it was useful to see who joined which session,” Iona added.

“We Own This’ was one of the best, most beautiful events I’ve ever run; it just worked really, really well. The feedback we got was amazing…from speakers, attendees and the production team. It was a complete success.”

— Ioana Grapa

Measuring Event Success

95% of invited employees logged in and were present throughout the entire event.

When asked how to advise other planners on how to pull off such a unique event, Ioana reiterated the importance of being creative about the event format and willing to take risks. She emphasized: “Planners need to stop associating live events and virtual events because they’re two completely different formats and require different approaches.”

Ioana’s Recommendations

1. Start the live stream by playing some music to build up the excitement.
2. Front-load the day with the most important, coolest sessions. “You need to start with this momentum to catch your audience’s attention.”
3. Incorporate different interactive elements throughout, “otherwise they will just drop off and not come back throughout the day.”
4. Consider a shorter format and changing up the session format. “Attention spans are shorter in a virtual Event Space, so it’s key to have a nice rhythm between different styles of sessions.”

The post Case Study: Mambu Turns Virtual Kick-Off Event Into a Global Celebration appeared first on EventMobi.