If you think in-person events are crucial to your company’s success, you’re not alone. In fact, 85% of B2B leaders agree with you. Which is why it’s kind of shocking that 93% of leaders also plan to continue virtual events…even after the world returns to some semblance of normalcy.
That’s because, over the last few months, virtual events have proven they can really bring in the crowds. For Adobe that means more than half a million visitors at the company’s recent virtual Summit. That’s roughly 16 times more people than were expected to attend the same event held in person. And, according to Adobe, in the first 24 hours alone, visitors watched 22,600 hours (or 2.6 years) of video.
So how’d they do it? Well, Drift and our friends at Adobe Marketo, Workfront, ON24, Brightcove, Hootsuite and Splash teamed up to spill the secrets in our brand new guide to virtual events.
In this new book, you’ll get insights on:
Getting all your ducks – and your stakeholders – in a row
While virtual events might not be as labor-intensive as their in-person counterparts, they require a significant amount of planning and coordination. So Brightcove recommends these three things:
- Defining success for all your stakeholders
- Considering the entire event experience
- Finding an online video platform
Preventing video-conference-induced fatigue
How many video calls have you been on where you almost completely zoned out? We get it. It’s draining to be on back to back video calls all day so an all-day virtual event might not be your cup of tea. To keep attendees engaged, Drift recommends:
- Teaming up with a partner – or ten
- Making it fun and interactive
- Choosing a high-energy emcee
- Creating networking opportunities for attendees online
- Keeping some of your event live
Designing an authentic experience that gets attention and leads
For ON24, the key to a successful virtual event is to mirror some of the best elements of the in-person experience. For them that means making your online events:
- Interactive
- Multimedia
- Content-rich
- Connected
- And, of course, fun!
Also in this book, you’ll learn how to:
- Tap into contacts you didn’t even know you had from Hootsuite
- Apply your in-person event skills to the virtual world from Splash
- Help distributed teams and busy execs stay on track from Workfront
Ready to make your virtual events work harder for you? Get the full guide: Launch Virtual Events that Stand Out, Scale Up, and Soar.
