From Networking to Accessibility: How Virtual Conferences on vConferenceOnline.com are Changing the Game

In the past, attending a conference meant spending days away from the office, traveling to a new city, and spending a considerable amount of money on accommodations, meals, and transportation. However, with the rise of virtual conferences, these barriers have been broken down, and now, individuals from all over the world can attend conferences from the comfort of their own homes or offices.

Virtual events have been on the rise for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift towards online conferencing. With social distancing guidelines in place and travel restrictions enforced, many conferences had to be canceled, postponed, or moved to a virtual format. While it may have been a challenge for some at first, it quickly became clear that virtual conferences offer several benefits that in-person events cannot match.

One of the leading platforms for virtual events is vConferenceOnline.com. This platform offers an all-in-one solution for hosting virtual conferences, trade shows, and events. From networking opportunities to engaging live sessions, vConferenceOnline.com is designed to make virtual events just as effective and enjoyable as in-person events.

Accessibility is one of the primary benefits of virtual conferences on vConferenceOnline.com. Attendees no longer need to travel long distances, take time off from work, or incur travel expenses to attend an event. This accessibility means that individuals who may have been unable to attend in-person events due to distance, cost, or other factors can now participate in virtual events. It also means that events can attract a more diverse range of attendees from around the world, enhancing the networking and learning opportunities.

In addition, virtual conferences on vConferenceOnline.com provide a more flexible schedule. Attendees can join live sessions in real-time, watch recordings of sessions they may have missed, and interact with presenters and other attendees at their own pace. This flexibility enables attendees to fit the conference around their own schedule, making it easier to balance work and personal commitments while still gaining valuable insights and knowledge.

Virtual events also offer more efficient use of time and resources. In-person events require significant planning, travel, and setup time. On the other hand, virtual events can be set up quickly and efficiently, with minimal overhead costs. Furthermore, virtual events can be held over multiple days or weeks, allowing for a more comprehensive and in-depth learning experience. This extended time frame also means that attendees have more opportunities to connect and network with peers and industry leaders.

Another significant advantage of virtual conferences on vConferenceOnline.com is the ease of engagement. Attendees can participate in live chats, Q&A sessions, and polls, and engage with presenters and other attendees in real-time. This level of engagement is often more difficult to achieve at in-person events, where attendees may feel more reserved or may not have the opportunity to ask questions during a session.

Finally, virtual conferences on vConferenceOnline.com can be more cost-effective for both attendees and organizers. Attendees can save on travel, accommodations, and meals, and organizers can save on venue rental fees, catering, and other event-related expenses. This cost-effectiveness makes virtual events more accessible to smaller organizations or individuals who may not have the resources to host or attend in-person events.

Virtual conferences on vConferenceOnline.com offer numerous benefits that make them an attractive alternative to in-person events. From accessibility to flexibility, engagement, and cost-effectiveness, virtual events provide a wealth of opportunities for attendees and organizers alike. As we continue to adapt to a world that is increasingly reliant on virtual interactions, it’s clear that virtual conferences are here to stay. By leveraging platforms like vConferenceOnline.com, businesses and organizations can host successful virtual events that offer all the benefits of in-person events, without the logistical challenges and costs.

To learn more about vConferenceOnline.com and how it can help you host a successful virtual event, visit the website today. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to connect with a wider audience, save time and resources, and host an engaging and informative virtual event. Contact vConferenceOnline.com now to get started.

Keeping the Momentum Going After Your Virtual Event

So you hosted a virtual event and you earned a bunch of leads, but now what?

In order to not lose the momentum you gained with your virtual event, there are strategies you can implement to make the most out of your post-conference engagement.

Afterall, most event organizers host virtual conferences for lead gen and to establish thought leadership. And as you probably already know, virtual events are a lot of work. Don’t let that work fall short by missing the chance to maximize the power of post-event strategies.

Based on our extensive experience helping brands like you host virtual events, there are some success stories that we’ve seen brands implement to keep the momentum going even after the virtual conference is over.

Offer Your Sessions On-Demand

People get busy, last minute meetings take place and things come up that make attendees miss some or all of your virtual event.

Making the sessions available on-demand offer a way for attendees to watch your virtual event on their own time.

It’s smart to gate on-demand sessions with a lead capture form so that you can keep generating leads even after the event is over.

Email all of your contacts (attendees and non-attendees) with the landing page of all of your virtual conference sessions.

Nurture Your Contacts

Once leads have been generated from your virtual event, don’t expect them to convert into a paying customer without a little nudge.

Drip them thought leadership emails once per week for four weeks. Then on the fifth week, you will have established brand trust and familiarity so you can email them a soft sales push.

Simultaneously, while your team is organizing your virtual event, you should start developing thought leadership resources to utilize in your email drip campaign. Such resources include blog posts, eBooks, case studies, white papers, etc. The goal is for you have these resources lined up so you can start nurturing your new leads right away.

Conduct a Survey

People like to give their opinions. Sending out a survey to all of your virtual event attendees makes them feel involved and it will give you valuable insights into the event you hosted.

Consider gamifying the process and each person who fills out the survey is entered to win a $250 Amazon gift card to increase the number of people who fill out the survey.

It’s also smart to publish the results of your survey and send it to all of your attendees so that they can read about how their peers answered the questions.

Write Wrap-Up Content

Many people who host virtual conferences find themselves with an awesome plethora of video content from the speakers. Don’t let these sessions live in limbo and instead, utilize strategies that leverage all of the presentations.

Here are some ways to make the most out of your virtual conference sessions: 

  • Create a video with your top 5 favorite presentations
  • Offer the sessions on-demand
  • Write a blog post with the best tips as learned from the speakers

Tag Your Presenters on Social

We mentioned offering the virtual events sections on-demand. This allows you to share them on social even after the conference is over. Tag the presenters in these social posts and they’ll be sure to re-share them.

Do you have any tips on keeping the momentum going after a virtual event? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

 

Post-Event Engagement (Part 2)

(This version is for Event Exhibitors. If you’re an Event Manager, the post ‘Post-Event Engagement (Part 1)‘ will be a little more applicable!)

After an event you’ve sponsored has ended, you’ll probably be pretty relieved. Setting up a booth, selecting sponsorship benefits, and engaging with the attendees in and out of your booth can be a lot of work. It’s always fun to be involved in events, especially online, but there’s a fair amount of leg-work involved as well.

However, in that quiet period right after an event is over, you may be asking yourself, “Okay…now what?” You spoke to attendees at the event, promoted your business’ products and/or services, and you feel like your booth was pretty engaging. But all of that had to do with the during-event portion. What do you do afterwards?

The First Step

First of all, you’ll want to make sure your event manager fulfilled your sponsorship benefits. A lot of times, this involves a list of leads and their contact information, feedback from any sponsored sessions or advertising mtaerials you hosted, and possibly the results of a giveaway. More specifically, you’ll want to make sure you specifically know who interacted with the materials you provided for the event, if you didn’t set up your own lead capture. Those leads will be considered ‘hot’ leads, or people who have already shown significant interest in what you have to offer. You’ll also want to make sure you get the contact information and chat logs from anyone who visited your booth to speak with you.

Post-event, you’ll want to do a couple of different things to make sure you get the most out of your leads.

Types of Leads

First of all, make sure you contact those who chatted with you in your booth or via your ‘Email Us’ button with personalized messages discussing what they talked about with you. Those leads are going to be your best bet for future sales. They initiated contact with you – that’s a great sign.

Next, you’ll want to put together at least two email campaigns. If you don’t know, email campaigns are “a coordinated set of individual email messages that are deployed across a specific period of time with one specific purpose, such as download a white paper, sign up for a webinar, or make a purchase with a provided coupon.” (Thanks, Campaign Monitor.)

Email Campaigns

Photo by Muukii on Unsplash

Your first email campaign will be for those hot leads we talked about earlier. These are people you already know are interested in your products or services. You’ll be able to skip the formalities of introducing who you are and what you do (though a bit of a refresher never hurt); you can get straight to why they care who you are and what they may find useful that you have to offer.

Your second email campaign will be for the cold leads. These are ones you have to ease into contact with you; you’ll have to explain who you are, how you got their contact information, and why they care about who you are. I also recommend being extremely transparent about how they can get off your mailing list. You’re required to allow them to unsubscribe, but I find it makes you a little more personable if you make that process fairly easy to execute, even though you don’t want them to.

After a few emails in your cold lead campaign, chances are a certain number of them (between 10-30%) will click on some of your links and either interact with you directly (attend a webinar, check out some whitepapers or articles, or even contact you). Those people should be put into a hot lead campaign similar to your first. They’ve interacted with you and shown that they’re interested in what you have to offer – no need to beat around the bush with them.

The rest of the people should be dropped into a less-frequently touched email campaign that offers things like special deals, asks direct questions that they may feel compelled to answer, or shows them some great content you have to offer that will help them. These emails will be focused on ways your business will assist them for free, without a sales hook. This kind of contact will help them become warmer leads, who you can eventually drop into your hot lead campaign.

Finally…

Finally, you’ll want to keep an eye out for future sponsoring or even event hosting opportunities yourself. Things like webcasts, classes, or full conferences are a great way to offer content to all of those people you now are in contact with; they’re also a great way to find even more people to keep your funnel churning.

Have any questions? Reach out to us at production@vconferenceonline.com and we’ll be happy to help out!

Good luck!

Case Study – Online Events and Membership Sites

Today, we have a great free download of a case study for you.

We’ve created a few different case studies based on some of our most successful events hosted on vConferenceOnline. Today’s is about a technology membership site who wanted a way to communicate more effectively with their audience as well as give them a great way to access the ever-changing information in their sphere.

Using vConferenceOnline’s online event platform, they were able to reach their goals and create a fantastic international online event the size of which their industry had never seen before.

Just fill out the form below and we’ll email the case study to you!


 
      




  • Should be Empty:

Is Live Worth It?

Last week, I coordinated an enormous database/technology event. With over 30 sessions to schedule, over 20 speakers to herd, and over 1300 attendees, it was a little bit chaotic – in a great way! With so much content, so many people involved, it really turned into a fantastic event for all involved.

One of the things my team discussed before beginning the process was: should we have live sessions? 

One of the benefits to live sessions, most will say, is the increased interaction with attendees. For instance, you can roll directly from a pre-recorded session into a live Q&A to answer your attendee’s questions the way they’re used to at live events.

However, with our platform, we are able to conduct a Q&A session throughout the presentation, allowing attendees to ask questions or have in-depth discussions for over an hour, instead of 15 minutes.

One thing that we did decide to do was record the keynote sessions for each day of the event using a live streaming tool. It had all the charm and look of a live session, switching back and forth between speakers and a one-take time limit, but we were able to make sure that it was as polished as a pre-recorded session.

The mock-live sessions played at exactly the right time, there were no audio/video issues, it rolled seamlessly into the next session; none of the typical issues with a ‘live’ session were present, but it appeared live. In fact, a few attendees really believed that it was live and asked how we pulled it off.

The point I think I’m getting at for this post is that your event can have the benefits of live sessions without the stress of live sessions. Both look the same to the attendee anyway, so why not take some of the tension out of your own shoulders?


Have any questions? Send me an email at caitlin@vconferenceonline.com and I’ll be happy to help out!

Getting beyond Marketing Emails

Every marketer’s dream is to have their ideal audience and potential clients come to them.

Living the marketer’s dream.

No banner ads, spam marketing emails, or annoying commercials necessary – and it make an advertiser’s job easier. Hands-free marketing is the goal, right?

 

How do you make the marketing process so easy that your clients find you before they even know they’re looking for you?

Connect to your audience through education

That is a very broad way to say that your marketing strategy should first and foremost involve teaching your audience something that you know extremely well and that they want to learn about.

If you try to convince your audience that they should choose you you before they realize they want the services you even offer, you’ll annoy more people than you’ll close. Proving your trustworthiness and knowledge gets you in front of the competition before your potential client even knows they need you.

How do you do this?

  • Find a topic you know like the back of your hand (and they don’t).

In your sphere, there are problems that your audience is looking to solve. Chances are, you either have the solution to those problems or you know where to look to solve them. Do you have a large number of problems you know how to solve? Great! You can create an online class or a series of articles on it. By proving that you know what you’re talking about, you establish yourself as a trustworthy source. Your audience will come to you for solutions (and you’ll already be at the top of their list when they want to spend money).

  •  Talk about easy-to-tackle issues.

Don’t try to overwhelm your reader/viewer with too much information at once. Try to break up problems into smaller step-by-step solutions. If your audience comes to a webcast and realizes you’re going to be talking for three hours, they’re already checked out. Take it by small steps to make your information more accessible to your audience.

  • Don’t brush off your own expertise.

Whatever your end goal, whatever you aim to sell to your potential client, you are confident that it’s a good product or service. Don’t play down your knowledge or forget to mention how you can be so helpful to your audience. If you’re a doctor discussing what a symptom could mean, it helps the patient to trust you if they know you actually are a medical professional. Make it clear why you’re an authority on the topic.

Your ideal audience doesn’t necessarily know who you are, so if you approach them by telling them that you’re great, they’ll just ignore you like a flashing banner ad. Offer them something they need – like knowledge, helpful tips, etc. – and they’ll be much more likely to become a good lead for you.

This way, you also connect with people you know will be good, qualified leads. A smaller number of quality leads is better than a huge number of terrible ones that will never pay off. Don’t waste your time (or theirs).

Want to educate your audience with a virtual event? Check out how to get started here. Questions? Email us at sales@vconferenceonline.com

5 Reasons Why a Virtual Conference Will be More Successful for You

Events are inherently marketing for the companies involved. Whether the event is meant to be educational, networking, or simply a tradeshow, the end-goal for those arranging the event is marketing.

Most companies have a pretty strict budget for all things, but marketing is difficult to quantify, since the results aren’t always immediate or easy to measure. In that case, wouldn’t you want to make sure that any money you put toward marketing is furthering your goals?

Of course you would. So here is a short list of why you should host your events – whether they be classes, conferences, or tradeshows – online and virtually, rather than in-person.

1. Cost.

As I already mentioned above, budgets are tight. Everyone wants to make money, but they don’t want to spend it. With that in mind, here are just a few of the things you end up spending money on with in-person events:

  • Lunches for all attendees and staff
  • Coffee
  • Space for the event
    • space for presentations AND exhibitor booths
  • Security guards
  • Electricity
    • All your attendees will need somewhere to plug in their laptops
  • Clean bathrooms
  • Pens/trinkets at exhibitor booths/check in
  • Staff for check in

And on, and on, and on. None of these are a cost to consider with an online event. Security for payment and the presentations is taken care of by the platform hosting the event.
Coffee/lunches are the responsibility of attendees (as are bathrooms). If you want to do a giveaway, you only have to pay for the few shirts or keychains you decide to give away.

2. Reach

An in-person venue can only hold so many people before the firemen get antsy. Online, you only have to worry about bandwidth. If you have lots of people paying to come to your event (or lots of sponsors helping you with the cost), bandwidth is a truly minute cost. With all this extra space, you can allow so many more people in your event and therefore get your message out to them.

Additionally, only so many people can afford to travel to an in-person event. Your goal is to reach as many people, so why would you limit that? There is a cost to attend, a cost for hotel rooms, a cost for food, plus the cost for time off of work. With an online event, your attendees (and their bosses) don’t have to worry about that, so many more will be able to join you.

3. Leisure

If your presentations are broadcast at a scheduled time, there’s no sweat on the attendees to watch it as it broadcasts with On Demand capabilities. No matter how many presentations you have at an in-person event, an attendee can only view one at a time.
With On Demand, they can view any presentation they want, anytime they want, wherever they want (with an internet connection).

This makes things a lot easier for your attendees and exponentially raises the value of your event, encouraging more to register and even further increasing your reach. The convenience of watching these presentations online far surpasses the cost of travel.

4. Analytics

If you have to spend money on something, you want to know its effectiveness. Online events provide information that would be creepy (and impossible to obtain) at an in-person event.

You can know things like what presentations an attendee viewed, how long they viewed each for, which booths they went to, whether they participated in the networking chat or presentation chat.

Beyond that, with a company like vConferenceOnline, your project manager has access to the analytics of past events, which means that that person can help you to improve your event based on the successes and failures of previous events.

5. The Ultimate in Green

The whole world is trying to go green, with good reason. You can contribute to this, along with all the other benefits, while saving money. 100% virtual means no paper cups, no plastic food bags, no waste, nothing. If your company is looking to “go green” or if that is already a goal you are pursuing, I highly recommend a virtual event.

Have any questions about hosting a virtual event and want a great platform that will help you every step of the way? Email us at sales@vconferenceonline.com

What kind of virtual event should you host?

You have decided you don’t want to do an in-person event; you want to avoid the hassle, the enormous costs, the inconvenience. Now, you’re ready to dive into the virtual event space…but with what kind of event?

Luckily for you, virtual event platforms are malleable and any kind of event you want to host can be done online. However, before you start setting anything up for your event, you should choose the format, as that changes a lot of things down the line.

What kind of events are possible online? All. But here are a few categories to give you an idea.

Webinars

Webinars are typically one (or two) sessions – these don’t usually have exhibitors and
feature a smaller “footprint” with a 1-2 page registration site.  When the attendee gets to the site, they are taken to the session room during the day of the event, and to the on-
demand menu while the event is in on-demand mode.  There is not usually a conference lobby, nor are there typically exhibitor booths. However, both can be added, depending on what you envision for your event.

Online Courses

Online Courses are similar to an online university class, but shorter. These are typically several sessions (usually fewer than 15) usually offered for a fee and  starting on a specific date, with ongoing on-demand access for a period of time.  This sounds very “variable” – an example would be 12 sessions on a topic, starting on August 1 and available to attendees for a period of 30 days.  Typically, there aren’t exhibitors for courses, although sponsors and/or exhibitors are possible.  There is usually a class- or session-ending quiz and you can issue a certificate of completion if the test is passed with the score you provide.

Virtual Conferences/Online Trade Shows

These are larger virtual events, typically featuring more than two sessions/presentations.  They can include as few as 2 and as many as 150+ sessions running across many days and 12 rooms or tracks of simultaneous sessions.  Typically, with an exhibit hall, these events can also be free for attendees, paid or freemium model events. However, all aspects, including the price for attendees, are easily customizable.

Which one works for you?

This all seems very wide-open and variable – there is a lot of overlap between the events. The biggest change between them is what audience you are trying to reach. Webinars are typically free and focused on getting leads for a sponsor or yourself. Courses are focused on teaching and are usually the product you are trying to sell – there is almost never a sales message in this format. Virtual conferences are focused on educating and selling, with the sessions for educating the viewer and the exhibit hall to encourage them to talk to sponsors.

The good news is that all of these event types are extremely successful online. Each event, whether it is pre-recorded and broadcast on a schedule, broadcast live, or allows the viewer to choose when and which session to watch, at some point can allow the viewer to watch at their leisure. With an On Demand section of each event available, you can access a large international audience and spread your message further than you could with an in-person event.

Have any questions about hosting a virtual event and want a great platform that will help you every step of the way? Email us at sales@vconferenceonline.com

Your Speakers are Your Biggest Assets

A conference relies heavily on its content to market the event – which makes a lot of sense. If you see a movie trailer and hate the concept behind it, you aren’t likely to pay money to go see it, let alone waste your time with it.

Therefore, it is extremely important to have talented, comfortable, knowledgeable speakers for your event. If they are well-known, active in whatever community you are a part of, this makes them an even bigger asset. How do you use their influence to your benefit?

Many virtual event coordinators create banners or badges for their speakers to put on their website or blog. These will say something like “I am a speaker at x event” and link to the event. If you want to track how many people use the links from your speakers’ sites/blogs, you can always use a VIP or discount code.

Most public speakers have active social media accounts as well – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or a blog. These are another great opportunity for your speakers to proudly announce that they’ll be participating in the event and to encourage their peers and audience to join in on the event. With virtual events, this is even better – the followers are used to interacting with this person virtually, so communication during the event will be very effective.

Are your speakers running/part of their own companies outside of your event as well? That’s a great opportunity to set them up with a virtual event booth. They will be able to interact with attendees not only through their presentation and the chat you set up during/after, but in their booth as well. Curious attendees can learn more about the speaker’s company, which can be a huge selling point to get those popular speakers to participate in your event as well.

Make sure that your communication with your speakers is effective and frequent. This builds a relationship between you, ensuring that the speaker is having the best experience possible, encouraging them to participate in your events again in the future. Well-known speakers in your community often discuss with one another their experiences at events and if yours has been excellent, your speaker may have contacts that would be happy to participate in your future events as well!

Most of all – remember that without presenters, you would not have an event. Your speakers are very important and should be treated as such!

Types of Events

Why Virtual?
Josh Harrison, Producer
vConferenceOnline

Types of Events

I realize that the name of our platform might lead some to think that we only do conferences online. I assure you  that is not the case and my bosses didn’t make me write that either. There are many different types of events that can be done online. I’ll get into the  types we work with most often. Starting with the most obvious… in person events.

Conferences

These may be the most popular and well known types of events simply because there are so many and they generally happen in every area of interest. From finances to comic books, there are people with like interests that need to gather and communicate. For the most part these consist of keynote sessions to start off and general sessions combined with a show floor or exhibition hall for vendors to tout their offerings to attendees. Depending on the area of interest you’re probably going to a conference for the sessions or the exhibits. A subgroup to conferences would be shows or exhibition events for vendors. The attendees at these events only represent a very small portion of the actual audience for their topics. Many can’t get away from their daily lives or simply can’t afford to travel and attend.

Education

This is  also a very popular type of event. In most professional industries there is some sort of Continued Education implemented to keep pros up to date. There are requirements and standards that must be met to qualify for these CE credits. Professionals are usually busy, and time is money, so fitting in travel or even leaving the office for CE is usually a struggle.

Training

Training events are usually done on a smaller scale in person. There will be an instructor going over hours if not days worth of courseware with a select group of people. Some training programs will do a circuit or tour run to try and reach as many people in different locations as possible. Still, the reach is limited and you have an instructor repeatedly delivering material to a small audience. This requires higher registration prices due to trainer costs and can eliminate some potential trainees due to travel or costs.

Webcasts/Webinars

Marketers have long been creating events to attract attention to their product or services. A company may be releasing a new product and they want to tell the press or educate potential customers/clients. In many of these situations these are small events that require their attendees to travel.

If you are starting to see a trend I’m hoping you are starting to see the advantages of Online Events. Factor in time and costs for travel, food, lodging and attendance charges and you may see why in person events have seen a decline in attendance.

I said all of that to say this. Give the people what they want. In today’s world, individuals and businesses are accustomed to instant gratification. Everything is at their fingertips thanks to the internet. If your information isn’t easily available to the world they will find another option as quickly as type, point and click. The good news is all of these events and more can be done online.

Any craftsman knows that you need to use the right tools for the job. In the next article we’ll start to talk about what type of delivery suites your information.