Four basic steps to plan a Virtual Event
- Apr 3, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2020
The new reality is a challenge for every event producer to get out of the traditional offerings and go into the virtual world. If you are one of those professionals in the entertainment industry with limited to none experience managing platforms to allow you to put together fundraising events, cultural activities, concerts, or any business event. Here’s your basic guide to start planning your next virtual event – according to my learning curves.
1st Establishing Event’s Objective:
This first step applies to every event production, although sometimes it’s overlooked. In order to increase success probabilities, it’s important to continue visualizing a virtual event like a property, that might also include partnership opportunities.
The purpose of the event could be raising awareness, funds, serving as an educational source, entertaining the citizens, engaging with your market
2nd Brainstorm about Event type:
According to your objective, you should be able to narrow the types of events you could put together, according to your budget. At this planning stage, you will also need to think about the reach of the event and its governance.
In the virtual world, you could present 5Ks, job fairs, business matchmaking, competitions, scavenger hunts, trainings, coffee meetings, summits, or concerts, among many options. You name it - there could be an option out there. Otherwise, it could be time to create it at a virtual hackathon.
3rd Choosing the best platform:
Choosing a virtual event system, it’s like choosing a venue for your event. There are many options that have being available for event producers for many years and well-proven, and others are brand new with innovative features. But instead of analyzing a quote with food pricing, chairs, and tables; you will be assessing if the provider has troubleshooting capacity, user-friendliness app, ticketing options, log in alternatives, user capacity, cybersecurity features, integration with other platforms, among other unique capabilities.
My experience with platforms like All Sport Central, Charity Miles, for sports events has been easy; as long as you have a backend user basic experience. But other applications, like Eventbrite, are more user friendly. It will all depend on the type of event you are planning. Perhaps all you need is a strong event property and implementation strategy. Which takes me to the next step.
4th Designing the experience
Once your product is conceptualized, and your platform is set in place with a landing page or webpage, you are more than ready to make sure your attendees have a positive experience. At virtual events, you might be able to invest differently in your participants.
For instance, you could invest in a registration appreciation give away sent through regular mail. Also, you could set together a virtual goody bag with key partners, which I have tried and had a great turnover. Wrapping up the experience of your participants with something to share with their peers, friends, and family.
Overall, you should be able to itemize your budget differently for a virtual event. Remember to substitute venue for an event management platform, and so on. Let’s be aware that a virtual event could be as inexpensive as you want it to be-but be careful to compromise the quality of it.
Now that you have the basic steps to plan a virtual event. Let’s step up for the challenge of getting out of the box of traditional events and into the virtual world.