Читать книгу Transitioning to Virtual and Hybrid Events - Ben Chodor - Страница 28

So now the hard part: What is the right solution for me? The good news is you don't have to pick one solution and you can always change your solution based on your use case.

One of my goals in this book is to give you the tools you need to make the shift to virtual and hybrid events, but it's also to take away some of the fear you have in making this transition. Trust me, you will make a few mistakes along the way, but as long as you are creating content that is high quality and engaging, the rest will be easy. I have also said before, one of the best parts of virtual events is no one has created the perfect mousetrap yet. I have produced and been part of thousands of events; I have made more mistakes and miscalculations than I can even remember, and I have helped create some of the best innovations and worked on some of coolest and most engaging events as well. So, for all we know it's going to be one of you reading this book who creates the next great virtual event innovation.

Take a deep breath and ask yourself these questions. After you've answered them, all the support information on what you should do next you'll find in chapters throughout the book.

 What are your goals of the program?It could be attendance sizeIt could be number of engagementsIt could be the time an attendee spends inside the virtual eventIt could be the number of sessions or programs that the attendee watchesIt could be the number of booths each attendee visitsIt could be the number of qualified sales leads that you or your sponsors getIs it brand recognition for your company or organization?Is it about accreditations and learning?

 What is the ROI (return on investment) you're looking for?Is it revenue from registrations?Is it the revenue from exhibit booths sold?Is it how many demonstrations your team can give during the days of the virtual event?Is it the revenue from sponsorships?Is it increasing membership?Is it to increase your visibility?Is it education related, in other words the number of certifications achieved?Is it public relations related, the number of stories written about your events and sponsors?

 How important is interaction?Is it the number of one‐on‐one interactions?Do you want the audience to answer polls?Do you want to test new products and offerings on your audience?Do you want to have gamification and contests? (I will cover this in greater detail later in the book.)Is it important for the attendees to interact with each other?

 How important is video?Will your presentation be live video or prerecorded?Will you enable your sponsors or exhibitors to add videos?Will you create an event‐opening video?Will you have your speakers present via their webcam, or will you send a video crew to their home or office, or will you have them go to a local studio, or will it be a combination?Will you want the ability to have multiple presenters from different locations on the screen at the same time?

 How important is two‐way video?For your breakout roomsFor your classroom programsFor media interviewsIn your exhibitor's boothIs it important to have the audience show their video when they ask questions during sessions?

 How important is your support material?SlidesProduct demosHandouts for your presentationsWhitepapersScreen sharing for breakout room presentations

 What types of presentations will you have?General sessionsKeynote sessionsBreakout sessionsTraining sessionsFireside chats sessionsWill the presentation be live with question‐and‐answer periods?Will the presentation be simulated live with Q&A periods?Will the presentation be prerecorded or a combination of live, simulated live, and prerecorded?Will any of your presentations be audio and slides, or will it be video and slides, or will it be a combination of audio and video programs? (I am a big fan of video programs whenever possible. It not only gives your audience the ability to hear what the presenter is saying, it allows the audience to see the presenter's facial expressions and it makes it easier to engage with the presenter.)

 How important is polling and/or surveying your audience?You have a unique opportunity to keep your audience involved in the program and not just voyeurs with polling and audience surveys.Instant feedback may or may not be important to you, but it's something you need to plan for before the program begins.

 Will you be having certifications or continuing education programs for credits?A lot of virtual events for associations, legal, healthcare, technology, and accounting organizations include the ability to earn continuing education credits. This could also be a good way to increase revenue as well.You could also look into partnering with accreditation organizations.

 Will you have multiple sessions at the same time?How many sessions will you want to be running at the same time?One of the benefits of a virtual event or hybrid event is that the audience member can watch one session live and then go back and watch the other sessions at their leisure on‐demand after the program is over. Remember you need to spend a lot of time planning and scheduling sessions, so make sure you don't take on too much for your first virtual event.If you have multiple sessions, make sure you make the agenda available before the virtual event begins and make sure you use a platform that allows the attendees to create their agenda in advance and save the session dates and times.

 Where do you want your program to live after it is over?Will you keep the virtual event open? (Most platforms give you one year of access.)Will you download your sessions and put them in your own content management system (CMS) or learning management system (LMS)?Will you continue to add live and on‐demand content to your virtual event platform after the program is over?

 How important is the on‐demand program?If you create good content, in my opinion you should repurpose it as much as you can. Your audience is not going to be able to watch and interact with everything during your virtual event.On‐demand is a great way to keep your virtual event populated after the live period is over.You can also share some of the content after the program is over to your social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, LinkedIn, or on your website.

 How many days will your program last?A lot of organizations try to mirror what they have done in the past at physical conferences. In my opinion you're better off starting with a more manageable agenda until you master virtual event content creation. You have to have enough to fill the length of the program you decide on.Also don't forget about time zones. If it's a physical‐only event, everyone is in the same time zone. But if it's virtual, you can have attendees from all over the world joining in many time zones, so you need to be clear so they can calculate when your event will start in their time zone.

 Will you have a registration?Think about what information you want to gather and if you need to use some of that information to limit access to areas within the event based on what they paid or their job title (e.g. engineers will only have access to product development sections). Keep in mind the more registration fields that you add, the more people may be inclined to abandon before finishing their registration.

 Will you be charging for your event?If you charge for the physical event, you should think about charging for access to your virtual event.Many organizers offer tiered pricing and even offer a free version, which limits what the free attendee can see and have access to. If you're having a hybrid event, it is even more important to find that balance between what you should charge for your virtual event compared to what you are charging for your physical event.

 Will you be syndicating you content?Will you be delivering your content to your social media locations, your website, or partner and sponsor sites? If yes, how much of the content will you syndicate?Will you be creating an OTT channel (think Roku, Apple TV, and any Smart TV channel)? Many organizations social stream their general sessions to build excitement for the event and reach the media.

 Will you have a moderator?A moderator is a host to lead your audience through the virtual event and agenda and keep you audience informed.I believe a good professional moderator is a key component to any hybrid event and is the perfect addition to a virtual‐only event as well. If you decide to have a moderator, I suggest you look for someone who has television news experience.

 Do you want to have a news desk?A news desk can be set up at your physical event and your programming can be streamed to the virtual audience who can hear the news from the conference, and see interviews with attendees, sponsors, executives, and speakers.

 How do you want your event to look?Customizable Templates – A virtual event allows you to add your event colors, logos, sponsor images, and some design elements, but for the most part you have a couple of standard templates to work with. Standard templates offer you the following advantages:You're rushing to move your event to virtual because your event was canceled last minute. Standard event templates take less time to set up and can be launched in a shorter amount of time.You have a very small team to help you with the design element and management of your program.There is a cost savings and time savings. Since the virtual event provider does not have to build, design, or create anything from scratch, this will lower the professional service, project management, and design costs.Custom Template Design – If you have the time and want to make your event have the look and feel of your physical event or corporate campus, or you don't want it to look like other virtual events, you can have a designer create a custom template. If you take this route, be sure to follow these suggestions:If your event is 8 to 12 weeks away, then you'll have time for custom creative.You have a really good design team that you work with inside your organization or outside.You have hired an experiential marketing firm and they have a design element they want to use.

Once you come up with the answers to the above questions, then you're ready to take the first step into the world of virtual events. The following chapter shows you how to make the move to virtual and hybrid events.