Virtual event planners provide all of the logistical details so you can focus on providing an exceptional event experience to your attendees. Furthermore, they ensure it’s accessible for all attendees regardless of any special needs they may have.
Establish a comprehensive agenda for the virtual event to organize all activities, such as meetings with speakers and stakeholders to determine which topics will be covered.
1. Experience
Producing a virtual event requires experience and expertise of an event planning service to successfully execute. By outsourcing this task to someone else, your company can focus on what matters most – the content of its virtual event.
Virtual events have seen an upsurge due to pandemic concerns, requirements of staying at home or social distancing, easy-to-use communication platforms and companies wanting to reach more people worldwide. Virtual events include webinars, conferences, internal hybrid events (such as workshops or training programs for staff members or one-time/recurring educational programs), fundraising initiatives, expert panels with Q&A sessions for storytelling purposes or interactive forums – with virtual participation available anywhere worldwide.
Virtual event coordinators need to be adept in all areas of digital event planning, from logistics and scheduling, registration and sourcing through marketing, branding and platform development to AV content production support and production support services. Furthermore, they should have experience troubleshooting backend issues, software/app glitches as well as internet problems.
Establish and cultivate relationships with both local and international vendors who offer an array of services and products to assist virtual event organizers in creating memorable, impactful experiences for attendees, such as entertainment providers, audiovisual equipment suppliers, gift/swag bag suppliers and virtual team building instructors.
Establish and sustain an information collection, project management and compliance monitoring process with timelines, deliverables and overall needs of stakeholders such as A/V, Facilities, IS and Design teams.
Maintaining budgets and expenses for virtual events, and reviewing expenses quarterly to identify essential, priority, and nice-to-have items necessary to grow the business is essential in order to promote expansion. This may include paying networking membership fees, advertising expenses and marketing costs associated with growing awareness about virtual event planning services.
2. Technology
Virtual event planning is still relatively new; as such, many are unfamiliar with all the tools included in an event management toolkit. To be an effective virtual event planner it is critical that one becomes acquainted with all available technology.
Software and hardware are both essential elements for creating, managing, and delivering virtual events successfully. Software helps create consistency in presentation and experience for the audience as well as customization to meet specific requirements. Understanding the various platforms’ abilities ensures a virtual event planner can quickly troubleshoot issues during or post conference.
Virtual event planners must possess an intimate knowledge of both physical equipment and social media platforms that support virtual conferences in addition to software knowledge. This includes everything from lighting, audio and videography equipment as well as physical staging requirements for an event online conference.
Virtual event planners must communicate effectively with both their client and other team members, whether that means through email, Slack or any other project management tools to communicate and track tasks progress. Virtual event planners must communicate clearly and efficiently so as to meet all deadlines successfully.
3. Marketing
While virtual events have grown increasingly popular due to pandemic, they still require many of the same basic elements found in in-person conferences and meetings. The challenge lies in getting attendees excited for an event they cannot physically attend and making sure it runs smoothly once underway.
As part of an effective event planning approach, planners should create a virtual event planning checklist which covers every key stage in the process. This allows planners to follow an orderly plan without missing any vital steps on the day of the event itself. Furthermore, this list can be shared with speakers and other key players involved so they know what is expected from them.
Once your team has developed their plan, the next step should be promoting the event. A dedicated event website should contain essential details, such as speaker biographies and an agenda; an online registration platform provides another critical function – collecting registration data while processing payments if applicable.
Partnering with influencers can be an excellent way to reach new audiences and encourage social sharing. Offering brand experiences such as digital scavenger hunts, image filters and giveaways will foster brand loyalty while driving organic traffic towards events.
Employing multiple marketing channels – email, social media and paid search (if budget allows). Emailing current and past attendees of an event is a powerful way to generate demand and build excitement about it. Sending personalized messaging rather than generic content increases engagement while producing tangible results.
4. Training
Virtual Event Planners need the appropriate tools in place in order to thrive as virtual event organizers. An appropriate platform allows your team to quickly execute events while providing high return on investment for clients.
To maximize efficiency, your event tech platform should seamlessly integrate with CRM and marketing automation systems, enabling your team to act swiftly on leads while quickly analyzing key data like session attendance and engagement.
Virtual event planning platforms can simplify many time- and labor-intensive tasks that would otherwise take much of a team to manage, including talent wrangling, meeting with clients to gather information and establish timelines and deliverables, creating registration platforms for events, creating content presentations and more.
Attaining maximum efficiency from virtual event software requires understanding its capabilities and limitations. Familiarizing yourself with all available virtual event solutions from Zoom to WebEx to vFair and Socio (now owned by Cisco) will enable you to speak knowledgeably about each option while selecting the one best suited to your client’s requirements.
Attain a firm understanding of each tool’s features, including recording sessions and uploading them to video portals, hosting multiple events simultaneously and other features that will enhance attendees’ virtual experience. Utilize social plug-ins that many platforms offer for audience interaction as well as setting up custom polling or surveys to track event success – this way you’ll be ready to confidently sell and recommend appropriate tools to clients, establishing yourself as a virtual event planner and driving growth for your business.
5. Client Relationships
“Doing work virtually has become part of life for event planners in an age when work can often take place virtually, with clients being located anywhere from coast to coast. For them, this involves building relationships with clients they don’t always see in person and fostering client relationships virtually through new techniques such as improving communications or taking steps towards building trust – all the while having an in-depth knowledge of working virtually with clients.”
When you launch your virtual event planning service, ensure your target clients understand that virtual events still incur production expenses, even though these might not be as substantial as booking a conference room or organizing travel arrangements for attendees. Itemizing these fees for clients helps create transparency; you might even choose a value-based pricing model in which fees for services are priced per project or percentage of revenue generated by clients.
Your clients will likely ask questions about your ability to create an engaging virtual event for them, so be ready with answers by outlining a clear process for selecting and training virtual assistants (VAs). Create a job description outlining qualifications, responsibilities and software proficiency needed by VAs before interviewing candidates using structured criteria designed to assess compatibility and skills; depending on your business model this might include reference checks to ascertain work history and reliability.
Establishing a virtual event planning service can expand your reach, attract a wider audience and enhance the value of your events. Make sure to follow-up with clients after each virtual event to assess their satisfaction; when they rave about it, that will prove that your investment was well worth it!
