Virtual events are very easy to pull off in this fast-evolving world in the digital era.
Many businesses are facing several issues due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has continued for a long time, and things are still not completely under control. This is why companies are looking for new ways of working and communicating.
Several companies are asking their employees to continue working from home. Earlier, co-workers used to have in-person meetings, but now they have to shift to the online platform.
Companies use different online platforms like Zoom, Hangouts, Meet, and Skype for video calls and meetings. On the other hand, Slack and Microsoft Teams are being utilized for exchanging documents and messages.
Not only meetings but businesses also look forward to organizing events virtually. Businesses are connecting with the audience through online events. As the world was under lockdown, several companies decided to continue with virtual product launches, trade fairs, and much more.
The famous Apple Inc. hosted a virtual product launch in September 2020. They announced various Apple products, including two brand new models of iPad and an Apple Watch. The audience was keen to know about everything in detail.
The organizers could describe everything to the audience effortlessly, even on the online platform. People were attentive with the same enthusiasm, even in virtual events.
What Is a Virtual Event Platform?
A virtual event platform is an online platform where people can host and attend events in a virtual setting. Here, one can organize virtual conferences, webinars, workshops, and even tradeshows.
The platforms are usually equipped with robust tools and features for ticketing, hybrid event management, audience management, engagement, and networking. By helping you organize immersive and engaging virtual events, these platforms connect people from around the world.
Use Cases of Virtual Event Platforms
- Different fairs and trade shows are hosted on these platforms.
- These platforms can also be used to arrange career fairs to attract prospective job applicants.
- Those who want to organize a conference for a large-scale audience can do so on virtual event platforms without any restrictions.
- Large-scale online training sessions can be hosted on virtual event platforms.
- Companies also use this solution to launch their products virtually to a global audience.
- These platforms are also suitable for internal communications like meetings and employee events.
- Media use the software to arrange award ceremonies that global audiences can watch.
- Most of these platforms are also capable of organizing hybrid events with a combination of virtual and in-person elements.
Features to Consider While Choosing the Virtual Event Platform
- Ease of use and setup
- Networking and open communication features
- Right audience capacity for your event
- Event data tracking for ROI and performance insights
- Support for multiple live broadcast sessions
- Automated functions and systems
- Customizable for branding and marketing
- Real-time troubleshooting facility
- Monetization support
- Well within your budget
Tips to Make the Events Successful
#1. Choosing the Right Platform
It is necessary to pick a platform that suits your event’s budget, criteria, and type. Choosing the right platform will become pretty easy to make the event successful.
Beginner Platforms
If you are looking for a quick solution that does not require many resources, you should use social media platforms. They will help you live to stream the entire event on social media.
Some of the platforms are Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. The most significant advantage here is that you don’t need to spend anything to host an online event on these platforms. You can directly share the link to your event with the target audience.
The audience is familiar with these platforms as they are pretty easy to use. You can take advantage of live streaming tools.
The downside of social media platforms is that the event won’t be so interactive. People can only interact through comments, but no other type of interaction is possible. Some platforms also put certain limitations on hosting a live session. For instance, you need 10,000 subscribers on your channel to host a live virtual event on YouTube.
Intermediate Platforms
You can use Zoom or Google Meet to enhance the level of interaction with the participants. It allows you to create team meetings and conference rooms for webinars and online events.
You can interact with your audience and share your screen or webcam to make it like an in-person event. It is good for a small gathering.
Advanced Platforms
If you are concerned about audience interaction and need everything to make virtual events successful, you need advanced tools, as mentioned below, which take care of surveying, pooling, quizzes, post-event reports, in-depth analytics, and much more.
#2. Virtual Event Promotion
If you plan on arranging a virtual event, you need to develop a solid marketing strategy that aligns with your goals and work in the online world. There are plenty of ways to promote your business or event. Out of all the digital marketing strategies, two of the most important ones to focus on are:
- By Email
- By Social Media
Email and social media is the best way to get your event in front of people. You should spend time crafting marketing emails to attract people to your virtual event. Event-specific hashtags would provide a huge boost to the event through social media. You can even approach influential followers on social media to promote your virtual event.
#4. Repurpose Your Video Content
Even if your virtual event is over, it doesn’t mean your content becomes less valuable. You can edit the content and put it up in different formats on social media and other platforms to promote it.
- Create a podcast by converting your video content
- Write a blog by transcribing your video
- Share them on social media by creating short clips and images using tools like Canva.
Content never gets old; you can use it again to promote your previous event. It would also help you gain the audience’s attention for your next event.
Let us look at some of the Fantastic Marketing Tools for creating a virtual event.
Adobe Connect
Organize a virtual event with Adobe Connect to use the real power of the virtual platform. You can use this versatile platform to deliver a wonderful experience for your diverse audience.
You can completely transform the way of engaging with your audience to create an immersive experience for them. It is an excellent platform for webinars, meetings, and conferences in a secure way.
Customize the stage per your audience and take complete control of the platform to drive engagement and interactions while continuing with the event. Your audience can never miss out on your session with interactive recordings that feel like actual sessions.
Adobe Connect is a one-stop planning solution delivering and also tracking your entire virtual event. The platform records all your pre-event and post-event workflows.
You can get an in-depth analysis of your virtual event with this platform. There is no need to worry about the security or data of your company and participants because Adobe keeps you covered when it comes to security.
The Events Calendar
The Event Calendar starts with making your virtual events schema-optimized for better Google search discovery.
This virtual events software also features powerful integration with conferencing tools like Zoom and Webex. It auto-generates meeting links and shows them on the WordPress dashboard.
Besides, you can opt to show the live stream links to the attendees purchasing a ticket or doing RSVP. The Events Calendar also supports hybrid events by including locations for all such entries.
This enables controlling everything right from your WordPress admin panel, including the live stream embedded to keep the traffic on your website.
There are many more perks of using The Events Calendar for virtual and hybrid events. The subscriptions start from a single site to unlimited sites, catering to all use cases.
Finally, every purchase is backed by a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Hubilo
Hubilo has made its platform ideal by keeping several businesses and their events in mind. It supports deep registration workflows by building a landing page. The entire process of ticketing, invoicing, and Hubilo manages integration with different payment processors.
The platform allows users to engage with a fantastic event feed. The engagement graph would be exponentially increasing because of the event feed. It has the capability of managing the entire virtual event smoothly. Everything from the broadcasting studio to engagement is taken care of by Hubilo.
It is not only a platform for virtual events, but you will also notice its analytics and branding features. You can integrate several business tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Intercom, Marketo, and many more to manage event workflows through Hubilo.
Goldcast
Goldcast is a specialized platform for event marketers to create an event that feels like a Netflix show. You can completely customize this platform as per your brand to ensure that it resembles your company’s event. There are endless customization options made available for you on Goldcast.
Goldcast allows you to mix live as well as pre-recorded videos together. The inbuilt studio creates a smooth and seamless transition between live and pre-recorded videos. Now, there would be no silences or breaks due to video transitions.
Goldcast is an ideal platform for hosting various virtual events like product launches, customer summits, community events, annual conferences, workshops, and many more.
Usually, virtual events become one-sided presentations with no chance for peer-to-peer interactions. This engaging platform allows you to discuss your favorite topic in a roundtable room. Once you are done with the virtual event, Goldcast will present you with the collected data of customers and prospects, along with actionable insights.
Airmeet
Airmeet has been designed to deliver memorable events that your audience would love. Your participants can move from one virtual session to the other, visit some exhibition booths, and visit networking lounges to interact with other participants. You can build a customized reception to maintain the stage, lounge, and booth.
You can quickly scale up your event even if there are 100K participants in your virtual event. Quickly start a live stream from YouTube and Facebook directly through Airmeet. The event data could be collected and analyzed by integrating the CRM via Zapier. You can stream the session from any live studio like OBS, WebEx, Zoom, etc.
It is a highly reliable and robust platform for hosting virtual events and has excellent integration options for better experiences. Whether you are planning for a social webinar or an award ceremony, a live show, or a trade fair, there is no need to worry because Airmeet can handle everything.
Hopin
If you are planning to host a virtual event with participants from around the world, you should look at Hopin. It will be beneficial for creating an engaging virtual event. Multiple interacting areas have been optimized for your attendees to engage and connect.
You won’t see any difference between offline and online events because of this platform. There are several customizations available to make it an ideal virtual event. Whether you are planning a recruiting event of 50 people, a hands-on meeting of 500 people, or an annual fair of 50,000 people, you can move ahead with Hopin.
Hopin allows you to manage the event from the planning to analyzing phase. You can sell tickets online or even recruit sponsors. You can even get complete analytics of the event and download the data of all the attendees. Every attendee could engage quickly, and there are options to arrange 1-1 meet-ups for better engagement between the participants.
Bevy
If you are looking for enterprise-level software for arranging virtual conferences and other events, then Bevy is the perfect one for you.
Whether planning a small conference, a meeting for your company employees, or a large-scale global event, you will find all the resources to pull it off with Bevy. It can integrate with your marketing and CRM automation software for better handling.
You can completely understand your audience’s data and use it to drive better results. Integrating all the data back with your core systems is pretty simple. There is no middleman here when the events are hosted on Bevy. The attendee data is only yours, and there would be no interference because of the platform.
Bevy can handle virtual and community events on any scale with maximum efficiency. The team of advisors is always there to provide you with their support in case of any queries or issues with the platform. You can thrive with your virtual event by planning it out on Bevy.
Hey Summit
If your aim is to monetize your passion and cater to a growing audience, Hey Summit is the platform where you can organize virtual events for everyone. It makes online event organization easy as you need to spend less time using the tools you already know.
For promoting your event, this platform lets you create a branded landing page and customize your email content. There are also some awesome marketing and engagement tools to grow your audience.
Hey Summit also offers powerful event analytics to help you track your event performance, whether the event is free or paid. It also supports the popular platforms you are already using, such as YouTube, Zoom, StreamYard, Vimeo, Twitch, Wistia, Zapier, and Google Meet.
It also lets you launch unlimited active events and invite as many attendees as you want. Speaker dashboard and attendee registration help you keep things under control.
Livestorm
Livestorm is an all-in-one platform for running interactive live events and getting actionable insights from these. This intuitive virtual event software can host virtual events at scale.
It has integrated tools for online event registration and emailing for inviting and organizing virtual events. The platform has built-in engagement features built to interact with participants. Livestorm also offers plugins for custom room design, file sharing, and many more for custom live experiences.
You can also integrate it with popular CRM applications like Salesforce and HubSpot. The platform also lets you view contact records and check participation reports to see attendance and engagement rates.
SpatialChat
SpatialChat is the right virtual space for any event you want to host, from conferences to online meetups, from keynotes to workshops. With multiple content sharing, embedding, chat, and reactions, you can make the audience feel connected and engaged.
While breathing the environment for your virtual event, it lets you add custom backgrounds, GIFs, images, videos, brand logos, and domains. It ensures data security by managing your company data through GDPR and SOC 2 Type II compliance. The platform uses SSO to allow employees to log in with a single ID.
If you use SpatialChat, you can have complete control over your Space and set it private with a password. Organizations also get to manage the user settings in the workspace or specific rooms and control employee access.
Swapcard
Using Swapcard solution, you can effortlessly build your virtual events and grow your audience base. Its backstage tools and engagement features, like chat rooms, live discussions, and roundtables, captivate the audience and speakers.
Swapcard Live Backstage lets you deliver stunning presentations to a large-scale audience. You can directly stream your video in Swapcard for an immersive online experience. Attendees can utilize 1-on-1 communication, group video chats, sponsor meetings, etc., for virtual networking. There are also Q&As, polls, quizzes, and live chats to interact with them.
The integrated payment facility of this virtual events platform allows you to implement quick registration for interested people. Moreover, it lets you customize the platform according to your brand identity. This platform also supports tracking live registration numbers & synchronizing the data with your marketing tools.
Webex Events
Webex Events is a platform where you can host virtual as well as hybrid and in-person events. So, whether your audience joins virtually or in person, they are sure to get an elevated event experience.
It comes with efficient event software, hardware, and services that event professionals can use to manage tasks across the entire event lifecycle. The software is flexible in nature — hosts can easily switch between in-person and virtual formats or organize a hybrid event to bring both groups of audiences together.
Webex Events also provide detailed data on attendee engagement, ticket sales, and sponsorship for each event. This solution lets you manage registration and ticketing from the same platform and offer onsite solutions like in-person check-in and badge printing.
It even has an intuitive and fully customizable event app to enhance the attendee experience and drives better event ROI. For event monetization, it provides banners, custom CTA, booths, and resources.
Zoom Events
On powerful platforms like Zoom Events, you can organize large-scale virtual and hybrid events. It simplifies event management for you so that you can offer a successful and unforgettable virtual experience to your audience.
The platform enables hosts to stream their sessions to the lobby. Hence, event attendees can browse through the sessions and select the one they want to join. It also supports networking among the attendees so they can connect with one another during the event.
The virtual Expo Floor feature of this tool lets event attendees interact with sponsors in live conversation and explore the content of different booths. The hosted events can be branded through a custom registration page and event lobby with your brand logo and colors.
Zoom Events also has a video-on-demand library that offers a longer shelf life to your event and allows attendees to access the content even after the event is complete. It enables you to manage all of your events and recordings in one place and collaborate with your colleagues for hosting events.
Final Thoughts
Due to the pandemic, people are stuck in their homes and bored. This is the right time to create extraordinary virtual events to help you grow your branding and business. With the help of the solutions mentioned above, you will find it pretty easy to organize and manage your virtual event while turning it into a huge success.
Next, explore the best webinar software for business growth.
