Virtual Events: Don’t Make These Rookie Mistakes
(An edited version of this article was published in MeetingMentor Magazine in Spring 2021)
Hmmm....
OK, well, this wasn’t supposed to last this long. At the same time, it doesn’t seem that long ago people were using Justin Timberlake memes to indicate “It’s Gonna Be May” for when we’d be over the hump with coronavirus lockdowns. Then came the endless polls of planners asking them when they thought there’d be a return to in-person events. July, August, September... Heck, even the UK government announced that event centers and exhibitions had a target of October 1, 2020 for reopening- only to go into full-on lockdown as the holidays approached.
And so here we are in 2021, and the industry is still on lockdown. Aside from a few “trial balloon” in-person events in less-restrictive locales (and a few flagrantly violating the rules because somehow the rules don’t apply to them), in-person events just aren’t happening at scale. As hard as it is to say it, that’s probably for the best, because nobody wants to be responsible for the death of one of their attendees. I’ve been at an event where someone died due to carelessness with health issues, and it’s not something I’d like to ever repeat.
We have vaccines, but they’re not getting distributed as fast as anyone would like, so the drumbeat of the return to in-person events, instead of getting louder, just keeps playing the same beat, as it has for the last 10 months. “Maybe in six months”, “Maybe in six months”, “Maybe in six months,” it calls.
A lot of events were canceled in 2020, with the plan to return in 2021. Others were hurriedly rushed online in emergency fashion, with little thought to design or engagement. “Let’s just get it online for 2020 and we can return to normal next year.” Except next year, is now. So many of you find yourself in the position of having to produce your first online event (or risk postponing another year and losing your audience), or are coming around to your second major online event, having only done a “single-cheeked” job on your last one. Can you convince your audience to come back for another round of online?
With so many planners in this particular predicament, it seemed worthwhile to look back at what we’ve learned from the online events that have been produced over the last year, and get “back to basics”.
The Big “Why”
Even when it comes to our in-person events, I can’t help but feel this question isn’t asked enough: “Why are we doing this event?” Sadly, all too often the answer is “Because we always have.” If you don’t know why you’re doing the event, how can you design it in a way that’s going to give you the desired outcome? Before you even Google “online events”, you need to stop, take a breath, and figure out the goals and objectives for your event. Why are you doing it? What’s the desired outcome? Education? Sales? Networking? Profit? Make enough money to sustain your industry association for another year? Be real. Be brutal. Be honest. And don’t move on to the next step before you know the answers.
Engage Your Stakeholders
Most of the “epic fails” in online events have come from not including all of your stakeholders in the process. Not just your internal stakeholders, such as executives, marketing directors, salespeople, and others, but also your external stakeholders: your attendees, your sponsors, and your exhibitors. All of them are going to have their own “why” for the event. Before you decide on a platform (the online “venue” for your event), you need to know what these folks want and need. What do they actually get out of the event? For your attendees, is it networking? Is it education? For your exhibitors, is it sheer volume of contacts? Or would a more targeted audience be preferred?
If you just randomly decide on a platform that “has virtual tradeshow capabilities”, go to your exhibitors and say, “Here’s what we’re doing and it costs $15,000 per virtual booth”, chances are they’re not going to be happy. But if you engage them early on in the process, really listen to what they need, and design your event with that in mind? It can be worth more to them than the in-person event would have, especially factoring in the reduced cost of shipping, hotels, and airfare, and the ability for online events to provide ludicrously targeted data. And the same goes for your attendees.
Don’t Just Throw Your In-Person Agenda Online
Many of the other “rookie mistakes” come when planners just check off the boxes from their in-person event. General session? Check. 36 breakout sessions? Check. Evening dinner? Send ‘em an UberEats card. Afterparty? Ship ‘em a bottle of wine. “Ok, we’re good!” Usually, they’re completely neglecting what the attendees get out of those activities. The evening dinner and afterparty are almost never about the food. While that’s a part of the experience, they’re almost always more about networking, celebrating, and having with friends you haven’t seen in a while- their “why”. So, you need to provide those activities somehow in the online space. Will it be the same as in-person? No, but get creative and keep looking for the underlying “what they get out of it” for your event, rather than “what we’ve always done.”
While we’re on that subject, let’s talk about that general session and those breakouts. You thought Death by PowerPoint was bad in-person? It’s waaaay worse online. Think about it. In-person, there’s often peer pressure to stay in the room. Online? You can easily drift off to check your email, or hit mute and hop on a call. If the content and presenter aren’t engaging, it’s way too easy for an attendee to drift away. If they do, how likely are they to have gotten what they wanted out of those sessions?
You have to think like a TV producer- shorten your segments, and keeping them lively. Reduce the slides, and turn up the volume on personality. Remember, not only do your exhibitors and attendees not have to fly somewhere and stay in a hotel, the same goes for your presenters. “A-list” presenters are offering discounted rates for online presentations, and are more likely to say yes to your event if they don’t have to leave the comfort of their own home!
Create a Safe Space
There is no doubt that the Internet has connected humanity in a way previous generations could never have thought possible. The fact that I have friends and colleagues all over the world are a testament to the ability to connect and engage with people online. But there’s also a downside to that layer of abstraction. There’s frequently an amplification of the normal jerktitute of everyday humans that seems to rear its ugly head in cyberspace. Information literally moves at the speed of light, including disinformation, conspiracy theories, and hate.
Make it clear in your Terms and Conditions that none of that will be tolerated at your event, and have a plan in place to remove those that violate those policies. I really thought we were past “Zoom Bombing”, but as new batches of amateur online event producers try their hands at it, the lessons are still being hard-learned. Never, ever share direct links to your event on Zoom (or any other platform) publicly. Bad actors have bots trolling the web for anything that looks like a meeting link, and if they find it, they post it online for the worst of the worst to do their... worst. Be wary of free services that offer the ability to create a pretty landing page or “wrapper” around your Zoom event, as it may just be bait for getting the links to your event.
There’s plenty more, of course, but that’s a great place to start. As long as you’re true to the goals and objectives of your event, as long as you’re true to the wants and needs of all your stakeholders, and as long as you provide a safe environment for them to congregate and engage with each other, you’re most of the way there. Take a breath, you’ve got this!
