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A new era of events requires a new playbook. 

Today,  events of all shapes and sizes - from business conferences to a virtual  tradeshow, music festivals to company offsites - are now increasingly virtual  or hybrid. These formats are the future of events. But you already know this.

The upside is that this gives an event marketer the ability to capitalize on the many benefits of these new types of events, from increased reach to better return on investment. 

However, this sea-change has meant that many event professionals, who have traditionally organized in-person events, do not have the requisite knowledge or skills to leverage virtual or hybrid events effectively. You simply cannot copy-and-paste in-person strategies and formats to virtual experiences.

So the need to upskill, and reskill for event planners and marketers has never been more urgent. 

So what are the most critical things you now need to know to ensure that you’re well ahead of the curve rather than being left behind? Keep reading to find out.

1. Event production and platform technology 101

According to EventMB’s The Future of the Event Industry 2021 Outlook,  only 53% of event professionals consider themselves “comfortable or savvy” with virtual event technology. That’s a huge number.

It’s understandable because there are different aspects to producing virtual and hybrid events; you’ll need to know how to work with audio, video, light, broadcasting and your chosen virtual event platform. But, to give your attendees the best experience possible, familiarity with the technical equipment used for virtual or hybrid event production is essential. There’s no way around it. 

Virtual events

Let’s look at an example. Say you need to plan a virtual university alumni reunion. You’re looking for a way to have an introductory session, play videos about the university, notable alumni, and projects requiring alumni support. You’d like to set up ways for alumni to reconnect in class groups and 1:1 as well. And you’d also like a way to enable alumni to donate to the university. 

Unless you have a familiarity and an understanding of a virtual event platform’s capabilities and crucially, the ways it lends itself to new online attendee behaviors and needs, you won’t be able to pick the one that best suits your requirements and delivers the results you want. 

For the virtual university alumni reunion, here’s what the platform will need to have:

• Stages (to host your keynote and video plays)
• Rooms (to enable small group conversations - organized by Classes for instance)
• Networking (to spark connections between alumni across ages and geographies) Click here to read about Zuddl’s AI-powered Smart Networking 

“It’s important to start training on the latest technology available to us. We have been using AI-powered matchmaking platforms to connect with potential customers and have meetings throughout the year, which eventually results in a face-to-face business opportunity at a live exhibition.” – Nick Dugdale-Moore, European Regional Manager, UFI.

Knowledge is power. 

Hybrid events

Organizing a hybrid event will require you to not only work with a virtual event platform but with lighting, sound, and broadcast equipment at your in-person venue. 

You can, of course, take the easy way out by working with an event production company (like Zuddl’s partner, Entertainment Technology Partners) that will handle all aspects of the production for you. Using studios and set design, production companies can enhance the visual experience and immersive-ness of your event and showcase your message and branding. 

But it’s best to know about the various parts of the production so that you can guide your partners to achieving the experience and results you want.

Troubleshooting

It’s inevitable to experience some hitches before or during the event, so having a solid understanding of the tech involved will help you quickly fix any issues. 

2. Digital content strategist 

It’s just not feasible to apply in-person strategies and processes to virtual and digital experiences. The two are worlds apart. 

For instance, while previously a 5-hour in-person event may have been the norm, it’s unreasonable now to expect virtual attendees to sit in front of a screen for that amount of time. Or, while your in-person attendees may have been content to sit in the audience watching an interview between two speakers onstage, it’s very probable that your virtual attendees will get bored in 10 minutes watching this online and will just switch to another tab. 

This is why an event marketer or organizer needs to be able to wear a digital content strategist ‘hat’ so to speak. In a virtual event environment, attendees no longer have the in-person distractions of a large and noisy venue crowded with sessions, expo halls, and plenty of other attendees. Their focus is going to be solely on the content you provide and the experience you curate.

As a digital content strategist, you’ll learn how to :

1. Create content that supports your event goals
2. Make your content more accessible and participatory
3. Plan content delivery to accommodate online behaviors

To illustrate, let’s say you’re planning to host a virtual summit. Giving attendees a mix of content formats during the event can help to hold their attention and boost engagement with your content. For example:

1. Host thought-leadership sessions around your event theme.

Pro-tip: Use your event platform engagement features to give attendees the ability to ask questions and interact with speakers and get exclusive insights they won’t find anywhere else.

2. Organize virtual workshops based on event sessions

Pro-tip: Send attendees into virtual Rooms for post-session workshops. Give them problems or activities to discuss in small groups, and then invite them back to the Stage to present their findings. 

3. Make content recordings and supplementary info available at all times

Pro-tip: To accommodate busy work days and different time zones, make your content available on your virtual event venue for attendees to access at their convenience. Virtual Expo Booths are a great way to house case studies, white papers, video tutorials, and other forms of shareable online content. You can even make this available throughout the year to extend the life cycle of your virtual event.

With the right mix of content formats and engagement spaces and tools, you can fight the dreaded ‘goldfish attention span’ and keep attendees interested and invested in your content. 

3. Data analytics

One of the biggest benefits of holding virtual events for an event marketer or organizer is the ability to track the movements and actions taken by your attendees in real-time - something not possible with in-person events. You’ll be able to see how long attendees stay at your event, which sessions drew the most interest, which content formats are getting higher rates of engagement, etc. 

But you’ll need to have a grasp of analytic tools in order to take advantage of the data you collect, make changes on the fly, and improve the ROI of future virtual events.

4. Speaker Management     

At in-person events in the past, you may have just needed to brief speakers before their event and called it a day. Managing speakers for your virtual event however requires a little more care and effort. 

Keep in mind that your speakers will be unfamiliar with a virtual platform and will need help accessing and utilizing its features for their presentations. So to ensure that your speakers have a great experience at your event and to empower them to host engaging, interesting sessions, you’ll need to spend some time taking them through the platform and the tools they can use to drive better audience participation. 

A dry run or two will be indispensable in building their confidence and yours as well. 

Zuddl’s Backstage is a game-changer when it comes to Speaker management (#shamelessplug). You can use this virtual greenroom to prep speakers before they go ‘On Air’, and have a direct line of communication with them during the presentation. This will let you help with any unexpected issues, keep them on schedule and assist with audience engagement.

To sum up…

With virtual events here to stay, event marketers and planners need to reskill and upskill in order to stay ahead of the competition and reach more customers. There’s plenty to learn, but a fundamental understanding about tech, digital content, and management is a good start, coupled with stepping out of the “not how things are done” mentality. It may be a pain now, but it is sure to pay off in the long run. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

We are no longer prisoners of geography.

This means you now can have attendees from Palo Alto to Perth joining, participating, and collaborating at your virtual event. That’s incredible.

But once you’ve (virtually) high-fived everyone in the marketing team, and start thinking about the logistics of it all, there’s one big challenge that you’ll notice immediately: how can you create an engaging and exciting virtual event experience for all your attendees if they’ll all be tuning in from different places and different times? After all, when your attendees are all set to go at 10:00 AM in Palo Alto, other attendees will be snoring away in their beds at 2:00 AM in Perth. Hardly ideal.

And even if your attendees were all located within your timezone, it’s still improbable that every single one of them will be able to stay throughout your event. Thanks to busy workday schedules as well as the blurring of home-work life, we are all working more nowadays which means that your attendees may have to miss out on parts of your event.

So, how do you ensure that all your attendees are able to attend your event and derive value from it? 

Asynchronous content delivery.

Wait, what does asynchronous mean?

‘Asynchronous’ simply means not existing or occurring at the same time; it’s the opposite of something ‘synchronous’ which is used to describe something happening in real-time. For instance, if you send someone an email and they reply hours later, that’s asynchronous while a video call, a phone call, a face-to-face meeting is synchronous.

How do I use asynchronous content at my virtual event? And why should I?

In the context of virtual events, this means that you can plan in some asynchronous content that everyone can consume and engage with regardless of different time zones i.e. instead of specific times for a live session or conversation, attendees can watch pre-recorded content or consume pre-made materials like PDFs or presentations and answer questions or prompts on their own time (think Netflix vs. TV).

The  advantages are undeniable:

1. Offers flexibility and convenience for organizers and attendees‍

Organizers no longer have to deal with the headache of finding times that work across multiple time zones. And attendees don’t have to deal with having to join an event at strange times; there’s no need for anyone to tune in at 3:00 AM. Everyone can enjoy the convenience of joining when they can, engaging and contributing on their own time.

2. Gives people the ability to learn at their own pace

Asynchronous content gives your attendees more time to digest information and formulate ideas, and as your event content can be produced in multiple formats— such as blogs, research reports, and video presentations — your attendees have more freedom in the way they want to learn about a topic. This is “very learner-centric. It’s for me to consume when I can consume it and how I want to consume it,” says Derrick Johnson, director of event strategy and development and chief diversity officer at Talley Management Group.”

3. Enables diverse input

By giving attendees from different geographies and disciplines access to your event content, you can receive broader and deeper responses and insights. Additionally, because there’s no pressure to immediately respond, more attendees and especially introverted participants can feel more emboldened to share their opinions. 

It’s very clear that ‘anytime, anywhere’ content is integral to ensuring that no attendees miss out on important parts of your event, and in this way, it helps to build a shared experience for all your attendees. 

But this is not to say that your entire virtual event has to consist only of asynchronous content.  When speaker and attendee dialogue, or real-time attendee connection and collaboration are essential to the goals of your event, planning in synchronous content is needed too. 

Striking the balance between asynchronous and synchronous content 

The appeal for blending learning and engagement is that your attendees will benefit from the advantages of both: content they can access at any time and real-time meetings that are focused and productive.

Derrick Johnson, director of event strategy and development and chief diversity officer at Talley Management Group, sums this up succinctly, commenting: “For me, in this event space, the best model is a collaboration between synchronous and asynchronous learning, where you have the opportunities for the learners to [learn] at their own pace, at their own leisure, engage with the pre-recorded content that exists in the space,” he says. “But you’re providing opportunities of adapting this synchronous learning together so that people can connect at a later point and build upon the learning and on the concepts that they’ve gathered during that independent time.”

Here are some simple ways to incorporate both at your event:

• Simulated live sessions

With a simulated live session, a speaker or panel’s presentation is pre-recorded and played on a specific date and time during the event. But it has a live component as well. While the presentation is played, a speaker/speakers will be available to talk in real-time with a virtual audience and answer their questions. Simulated live sessions can accommodate different regions and time zones - with local presenters available for the real-time chat - to generate the same excitement and immediacy for all your attendees.

• Pre-recorded stage presentation + live workshops/group discussions

Playing recorded content on Stages or creating a content hub using a virtual Expo Booth is an easy way to get all your attendees to consume the material as per their convenience. Then organize workshops in each time zone for attendees to discuss the pre-recorded content and share their opinions with each other. 

Pro-tip: Zuddl’s virtual Rooms enable you to host and moderate small group conversations. This feature is particularly useful as it has an option to view the content playing on a Stage, so attendees can refer directly to it during their discussions. 

• Training sessions

You can turn the last suggestion on its head. Hosting live instructor-led training sessions for attendees in each of your timezones is a great way to drive value, especially since it gives attendees the ability to ask questions and get real-time feedback. You can record these sessions and make them available to attendees in other timezones as well, so everyone can learn from each other.

Real-life examples of asynchronous and synchronous content at virtual events

Example 1:  The University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland’s Kongress zur Begabungs- und Begabtenförderung (IBBF)

FHNW, one of Switzerland's leading universities of applied sciences and arts, hosts an international event every three years for all teachers and specialists interested and involved in the promotion of talent. Usually, talent centers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland hold sessions with world-leading experts to enable an exchange beyond regional and national borders; international speakers present current school developments and findings for discussion.

With the pivot to virtual, the organization had to rethink routine practices. With experts from the US as well as teachers with busy school schedules joining the event, organizers needed to bring in some flexibility within the fixed schedule. So live presentations, as well as pre-recorded workshops, were on the agenda and organizers made the program available as a recording for several days afterwards. Attendees could also download the presentation slides from the virtual event platform.

Example 2: German Society of Periodontology DG PARO’s hybrid 2020 Annual Meeting

DG PARO is a leading German dental organization that hosts a meeting for professionals every year. Responding to the challenge of the pandemic, the organization decided to host a "hybrid congress" instead, combining in-person and online events. This meant that up to 100 attendees could attend the event from the physical venue in  Stuttgart while virtual attendees could join via a virtual event platform. 

Organizers were careful to ensure that all attendees were able to derive plenty of value from the event; networking and chat rooms were set up throughout to encourage attendees to get to know each other and make professional connections as per their convenience; furthermore, in-person attendees were able to attend live presentations that were streamed to the virtual venue so attendees joining in from home could also access and engage with the content. The sessions were recorded and made for subsequent on-demand viewing for those tuning in from other time zones.

To sum up …

With asynchronous content, you can spread your event over longer periods of time, hold repeated sessions for attendees in different time zones, and keep that content available for consumption and lead generation after the official event ends. This gives your attendees more flexibility in selecting and consuming content and can help you drive more registrations,  participation, and member value.

But it’s not a be-all.

It’s important for organizers to consider both synchronous and asynchronous content delivery in planning, and be purposeful in creating opportunities for both to complement each other. Without asynchronous content, attendees in multiple time zones can feel like second-class citizens, but with synchronous content you can add more energy, excitement, and real-time feedback.

Providing both options offers attendees a balance between content and community and gives them the ability to choose how to consume and interact.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

At first glance, planning a virtual event can seem pretty easy. All you need to do is curate an amazing line-up of speakers, rope in a fantastic virtual event platform partner, and you’re good to go, right?

Well, not quite.

Just like catching a roadrunner, organizing a virtual event can seem deceptively simple. Think through all the activities associated with the event lifecycle: from making an event landing page to setting up ticketing, and creating your virtual event venue to sending out post-event emails, there's quite a lot to do (not that we’re trying to scare you).

But the fact of the matter is that every part of your event lifecycle is a separate activity in itself. And if one fails, it’ll have direct consequences on every other activity - in the end, impacting the overall success of your event. 

The best way to cut through the planning and logistical stress: virtual event tools that make your work more efficient and streamlined. Here are the essentials that you should already know about:

The virtual event tools you need to use

Ticketing

As you know, the event experience starts as soon as your prospective attendee shops for tickets to your event, which means that you can’t afford for the ticketing experience to be anything other than smooth and clear. That’s where an event ticketing tool can be invaluable. 

Tools like Aventri, or Eventbrite will streamline the entire ticketing process for you. You will be able to 

• Create a dedicated landing page for your event with ticketing incorporated (the amount of customization offered depends on the tool you choose)
• Put different ticket tiers, and corresponding prices in place
• Set up payment options
• See real-time ticketing performance data so you can improve and optimize sales.

The tool you choose will determine how creative you can get with ticketing; some organizers for instance are offering  NFTs as a virtual/hybrid event ticket which is a unique and exclusive way to drive sales and nurture brand loyalty. (Click here for more on the inventive ways NFTs are being used in virtual events).

Payments

In the world of ever-increasing impatience and frustration, speed and effortlessness are the name of the game. If your attendees face any issues at the point of purchase, they’re likely to back out and have a negative view of your brand. That’s why domestic and international payment tools like  Stripe, Razorpay, Paypal or PayU are so important. A fast, easy and reliable checkout shortens the time from interest to purchase and helps to create a good brand impression. 

CRM

Today’s attendees are more demanding than ever before.

Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” report spells this out, stating that attendees expect “proactive service, personalized interactions, and connected experiences across digital channels.” And 71% of those polled said that they would make a purchase decision based on experience quality.

What this boils down to is once an attendee purchases a ticket, you’ll need to make sure that they feel like a VIP. To this end, CRM tools such as Hubspot, Marketo and Salesforce are an organizer’s best friend, enabling you to manage your attendees through the entire event lifecycle and streamline communication with them. This means you’ll be able to:

• Send out automated ticket registration emails, event notifications and reminders, and session recordings post-event to create a personalized experience - there’ll be no chance of attendees receiving an email addressed to the wrong person.
• Keep tabs on attendee activities throughout the event and provide more opportunity for fostering leads 
• Automate tasks and optimize your time and effort

Leverage a CRM tool to its utmost and you’ll be able to give your attendees an event experience that’ll earn you rave reviews on social media, make them more open towards a future purchase, and foster brand loyalty.

Streaming

An overload of virtual sessions with talking-head programming just won’t cut it anymore. For your virtual events to be more engaging and impressive than a PowerPoint presentation, you’ll need to be able to play video during your sessions. Here’s why its indispensable:

• With the help of a production studio, you can leverage technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Extended Reality (XR), and other virtual sets to create a unique and immersive experience
• Live-streaming also helps to build community. Speakers can interact with attendees, and answering questions, and taking Polls which bring an immediacy to the proceedings
• Playing pre-produced video content ensures that there are no hitches during the event

Thanks to streaming tools such as Youtube, Vimeo, GoToWebinar, Zoom, and Teams, you’ll be able to stream videos in and out in real-time with ease.

Translators

One of the biggest advantages of virtual events is the ability they give you to reach a larger audience than was previously possible; one that is spread throughout your country or even around the world. 

However, with this ability also comes a responsibility that all your attendees regardless of location or the language they speak, are equally able to access and consume your content. 

This is where translation tools like Interprefy, SyncWords, and Google Translate can make a big difference:

• Multilingual audio support enables attendees who speak different languages to still be able to read and digest the content presented at your event
• Live captioning allows you to make every spoken word in the videos you share at the event consumable for attendees who are hard of hearing

What’s the secret to getting all the tools you need for your virtual event?

From making your life easier to creating a better experience for your attendees, it’s easy to see the benefits of virtual event tools. So why aren’t all event organizers using them? Sadly, not all virtual event platforms offer integrations with these tools forcing organizers to depend on paid tools to manage such integrations, which is neither a flexible or scalable solution.

To resolve this integration headache for organizers, Zuddl offers out-of-the-box integrations to the most popular CRMs, ticketing systems, payment gateways, and translation tools which means that you’ll have every tool you need in one place at your fingertips. And furthermore, our team will also work hand-in-glove with yours to build custom integrations for homegrown systems.

To sum up

While creating  a virtual event experience that your attendees will remember for all the right reasons can be challenging, virtual event tools can play a vital role in getting it right. But this can be made more complicated by clunky integrations or the lack thereof for your favourite tools. 

Which is why Zuddl will work with you to develop the integrations your organization needs specifically. Working together, we can ensure that your next event is dynamic and impactful. 

Want to learn more about Zuddl?

If you’d like to discuss how Zuddl can help you produce a flawless event experience, book a demo with our team today. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

Online burnout. It’s been increasingly cropping up in casual conversation with colleagues and friends, in Forbes articles and LinkedIn thought pieces, to say nothing of Twitter. And it’s no surprise. 

Ever since easing into a remote world of work and a virtual-first way of life, we are now all spending inordinate hours online, attending back-to-back meetings, replying to countless emails and messages, and jumping from tab to tab to tab. It can get overwhelming pretty quickly, leaving you exhausted and unable to focus. Everyone has had at least one of these days.

‍What does this have to do with virtual event attendees?

It’s the same principle.

Assuming your virtual event runs for 1-2 days, with each day filled with sessions and activities, there’s a high probability that your attendees too will experience online burnout. There’s no point in putting all that time and effort into organizing your virtual event only for your attendees to tune out and drop off during its run. 

It’s clear that while well-meaning virtual event organizers are working hard to make their events unique and worth attending, not all understand that simply having a great line-up is enough; that’s only one part. The other is really paying attention to the attendee experience and doing whatever you can to make sure that they feel engaged and energized throughout the event.

Here’s how to make this happen:

To improve attendee engagement in events, prioritize creating memorable experiences over simply conveying information. Utilize virtual event platform tools and strategic planning to enhance the quality of engagement. Here are four simple suggestions to implement for better attendee engagement in your virtual event:

1.  Vary your content strategy

A “one-size-fits-all” content strategy won’t work anymore given that people prefer to consume content in different ways at different times today. Attendees want to and will consume content in a format, time, and place of their choosing. Some learn by reading, others by listening, some by watching, and some by experiencing, so the content that you offer must be customized to engage this newly empowered attendee. 

This can be accomplished by creatively using the features and capabilities of your virtual event platform. For example:

• Invite a guest speaker to lead a session on an important topic on a Stage
• Simultaneously set up Rooms in which small groups can watch the session on Stage whilst discussing it with other attendees
• Set up an Expo Booth with downloadable material such as PDFs, checklists, guides etc
• Make video recordings of the session accessible to attendees even after the event ends so they can watch whenever they want

This way, by creating different touchpoints and experiences around your content, your attendees will be able to actively engage in consuming your content according to their preferences.

2.  Get attendees involved 

Let’s be honest. How many times have you drifted off during an online meeting - checked your phone, browsed Netflix, or caught up on chores, etc.? We’re not judging. 

As per the 2020 Amex report, around 54% of event planners have already shifted their focus to enhancing the attendee experience, against the backdrop of virtual fatigue. What this means is that given the tendency for people to disconnect one’s attention, especially when they aren’t speaking, it’s critical for organizers to make attendees still feel involved and integral to virtual event sessions. 

This can be achieved by leveraging your virtual event platform’s engagement tools to turn them from passive viewers to active participants.

Zuddl, for instance, has a variety of tools designed to make attendees an active part of the conversations on Stage:

• Chat, Q&A, and Polls can make attendees feel like their voice is heard, especially if the questions, comments or results are incorporated into sessions. 

• Raise Hands lets attendees  talk face-to-face with speakers on stage

• Emoji reactions are an easy, quick, and fun way for attendees to indicate enthusiasm

The upshot is that these tools help attendees quickly feel like they're part of the proceedings and realize that their voices matter - a simple but powerful way to make them want to continue attending and engaging at your event. 

3. Use gamification to the fullest

Improving attendee engagement in events goes beyond initial participation and requires maintaining their interest throughout the event. While attendee engagement tools facilitate participation, incorporating gamification can motivate attendees to remain engaged in your virtual event.

Organizers can set up a point system, wherein attendees can earn coins or points by completing actions or activities at the event,  set up a leaderboard to encourage friendly competition, and award prizes to the top performers.

It’s an extraordinarily fun way to remove the drudgery that can come from attending many online sessions, and instead make your attendees feel excited and motivated to keep their focus on the event.

4. Give attendees downtime to recharge

It’s only natural for people to get a bit virtual-ed out so break up a packed day of long sessions with mini-breaks for attendees to recharge their bodies and minds.  Not taking this into consideration is a virtual event planning mistake you’ll want to avoid.

• Use push notifications on the platform to remind attendees to get up, stretch their legs and make themselves a cup of coffee. 
• Plan in micro self-care activities, such as yoga or meditation
•  Set up gaming zones within the virtual venue 

This will definitely earn you goodwill from your attendees and as an added bonus, it will also help to increase attentiveness after the break. Research shows that taking brief mental breaks when faced with long tasks can dramatically improve one’s focus. 

To sum up…

In today's virtual event landscape, it's crucial for organizers to recognize that attendees are exposed to an overwhelming amount of monotonous programming. To improve attendee engagement in events, organizers must prioritize delivering an exciting and valuable experience that feels memorable and engaging.

A combination of the right strategy and the tools and features of a customizable virtual event platform can help you deliver a memorable attendee experience. Book a demo with Zuddl today to learn more.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

There are plenty of exciting hybrid and virtual conferences lined up this year. We’ve put together a list of different types of events you can attend and will be continually updating this list. If we’ve missed out on any you think we should include, do let us know and we will add it in.

JANUARY

CES® 2022

Dates: Jan 5-7

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: CES is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).  Virtual attendees will be able to access livestreams of keynotes and select conference sessions, and will also be able to connect with onsite exhibitors and other attendees. Those who attend in-person will also be able to use the platform to plan their event agenda and connect with each other and virtual participants. Networking and on-demand content will be open to all attendees until the end of January.

Digiday Media CMO Summit

Dates: Jan 25 – 26

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: The Digiday Media CMO Summit brings together marketing leaders in media, advertising and retail to discuss behavioral trends that they are counting on to find opportunities and share tips — from how they’re navigating new trends such as a surge in OOH advertising to ever-evolving challenges in brand safety — and best practices.

VentureBeat’s The Future of Work Summit

Dates: Jan 12

Event type: Virtual 

Why attend: At VB’s Future of Work Summit, we’ll discuss with top executives how organizations are reimagining and re-architecting their technology stack and strategies to allow for this new virtual world of work. This transformation enables powerful, transformative AI/ML, metaverse technologies such as AR/VR, and AI-assisted intelligent chat and virtual assistants for more collaboration. But it also requires a new kind of workplace culture, emphasizing trust and independence. The Summit will extract specific takeaways, including strategies, tactics, technologies that the boldest and most successful companies are leveraging to pave the way for this new future of work.

FEBRUARY

The Nasscom Technology & Leadership Forum

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Dates: Feb 16-18

Event type: Virtual 

Why attend: NTLF 2022, with the theme 'Shaping the Techade: The New Now and the Next', will bring together diverse voices from around the world to focus on topics like - reimagining the art of the possible, leadership differentiators, scaling growth, and building a fairer world.

The Virtual MarTech Summit 

Dates: Feb 22-23

Event type: Virtual 

‍Why attend: This 2-day summit with a focus on B2C & B2B two tracks spanning pressing topics like Cookieless, Gamification, Social Media & Influencer Marketing, CX, Customer Data Platform, UGC, Personalization, Precision Demand. You’ll hear from leaders working in a cross-section of industries whose stories illustrate unique company pain points, breakthroughs, and triumphs.

MARCH

South by Southwest (SXSW)

Dates: Mar 11-20

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: The event features Conference sessions, Film Festival screenings, Music Festival showcases, world-class Exhibitions, networking opportunities, competitions, awards ceremonies, and much more. The array of guests spans from major entrepreneurs like Michael Dell, health professionals like Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Isbell.

Adobe Summit

Dates: Mar 15-17

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: Be inspired by influential leaders and expert Experience Makers as they share industry trends and insights. Speakers this year include AlbertBourla, CEO of Pfizer, Meghan Heather who is the Global IT Portfolio Director of The Coca-Cola Company, and Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe.

Social Media Marketing World

Dates: Mar 14-16

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: Join thousands of the world’s smartest marketers and influencers at the only marketing conference you need to attend and walk away with real business-building ideas that you can put to work for your business or clients right away.

APRIL

Microsoft Envision

Dates: Apr 12

Event type: Online

Why attend: Microsoft Envision is a digital series where you'll join thought leaders from across industries to explore the latest business and technology trends. Get ready to discover the new wave of digital innovation and connect with peers from across the globe.

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MAY

IBM Think 2022

Dates: May 10 – 11

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: Think is an ever-evolving, inclusive, accessible, horizontal conversation about human ingenuity, its advocates, and the tools they employ to break paradigms and create new ones.  It’s more than just a conference — it's how IBM engages with the world. And you can place yourself right at the center of that ever-evolving conversation.

Ad World 2022

Dates: May 2-3

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: Join 50,000+ of the world’s brightest minds in advertising to learn, share secrets and connect online. For two days on 2-3 May 2022, Ad World will stream 10+ Digital Advertising Tracks, consisting of hyper-focused speeches, panels and live Q&A sessions to help take your business to the next level. The all-in-one advertising event will bring you closer to leading marketers and brands than ever before from the comfort of your home.

JUNE

Gallup at Work Summit

Dates: June 7-8

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: The Gallup at Work Summit is for anyone seeking learning and development opportunities. More specifically, the Summit is for individuals whose job it is to develop other people or who are seeking individual development. Join leading experts in improving employee engagement, wellbeing, manager development, and other business topics that influence every workplace.

Bloomberg Technology Summit

Dates: June 8

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: Digital transformation has touched every sphere of life. We are all immersed in a world of data. This data facilitates our healthcare, business and government activities, commerce and entertainment. The Bloomberg Technology Summit: Looking Forward highlights the ways in which society has been changed by digital disruption and provides the roadmap for what lies ahead.

Women in Tech Global Conference 2022

Dates: June 7-10

Event type: Hybrid 

Why attend: ​​​​​​The hybrid conference will bring women in tech, minorities and allies from all over the world together through an interactive platform featuring live educational & training content, keynotes, engaging panels, breakout rooms, technical workshops, and networking with virtual and in-person sessions.

Cisco Live 2022

Dates: June 12-16

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: Cisco Live is the networking company’s major event for customers, CIOs, and technology executives. The event is set to ignite creativity, deliver practical know-how, and accelerate the connections that fuel the digital future.

JULY

DigiMarCon West 2022

Dates: July 11-12

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: Join your peers in-person or online for 2-days jam-packed with digital marketing best practices, latest trends, practical solutions, strategy, and networking, also check out the next generation of technology & innovation; Internet, Mobile, AdTech, MarTech & SaaS Technology.

AUGUST

BLACK HAT USA 2022

Dates: Aug 6-11

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: Black Hat is the most technical and relevant global information security event series in the world. For more than 16 years, Black Hat has provided attendees with the very latest in information security research, development, and trends in a strictly vendor-neutral environment. These high-profile global events and Trainings are driven by the needs of the security community, striving to bring together the best minds in the industry. Black Hat inspires professionals at all career levels, encouraging growth and collaboration among academia, world-class researchers, and leaders in the public and private sectors.

SEPTEMBER

SAASTR ANNUAL 2022

Dates: Sep 13-15

Event type: Hybrid

Why attend: 10,000+ SaaS executives, founders, and VCs will come together for SaaStr Annual 2022, the world’s largest SaaS community event on the planet.  Get ready for specific, SaaStr-style actionable advice and learnings to help grow your business from $0 to $100M ARR with less stress and more success. No commercials, no paid content, no boring panels. Every session is hand-screened and vetted to help you learn.

OCTOBER

Reuters Impact

Dates: Oct 3-7

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: Solving the climate risk challenge requires a significant, and coordinated private and public-sector effort. Reuters IMPACT is a free virtual global conference that brings together world leaders, big business and forward-thinking pioneers to inspire, drive action and accelerate innovation towards the global economy’s top priority: the climate emergency. No matter what role you perform, or the size of your organization, Reuters IMPACT will help you identify how you can influence business driven climate action.

NOVEMBER

HRPA 2022 Fall Conference

Dates: Nov 22-24

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: HRPA exists to ensure that HR professionals have the tools to act as champions for positive change, leading Ontario’s workplaces into the future. The association brings together business leaders from around the world for their series of annual conferences. A fall conference has been scheduled for November 22-24 and will mark the last major event in their 2022 calendar.

DECEMBER

AdWeek: Publishing Week 2022

Dates: Dec dates TBC

Event type: Virtual

Why attend: Adweek's Publishing Week is an elite summit designed to cut through the noise and connect the most forward-thinking minds in publishing to solve challenges unique to this evolving industry. With the need to add scale and create personalized experiences for their audiences, publishers have had to embrace a more agile mindset. Learn how these companies are leveraging the power of technology to enable multi-channel subscription and ad revenue strategies.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

Think about the last time you went to the theater to watch a movie. 

You probably went in, sat down, dutifully put your phone away (we hope), looked up at the big screen, and enjoyed the show. A simple and easy experience.

Now consider the POV of someone who goes into the theater to watch the same movie but is hard of hearing, or who speaks a completely different language than that shown in the theater. It would be a completely different, more difficult and exclusionary experience.

Why should you care about this?

One of the biggest benefits of virtual events is that as an organizer, you are no longer hampered by geography. There’s no need to worry about factoring in travel for attendees or speakers, or being constrained by venue capacity when you’re hosting a virtual event. This means that people from all over the world can attend, and where previously you might have been able to host only 1000 people at an in-person event, you can now reach tens of thousands. 

But with great capability comes great responsibility.

You  now need to ensure that each of your tens of thousands of attendees has an  equally amazing experience at your event, whether that’s a virtual  conference, company offsite, virtual office, ora virtual tradeshow. And  central to this is ensuring that each person - from different countries and  diverse backgrounds - can actively participate, contribute to discussions,  and have equitable opportunities.

But this isn’t without its challenges.

When planning virtual experiences for constituents, organizers may fall prey to  an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality. No longer being able to ‘see’ the needs and requirements for different types of attendees can make it harder to address them. 

And this is definitely an issue when one billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control notes that: 61 million adults – or 1 in 4 – people live with a disability. These statistics alone makes leading with accessibility and inclusivity the mentality to have as a hybrid or virtual event organizer.

Attendees from different backgrounds or with disabilities will want to consume your content, ask questions to speakers, chat and interact with their fellow attendees - just like everyone else. This means that you not only need to be purposeful and empathetic in the way you organize your event and present your content, but that the virtual event platform partner you work with needs to be able to be fully accessible and inclusive - it needs to put all attendees on an equal footing.

The good news: Zuddl makes your virtual event more accessible and inclusive!

Central to hosting a virtual event is making sure the content of your event can be understood by all your attendees. This is especially important when it comes to live sessions or recorded video that you or your speakers are sharing during the event. But, as illustrated by the movie theater example, if attendees at virtual meetings are non-native speakers or are hard of hearing, they may find it difficult to follow along and stay engaged.

This is where Zuddl can make a difference. 

Multilingual audio support

The reality is that not everybody can speak English or speak it well. So if you have people joining the virtual meeting from France, Finland and Fiji, using multilingual audio support is a great way to ensure that all attendees will still be able to understand speakers and the content that is being presented, which in turn helps to create a more inclusive, egalitarian virtual space.

This, of course, is especially important for companies with remote, multilingual teams. When hosting virtual company offsites, sales kickoffs, company meetings or any other internal events, multilingual audio support can help non-native speakers to better comprehend and retain information, and feel more connected to the workforce.

It makes business sense too. 

According to a survey conducted by the Common Sense Advisory, a market research firm, 72.1% of consumers spend most or all of their time on websites in their own language. The same piece of research states that 72% of consumers are more likely to buy a product that is offered to them in their own language. Need we say more?

Live captioning

Live captioning works hand-in-hand with multilingual audio support. This results in a real-time visual aid that helps attendees at your event better decipher what’s being said on-screen. 

The feature helps to improve accessibility for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, but can be useful for everyone, including those who join the live event late, or who are multitasking during the event. 

This is useful when you’re hosting a virtual meeting for your company or team as giving employees the option to read-along live captions in their native language makes it simpler to absorb information and therefore increase focus and engagement. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to watch an entire video when captions are available.

‍Protip: Make presentations and video sessions available for attendees to watch after the event is over. This way they can revisit the information shared as per their convenience and make sure they don’t miss what was shared during a meeting.

Chat function and Emoji Reactions

The use of live chat and emoji reactions at your event gives your attendees the freedom to interact with and react to speakers and content shared as per their convenience, and it means there is equal opportunity to ‘speak’ and ask questions. For those who find written language a bit restrictive, they can easily express themselves through an easy emoji reaction.

To sum up…

Virtual and hybrid events are only as inclusive as they’re made to be; while event platform partners like Zuddl can make a great difference, creating spaces and experiences that make everyone feel welcomed and valued needs to be an active effort on the part of organizers. Talk to our team today to learn how to get it right!

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

If you’ve been staying updated with the latest trends that are changing the event industry, you’ll already know the relevance of virtual and hybrid events in today’s digital-first world. With workplaces and workforces going remote over the past two years, it’s not just  events that have taken a virtual form; day-to-day activities such as team meetings, hiring processes as well as training modules have all done so too.

From an organization's perspective, the need of the hour is knowing  how to tap the potential of the virtual realm to best suit business needs. One of the essential aspects of taking this step is to lock in on a virtual events platform that can turn this idea into a reality, easily and seamlessly- which brings us to our main point.

If you’re looking for a virtual event platform but don’t know where to start in terms of exploring your options, this article is just about to make your life so much easier.

For starters, it helps to have a basic checklist in place in terms while you’re exploring and comparing platforms. 

What should you look for in a virtual platform?

• It should be easy to use
  

No matter how much a platform boasts of its capabilities, it won’t make a difference to you as an organizer or as an attendee if the platform is not easy to use. This is why finding an easy-to-use virtual platform should be the first condition on your checklist.

• It should be scalable
  

Next, ask yourself how your events are going to be in the near future. While you don’t have to zero in on the exact details, you can still gauge certain things such as the size of your events. This will help you choose a virtual platform more suited to your needs. For instance, let’s say your event plan has a mix of smaller focused events as well big conferences with a typically high attendee expectation. In this case, you’re going to need one platform that can help you run it all.

• It should be customizable
  

Another important factor to keep in mind while choosing the platform is the scope of ownership and branding. To say it in simpler terms, always pick a virtual event platform that will empower you to own the event rather than the platform owning you! 

With the trend of decreasing attendee attention spans, customization goes hand in hand with engagement when it comes to delivering memorable and immersive experiences, so if these are things you consider important, don’t choose a platform that will limit you from making your events epic.

• It should suit your budget
  

As with anything else, pricing plays an important part when it comes to choosing your virtual event platform too. Once you’ve checked the previous items in the checklist, you can now further filter your search to find a platform that offers the features that you love within your budget. Keeping a flexible budget makes sense if you feel there’s a platform that more than meets your expectations.

• It should have good reviews

As much as technology takes over our lives, there is one thing that a human being values more than anything else; it’s the firsthand experience or story that another human being has to offer. It’s no different when it comes to choosing the right virtual event platform. User reviews can really inform you about the pros and cons of any platform from a lived experience perspective, so while this is our last point on your checklist, it is surely not the least!

Popular virtual event platforms for you:

Now that we’ve told you how to pick a virtual event platform, here are some big names that are making waves in 2022!

Zuddl

If you’re on the hunt for a platform that puts your brand ahead of anything else, Zuddl might just be the perfect choice for you. 100% customizable and super easy to use, it’s hard not to see why this virtual event platform could be your obvious choice - it can help you create impactful and immersive virtual experiences that are on par with in-person events.

Some of the highlights that set Zuddl apart are that it is latency-free, scalable to an attendee capacity of 1,50,000 and features a drag-and-drop editor that makes adding widgets such a breeze. From an organizer’s perspective, the all-powerful virtual greenroom ‘Backstage’ lets you take control over your virtual event like never before.‍

“How do I engage my attendees?” is possibly one of the key areas of concern for many event organizers in any virtual event is the level of engagement. Thankfully, Zuddl’s event-wide gamification. Chats, Polls, Q&A and a host of other features can help you not only reach your engagement goals but also surpass them. (Click here to read more about our gamification feature)

On the networking front, the AI-powered interest-based matchmaking feature makes networking a simple, fun and meaningful experience rather than an awkward obligation that you’d otherwise dread.

AES 256 encrypted and GDPR compliant, Zuddl has consciously been built keeping data security and attendee privacy at the core of its design. 

To complete the whole experience, Zuddl also provides you with actionable insights with realt-ime analytics and post-event metrics that are sure to take your future events to a whole new level.

Hopin

Hopin is another popular virtual event platform that emulates the in-person experience. With an attendee capacity of 1,00,000, it offers basic tools such as chat and polls to get your engagement going. 

Its standout feature is the event schedule tool which allows you to swiftly plan a series of events by giving you a top-down perspective. With Hopin, there is scope for customizing your event to an extent; you could work with the default themes and partial drag-and-drop capabilities to add your stamp to the event experience.
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vFairs
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vFairs offers a 3D virtual environment for your virtual event needs. With features such as 1:1 networking and group networking, video and document hosting, the platform offers a value-driven alternative to traditional or in-person events. 

Like Zuddl and Hopin, vFairs too is integrated with useful add-ons to further customize the event experience. When it comes to networking, attendees may enjoy the choices it offers: striking up a conversation on the spot or scheduling a conversation for later.

BigMarker‍

BigMarker is a popular choice for those hosting small to medium scale virtual events. This browser-based platform offers standard features such as polls, surveys and screen share while the chat function is enabled based on the organizer’s preference?permissions. 

While this platform may not have the best audio and video quality, it fairs well in terms of its email marketing, landing pages and social media streaming capabilities.

Airmeet‍

This virtual event platform can host a virtual event of up to 1,00,000 attendees. As an organizer, you’ll be able to accept up to 300 sponsors on Airmeet, so it’s a good choice if you’re looking for extensive sponsorship. 

Its networking tables and usage-based pricing are notable, and it is also available as a free version, which is limited in its capacity but still offers networking features such as the social lounge and 1:1 networking.

Hubilo‍

Another notable platform for virtual and hybrid events is Hubilo, which allows you as an organizer to focus on attendee and sponsor experience by offering engagement features such as a leaderboard and points for participation. 

Apart from the basic essentials of a virtual event, Hubilo also offers full-time customer support and event insights that organizers can leverage.

So there you have it, folks. Choosing a virtual event platform doesn’t have to be difficult, and we’ll make sure it never will. Want to make your decision even easier? Talk to us today.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

When global superstar Marshmello was invited to headline at the UEFA Champions League 2021 final Opening Ceremony, the DJ hitmaker wanted to give the 380 million fans watching, a show the likeness of which they had never seen before; and so he turned to virtual reality (VR). 

From VFX and game engine technology to 3D cameras and real-time virtual production, Marshmello’s  6-minute VR set was designed to “bend reality” - and it did. Fans looked on as a giant Marshmello walked through the streets of Europe’s capitals and danced with an army of fellow Marshmellos; he played guitar while fireworks went off behind him, and raised the volume as the stadium filled up with water. 

It was an electrifying virtual event experience. ‍

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Marshmello’s incredible performance is just one of the many ways in which the events industry has embraced the transformational potential of virtual reality—and rightly so. VR offers a remarkably sensory experience to boost engagement and entertainment for any event. It can attract greater participation and deliver better experiences than a presentation or discussion.

VR at virtual events: what you can do

Ever since Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR, some of the biggest names in tech, such as Google and Samsung, have already entered the VR tech market. So, this futuristic technology is becoming increasingly accessible for the events industry.

Brands and event organizers worldwide are already creatively using VR technology to supercharge their virtual events. Let’s look at how you can too.

For knowledge sharing—conferences, seminars, training

In a world where businesses aspire to focus more on showing than telling, VR is the perfect tool for organizers to create immersive and educational experiences for attendees. Instead of keynote pontifications and dull powerpoint presentations, organizers can easily bring a subject alive through a VR experience. For instance, learning about a new and innovative piece of medical equipment is so much more impactful if you can ‘watch’ it being used in surgery rather than just hear it being described.

That’s precisely what AltSpace achieved through its VR-powered conference, vMed20. Participants could attend this conference virtually through the organizer’s free VR social tool, AltSpace—to learn about the multiple use cases of VR in the healthcare industry; an excellent demonstration of  the game-changing potential of immersive technology in the healthcare sector 

For marketing—product launches and demos 

A basic presentation will no longer cut the bill when you’re launching a new product and want to keep your audience hooked and wowed. Showing off your products at a virtual event can be best accomplished with VR technology that lets your attendees appreciate it from 360 degrees.

And that’s exactly what OnePlus pulled off with its  first-ever VR product launch.Speaking about the decision to use VR,  Carl Pei, Co-Founder of OnePlus said “ In our industry, product launches tend to be the same. An auditorium, a keynote, and a seated audience. For the OnePlus 2 launch, we didn’t want that barrier between us and you; we wanted to invite you into our world, because you’re a major part of it. That is why we decided to unveil the OnePlus 2 to the world completely in VR.”

To this end, the event was shot entirely with 360° filming technology ahead of launch. In it, users were welcomed into the  OnePlus office, leading to the unveiling of the product. Attendees could tour the office, meet the team and other fans. On the day of the launch, fans were able to watch the launch on their Android app or on Youtube. Those using the app were able to see detailed specifications of the new smartphone and interact with its features.

And it’s clear that the strategy paid off with 45,000+ concurrent viewers in 170 countries tuning in during the launch, and the VR event racking up 750,000+ views in the first 24 hours.

For entertainment—live games and concerts

For the entertainment industry, VR offers organizers a way to replicate the excitement and energy of in-person events at a virtual one. Putting on a headset can transport the wearer to the front row of a musical festival - an experience that you can’t really get from watching a Youtube video for instance. 

A great example of this in action is  FOX Sports VR-powered broadcasts of NBA games. Attendees wearing Oculus headsets can experience the thrill of watching basketball greats live in action. 

Halestorm’s virtual reality concert is another great example of how the entertainment industry is adopting this technology.

For charity—fundraisers and charity events

VR lets non-profit organizers bring their causes to life. Through 360-degree video, donors can step into the shoes of those who need their aid.  It’s a form of emotional storytelling that can prompt a donor to make a financial contribution more than powerpoint presentations and data can do.  

The Royal Trinity Hospice, for instance, created a VR video tour that takes viewers through the entire grounds of the hospice, and highlights its services. Through this, potential donors can understand the impact their aid will have. This movie is displayed in several of the organization’s virtual events, including its annual celebrations and fairs. 

Challenges in using VR for virtual events - and how to tackle them

As can be seen, VR has played a significant role in virtual events across industries, but some organizers are still hesitant in embracing this innovative technology for their events. Here’s how to tackle some of the challenges that come with VR. ‍

Keeping costs low: While the tech required to produce VR and for your fans to access your videos can seem daunting, the good news is that VR technology keeps getting better, and less expensive. Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 headset at $299 has already significantly lowered the entry price point for VR devices. And with a $15 price tag, Google Cardboard allows users to experience VR with just a smartphone‍

Accessible to everyone: VR technology does provide a way for audiences to access new experiences, but it still has a long way to go in terms of accessibility. This high-powered technology is not feasible for users living in low connectivity areas. But this is easily addressed by partnering with venues that have the requisite bandwidth and power, or opting to use more accessible technology like smartphones.‍

Sharing is caring: Unlike the universe of ‘Ready, Player One’, at the moment, users cannot enter virtual reality with anyone else - for the moment atleast. But, if you have the budget, you can create group VR experiences. When Jaguar launched its electric I-PACE concept car for instance, it was through a  shared virtual reality experience. Groups of attendees sat together at round tables, wearing their helmets to take a virtual ride in the driver’s seat. They could see the hand controllers of attendees to their right and left, and hear the comments and reactions of everyone else, contributing to the group experience feeling.

To sum up...

Like any technology, VR continues to change and evolve, and so organizers using the tech need to be as equally avant-garde in their creativity in its use. While the brands and the events they held can serve as inspiration, be sure to think about how you can use it to further the goals of your event. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

The holiday season is around the corner but you’re short of ideas on how to bring your remote team together for some fun and festive activities that everyone can enjoy. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of 10 easy activities you can organize that will bring all your team members, regardless of their location, full of cheer. From holiday scavenger hunts to cocktail and cookie parties, we’ve got your covered.

1. Holiday Scavenger Hunt

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Organizing a virtual scavenger hunt is one of the easiest ways to bring your team together for a fun, exciting activity that makes everyone feel included. 

How to play: Put together a list of holiday-related items that your teammates have to find within a certain time such as something red and green,  their favourite Christmas item, or a cup of cheer; it’s best to keep your requirements a bit broad so that teammates can use their ingenuity to find items within their house or in the office that fit the bill. 

You can create different lists for different teams, with the fastest team to collect all items winning a prize. Take a look at how the Digital Schoolhouse team enjoyed a fun scavenger hunt session!

2. Watercooler trivia

Virtual watercoolers have become the new go-to’s for remote teams to have casual conversations about everything from holiday plans to TV shows that they’re watching; you can turn these fun conversations into a fun trivia night activity.

How to play: A watercooler trivia night is similar to your usual trivia games where teams answer  a set of general knowledge questions. But the rather enjoyable twist here is that the questions will be about your teammates. Prepare a list of fun questions about some common subjects of conversations at the water cooler, such as “Who’s known for the best Dwight Schrute impression?”

Even better if you use a virtual event platform like Zuddl that has an inbuilt gamification feature which means that you can use a leaderboard to track and tally points for you, and let everyone know who’s they have to beat to win! 

3. Holiday-themed karaoke night

What’s a holiday party without some festive music? Bring your virtual team together for a karaoke night where they can let loose and spend the evening belting out the classics. 

How to host: Invite your team to a virtual meeting space or use a virtual breakout room like we have on Zuddl, play karaoke tracks and ask colleagues to duo or solo one after the other. There’s nothing like singing an off-key rendition of ‘Jingle Bells’ to bring a team together.

Here’s the KGW8 team hosting a great virtual karaoke session. 

4. Gingerbread-making contest‍

Nothing says Christmas like gingerbread - but most people have more experience in eating it than making it. So why not host a fun gingerbread-making contest?

How to host: Send everyone a DIY gingerbread kit ahead of time, or if that’s not possible, ask everyone to stock up on the ingredients needed for baking gingerbread men. Invite a chef to your virtual baking session or play a video whilst everyone follows the instructions. Encourage everyone to get creative with their baking and celebrate successes and failures too! End the evening by eating your gingerbread ‘together.’

5. Wreath-making workshop

With work and home time bleeding into each other, many people don’t have the time to decorate their homes for the holidays. For such workaholics, a wreath-making session is the perfect way for some ‘me time’ that gets their creative juices flowing - that gets them an incredible wreath to hang on the door in the process!

How to host: Similar to the gingerbread contest, you can either send your entire team the items for making a wreath or ask them to collect these items beforehand. Organize a virtual hangout session for everyone to learn how to make their wreaths (even better if you hire an instructor), and laugh through the wreath-making fails and wins together.

6. A holiday talent show

Find your in-house Beyonce or laugh out loud with your comedians—an end of the year talent show is the best way for your team to get to know and bond over each other’s hidden talents.

How to host: Use a virtual platform, ideally with a Stage feature, that your team can use to run the show. Performers can take to the stage one after another to share their talents and wow your team. Even better if the platform you use has engagement features that those watching can use to encourage their teammates (Zuddl has Emoji reactions for instance). You can use Polls to ask attendees to vote for their favourite performance. 

7. Virtual holiday photobooth‍

If there’s one advantage of remote work besides working in your pyjamas, it’s the ability to take fantastic team photos easily. No matter how big your team is, you can take the best group pictures at a virtual party that you can display at your virtual office (and poke fun at) all throughout the year. 

How to host: Set up a virtual photo booth with holiday-themed backgrounds - one with Santa and reindeers or even a Home Alone style one - and ask teammates to dress up according to the theme! Think ugly Christmas sweaters or funny reindeer headbands. 

8. Improv comedy night

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Get everyone in a great(er) mood with a fun improv comedy night. Bring out the comedian in every team member and have a huge laugh together.

How to host: All you need is a fun and friendly host for the improv session. Just like in Who’s Line Is it Anyway, the host will give your team different scenarios to act out that are sure to cause some laughs.

Take a look at ArtsQuest’s improv comedy sessions for corporate teams to inspire your own.

9. Holiday Escape Room

A holiday-themed escape room is actually a fun team building activity that will also test your team’s collective intelligence. The premise of this game is that a team is locked inside a room. They must solve clues or puzzles in order to complete a mission and then ‘escape’ out of the room before time runs out. 

How to play:  Book a virtual holiday escape room online and spend an hour or so putting your brains together to help rescue Santa or find the Naughty or Nice list. 

10. Cocktail and Cookie Party

Getting everyone together to celebrate the holidays by sharing food and drink is the perfect way to relax, chat, laugh and spend time with each other as a team. 

How to host: As with the gingerbread baking or wreath-making sessions, send cookies and cocktail ingredients to your colleagues’ houses or ask them to pick up ingredients before your party. For the first half of the party, everyone can mix their cocktails or pop cookies in the oven to bake, after which you can enjoy an evening of drinks and food and conversation. 

To sum up…

This holiday season, take the opportunity to celebrate the people around you with a fun-filled virtual party. Whether it’s a trivia session or gingerbread wars, create an unforgettable experience for all your teammates with these game ideas that will strengthen team spirit and spread holiday cheer.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

Amongst the many challenges faced by organizers is that of driving value for event sponsors. 

Every organizer knows that sponsorship is critical to a successful event - not only in terms of financial backing but also because of positive publicity, increased brand awareness, reach, and prestige that it powers. So, after bringing a sponsor on board, it’s extremely important to be able to give that sponsor the ROI that you’ve promised them - or else you risk losing them for future events. 

But the growing popularity of hybrid events and the fact that 86% of B2B companies see an increased ROI of their hybrid events within 7 months of conducting it—presents a great solution to tackle this challenge.

Gone are the days when you would slap sponsor logos on merchandise. Thanks to the virtual and in-person components of hybrid events, organizers have more and better opportunities to drive both brand awareness for sponsors and lead generation as well. 

Here’s how to go about driving value for sponsors at your next hybrid event:

1. Understand what your event sponsors want 

Mike Butcher, the Editor-At-Large at TechCrunch, explains how sponsors’ expectations have changed over the years while reiterating the importance of understanding them from the beginning, stating "A lot of these sponsors don’t just want to have a sponsor sticker slapped onto an event. They want to do something that has a real conversational element to it.”

So discussing your sponsors’ objectives from a hybrid event at the outset will allow you to produce tailor-made sponsorship opportunities and results. Keep in mind that an essential part of managing sponsor expectations is clarifying what you can and cannot do with this event.

For instance,  sponsors could be seeking a high level of interaction with the target audience but may be unsure of what results could be achieved through a hybrid event. Accordingly, you can share engagement metrics from previous virtual or hybrid events you’ve hosted as well as touchpoints you’ve planned for the upcoming event with them. This can help you and your sponsors agree on a goal that you are both comfortable with.

2. Choose a virtual event platform that offers branding, engagement + analytic tools

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Whilst you are having these important discussions with your sponsors, you will also need to be scouting and evaluating virtual event platforms that can help you drive the results you desire ie. happy attendees and happy sponsors.  What are the basics that your virtual event platform will need to have?

• Branding - Just as your physical venue has banners and signage showcasing your event sponsors, so should your virtual venue. So your event platform needs to have the capability to allow you to customize the venue as per your wishes. If you want to put up banners in your lobby dedicated to sponsors, you should be able to. Want to highlight that a sponsor is sponsoring a specific Stage or session by changing the background image of the Stage? You should be able to do that too. Basically, you should have free rein to be able to drive brand awareness for your Sponsors throughout the venue.
  

• Audience engagement tools: The more you make a hybrid event memorable for attendees, the better it reflects on your event sponsors, so choose a platform that can elevate engagement. Look out for these:

• Chat, Polls and Q&A: These tools can make a huge difference by turning what can feel like a video playlist of lectures into a lively and exciting two-way conversation. Whether an attendee is sitting at the in-person venue or tuning in from home, using the same tools helps everyone feel part of the same experience and boosts participation.

• Gamification: This feature can encourage attendees to do more at the event by rewarding them for every action they take during the event. ‍

• Virtual Breakout Rooms: These can be used to host small group conversations and curate more focused discussions. So you could for instance dedicate a room per Sponsor; this means that they would have a representative sitting in the Room and striking up conversations with attendees interested in the company or a service/product of theirs. This allows your sponsors to gain more qualified leads and interact with their target audience at a deeper level.‍
  

• Analytics: One of the biggest advantages of hosting a hybrid event is the data that can be collected. The virtual component of the event means that attendee actions - such as questions they ask, Polls they answer, booths visited etc can all be captured. In this way, sponsors can see how many attendees watched a product video, for example, or visited a sponsored Stage, Booth or Room. This insight can help in post-event follows and in better understanding feedback or sentiment about a product or service.
  

3. Give sponsors their own virtual Expo Booth 

An exhibit booth is perhaps the oldest strategy for driving value for sponsors at an event - and that holds true today. By enabling sponsors to set up booths at both the physical and virtual venues, you double the exposure they receive. 

Each booth acts as a hub for sharing branded content, marketing collateral, and downloadable assets. And as each booth can be staffed by a company representative, sponsors can offer product demos and hold private conversations directly with attendees. 

Importantly, each virtual booth comes with a ‘Register Interest’ button for attendees to express their intention. This is a simple but powerful way for Sponsors to collect leads. 

4.  More touchpoints and activities that give sponsors more exposure

Plan in activities and touchpoints that drive visibility and awareness for event sponsors. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Strategically create in-show placement at different places in the virtual and in-person venue, such as the lobby or breakout rooms zones to boost the sponsors’ visibility organically.
  

• Add representatives from sponsoring brands as moderators or presenters for event sessions and involve them in panel discussions or forums as well. This is a great way to highlight your sponsors’ domain knowledge.
  

• Plan in sponsored sessions targeting the brand’s primary audience. 
  

• Play videos by event sponsors in between sessions to educate your audience about their companies, and offerings.
  

• Offer educational content and downloadable assets from sponsors in your event lobby to reinforce their thought leadership and collect leads in exchange.
  

• Host trivia quizzes that include a question or two about sponsors. For instance, a tech-related trivia session centering around your sponsors from the software technology domain. 
  

• Hold a raffle with prizes from sponsors for the winners
  

Protip: Gamification is your best friend here as it can nudge attendees into completing actions that can drive value for them and your sponsors. 

5. Give your sponsors actionable insights

So far, we’ve focused on creating value for your sponsors during the event. But what happens once the event is over? Post-event insights are crucial to retaining sponsors for the long run as it can help aid strategy, product development, decision-making, and budget allocation. To this end, event organizers can share attendee data, survey and poll results, and insights from other activities to reveal what resonated the most with the sponsors’ target audience. 

Here are some crucial metrics you can share with your sponsors:

• Total number of participants
• Leads generated
• Audience engagement
• Results of sponsored surveys and polls 
• Sponsored sessions with the most engagement and attendance 
  

 To sum up…

The key to attracting more sponsors lies in creating value for them by building brand awareness and accelerating lead generation. Their primary interest lies in accessing your audience base, establishing their domain expertise, and capturing qualified leads.
Hybrid events give you ample opportunity to deliver these demands. Start by recognizing your sponsors’ needs, and then using the unique benefits of a hybrid event to meet them. All it takes is a little creativity, a little thoughtfulness, and a powerful virtual hosting platform like Zuddl to pull it off.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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Today, we have some exciting news to share — we’ve raised $13.35 million in our Series A round!

Alpha Wave Incubation led our Series A round with participation from Qualcomm Ventures, GrowX Ventures, Waveform Ventures. We’re thrilled to work with investors that believe in our long-term vision of the future of enterprise events and I wanted to take a moment to celebrate this milestone and share my thoughts on Zuddl’s journey and our plans for the future.

Additional reading: Here's a sneak peek of event trends in 2023 as per our latest report.

Our Journey

When Vedha and I first talked about the idea of Zuddl, we could not have imagined that mere months later COVID-19 would propel us on a dizzying journey to turn that idea into reality. We started Zuddl in May 2020 and spent the next couple of months in the YC summer batch racing to launch our MVP. Since then, we’ve been working hard to improve our product, grow our team and get Zuddl in front of as many potential customers as possible, growing 30x in the process.

In the last 18 months, we have launched a lot of features and improvements to enable organizations to run awe-inspiring events all the while putting their brand front and center. Event organizers have built digital replicas of their physical office spaces, recreated their favorite venues, and built completely themed event spaces.

All of these lead back to one theme: organizers are ready to embrace the world of hybrid and virtual events. What started out as a begrudging exercise forced on organizations by the pandemic has unlocked a host of new possibilities that organizers are embracing. For the first time ever, it is the norm that access to events is not dictated by where you are. Going back to our favorite analogy, imagine being unable to watch a football game because you can’t attend in person. Wild, right? For a long time, that was an accepted reality for business events. Expectations have shifted now and we are excited to empower organizations to embrace that change.

More than anything else though, I am so humbled by the team of A+ players that have pushed us forward on this incredible journey. The Zuddl family has grown significantly in the last year. We have grown from a team of 7 to over 75+ across the globe working together to empower organizations to deliver remarkable live experiences.

The Road Ahead

With this new funding, we’re excited to continue to empower organizations to build remarkable live events. More and more, teams tell us that they are feeling the fatigue of boring virtual meets and are struggling to keep their attendees engaged. Zuddl enables organizers to bring the energy back to their live events with a backstage studio that delivers high-quality production and drag and drop widgets that stay true to their brand.

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Our vision is to be the one platform for all enterprise events, whether that’s internal or external, hybrid or virtual. This new round of funding will enable us to continue building on the foundation we have built so far and help us achieve our next few goals:

1. Double down on product

Organizations have just dipped their toes into the possibilities of hybrid and virtual events. That’s why we’re committed to building the best enterprise event platform - more interactive, powerful and integrated into the other tools you use.

We are investing in data and integrations to enable data-driven post event decisions. We are revamping the organizer event setup experience to be simpler and more intuitive. We are doubling down on our feature set for hybrid to really break the barriers between virtual and in-person attendees. We are launching new product lines.

2. Scale our team globally

Zuddl started after the pandemic and we’re proud to have built a talented remote-first team. With this funding, we’re thrilled to be able to continue to grow the team and have more people join us on this journey.

We are also opening a new office in Abu Dhabi this month. This will be our headquarters for EMEA region sales and support and will also allow us to tap into a larger market of engineering talent. You can view our open positions here.

3. Accelerate our growth

We’ve been so fortunate in the last 18 months to work with customers like Kellogg’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Microsoft, NASSCOM and over 15 Fortune 500 companies. We know that this is just the beginning and we have so much more work to do. We want every large organization and every large event to be powered by Zuddl. We’re beyond thrilled to enter this new phase of growth and take a step closer to that goal.

To all Zuddlers, thank you for everything you do. I couldn’t have imagined a better bunch of people to embark on this journey with. I learn from you all every day. To our customers, thank you for the trust and faith you have placed in me and in Zuddl. We at Zuddl, remain committed to your success.

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With gratitude,

‍Bharath Varma
Co-founder & CEO, Zuddl

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

Virtual events - whether trade shows, seminars, conferences or musical festivals - have grown to be so popular and impactful that 45% of future B2B events will be completely virtual. 

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For most event professionals, this should come as no big surprise as the benefits of virtual events are obvious: better reach, branding, engagement  and ROI. Because of this, hosting a virtual event has become an evergreen marketing strategy that is worth cultivating, regardless of the size of your business or which industry it belongs to. 

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Let’s quickly look at the ways different industries have benefited from holding virtual events, so you can learn from them and follow in their footsteps.

1. Education industry

When the pandemic made it impossible for students to go to school, college or universities, educational institutions were forced to pivot to virtual spaces and classrooms instead, and reimagine methods of teaching, engaging, motivating and inspiring students. 

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While educators were hesitant and untrusting initially, most have come to realize the surprising ways in which virtual events and platforms can create supportive and collaborative environments that enable more efficient teaching and learning.By virtue of the digital medium, educators can create exciting new virtual experiences for their students; they can invite guest lecturers from all over the world, facilitate small-group student learning via virtual Breakout rooms, and even set up networking sessions to drive  social interaction and camaraderie.

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Not to mention, educational institutions can hold a variety of virtual events, from university lectures to job fairs, open houses to networking events, with ease online - and at a fraction of the cost, and logistical effort. Take for example the virtual open day experience offered by the University of Stirling. Prospective students watched presentations about student life, funding, accommodation, and applications, and were able to chat with current students, lecturers, and directors in course-specific virtual Rooms. There was also a virtual tour that showcased the campus and university's facilities.

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Thanks to virtual events and platforms, educational institutions now have unique ways to power better learning and engagement with students. 

2. Hospitality industry

As with the education sector, the hospitality industry was forced to pivot to virtual solutions in order to continue to create memorable experiences for guests without compromising health and safety.

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The adoption of virtual event platforms to host events, exhibitions, meetings, and conferences in particular has led to hotels and restaurants discovering how to leverage them as new avenues of expression, communication and connection with guests, and of course, maintain cash flow.

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Take for example, the RPM Restaurants group in Chicago. The group hosted a variety of virtual events, ranging from cooking classes led by one of their chiefs to a drink-making session with a hotel mixologist. They also created meal kits for their classes that contained all the ingredients needed for the dish or cocktail that could be picked up or delivered to event attendees. The sense of social connection and community is strengthened when everyone cooks or drinks together online. Indeed, having received a strong positive response to these classes, the RPM group plans to hold more of these events.

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Cooking classes are just one example of virtual events hosted by the hospitality industry. Businesses have also held a variety of healthy lifestyle classes such as yoga, meditation, physical fitness and even gardening. Using ticketing tiers was an avenue to drive revenue.

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Larger MICE events were also successfully held online. Food & Hotel Asia for example, held a virtual Food & Hotel Digital Week that consisted of sessions and product showcases. Because of the medium of the event, it was attended by more than 5,000 industry players from more than 20 countries and regions. Quite an achievement for the company’s inaugural event.

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So even though the ease of lockdown and social distancing has meant the rise of in-person gatherings once again, it’s clear that the hospitality industry will benefit from continuing to hold virtual events or hybrid ones. Not only does it give establishments a way to stay top of mind, it also provides convenience for guests and helps to keep profit margins up. 

3. Marketing and communications

Perhaps no industry has benefited from the rise of virtual events as much as the marketing industry. While the benefits of hosting virtual events remain the same for this industry as the hospitality and education industry ie. better branding, and more reach and engagement, one of the greatest benefits enjoyed particularly by marketers is the ability to capture data.

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Unlike in-person events where tracking attendee micro-moments and calculating revenue is difficult (click here to read more about how to calculate ROI from a virtual event), thanks to virtual event platforms, marketers can keep track of engagement metrics such as time spent at the event or individual sessions, the number of Polls answered or Q&As asked.

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If the virtual event platform offers organizers the ability to create Expo Booths like Zuddl does, marketers will also be able to see which attendees clicked on the ‘Registered Interest’ button, and which marketing collateral was the most or least consumed. This enables organizers to make changes on the fly that leads to better rates of engagement and to collect information on leads for post-event follow ups.

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This in turn can lead to more leads and revenue. (Click here to read more about how NASSCOM generated 1000+ leads for their event sponsors).

4. Tech industry

Unsurprisingly, the tech industry took to virtual events like a duck to water, with companies like Salesforce, Consumer Technology Association, G2 and IBM pivoting to large-scale virtual conferences and summits with ease and reaping the benefits. (Click here to find out which of these companies made our list of 12 virtual events done right.) 

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The perfect example of this is Gainsight’s Pulse. In May 2021, the company decided to transform their traditionally in-person event to a virtual version. The event featured 25 sessions presented by the leaders of top companies like Adobe, VMWare, and LinkedIn, and was attended by over 22,000 Customer Success and Product professionals from 50+ states/countries. In stark contrast, the same in-person event held in 2019 was attended by only 5,000 people. 

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The company shared pre-recorded sessions and switched to live Q&A with the speakers right after the session, an engagement strategy that seemed to have paid off; the company tracked one million viewer minutes over the two half-days. Indeed, Stephanie Robotham, Chief Marketing Officer at Gainsight, pointed to the availability of real-time tracking of virtual attendees as a tremendous advantage, as it allowed them to take action immediately and have richer data for sales follow ups. 

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As a consequence of better reach and engagement and tracking, the tech industry has been able to hold more impactful and valuable events.

To sum up...

All kinds of businesses, forced to throw out their playbooks completely due to lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions over the last year, discovered a silver lining amidst the chaos: virtual events. 

Regardless of industry, it became quite clear that through use of virtual and digital event solutions, organizers and marketers were able to hold immersive and creative virtual experiences for their customers and clients that drove energy, enthusiasm, meaningful connection and engagement for attendees, and delivered on business goals for organizers.

Even though in-person events are on the rise again, it’s a surety that virtual events or hybrid ones (a blend of virtual and in-person components) will remain. The benefits of virtual events are just too obvious to walk away from.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

As an event organizer or marketer, the one thing that probably keeps you up at night is worrying about the attendee experience — as you should.  

It’s never anyone’s intention, but even the most experienced organizers can overlook some details that can contribute to a not so great virtual event experience. Just think back to the last event you attended. 

• Was it riddled with sluggish loading times and technical glitches? Or did everything run perfectly?
  

• Were the speakers and sessions able to capture your attention - and hold it? Or were you on your phone 60% of the time?
  

• Did you find yourself enjoying the event? Or were you making a mental note to never attend an event held by the organizer ever again?
  

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Clearly, it’s easy enough to identify issues that could crop up at your own event and work on measures to prevent them. It’s a simple exercise in thoughtfulness that can pay dividends.  With that in mind, let’s look at 6 of the most common complaints attendees have about virtual events with some actionable insights to tackle them.

1.“I can’t sit still for hours on end”

Say you’ve decided to attend a virtual conference over the weekend. The 3-hour long conference seems taxing, but you’re banking on the speakers’ exciting insights to help you power through it. But even with your highest concentration, you couldn’t make it past the first hour. 

If you’ve been there, you’re not alone.

The biggest challenge of hosting a virtual event is often the responsibility of engaging the audience. Even with this goal in mind, most organizers fail to address that an average virtual attendee will only pay attention to 68% of the event if it’s longer than 20 minutes.

So, the first and most crucial complaint deterring participation in your event is your audience’s short attention span.

How can you solve it?

The best way to tackle this challenge is to understand your attendees better. Use pre-event or during the event surveys and polls to identify their preferences regarding the length of the event, as well as timings for sessions and event activities.

Once you have this information, plan out your event schedule to be accommodating and inclusive (this is especially important if you have attendees joining in from different time zones). Planning regular intervals between sessions are important as they allow everyone to take a break and relax. Multiple short sessions are better than a single lengthy and endless session any day.

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Moreover, you can use Zuddl’s innovative gamification feature to keep them hooked throughout the event. Set up an attendee leaderboard and set points for activities completed by attendees to maximize participation. Even better if you announce that you’ll be awarding prizes to the top three scorers. (Click here to read more about our Gamification feature in detail).

2.“I find it challenging to listen to the speaker and read the chat simultaneously.”

For some, it can be difficult to listen to speakers and type out their responses at the same time. More importantly, this constant back and forth between listening and writing can affect their takeaways from the session — reducing the value of the event.

How can you solve it?

Ideally,  you want your participants to first listen to the speakers and then air their views. This can be facilitated by the virtual event platform in a couple of ways. Zuddl, for example, has in-platform engagement features that allow attendees to easily express opinions or questions. 

• Emoji Reactions: Instead of having to type out text replies to real-time moments on Stage, emoji reactions are an easy, quick, and fun way for attendees to indicate enthusiasm - it's a natural extension of a reaction language we use almost everywhere else in our digital lives.
  

• Raise Hand: Eschewing any need for typing, with this feature, attendees can go from the audience and right onto the Stage alongside speakers, upon approval by organizers.
  

With these, you’ll be able to give your attendees a chance to consume as much information as possible while also enabling them to share their takes and ask questions.

3. “I am bored out of my mind” 🥱

Imagine putting in weeks of energy and effort to organize your event only for the audience to space out because of boredom. Many participants complain that they zone out during virtual sessions because it’s not intriguing enough to grab or retain their attention.

The primary reason for this is the lack of a solid audience engagement strategy. 

How can you solve it?

First, create an audience engagement strategy aligned with your events’ goals, speakers, and audience preferences.  Use virtual event platform tools like Polls and Quizzes to keep your audience excited and tuned in during event sessions. As mentioned earlier, Gamification can play an important role here. 

Next, leverage your event platform to create a virtual venue that your attendees will enjoy exploring. One of the greatest benefits from using a platform is the different virtual sections or zones you can create within it - such as an event lobby, Breakout Rooms, an Expo zone, and networking areas. 

Attendees who want to take a break can visit each of these areas to participate in different kinds of activities, from 1:1 video calls with peers to small group discussions to taking pictures at a virtual Photobooth. The more avenues for interaction you have at your virtual event, the greater engagement you create for your audience.

4. “I want to meet and mingle with speakers post-session”

While online events have replicated the in-person experience in many ways, some aspects are more challenging than others. One such element is post-session interaction with speakers. Getting to meet or talk directly with industry leaders and experts is one of the best parts of attending a conference or summit, but usually at virtual events, organizers overlook facilitating this important experience.

How can you solve it?

Set up networking sessions for everyone at the event - attendees and speakers alike. Our networking feature is perfect for this. Via Quick Networking, your attendees will be matched randomly with others at the event - just like when at an in-person conference, you would walk up to the nearest person you saw and strike up a conversation. 

Smart Networking on the other hand allows for more targeted matchmaking. Attendees can list interests on their profiles, as well as specify who they’re looking to meet -eg. Startup investors, Bitcoin experts (who might be speakers at your event), and Zuddl’s feature will match them automatically to those who list themselves as such. 

Another Zuddl feature that helps with this attendee complaint is the Raise Hand feature. As described earlier, you can bring some attendees onto the virtual Stage alongside a speaker so that they can have a direct conversation.

5.  This event feels more like a presentation than a virtual conference 

Another key differentiator between a virtual and in-person event is the delivery of every session.

While a physical event gives a clear glimpse of the speakers walking from one end of the stage to the other, a virtual event boxes them into a small part of the screen. This can detract from the effect their presence has on the audience. And network issues, buffering, and audio glitches can always add to their misery.

The lack of this immersive experience—both for the speakers and participants—reduces the entire event to a presentation. Your audience expects a greater degree of involvement and interaction in every session.

How can you solve it?

Deliver a more immersive experience by partnering with a premium audio visual and event production company. Zuddl’s partner Entertainment Technology Partners (ETP) for instance, helps to execute all your audio-visual desires and push the envelope just a little further in engagement.  

Leveraging a combination of live and virtual event technologies, that can include Augmented Reality, Extended Reality, and other virtual sets, your studio partner can help you create unforgettable experiences that keep attendees coming back for more.

6. I miss that feeling of bumping into people and making connections

Those moments of meeting someone at the buffet or the ticket queue or even at the line for the bathroom are actually opportunities for attendees to interact with unexpected people, ideas, or businesses - that can translate into long lasting business relationships. At virtual events, these serendipitous moments are a little more tricky to facilitate but more so the reason for organizers to pay extra attention to this.

How can you solve it?

Organizers of virtual events are tackling this concern in many interesting ways. With an intuitive event hosting platform like Zuddl, you can try some of these best practices to encourage more interactions between participants:

• Create a directory of all participants on the event’s website. This will allow every attendee to know who they can network with ahead of time. 
  

• Enable attendees at your virtual event to set up 1:1 meetings with others. 

• Leverage the AI-powered match-making feature on Zuddl to bring like-minded people together to start a conversation.

• Add activities before and after every session for participants to talk about their experiences such as happy hours, learning circles, or open mics that can be hosted in virtual rooms. 

By giving your attendees agency and choice to meet others from a variety of ways, you’ll be empowering them to mingle and connect with others as per their convenience.

To sum up...

The virtual event industry is expected to grow beyond $500 billion by 2028. In such a rapidly growing market, you can guarantee your success only when you know what your attendees want and need from your events. Start with the tips above to make your events more interactive, fun, and audience-friendly.

Zuddl’s suite of features and partnership with ETP can make your virtual events stand out from the crowd. Talk to us today about how to get started.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

First,  let's get this out of the way: hybrid events have been around for years.

Take any example of a major sporting event that has been televised worldwide. On the one hand, you have plenty of people enjoying the game in person at the stadium, and on the other hand, you have millions of fans watching the game at home. This is an example of an event that is hybrid thanks to its virtual and in-person components. So, why the hype now?

Over the past year, event marketers have seen first-hand the benefits that come with virtual events -  the ability to reach a broader audience, drive more engagement, track metrics easily, and improve event ROI. So even though people are able to meet again in person now, the success driven by virtual events have ensured that organizers will want to bring together elements of both to host a hybrid experience; as per the EventMB´s State of the Event Industry Report, 67.5% of event planners believe that future events will mostly be hybrid. 

But there’s one major caveat: in order to take advantage of everything that hybrid meetings and events have to offer,  focusing on ways to keep attendee engagement high is critical. But this can seem daunting - how are you going to keep thousands of online attendees along with in-person attendees invested throughout your event? 

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Set expectations for both live and virtual attendees

Regardless of whether an event is in-person or virtual, letting attendees know what they can expect at the event beforehand has always been a priority for organizers. In the case of a hybrid event, this is especially important.

Keep in mind that your attendees may be confused about how the hybrid setup will affect their event experience. They may not understand how to attend it, how to consume content, or how to and interact with others.

Setting the stage, therefore, is the first step in driving better engagement. Educating attendees about how to access the event, what in-person and digital elements will be present, how they can participate, and how they can connect with other attendees will go a long way.

2. Choose the right venue for your event

From the seating plan to technological capabilities, the venue you choose can play an important role in your ability to keep all your attendees captivated and engaged. The essentials: seating capacity for your in-person attendees, Covid-19 safety considerations, full audiovisual production ability or live studio setup, and secure and reliable WiFi. 

You have to ask yourself: How can I use the venue space and its capabilities to create an immersive experience for all attendees? Does it have the equipment I need to produce a high-definition Netflix-like event experience? Does the venue provide enough bandwidth to prevent any buffering or AV lag?

As hybrid events become increasingly popular, more venues are starting to offer the services that enable hosting them. Today, it’s not surprising to find hybrid events venues that come equipped with a full live studio setup with Augmented Reality, XR effects, LED backdrops, and more. These may be a little more expensive, but the experience they provide is sure to increase your session engagement tenfold.

3. Be mindful of timezones when planning your schedule

It’s quite possible that you’ll have attendees from all over the world tuning into your event, in which case, how can you make sure your attendee from Alaska is able to have an event experience as satisfactory as an attendee from Australia? How can you ensure that everyone has access to your event content? And has the opportunity to connect with other attendees and speakers? Planning your event can seem pretty complex.

But it doesn’t have to be. 

One solution is to create on-demand content or set up simulated live sessions. You can release pre-recorded videos or workshop tutorials each day which means you can accommodate attendees in different time zones easily. You can then follow it up with live Q&A sessions with the speakers featured in the on-demand content, which keeps everyone interested and involved.

Another is to host the event over a couple of days - why not? The virtual component to your hybrid event allows you to do so with agility. As long as you have an event schedule that clearly spells out what sessions or activities are going to be going live at which times, your line-up can scale up or down.

Click here to read about how one of our clients held their virtual conference over an incredible 10 days. 

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

And by creating more chances for your attendees to access and consume your content, the better your engagement rates will be.

4. Choose the right virtual event platform

Keeping hybrid attendees engaged is already a challenging task, so don’t complicate it further with cumbersome technology. You can assume that just like you, your attendees and speakers and sponsors will also be a bit unaccustomed to a hybrid event setup, so your first priority should be to find a virtual event platform partner that makes the entire process as simple, straightforward, and stress-free as possible.

Second, if the event platform you choose has features and tools that will help you drive engagement, that’s half the work done. Live Polls, Q&A, and Chat facilities are the bare minimum you should look for. Then there are platforms like Zuddl that will give you enhanced features like Raise Hands, Breakaway Rooms, and AI-powered Networking that raise the bar. Also critical: a mobile app that in-person attendees can access while at the venue that lets them connect with virtual attendees.

The more spaces and pathways you give your attendees to connect, chat, and interact, the more engaging your event will be as they are constant reminders of being part of something bigger than themselves.‍

5. Facilitate shared and inclusive experiences 

The last thing you want is for any of your attendees to feel left out. Leveraging the capabilities of the virtual event platform and the in-person venue you choose, you can then host activities and sessions that bring your in-person and virtual attendees together.

Here are a couple of ways to do this:

‍Networking -  Give your attendees the opportunity to meet and connect with each other at their own pace by setting up networking sessions, and Breakout Rooms.  Zuddl offers Smart Networking through which attendees are matched based on mutual interests such as a session topic, a job role, or an industry. Once matched, attendees can schedule a 1:1 video meeting, and get to know each other better.

‍Breakout Rooms - These virtual rooms can be used to facilitate small group conversations. Attendees can use these rooms just to socialize and relax or get together to discuss a specific topic. These are particularly effective as they bring together small numbers of like-minded peers who can easily form connections with each other.

Stage Interactions - While it’s important to offer content that is accessible to attendees as per their convenience, it’s paramount to have live sessions that shake things up, get everyone energized and create a greater sense of connection. At these sessions, you’ll need to play the role of a thoughtful moderator - using Polls to remind attendees that their opinions matter in real-time, take as many questions as you can by the audience to Speakers, or even using Raise Hands to bring attendees onto the stage.  These simple actions can go a long way in making an attendee feel ‘seen’ and valued, and will encourage them to keep participating.

6. Use gamification to make engagement more fun!

Gamification is a simple and effective way for you to prompt and encourage attendees to participate more at your event. Set points to different activities and actions your attendees can complete such as asking a question or answering a Poll, and set prizes for those who top the leaderboard. This introduces a lighthearted sense of competition that will keep energy flowing throughout the event. (Click here to read more about Zuddl’s gamification feature)

To sum up…

The popularity of hybrid events is only set to grow over the next few years, so it’s important that you know how to get the most out of any hybrid event you host. Through thoughtful planning and the support of the right venue and a virtual event platform, you should be able to create an event experience that has all of your attendees excited and tuned in - no matter if they’re attending in-person or online. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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Look out event organizers! NFTs will change virtual/hybrid events forever.

When a digital artwork called “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” sold for $69 million at Christie’s in March this year, it became clear that the time of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) had arrived. Although they have been around for years, the hype around NFTs has skyrocketed recently; there’s been $2.5 billion in NFT sales already in 2021. 

Wait, what is an NFT?

First, to address the elephant in the room, an NFT is a crypto asset (similar to a coin) representing an intangible digital item such as an image, audio file, video, gif, meme, or moment. An NFT is made and stored on a blockchain platform, which is the same technology that powers Bitcoin. The digital asset is traded online and cannot be duplicated.</span That’s why NFTs are so valuable.‍

What place do NFTS have at virtual or hybrid events?

NFTs have the power to disrupt the landscape of the events industry. Brands can now create unique, engaging, and interactive experiences for attendees, and give them  a token of ownership — something meaningful from the event that they can cherish forever.

Take the example of the music album ‘When You See Yourself’ which was released by the band the Kings of Leon in the form of an NFT. The group released tokens for special album packages, front-row seats at their concerts for life, and exclusive audiovisual art. This way, they gave all those who bought their tokens a piece of a one-of-a-kind and personal moment in time that any fan would have been proud to own.

Event organizers and marketers can employ a similar strategy at virtual and hybrid events. But while there are plenty of ways to use NFTs at your event - from ticketing to giveaways - providing value to your attendees and driving loyalty should be central to your strategy. Here’s what to keep in mind when you make your plan:

Allow the audience to “own” a moment and not just remember it 

By enabling your attendees to take home a unique NFT from the event aka actually “owning” an exclusive piece from the event experience, of which only a specific number will ever exist. With scarcity and uniqueness comes value.

Take digital artist Ahmed, for example, who attended a Clubhouse event on digital assets and NFTs. Instead of doing things the traditional way, he decided to capture a special moment from the event and turn it into an NFT. The ability to “own” this moment—through an NFT—made people buy it for 0.24 ETH from him.

Pique interest and nurtures brand loyalty 

Using an NFT as a virtual/hybrid event ticket lets you give attendees rewards, assign prizes to particular seats, or even offer additional event perks such as an invitation to an exclusive virtual after-party. Such a unique and exclusive brand experience can pique attendees’ interests and nurture brand loyalty. 

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5 ways to use NFTs at your next hybrid or virtual event

Here are a couple of suggestions to get you thinking about how to use NFTS at your event, and how they can work to your benefit.

1. Leverage NFTS as part of your pre-event promotions

With countless virtual events being held every week, it’s not easy to stand out. You’ll need to create a customized and valuable event experience to truly give attendees more than what they signed up for.

This is where NFTs can come into play. You can use them as a major Unique Selling Proposition (USP) for your virtual event. They can act as a tremendous pre-event marketing strategy, help you create buzz around your event, boost brand and event awareness, and give your audience yet another reason to sign up.

To this end, The Preakness Stakes, a legacy American thoroughbred horse race launched a range of digital souvenir NFTs this year, to market an old sport to a younger audience. Soft NFTs are digital such as full race videos and a digital rendering of the trophy, while others come with real-life experiences at the 2021 Preakness, such as VIP tickets and naming a race on the undercard.

2. Create digital assets and collectibles for mid-event giveaways

Virtual event engagement can be challenging, especially when Netflix and online shopping are just a tab away. NFT giveaways are a great way to keep your attendees’ attention firmly at your event and boost their event experience. Creating and offering digital assets and collectibles around the event theme or cause will further cement brand loyalty and bragging rights for attendees. Win-win.

3.  Use NFTs to create a unique ticketing system with add-ons and ticket tiers

Traditional ticketing systems are becoming increasingly unsafe due to online scams and phishing (12% of customers buying concert tickets end up being scammed). So using NFTs as tickets to your event not only adds an interesting element to your event, but makes the ticketing process safer as well. Here’s how:

• Straightforward authentication, as blockchain stores the ticket’s code. 
  

• Preventions of resale frauds and transfer of tickets by making tickets non-transferable.
  

• Ability to offer value add-ons to specific ticket tiers such as rewards and prizes enables curated experiences drives enthusiasm and loyalty
  

• Better security and protection as  NFT ticketing systems have top-tier access restrictions, privacy, and anti-scalping measures
  

Not to mention, it takes less than 5 minutes to generate NFT tickets, and for less than $2.

4.  Offer NFTs as gamification rewards

Virtual event gamification is a simple and fun way to encourage attendees to participate more at hybrid and virtual events. Organizers can set points to specific attendee actions, such as asking questions, answering a Poll, or visiting an Expo booth. Attendees who rack up the most points can then win themselves an NFT. In this way, you can drive engagement and steer audience behaviour.(Click here to read more about how to leverage gamification at your next event).

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5. Give attendees NFTs as virtual event swag

Lastly, NFTs can be used as “I was there” event souvenirs for attendees. Think limited-edition iconic pieces that celebrate memories and moments from the event itself - a charismatic moment from a keynote address, a stylish product launch, a bold prediction by an industry leader, a high-energy musical performance, or an unexpected moment of hilarity. Others who were not able to attend the event themselves may be able to access or view these moments, but only your attendees will own them.

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In conclusion...

Plenty of opportunity lies within the exclusivity and value that can be generated by NFTs. The five points highlighted in the article will help you use NFTs in exciting and innovative ways—to drive conversions, boost attendee engagement, deepen consumer relationships and drive new revenue streams.

If you’re interested in learning more about enhancing your next hybrid or virtual event experience through NFTs, gamification and other engagement solutions, talk to our team! We’ll walk you through best practices used by some of our clients like Microsoft and Kellogg’s, and give you a demo of how to use our platform to achieve your event goals. 

Just book a demo to get started.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

You've probably heard the expression, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” This proverbial saying continues to hold true, even in the age of remote working, and the great pivot to virtual and hybrid workforces. One of the greatest challenges company leaders and organizers face today is building connectivity and cohesion between employees working from different locations, some from the office and others from home.

And one way to do this is through hosting team retreats that bring everyone together to have fun and socialize.

Retreats, as we all know, allow colleagues to relax, recharge, exchange ideas, work through their problems, and get to know each other better. This also leads to organizational benefits, such as a rise in productivity and creativity. 

But how does this work with a hybrid or virtual workforce? How can you plan a company event when some of your attendees are at the physical venue and the others are tuning in virtually? Designing a hybrid or virtual team retreat comes with its own sets of challenges and will require extra planning. But with the right ideas, the right tools, and the right virtual platform, you’ll be able to deliver an experience that everyone will be raving about all year. 

Designing a virtual or hybrid retreat

To start, remember to accommodate the behaviorisms and needs of both your virtual and in-person team members; for one, no one wants to remain glued to their screen for hours on end. You want to reinvigorate your team, not contribute to digital burnout. Your schedule of activities, therefore, requires intentionality and attention to detail. Here are a few tips to help you with this:

1. Plan in a mix of time-sensitive activities and recorded sessions

One of the biggest benefits of organizing a hybrid or virtual retreat is that every employee can participate, regardless of where they are located. But this also means you’ll need to take into account time zones when planning your scheduling to ensure that important activities can be attended by a majority of your team.

So for instance, you can kickstart your retreat with a pre-recorded video of your company’s year so far and major milestones accomplished - a unifying experience for everyone. In fact, we would recommend making all sessions available as recordings so those unable to join live can watch them at their convenience. You can also consider hosting sessions that go live at different times for different time zones, but with the same content.

You’ll also need to plan in activities that bring team members together such as Networking sessions. Give your attendees a variety of options so that they can choose that which is most convenient for them.
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2. Choose a venue suitable for both in-person and virtual attendees

This can be tricky. Most team or company retreats are usually held at holiday locations, away from the city so that employees can relax and have fun at the beach or mountains. You can still do so, provided you find a venue at the location with the capability and technology to host a hybrid event. 

Remember that you’ll need a space that can accommodate your in-person attendees, and can support a high-quality event production, such as audiovisual equipment, streaming capabilities, reliable Wi-Fi, and on-site experts. Virtual and in-person attendees need to be able to see each other, and talk to each other in real-time. You want to create an experience that is interactive, engaging, and free of buffering issues. The last thing you want is for your virtual attendees to feel like second-class citizens at an event that is all about making everyone feel valued and supported.

Click here to read more about what to look for in a hybrid event venue.

3. Keep things interactive

Central to your hybrid or virtual team retreat is creating spaces and facilitating discussions that are lively, inclusive, and fun - which you can do by leveraging the features of your virtual event platform. Here’s how:

• Host small group sessions and team-building activities (click here to read some ideas you can steal) by using virtual Breakaway Rooms. You can use these rooms to let virtual and in-person attendees go simply socialize and just chat, or for brainstorming sessions, inter-team roundtable discussions, etc.
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• Boost team and company camaraderie and cohesion through Networking sessions. If you use a virtual event platform like Zuddl, you’ll be able to employ Smart Networking, which matches attendees based on mutual interests (Click here to read more about Smart Networking in detail). This is a simple way to create authentic 1:1 connections.
  

• Make  every attendee feel seen and heard through the use of in-platform attendee engagement tools.  Chat, Polls, Q&A are all simple but powerful ways for everyone to feel  like they are in the same space, ‘seen’, and connected. 
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• Gamify activities to make engagement more fun! Setting points to tasks can nudge your team members into participating more, especially if there’s a reward to those who score the most. Gamifying actions or activities like networking or team challenges is a clever way to motivate your team and make the event experience more productive and fun for everyone. 
  

4. Give everyone company swag

If you do plan to host your team retreat at a fancy hotel or exotic location, find ways to make virtual attendees feel pampered as well. This could be as simple as sending them meals and gifts that in-person attendees receive such as personalized gift hampers and goodie bags. 

5. Choose the right technology 

For a hybrid or virtual retreat that effectively brings your team together, you first need a virtual platform that can facilitate this. Look for solutions like Zuddl that has a range of features and tools you can use to bridge the gap between in-person and virtual attendees such as Networking or Chat, and that makes the retreat a fun experience for everyone, like Gamification. 

To sum up...

Energized employees, tight-knit teams, fun workplaces - all are essential components of a successful organization. Done right, your hybrid or virtual team retreat can help nurture all three. With the right planning, platform and tools, you will be able to curate a remarkable experience that drives long-lasting value.

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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If you’re an event organizer or a marketer for your business, you’ll already know that networking is one of the most integral parts of virtual events.

In fact, a survey by Markletic  points to networking being the second most popular reason people choose to attend events, with educational reasons being the first. And it’s easy to understand why.Networking gives you the opportunity to build business relationships and learn more about different industries, and new job prospects. It opens up new doors for your career and business.

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However, facilitating this at an event is also one of the trickiest to get right. 

At in-person events, a multitude of factors can result in a networking session proving ineffective. The challenge for organizers has always been to create a space where attendees feel comfortable and confident, and are able to meet the right people. Now, thanks to virtual event platforms like Zuddl, organizers can do exactly that.

But finding a conducive virtual networking platform is just one part of the equation. Organizers need to be creative in coming up with ways to effectively leverage the features of the platform.  Lucky for you, we’ve done the hard work already and come up with 6 ways you can boost networking at your next virtual event.

Virtual networking ideas for external events (virtual conferences, trade shows, summits, etc.)

1. Pre-event/Pre-session chat

There’s no rule stating that networking needs to occur at a specific time at your virtual event, so why not start even before your event begins? Create a private space for attendees to connect and chat with each other ahead of the event kickoff. This makes socializing at the virtual event less awkward for attendees.

Creating a pre-event chat can help to take the stress away from having to find someone to talk to at the virtual conference. Connecting with even one other person ahead of time can make attendees feel more comfortable and confident in attending the event and meeting others, and can even embolden them to participate more during the event.

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Setting up a pre-session chat is another way to create a low-pressure, fun space where like-minded attendees can make connections.

2. Birds of a feather sessions‍

Organizing birds of a feather sessions is one of the most effective virtual networking event ideas you could implement. It’s basically hosting a breakout activity that is based on a shared interest during the event.

Similar to the pre-session chat, the birds of a feather session act as an informal and relaxed town hall-like space where like-minded attendees can chat about their interests, leading to potential collaboration. You can choose to invite a speaker to the session to facilitate group discussions, or you can make it more informal and simply encourage attendees to have unconstrained conversations about the topic. 

An important factor to be considered while organizing a BoF session is limiting attendance. This should be an intimate gathering so that every participant is comfortable and can talk easily.

3. Speed Networking

Speed networking, which works in a similar fashion to speed dating but with the advantage of AI-matchmaking, helps attendees connect with the right people at your virtual event.  For this activity, you will need a virtual event platform like Zuddl that has this feature capability (Click here to read more about our Zuddl’s Smart Networking platform feature in detail). 

Prior to entering Speed Networking, attendees will need to fill out profiles on the virtual event platform, that include their interests. When they enter the Speed Networking session, they will then be matched with attendees who share those interests for 1:1 video calls. It’s a great way for attendees to network with those in the same industry, or who are trying to solve the same problems. When matched attendees connect for their meeting, they can skip the small talk and get right down to business.

Speed Networking is great for use at internal events as well as it’s a simple yet effective way to bring together a remote workforce, and build connection and camaraderie. Zuddl, for instance, organizes a Speed Networking session every Friday so that colleagues from different teams who may not have much opportunity to connect and speak throughout the day, can meet and learn about each other. 

4. Pre-event photo competition

This simple activity can be a great way to interject more energy and fun into your online networking events. All you need to do is to ask your attendees to share a photo ahead of time - but keep in mind that this should be in line with your event. For example, if you are organizing a virtual wellness summit, you could ask attendees to share a photo of how they unwind after a long day. 

You can set up an Expo Booth at your virtual event venue (check that your virtual event platform has this feature), at which you can display the photos, and promote a visit to the Booth via social media or email to registered attendees. This way, attendees will be able to learn the names, businesses, and personalities of other attendees before the event begins - and can seek them out for 1:1’s if they spot a potential business collaboration.

Virtual networking ideas for internal events (company offsites, company meetings, team building, etc.)

5. Gamify your event

Gamification is one of the most effective and fun networking ideas on our list because of the way it encourages attendees to get to know each other. Through gamification, you can assign points to specific activities to be carried out by attendees, such as taking part in a group conversation in a Breakaway Room, or connecting with an attendee for a 1:1 video call. And you can award prizes to attendees with the most points!

Using a virtual event platform like Zuddl which has a Gamification feature can make this entire process even easier. Simply create your point distribution list, set up a displayed leaderboard, and you’re ready to go! (Click here to read more about how Zuddl’s gamification takes engagement to the highest level.)

6. Virtual watch parties or karaoke

If you’re looking for a lighthearted and fun way to get colleagues together as your virtual company meeting winds down or during the day when people need a breather from sessions, a virtual watch party or karaoke session might be just the ticket. There’s nothing like singing a terrible rendition of ‘We are the champions’ to bond a group of people together.

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While you can run this activity in any virtual meeting space, you might find using a virtual event platform that has Breakout Rooms (like Zuddl) advantageous. In a Room, a small group of people can chat with each other via a video call - but that’s not all. You can also at the same time watch a presentation or video being played on Stage. So, just like a virtual watch party, you can take in a movie and react to it and discuss it in real-time. 

In conclusion...

One of the most integral parts of organizing a virtual event is providing your attendees with an opportunity to network with each other. This can be in different shapes and forms as you can see.  With the virtual networking ideas, we’ve shared, you should be able to create a delightful experience that your attendees will value and remember. 

If you need any help setting up networking at your next event, or want to know more about how to make all aspects of your event more value-driven and effective, just let us know. Talk to our team!

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.

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The COVID-19 pandemic put virtual events front and center, but as things are slowly opening up again, in-person events are making a comeback. In this phase of transition, hybrid events — a combination of live and online events — are becoming popular, and for a good reason. 

They give your audience the flexibility to choose the format that best suits them. And like virtual events, they also allow you to reach a wider audience and at reduced costs because you don’t have to make arrangements for hundreds of people on-site. 

The technology used for virtual events also helps you track valuable information on your attendees and gauge their level of engagement with your brand and event. Moreover, they open doors to numerous sponsorship opportunities—making it a win for both you and the audience, who get access to expert speakers while sitting comfortably at home.

All these benefits combined can massively boost your ROI from the event. But don’t just take our word for it: 86% of B2B organizations say they’ve experienced a positive ROI on hybrid events within months of hosting them. 

But as lucrative as they seem, hybrid events can only be profitable if you follow some strategies before, during, and after the event. This article will explore seven such strategies that can help you capitalize on ROI in a hybrid format. Let’s dive in!

Before you start: Define your goals 

Calculating an event’s ROI can be challenging, given how many of its benefits are intangible and don’t always show immediately. 

However, you can still measure its ROI to an extent. The first step is to determine why you’re hosting the event, as well as the metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) you need to track for the same. Now, your goal behind hosting a hybrid event could be:

• Brand awareness: for which you will need to track metrics like event registrations, social media engagement, and website traffic. 
  

• Lead generation or sales: so track product/service inquiries and leads and customers acquired.
  

• Audience education: look at KPIs like sessions attended, and attendee engagement levels
  

• Earning revenue: track the number of event tickets sold and the revenue earned through sponsorships and new customers.
  

Determining event ROI becomes much simpler once you have a clear idea about your goals and the KPIs you have to track to measure them. 

Then, all you have to do is compare the expenses incurred to the gains (quantitative and qualitative), and you can assess the success of your event.

7 strategies to capitalize on ROI in a hybrid format

We’ve talked about calculating ROI, and the prerequisites for measuring event success. Now, let’s explore what you can do to boost your return on investment from hybrid events. 

1. Plan and market the event in advance 

One of the most significant benefits of hybrid events is the massive reach they bring. You’re not restricted by your audience’s location, ability to travel or the venue capacity and can get many people to attend the event. And the more attendees you get, the greater your ROI will be.

So the key to increasing registrations is to start marketing your event in advance. Ideally, all your marketing campaigns should include a call to action (CTA) to register for the event 6-8 weeks before it’s set to happen. Some ways to promote the event are: 

• Build a dedicated website that provides all vital information.
  

• Promote the event on your company website, social media channels, and newsletter.
  

• Reach out to industry influencers and market the event through their channels.
  

• Create value-driven content (like blogs, social media posts, YouTube videos) that positions you as an expert and builds trust with your audience. 
  

Although it was entirely virtual, content marketplace Pepper Content implemented many of these strategies and started marketing their Elevate Summit more than six weeks before the event—the result was 10,000+ global attendees. 

2. Choose an interactive virtual event platform 

Hybrid events have both live and virtual audiences, so to deliver a successful event it’s essential to keep both engaged. For your on-site audience, you can use tools like surveys, Q&A, and networking sessions. But for your virtual audience, it’s the event platform you choose that will play a significant role in determining their engagement and experience at your event. 

Choose a platform that offers interactive features, like live streaming, polling, chat, and breakout rooms to keep your attendees interested and involved throughout the event. Zuddl, for instance, offers matchmaking features, discussion rooms, and 1:1 meetings to help attendees interact with each other, the speakers, and sponsors. 

This helps attendees derive more value from your event and create positive experiences, which ultimately boosts returns for you.

3. Charge for your event 

A straightforward way to maximize ROI and generate more revenue from your event is to host a paid event.

The idea is to price your event in a way that covers your costs and justifies the value your audience will receive from it. This will be much easier if you’re bringing well-known speakers to your event and have an established audience that will be ready to buy from you. 
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But regardless of that, there are many ways you can increase ticket sales. The first is to create ticketing tiers—offering different access levels at different prices. This will give your audience the flexibility to choose as per their needs and budget and can thus increase registrations for you.

Another strategy to get more attendees is to offer an early bird or group discount—this will encourage more people to sign up fast and even build hype around your event. 

4. Create sponsorship deals

Finding sponsors can reduce the costs you personally incur on organizing events and help you invest in better tools and arrangements for attendees. 

But the question is, how can you convince people to sponsor your event? The best way is to educate them about the increased exposure and visibility they’ll get through it. Sponsorships are beneficial for both you as the event organizer and for the brand that is providing you resources. You can add their logos to event banners, landing pages and Stage backgrounds, create virtual sponsor booths, and encourage them to offer attendees giveaways or digital swag bags.

Moreover, you can give sponsors access to the attendee data you collect during the event and give them in-depth insight about their target audience, so they're further motivated to collaborate with you. See how AdWorld has clearly stated the benefits of being a sponsor on their website.

5. Leverage attendee data 

The good thing about hybrid events is they allow you to collect a vast amount of data on your attendees, including:

• Registrations and attendance 
  

• Demographic information 
  

• The sessions they attended
  

• The topics they were interested in 
  

• How long they participated in a session for
  

• The sponsor booths they visited
  

This information can help you understand what your target audience likes and doesn’t, create detailed buyer personas, and thus, more targeted marketing campaigns. You can also use real-time feedback and polling features to assess your event’s performance and make improvements on the go—this can further enhance attendees’ experience and customer sentiment. 

The bottom line: Such insights into your audience can help you optimize your marketing efforts and current and future events. 

6. Focus on lead retrieval 

A Marketing Charts survey revealed that events generate qualified top-of-funnel leads. And hybrid events make tracking and retrieving information on leads even easier—since all your attendees (in-person and online) register through a single platform. 

Collecting and storing information on potential leads is also where your event platform plays a crucial role. Zuddl, for instance, helps you track attendee data, engagement, and buyer intent and prepares solid lead sheets for you. You can immediately start following up with these leads after the event ends. 

Now, some ways you can enhance your follow-up efforts are:

• Sending out thank-you emails with a feedback form.
  

• Sharing keynote speakers’ clips or relevant articles through your company newsletter.
  

• Connecting with participants and prospects on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
  

• Sending targeted ads to their IP address.
  

• Creating exclusive post-event communities.
  

The idea is to integrate these leads into your marketing campaigns and keep your brand on the top of their minds. This can not only help you convert leads but also build meaningful relationships and retain them.

7. Repurpose event content 

If re-used intelligently, your event content can bring you returns for months after it ends. Here’s how you can go about this: 

• Share event recordings with attendees so they can revisit sessions. This will further improve their experience with you. 
  

• Turn sessions into gated content on your website—ask for email addresses to access it so you can build a list of leads. 

Click here to watch a recording of Zuddl and ETP’s hybrid event about hybrid events, SHIFT 2021.

• Create a paid content library to let people watch sessions on-demand, like HubSpot’s Inbound does.

• Turn video content into a webinar series or online course. 
  

• Use event materials to market your next event, like ONECelibre does here. 

With these strategies, you can generate leads and customers from your event content and turn it into a recurring revenue source for yourself. 

Conclusion

By reducing operational costs, expanding reach, and providing valuable data, the hybrid format can considerably boost your event ROI and provide benefits long after the event ends. 

Follow the seven strategies highlighted in this article and focus on improving attendees’ experience—whether it’s through the speakers you bring onboard, the content shared, or your event platform—and you’ll optimize your quantitative and qualitative results from the event. 

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Zuddl is a unified platform for events and webinars that helps event marketers plan and execute events that drive growth. The platform has clients across the globe, such as the United Nations, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, HSBC, VMware, Google, StackCommerce and Cipla amongst others. In January 2022, Zuddl announced that it closed $13.35 mn in Series A funding.