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Planning Virtual Conferences during COVID-19

Planning Virtual Conferences during COVID-19

Virtual events are playing a major role in the business during COVID-19. Most of the companies are using virtual events to engage with their customers, employees, clients, and potential customers. Purpose of these events can be varied according to the company’s business model. Some virtual events are organised to provide information, some are based on trade shows and sometimes organisations are planning events to show gratitude to their employees. Since COVID-19 has put a full stop for the businesses’ event plans for 2020 most of the companies are looking digital ways to interact with their stakeholders. Working from home has become a new standard of working and societies are now adapting to the ‘New Normal’ situation. Since 6-foot distancing measures have been enforced among society to reduce the risk of spreading the virus it is important to have virtual events to keep in touch with key stakeholders of the company. Shorter webinars and product events can be held digitally to interact with stakeholders. Here are a few tips which companies can use while conducting virtual conferences. 

Preparing your team 

When working from home most of the normal operations are done remotely. Since employees are more into the virtual workplace, you need to identify a virtual team to work on the event. As a normal event, managers need to divide the process among the team members to successfully conduct a virtual conference. There are few things to sort in this stage. Companies need to find out which software to use, how many attendants, how to log in (Email, Landing page etc.) and what type of content to share with the audience. Companies need to conduct proper research before the initiative to identify which type of content required by the audience. This will help your team members to get a wider idea regarding conducting virtual events. Teams can use advanced virtual conferencing software to easily coordinate the virtual event. 

Identifying varieties of media to increase engagement 

Sometimes your content can be good but having good content will not attract more attendees for your virtual event. Companies need to identify ways to engage with stakeholders to create awareness of the event. When it comes to virtual meetings, the normal standard of conferencing of gathering people together in one place for one purpose will be distracted. To keep people engaging companies need to think of creative ways to improve values in the virtual conferencing. Companies can use varieties of media types to increase engagement instead of just a traditional PowerPoint presentation. Using different types of media will create a unique experience for everyone. Virtual exhibition booths, video demonstrations and gamification can be used to improve engagement with the audience. In virtual events, companies must make sure to provide a unique digital experience for their participants.

Scheduling the event 

When scheduling the event, it is important to strategically schedule the events because most of the events are all-day events and some of them span multiple days. Strategic scheduling is important because otherwise the experience and engagement will be poor. If the event is a series of events, make sure to schedule the event to begin at the same time each day and make sure to keep brakes within the sessions. When dividing work among employees it is important to identify flexible hours for them, because sometimes employees might have urgent work during that period. Companies can introduce a roster-based duty for employees who are working with the virtual conference. 

Managing workplace stress during COVID-19 can be a challenge when it comes to planning a larger conference event because of that planning in advance will help organisations to overcome from unnecessary problems. Since there is no chance of doing a physical conference probably for the next couple of months, companies need to look into digital ways to conduct successful conferences.

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