In an in-person event, it takes strategy, creativity, technology, and experts to turn an empty ballroom into an experience. The same goes for a virtual event.
The difference? The venue is the platform and the experience is a broadcast.
When planning a virtual event, remember these 6 essentials:
1. UX Design
There are two ways to look at a virtual event… as a broadcast or TV show and as a web experience. As soon as attendees sign on, they are entering your event. How they navigate and experience the site is critical to their engagement and the event’s success.
2. Agenda & Show Flow
Virtual events have a different rhythm and pace than in-person. Attendee screen time has its limits and the event is competing with a lot for the audience’s attention. So like a good TV show, it has to have peaks and ebbs to engage (but not exhaust) viewers.
3. Platform Selection
There are dozens of platforms available with capabilities that vary widely in terms of scalability, flexibility, interactivity, security, and cost. While Cramer is platform-agnostic, we have lots of experience with these technologies and help our clients choose the one best suited to their objectives. Factors to consider include audience size, global reach, and number of remote speakers.
4. Broadcast Studio
While we’ve seen a lot of video shot from living rooms and basements in the last couple of months, that’s obviously not ideal. As restrictions lift, you should move your broadcast to a state-of-the-art studio, worthy of a professional TV program. And now more than ever, you’ll want to broadcast from a studio that’s designed for social distancing, cleanliness, and safety protocols.
5. Experienced Crew
Planning your production crew is critical for a successful live broadcast. Professional equipment and the experienced individuals that know how to operate it are the backbone of a seamless broadcast production. There’s no room for error on a live broadcast. That crew includes a director, camera operators, and audio engineers. But there are many more professionals behind your favorite news show, like writers, graphic designers, animators, IT technicians. At Cramer, we have all the experts under one roof.
6. Broadcast Center
Our broadcast center team can take in multiple remote presenters at one time and quickly transition between them or pivot if a presenter has issues. Through the center we add branded graphic layers, music, and animation to create an experience that looks and feels quite different than a conventional video call.
It’s amazing how quickly virtual events have become the norm in this new normal. And have come with a new set of virtual event essentials to include in your plan. The means may be changing but the end goals are the same – an exceptional attendee experience that moves business objectives forward. But now that the novelty has worn off, audiences are expecting more (Zoom just isn’t cutting it anymore).
The bar is being raised and it’s essential that companies keep up.