Virtual and Hybrid Event Planning Tips A to Z

Like many of you, I’ve spent a lot of time upskilling for virtual and hybrid meetings. Following are insights worth sharing. Updated regularly, you’ll see articles on audience engagement, marketing, strategy, choosing virtual hosting platforms, presentation skills, monetization, sponsorship, social media and how to blend virtual with in-person forums. I welcome your contributions:

Audience Engagement:

Meeting Play – How to engage 70,000 virtual attendees

Virtual Event Tips from Promenade’s Speaker Network

10 Ways to Add Conversation into Your Virtual Events by Liz Lathan

12 Interactive Presentation Ideas Your Audience Will Love by Social Tables

Overcommunicate to your Audience – based on Learning Styles and Communication Preferences

Why Remote Meetings Don’t Feel the Same – Google

Who Goes Next – Protocols for Online Meetings

The Non-Obvious Guide to Virtual Meetings and Remote Work by Rohit Bhargava: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087RC1L23/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

10 Tips for More Effective Virtual Events Q&A

How Reuters will Drive Engagement Digitally & In-Person

Giant Wall Screens by Monique Van Dusseldorp

How to End Bad Events by Liz Lathan

Gamification:

If done properly, gamification consciously and subconsciously incentivizes people to participate, engage, interact, and research has shown that retention is higher when incorporating it.

Here are a few specific benefits of gamification:
-Improves your productivity
-Encourages creativity.
-Strengthens communication processes.
-Favors employee’s engagement.
-Introduces innovative dynamics.
-Develops specific skills.
-Transmits corporate image.
-Improves knowledge absorption and retention
-Instant feedback
-Prompts behavioral change
-Can be applied for most company needs(educational, CSR, fun, networking, competition)
-Intrinsic motivation
-Drives Sales

STEWART MANN, WILD ROOSTER EVENTS FOUNDER | CEO | CCO

Meeting & Event Careers:

Reinvention of an Events Professional – Interview

Content and Livestream Strategy:

7 Easy Ways to Repurpose Webinar Content by Evenium

Adjusting Content to Digital Meetings & Events by Erica Spoor

Future of Virtual/Digital/Hybrid Meetings & Events:

The Future of Hybrid Work & Meetings by Sacha Connor & Toptal

The Future of Meetings after COVID-19 – Prevue Meetings

The Future of Meetings after COVID-19 – Convene

IAEE – Future of Digital Trade Shows and Events, Association Meetings

What are Events for? Monique Van Dusseldorp’s excellent enewsletter

The Future of Digital Events – Kim Davis, Martech Today

UK Publishers on the Future of B to B Online Events

14 Event Planning Blogs to Follow

Online, Shorter and Here to Stay – Splash That’s 2021 Outlook

TSNN – 10 Meetings & Events Predictions for 2021

Positive Trends from The PCMA Convening Leaders Conference

The Future of Business, Tech, Society, Culture, Innovation, Design, Consumers, Travel, Pandemic Preparedness – related to Meetings & Events:

Trends: The Economy, Tech, Culture, Society, Workplace, Pandemic, Geopolitics & More

Hybrid Events:

Can you run a HYBRID event, and is that still effective? (Julie Holmes)

ABSOLUTELY. This is the next best option to being live. Having the speakers, venue, and even a small live audience can provide the dynamic of a conference. Add to that a group of moderators that are monitoring live stream feeds, remote Q&A, and more.

Lessons Learned – Multiple Virtual Events Topics:

10 Biggest Event Planning Challenges via Social Tables

11 Critical Success Factors for Your Virtual Events by Jay Baer

Corporate Event News Guest Blog -Pandemic Impact on 2021 Speaker Booking Trends

International Conference Partnership – Dozens of Article Links to Virtual Planning and Production Tips

How to Make Virtual Events Work by Alex Lindsay

Virtual Events Best Practices – Destinations Magazine

Lessons Learned from Fintech Expert Jonathan Weiner

Virtual Event Tips from Promenade’s Speaker Network

Chrissy Farr – What’s Working in Virtual & Hybrid Events

A Communications Coach’s 10 Virtual Conference Takeaways

Is a Virtual Keynote the same thing as a Webinar?

When you choose to host a virtual conference, it will be valuable to ensure that your speakers understand the difference and can deliver an exceptional experience for attendees. “Webinar” is a virtual type of presentation that can be more closely aligned to a “breakout session” while a “Virtual Keynote” would be a more apt description for a keynote or general session. The expectations for this type of content, approach, and style are different. Virtual Keynote = So dynamic, you feel like you’re in the room!

Don’t forget your sponsors and vendors!

For many events, vendors and sponsors provide a lot of financial assistance. Make sure that you are considering how to still deliver them the best possible value for partnering with your event. They can record videos to share or provide live-streamed presentations in addition to the usual “send an email to the attendee” option.

Source: https://promenadespeakers.com/speakers/virtual-hybrid-and-webinar-presentation-tips/

Planning/Budgeting:

Virtual Event Planning Tips from Hopin

Time Zone Planning by Meeting Play

Budget cuts to make Hybrid work – Faith Keiser

Presentation Skills/Speakers:

How to be a better Online Presenter – Financial Times

Building the Impact of your Virtual Speakers

Present Better Virtually – Harvard Business Review

Virtual Presentation Tips – Convene.com

Virtual & In-Person Emcees

Top Virtual & Online Speakers

Pricing & Monetization:

Behind the Curtain: Pricing the Digital Experience

Monetizing Virtual Events – Riches in the Niches

Privacy:

See if your virtual platform:

neither sells, monetizes or shares user data with any entity other than its client hosting the event, in accordance with its stated Terms and Conditions. (Some data may be shared at the user’s own discretion to the extent they choose to log in under their personal Facebook and Linked In accounts.)
does not collect user data other than that which those using the platform actively enter.
does not expose users emails, or other personal information to others in its events without their taking the clients own explicit actions to do so. (if you login through Facebook for example, then you and others see that your public Facebook profile is available at a click within the platform).
employs significantly more secure levels of encryption: e.g.: employing a 256 bit key
provides no opportunity for an individual to broadly heckle, hijack, or poison an event with anti-social messaging to all, because there simply is no event wide waterfall text chat. Be wary of event-wide chat function to protect against an individual projecting anti social messaging to the entire audience without the host’s first granting that individual express permission.
provides a video chat backstage where prospective contributors can be carefully pre-interviewed, qualified and prepared so as to ensure that only desirable people are given the stage. Taking people off stage should also be enabled instantaneously.

ROI/Results:

Rick Bradberry’s Key Webinar metrics

Risk strategy – Virtual Events

Have a backup plan for your backup (Julie Holmes)

Ensuring that all virtual presenters (and ideally attendees) are hardwired for internet is essential. It’s also a good idea to have a recorded presentation backup to share in the event of an unforeseen connection issue.

Be mindful of:

The Internet getting disconnected, or too slow, for another, causing skipped words or complete disruptions in the broadcast or recording.
Audio or lighting quality, or other tech issues.
Storms causing electrical outages (which in turn cause disruptions of the broadcast or recording).
Issues with attendees or speaker(s) registration or getting connected.
AV/Internet provider(s) not showing up to handle the job.
Confusion about the presentation timing (for attendees, speakers, moderator/emcee, management, and/or tech folks)
Confusion about how to use the presentation platform or malfunctions of the platform being used.
Lack of rehearsal and adequate communication, causing all sorts of confusion during actual virtual meeting or presentation(s).
Even those speakers who are “experienced” can sometimes damage a webinar. In the past couple of weeks I’ve noticed speakers who may have been SMEs, but who had idiosyncrasies that have made me want to exit the webinar because their manner of speaking was so annoying, including:

o Having poor grammar (use of double negatives);

o Having unfortunate pronunciation (for example, one repeatedly said “ken” instead of “can”; “orn juice” instead of “orange juice”; “coont” instead of “couldn’t”.

o Garbled/underwater sounding audio with echos;

o Vocabulary idiosyncrasies: Repeating, “like”, “right?”, “exactly”, “kinda”, sorta”

In a risk management policy, there could implications for the sponsors if the program’s tech quality proves to be substandard….will they want compensation if their brand/logo wasn’t as prominent as it should have been due to technical difficulties?
Will they ask for a refund on what they paid as a sponsor? If the security is compromised and the program is bombed by hackers, could they claim that they have incurred damage to the value/quality of their brand?
If you have to choose between audio and video quality, make sure the AUDIO quality is excellent.
Bandwidth and microphones are two offenders. Cheapie mics and laptop camera are not recommended for presenters. (Good mics and good webcams are important – and for the moment hard to find, due to the world herd rushing recently to operate online.)
In respect to your concerns over sponsor branding, HD graphics, proper cameras, lighting, etc. and any wallpaper backdrop will all be tested, or should be, way in advance of any demos or presentations with rehearsals and getting equipment and proper setup instructions well in advance of your programming.

Source: MECO Events Community

Social Media:

How Event Pros Should Be Using Social Media during the Pandemic – BizBash

Trade Shows and Expositions:

Challenge of Virtualizing Trade Shows – PCMA

Virtual Conference Booth Best Practices

What’s Next for Trade Shows & Exhibitions in 2021

Reed Exhibitions – Trade Show Trends

Trade Show Booth Best Practices

How Technology Can Maintain Safe Trade Shows

Transitioning from In-Person to Virtual:

Virtual Event Case Studies, Testimonials, Speaker Video Samples

Six ways to transition from In-Person First to Virtual – Virtual Events Institute

How to Turn Your In-Person Event into a Virtual One – Hello Endless

A Producer’s Perspective on Cancelled Events Going Virtual

How to Put On a Great Virtual Conference – Inc. Magazine

How to Host a Successful Virtual Event by Freeman Company

Concrete advice to turn your event into a state-of-the-art online gathering – ACM:

In March 2020, an ACM Presidential Task Force was formed to provide quick advice to conference organizers suddenly facing the need to move their conference online in light of the social distancing recommendations and global restrictions on travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We provide concrete advice for events of all sizes. We discuss the tasks required of organizers, specific platforms that can be used and financial considerations. We collect examples of conferences that have gone virtual and lessons learned from their experiences: https://www.acm.org/virtual-conferences

Value of Virtual & Hybrid Events:

A new study reveals the realities of meetings going virtual, from the variety of formats and sourcing to measurement and comparisons to face to face.

Visit www.mpiweb.org/research to read The Strategic Value of Virtual Meetings and Events research paper, which is accompanied by an in-depth How-To guide that demonstrates how planners can establish virtual events strategies. Also, read through a concise Lessons Learned paper for quick-hit tips.

MPI Study on Value of Virtual Events

Value of In-Person, F2F Events/Transitioning to In-Person Events/Future of In-Person:

Value of In-Person Events – ROI is crucial

What’s In Store for In-Person Events – Mike Dominguez

Event Leadership Institute – The Future of In-Person Events

The Shift from Large to Smaller Events

Why the Experience Economy should be our Objective

Virtual Platform Comparisons:

Virtual Event Platform Sourcing – RFPs by MPI

10 Best Virtual Event Platforms

https://www.techzine.eu/blogs/collaboration/46302/zoom-vs-google-meet-microsoft-teams-cisco-webex-meetings-bluejeans/

https://www.eztalks.com/video-conference/virtual-event-platform.html