From the course: Pivoting to Virtual Events

Overcoming the engagement hurdle with virtual events

From the course: Pivoting to Virtual Events

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Overcoming the engagement hurdle with virtual events

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- The largest pitfall of any virtual event is engagement. After you've established a solid strategy aligning your event goals with both your larger business objectives and the motivations of your attendees, we have to start thinking about engagement. As seasoned event professionals we know this has long been a crucial component of any event. However engagement is exponentially more important when it comes to managing an online experience because distractions are literally a tab away. One recent industry study pulled over a thousand meeting planners and viewer engagement was found to be to be the number one biggest challenge when producing online events. Get it wrong and virtual audiences will soon become distracted by their email and social media feeds. Get it right however and your virtual event has the chance to deliver on your goals and impact your organization longterm with a sustainable, environmentally conscious, and inclusive event format. What makes engagement particularly difficult for virtual events is that you are losing out on the power of face-to-face interaction and the collective energy of people gathering together in the same room. Yet it's still up to you to cultivate a sense of connection with your attendees. So you have to view all of your pre planning efforts through the lens of engagement, because it's the easiest thing to get wrong and yet it's the only true way to make your event an effective one. And the good news is simply understanding this roadblock exists is the first step. Knowing the ways to overcome this most common obstacle comes next. The next few movies are going to take a deeper look into how we can impact engagement through a variety of methods, like sculpting a proper attendee journey, varying your session formats, and choosing the right presenters.

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