How to Keep Your Virtual Event Series Engaging
This week on the blog we have five tips to help with the delicate balancing act of keeping your attendees returning for more vs over-saturating them with information as you look at creating an engaging virtual event series or roadshow.
These tips can apply to any type of virtual event series, from large, multi-city roadshows to small internal team-building events. At Bash Creative, we apply these to our monthly virtual team happy hours and would love to talk to you about how we can apply these to your next virtual event series!
Be Consistent
The world is now craving stability and reliability in addition to connection. Be predictable with outreach, structure, content, tone, and follow-through.
Same time, same place. Scheduled repeating events for the same day of the week, start time, and (approx) duration. This establishes a clear structure, taking the guesswork out of when the next event will occur and allowing both the attendees and the production team to plan ahead.
Find the Attendee Communication sweet spot. Where possible, allow attendees to control the quantity and type of reminders to ensure that you hit each guest’s communication sweet spot. Our team at Bash Creative can help develop and execute an attendee communications plan that is appropriate for your event series, allowing your team to focus on more targeted, one-on-one communication. Want to learn more? Reach out today!
Create continuity between events with theme and structure. With an event series, it’s important that each event contributes to the big-picture conversation so attendees see the series as a cohesive whole, rather than as separate parts.
Our happy hours are scheduled for one hour every third Thursday of the month and calendar invites for the entire year are sent out in early January.
Listen to your audience
While a fully unique experience for each and every person is not a reality (yet!)...creating opportunities for your audience to be heard will greatly assist your team with the development of engaging, meaningful content.
Survey the target audience in advance. Gain insights into the interests and motivations of your audience to create content that curated for YOUR attendees, increasing participation.
Invite valued customers to contribute content. Tap your core audience to be presenters, exhibitors, or group discussion moderators to create a sense of ownership and bring in new attendees from personal networks, extending the reach of marketing efforts.
Encourage interactions. Offer multiple forms of engagement in the form of Q&A, guided workshops, and small group discussions, less presenter talking at attendees.
Focus on quality over quantity
The average attention span is less than an hour. With the added distractions of a remote environment (children, pets, construction), offering a focused, well-executed event series will be more impactful than many consecutive hours of divided attention.
Quality Time. Rework content into shorter, bite-sized sessions and build long-term engagement by inviting attendees to choose when to participate. For example, offer a one-hour workshop at three different times to accommodate different time zones instead of one three-hour workshop. While the number of attendees per session is lower, the quality of the experience is significantly higher.
Quality Content. It’s always worth repeating: content is king! In addition to finding well-informed speakers with well-designed presentations, offer tangible takeaways (or prizes) in the form of advice, jobs, internships, or subscriptions.
Quality Production. Ensure a polished event by working with an experienced production partner, like Bash Creative who can help prep presenters, test the technology, and think through all the details that go into a seamless user experience.
Quality Connections. Grow your community with lots of networking opportunities, perhaps including a networking integration into your platform. For your sales team, quality connections are leads with the potential to generate new business.
Get Physical
A virtual event can, and should, be able to extend into the physical world. Creating activities that attendees can either accomplish off-screen or integrate into their routines will keep your company and content top-of-mind.
Facilitate interaction with physical materials. Provide PDFs that attendees can print out that have space for additional notes. Writing with a pen or pencil, even if it’s just doodling, increases retention of content.
Ship event kits to attendees. We have a curated list of fulfillment houses to create bespoke boxes with thoughtful touches because (as mentioned above) focusing on quality is especially important. Who doesn’t love a surprise and delight at their door?
Encourage physical activity. Build into the agenda a quick stretch break in-between sessions or a standing desk break.
At our monthly happy hours, we have shown up in themed costumes, crafted, jazzersized, and more to feel engaged and energized!
Inject moments of fun
Encourage attendees to relax and get real. Laughter is one of the best forms of stress relief, seriously!
Incorporate interactive games. Whether a short icebreaker, or a longer activity, facilitating collaborative challenges helps attendees get to know each other and build a stronger connection. Add incentives by offering prizes to the winner.
Hire an experienced emcee. Not only will a professional create consistency between sessions, they will cultivate an inviting atmosphere and fill in gaps.
Bring in entertainment. Create a shared experience where everyone watches the same performance, keeping passive viewing in a virtual setting under 30 minutes to retain audience attention.
Feeling inspired to plan your next event series? We would love to hear from you!
Bash Creative is an event planning company that specializes in incredible gatherings that go beyond just great design. We’re known for teasing out smart goals for your event and serve up a stylish execution that will keep your guests buzzing. Located in San Francisco, but often found in New York, Austin, Chicago, Seattle, and beyond.