Virtual events have been prevalent for many years, but a sudden boost in virtual & hybrid events have been witnessed in the past few months. Today, the internet is flooded with virtual conferencing platforms that offer interactive & immersive virtual event solutions. As we walk ahead with time, virtual events have become an integral part of almost every industry.
What is Virtual & Hybrid Events?
“A gathering of people in a virtual environment over the internet rather than meeting in a physical location is known as virtual events. Whereas live on-ground events combined with a virtual component that allows the virtual audience to tune in from a remote location, thus bringing both virtual & live audience together is known as hybrid events.”
Nowadays, virtual events have emerged as a new marketing strategy for businesses as well as corporates. Virtual conferences and events allow you to expand your reach globally and connect with a wide spectrum of audiences irrespective of any geographical constraint. It is one of the most innovative ways to increase lead generations and conversions even in the time of the global pandemic.
In the era of Coronavirus, hosting virtual events on the virtual events platform has come as a savior that prevented many businesses from dipping down. It became immensely popular in no time. Starting from recurring day to day virtual meetings to conferences, webinars, trade shows, internal or external hybrid events all are hosted seamlessly on virtual event platforms thus boosting better engagements. Marketers & organizers are heavily relying on this virtual event strategy to increase attendee participation and maximizing ROI as virtual events or hybrid events are highly interactive. As per records, virtual events generate better revenues at a lower cost when compared to on-ground events over the same period. If you have not yet embraced virtual events, it’s time to explore the real benefits of virtual events.
Let’s get started!
Top 7 benefits of hosting virtual conference and events
1. A cost-effective measure
Undoubtedly, virtual events save an enormous amount of money as it shrinks the budget. The money spent on in-person events such as accommodation, venue, set-up, staff, travel, food & beverage, and so on get considerably reduced, all thanks to virtual events. The major expense that an organizer has to bear during virtual events is the cost of a virtual event platform that allows you to interact with your audience globally from their remote locations.
2. It expands the reach globally
Organizers and planners are always on the verge of looking out for new ways to increase the reach of the event and engage more attendees with it. Hosting events on the best virtual conference and event platforms makes the work easy as it is accessible to the audience globally without any geographic constraints. Incorporating virtual event strategy in your plan allows people around the world to join the event instantly.
3. Boosts better engagements
When compared to on-ground events, virtual or hybrid events are highly interactive as it is designed as per attendee requirements. Various barriers like geographical constraints, space limitations, etc. get easily resolved with virtual and hybrid events thus allowing c-level executes to attend the event as well. As virtual events help in expanding the reach thus resulting in increased participation and better engagements. A virtual event platform that compiles interactive engagement tools such as live audio/video/text chats, polls, surveys, spin the wheel, Q & A sessions, etc. keeps the audience engaged for the entire duration of the event. Apart from it, virtual event services allow attendees to share documentation, have one-on-one real-time conversations with other attendees, and can freely share their views and opinions in real-time through commenting. As participation and engagement increases, it simultaneously increases the lead generation.
4. Saves a lot of time
When you plan to host a virtual event, a lot of time is saved when compared to on-ground events. Even though virtual events do require some time for the virtual event set up, registration, marketing & promotion, but the time is reduced considerably than that of on-ground events. As your attendees do not need to travel to attend an event and employees for event set-up, thus resulting in saving time. It allows them to invest that saved time in other important and necessary things that need to be done to make the event successful.
5. It’s Flexible
Virtual event platforms allow you to host your virtual event in a digital space and reach a wide spectrum of audiences globally. As virtual events take place over the internet, it offers a lot of flexibility in a way to webcast your event. Whether you are hosting an internal virtual meeting, conference, town hall meeting, trade show, job fair, or any other events, you can customize the event at your convenience. You can opt to keep the session’s public or private, interactive or non-interactive, offer different language options, invite as many guest speakers, including Q & A sessions, introduce quizzes, offer giveaways, and much more suiting the needs of your event. Virtual events are flexible for speakers as well as it does not require their physical presence. They can simply tune in online from the comfort of their own space.
6. Collecting feedback becomes easy with virtual events
Gaining valuable feedback from the attendees of the event is a crucial part. With virtual events, the audience is constantly live that allows them to vote in real-time polls and surveys during sessions. Real-time audience opinions help presenters to know how their session is going and which part of the event holds the most value to the audience. It helps in measuring the success of your virtual event.
7. Its highly trackable
Virtual events are highly trackable right from the start to the end of the event. Virtual event platforms keep a complete track of your event right from registration, how many attendees registered, how many attendees attended the event, how many likes, how many people shared the event, how they paid, how many attendees commented, took part in polls and surveys and so on. Gathering complete data of the event is much easier with online events than in-person events because virtual events take place over the internet in place of a physical ground or space, it becomes completely trackable. A plus for an organizer, marketer, or presenter!
Conclusion
Recently the spike in virtual events services have been witnessed due to global pandemic, but these benefits can help any organization or business to leverage from virtual events even after the lift from travel bans and social gatherings. If you have not yet entered the gateway of virtual events now is the time to get started and work on adding a virtual component to future events!
