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From training sessions and team huddles to business conferences and networking events, everything has turned digital — and events are no exception.

For businesses, virtual events have become an avenue to stay connected in a still largely remote world. And the success that organizers have seen from virtual events is evident by the fact that 65% of marketers now plan to reallocate most of their live budget events towards organizing virtual events. 

But hosting a memorable virtual event is no cakewalk.

The long-drawn process of researching, strategizing, rehearsing, and conducting an event requires intensive effort. Bridging the gap between an offline and online event to give your audience a memorable time is perhaps the biggest challenge organizers face today.

Besides, it’s difficult to optimize your efforts for measurable results without the right event management software. Enter Zuddl – a 100% customizable event management solution for event organization and management. From summits to company offsites, conferences to virtual offices, we’ve helped our clients host incredible events by ensuring that key elements are addressed. 

Read on to learn what are the 6 key challenges of virtual events and how Zuddl can help address these issues.  

1. Audience engagement

How often have you found yourself wondering "when will this be over" while attending an online event? You’re not the only one feeling bored listening to one speaker after the other.

Even the most intricately planned virtual events can turn dull without the right tools to keep attendees engaged. And keep in mind that you’re already fighting for your attendees’ attention. With distractions like email, online shopping, and social media platforms just a tab away, you’ll need your event to be more attention-grabbing than anything else.

The bottom line is — if you don’t involve your audience in the event, their participation levels are bound to dip gradually, which directly impacts event success and retention.

Fix it with Zuddl

The platform enables organizers to boost participation and attendee engagement using a variety of tools. With them, you can encourage group discussions, invite people on stage, gamify your event, and more. Here are some of our most popular engagement features:

• Gamification: With gamification, you can incentivize participation and encourage your audience to take part in your event more. By assigning points to actions such as asking questions, answering polls, visiting booths, and awarding those on the top of the leaderboard, you make engagement fun and valuable. 
  

• Live polls: Everyone has a voice. Using polls, you can give your audience a chance to share their views and make them feel valued. 
  

• Join the stage: Replicate the in-person experience with this unique feature that lets attendees join the stage alongside speakers to ask them questions.
  

• Breakout rooms: Create the perfect atmosphere for attendees to interact within small groups, drive meaningful conversations, and network in Rooms.
  

2. Effective lead capturing

Events are an effective marketing tool so it’s a no-brainer that being able to track the number of leads or demo requests, etc. is critical. But this has always been difficult to do at in-person events. And at the same time, organizers have struggled to find avenues to drive lead generation at virtual events because of a lack of opportunities to give product demos, and address visitors face-to-face. 

Many events end up as nothing more than a lengthy video stream with no interaction among the audience, which hurts your ROI. (Click here to read more about how exactly do go about calculating ROI at your virtual or hybrid event)

Fix it with Zuddl

With Zuddl, you have the ability to customize your very own Expo Booth, and to give your partners and sponsors the opportunity to do so too. Here’s how booth features help with your lead generation:

• Tiered sizes: Have the ability to choose from booths of three sizes with different customizations and options for configurability, branding, and messaging.

• Showcase your brand: With widgets like videos, image carousels, files, and call-to-action buttons, you can play attendees product demos,  share marketing collateral with them, as well as exclusive perks like coupons. 

• Live booth staff: A live representative can staff the booth and connect 1:1 via video call with your attendees to immediately answer any questions or doubts, and drive more interest in your products. That human connection is invaluable. 

• Register interest: Participants have a ‘register interest’ button to convey their interest in any brand in a booth. Once a participant has registered their interest in your booth, you’ll be able to see their name and email address which can effectively help you run more targeted post-event lead nurturing campaigns.
  

3. Lack of proper control for organizers

Organizing an event - any event - with hundreds and thousands of participants is never easy. Besides bringing so many people together, running an event seamlessly is a daunting task. 

Platforms like Zoom and Google Meet don't offer the intuitive control you'd expect for maintaining the rhythm of your event And while event management platforms give you far more control over how your event pans out, using the software in itself is a challenge.

Fix it with Zuddl

With Zuddl, you can steer the flow of your event with ease and confidence. Organize meetings, conferences, and summits of any capacity with Zuddl's intricate and easy-to-navigate moderator features.

• Completely self-serve: Zuddl is 100% customizable, meaning that you can customize every aspect of your event, from lobby to networking. There’s no coding required at all.
  

• Virtual backstage setup: Ensure everything goes as per the schedule with intuitive backstage for every live session. Give your speakers a space to practice and do a quick run-through before going live.

• Manage multiple sessions: You can easily oversee different live sessions with a separate backstage setting for each session. Experience the backstage feel of an offline event with the control options to manage every detail of the session.

• Seamless control: Make your live events power-packed with pre-recorded videos, panel discussions, product launches, and presentations. Display these elements with moderator control for all your stages.

4.  Result-oriented and seamless pre-event marketing

With pre-event marketing, your goal is to increase registrations for your event while also generating more and more interest in it. 

To achieve this, your marketing efforts should essentially focus on creating curiosity about the event while making it easy for the audience to register. However, carrying out event-related activities manually can become time-consuming and chaotic with a lot of planning and data handling. 

Most event platforms only ‘step in’ after the pre-event phase, leaving organizers stressing out about how to integrate their registrations with email marketing with the event software. It can be a huge mess.

Fix it with Zuddl

From creating appealing landing pages to convenient registration and reminders, Zuddl offers an easy and efficient alternative to take care of your end-to-end pre-event formalities. And thanks to ticketing and email integrations, you can manage registrations and pre-event marketing easily and seamlessly within one platform.

• Landing pages: You can create customized landing pages and share all relevant information about the event. Drive your audience to this page and increase registrations.

• Ticketing: Create customized tickets based on the days and sessions people wish to attend. With the ticket customization feature, you can offer your audience the choice to register only for the days or sessions of their interest.  

• Email integrations: Send your registered participants announcements, reminders, and countdown emails before the event to keep them updated and ensure maximum participation. 

5.    Storyboard and presentation options

The lack of attractive presentation options is another critical challenge for virtual events, directly impacting audience retention. 

Most virtual speakers deliver their talks with a presentation. But research shows that 79% of people believe presentations are boring.

Without an immersive setup to present visual content, you miss out on opportunities to make your event more interactive and impactful.

Fix it with Zuddl

Zuddl offers game-changing features to deliver content in a virtual setting. You can use multiple formats for your sessions, allow speakers to share their presentations and content easily, and transition between images and videos with ease—taking your events a level high above boring presentations.

• Play pre-recorded content: Add pre-recorded videos to your event to make it more accessible for participants and speakers from varying time zones. 

• Smooth transition: Whether it’s an image overlay or a push video, keep your attendees engaged in between sessions or speakers.

• Zero lag: Audio-video lags have no place at a virtual event. Thanks to zero lag at Zuddl, you’ll be able to live-stream and share content with no glitches, buffering, or audio issues. Offer a seamless experience to your speakers and audience alike. 

6. Event management and coordination

A significant reason why organizers avoid event management software is the struggle of operating the tool. A lack of tech support from the company only adds to the inconvenience.

With little knowledge of the tool, you can neither make the best use of it for planning your event nor help your participants with any queries. Besides, any glitches during the live event can end up spoiling the entire experience.

Fix it with Zuddl

The Zuddl team offers you support throughout the entirety of your event —before, during, and after. 

The platform was designed and built by leaders in the event industry; our CEO Bharath Varma used to run an event management agency called Phoenix Live which hosted live events for companies like Microsoft, Deloitte, Google etc. So we know how important it is for you to have a partner who counts your success as our own.

From onboarding to a knowledge base to assistance during your live event, the team is always there to help.

In conclusion…

Virtual events are a key ingredient of any marketing and lead generation strategy. Hosting an unforgettable online event can do wonders for your brand. So before planning your next event, think about how you can include these six elements and make your event flawless.

While the backend process of planning the details of your event can be taxing, the right event management software can help you host the event of your dreams. Ideally, the software should allow you to engage with your audiences, organize multiple sessions simultaneously, and offer seamless control of the live show.

With Zuddl, you have a simple and efficient solution to ease the process and your experience of running the show! We’d love to show you a live demo of the platform. Just click here to set up a time to chat with us.

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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.

Contrary to popular assumption,  hybrid events have been around for years. 

Just look at the Super Bowl. Thousands of fans would watch the game at the stadium, and many millions more would watch the game from their homes. It's a classic example of a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual components.

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It’s taken the pandemic for businesses and corporations to realize that they can hold hybrid events, and the unique value they offer. Hybrid events combine the irreplaceable feeling of connection of in-person events with the amazing data-based insights and reach of virtual events.

But, not all hybrid events are created equal!

Hybrid events come in all shapes and sizes, delivering unique and memorable experiences to their attendees. We found 9 of the coolest hybrid events example that really showcase how versatile the format can be. All it takes is a little bit of creativity.

1. Austrian Wine Marketing Board

What’s a wine company to do in a middle of a pandemic? The Austrian Wine Marketing Board seems to have taken the question as a personal challenge. Instead of shutting shop, the company decided to hold a hybrid Austrian wine tasting event in Moscow instead!

At the in-person event, wine professionals were given their own socially distanced tables on which they tasted several hybrid wines from Austria, and learned about each product. Using an online app, the tasters could connect virtually with suppliers in Austria through 1:1 video calls in private video meeting rooms or live chat at virtual booths, that had easily accessible documentation and technical specifications. This allowed the tasters to place orders directly from suppliers they would never have known existed, without the event.

2. Meeting Professionals International: WEC Grapevine

It’s no surprise that the largest meeting planner and event planner industry association worldwide held one of the most successful hybrid events to date: WEC Grapevine. The association's flagship event brought together more than 600 in-person attendees in Grapevine, Texas, along with 1,000 virtual attendees. It garnered a 93% satisfaction rate from attendees.

The reason? All WEC Grapevine sessions ensured that both the in-person and digital formats complemented one another. This includes keynote sessions structured like a late-night talk show, where an emcee engaged with the speakers and in-person audience, while virtual attendees participated online. Break-out sessions, midday broadcasts, and Zumba workouts boosted the virtual side, with 23 concurrent sessions.

3. Twitch’s GlitchCon

Twitch, an online streaming service for gamers and content producers, hosts a conference – usually in San Diego – that attracts thousands of attendees from around the world. TwitchCon 2019 focused on community-building regardless of where their attendees were. Virtual attendees are able to participate in the event through live streaming, panels, tournaments and more! There were also keynotes, dozens of heavily-produced gaming tournaments, and even a Blink-182 performance. 

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4. SHIFT 2021

What better way to impress upon event marketers and organizers the benefits of virtual and hybrid events than host one yourself? Shift 2021 did exactly that.  Powered by virtual and hybrid events platform Zuddl and studio partner,  Entertainment Technology Partners, the event was held at a physical venue in Orlando and virtually on Zuddl. 

The event boasted speakers from companies like Google, Hubspot, LMG, Viacom, Invision, Redstone, VEI, and more, talking about all things hybrid, as well as online networking sessions too. As a consequence, although this was Zuddl’s first hybrid event, it was a resounding success. More than 55% of in-person and virtual attendees actively participated during Shift, asking questions to speakers, upvoting questions asked by other attendees, and connecting 1:1 to network with each other.

Watch a video recording of the event here.

5. Empower 21

Soon after Texas opened up in early 2021, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention successfully held a Christian mission-inspired conference titled Empower 21 as a hybrid event. The target audience for the event were the members of the 40,000 Southern Baptist churches under the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (STBC) spread throughout the country.

The organization used a single platform for both in-person and virtual attendees instead of a patchwork of different programs. Because of this, SPTC was able to promote the event over 100 channels to the families and individuals of the community. Virtual attendees tuned in from the safety of their homes, and attendees who went to the event in-person in Texas, followed social distancing guidelines and wore a mask. 

All attendees were able to attend 29 sessions that included panels, luncheons, workshops, and keynotes. And thanks to enhanced integration, virtual attendees were able to network with their in-personal counterparts. Empower 21 is one of the top examples where a unified audience was created across virtual and in-person so that attendees could share the same experience, communicate, and interact with each other. 

6. Apple Special Events‍

When it comes to events with power and pull, Apple is, of course, one of the front runners - and it’s no different when it comes to hybrid events. For years, the company has live-streamed product launches and special events to thousands of technology enthusiasts and Apple fans all around the world in addition to on-site attendees. 

7. Growth Marketing Conference

There are some who believe that hybrid events disproportionately favor in-person attendees over virtual participants.  The Growth Marketing Conference is one hybrid event that disproves that. Organizers created a ‘Virtual Access Pass’ that gave their virtual attendees bonus content, such as access to more than 200+ webinars, to make sure they felt included and valued.  

8. Gainsight Pulse Everywhere

 This conference has been running every year since 2013. Last year, because of the pandemic, the organizers decided to pivot to a hybrid model. Key staff members and speakers attended the event in person, and thousands of attendees were able to watch the event live and online free of charge. 

Organizers used a virtual event platform to keep attendees excited, engaged and make them feel taken care of. When attendees logged in, they were greeted by DJ Skemaddox, top-notch swag, and puppies of Pulse to set that tone of excitement.  And welcome video popups shared helpful tips for navigating the virtual platform to make the experience as frictionless as possible.

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Organizers used their virtual event platform to great effect - organizing networking sessions for all attendees, driving virtual event engagement, and capturing attendee feedback. It was one of the most sophisticated hybrid events held to date.

9. INBOUND by Hubspot

HubSpot's annual INBOUND conference is usually a three-day affair held in Boston that brings together business professionals from almost every industry. The company’s hybrid event featured all its trademarks.  

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Known for its great entertainment - stand-up comedians, actors and industry leaders regularly feature on its roster of excellent speakers - this year, both in-person, as well as virtual attendees were able to interact with presenters like Kerry Washington, Bob Iger, and John Legend. It doesn’t get more star-studded than that. 

The event blended live sessions with on-demand recordings. Additionally, during the event, both audiences could connect and speak and mingle, which was one of the aims of the event.

In conclusion…

As can be seen, hybrid events offer companies a myriad of ways to leverage the blend of virtual and in-person to their advantage. Whether broadening your reach like in the case of Empower 21 or attracting more star power to bolster your brand like in the case of INBOUND, the unique attributes of a hybrid event lets you work towards your business goals in creative ways.

If you have any questions about how to host a hybrid event of your own, and how to drive the best business outcomes from it, we’re happy to help! Let’s talk.

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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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To quote every article published in the last year, these are unprecedented times.  

The whole world pivoted quickly to meet the demands of a new reality, accelerating digital transformation that would normally have taken 10 years to accomplish.  Of course, everyone has known the importance of digital and virtual platforms for years, but no one assumed that it would become the center point for our lives almost overnight.

And the pace of change keeps accelerating. There are always new technological advancements just around the corner, especially in the events industry. And you risk losing a competitive edge if your event seems outdated. To quote George Stalk, Jr. in the Harvard Business Review, “The best competitors, the most successful ones, know how to keep moving and always stay on the cutting edge.”

So to help you stay a step ahead of the competition, these are the latest virtual event tech and virtual event trends.

Trend 1: Facial recognition

Most people have seen facial recognition used in movies and TV shows for decades - in Star Trek, Robocop, James Bond for instance; Batman had facial recognition software way back in 1966.

Today, facial recognition is becoming an increasingly common element at virtual and hybrid events. Here’s why:

1. Better analytics
   Facial recognition technology can help in identifying the emotional responses of attendees. At virtual event booths, for instance, facial recognition software can help you track how long attendees visited,  and how they felt learning about your products and services. This is incredibly valuable information that can help you create more targeted lead generation campaigns post-event.
   

2. Increased security
   You can't forge a face, not yet anyway. Using biometric data for entering guests at your event will ensure that you have a high-security level because it ensures that really only authorized attendees are allowed to enter the event. (Here’s hoping no one from Netflix is reading this piece and gets any ideas).
   

3. Shortened queue times at registration
   Giving attendees the ability to check-in at your event via facial recognition is a simple way to smoothen the registration process. If you’ve ever spent time at a high-traffic trade show, you’ll know what an advantage this is. 
   

Now, keep in mind that not everyone will be okay with their face being scanned and analyzed as they might find this an invasion of privacy. So, you will need to be as clear and transparent as you can be. Put information about using facial recognition throughout the event, on your landing page, and in your post-registration emails as well. Attendees should be able to easily access guidance on specifics like who will have access to the submitted photos, where you will be storing the information, and for how long.

Trend 2: Event Apps

Apps make everything easier - and the same goes for virtual and hybrid events. With a powerful event app that acts as an extension of your virtual and hybrid event platform, you’ll be able to deliver a seamless and integrated experience for your attendees.

Using the app, your attendees can easily register for the event, access the schedule, explore speaker profiles, and send notifications before, during and after the event. It’s a great tool to keep event activities top of mind, and drive engagement. 

Especially in the case of hybrid events, your app is what will keep your in-person and virtual attendees on the same page. Regardless of whether they are on-site or 1000 miles away from your location, they will be able to consume the same content, network with other attendees, ask questions to speakers, etc.

And of course, using an event app makes it more likely that you’ll have more attendees tuning into the event, especially the virtual ones who can join sessions whether they’re at home, or in transit. 

Trend 3: Projection mapping

With projection mapping, you’re definitely levelling up your event. 

Think of it as painting with light. You can use it to create exciting indoor stage effects, manipulating lighting to turn common objects into 3D interactive displays. You can add as many colors and textures to your environment. You can project anything - from cinema-style narratives to sponsor branding.

Furthermore, you can also use holograms to create lifelike images of keynote speakers who are not at your in-person venue. Brushing aside the travel and accommodation expenses you’ll save on, this allows you to make attendees at different venue hubs feel like they’re all having exactly the same event experience. How impressive is that?

Trend 4: AR & VR 

As many people confuse the two terms, let’s first distinguish between AR & VR. 

Augmented Reality (AR) is defined an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information - like with Pokemon Go.  Virtual Reality (VR) on the other hand, is a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world - like in Ready Player One.

Both enable you to create extra layers of experiences for your event. In fact, according to the PwC's Future Forecast report, XR (Extended Reality) will add £1.39 trillion to the global economy by 2030. Many big brands like KFC, Hilton, Deutsche Bahn, and others are currently working with XR experts to unlock the power of AR and VR technology to organize virtual events. Here’s why adapting it into your event strategy can pay off:

1. Expand your physical events
   ‍With XR solutions, you will be able to create exciting, interactive real-world spaces that your audience can explore and interact within. For immersive VR experiences, you would need to send attendees VR headsets, or you can opt for interactive web-based 3D experience platforms like Zuddl. Either way, this means that you are no longer dependent on one in-person venue, meaning that you can boost your event reach x 1000.
   

2. Truly immersive experiences
   ‍There are plenty of creative ways you can use AR for your events. With AR, you can give your attendees a try-before-you-buy experience. For instance, you can give attendees the ability to virtually ‘place’ different pieces of furniture or home decor in the houses. And you can also show attendees your services and products as interactive 3D experiences during your event. This works well for products like automobiles or travel. 
   

With so many distractions online, now is the time to leverage new technologies to create experiences that thrill attendees and have them coming back for more. AR and VR is a great way to accomplish this.

Trend 5: Language translation

When you organize an event attended by attendees from different countries, you may find that language can become a barrier. Even though English is the most common language used for events,  ideas will be better communicated if your attendees have the option to understand the content that is shared at your event in their native language.

With Language Translation, you can make your event more accessible and inclusive. Platforms like Zuddl provide live captioning and live audio translation in multiple languages in Stages. With this feature, each attendee will be able to engage with content in a language that they're proficient in. It’s a small but significant way to make sure that everyone has a good experience at your event.

Additionally, because your content is now more accessible to everyone, you can invite speakers and attendees from all corners of the world, boosting your prestige and reach. 

Trend 6: New event industry roles

The popularity of hybrid and virtual events has caused the creation of new specialist roles in the industry.  Here are a few you’ll need to factor in and budget for:

a. Chat and engagement features moderator 

Virtual and hybrid event software  like Zuddl have Chat features that can be Stage-specific and event-wide as well, which means that you’ll need team members to moderate the chat. People can get rowdy online and fearless behind a screen - not the best combination.

Your moderators will need to screen the messages on Chat, helping attendees follow guidelines, delete, inappropriate content, and keeping everything going smoothly. 

You’ll also need moderators for other engagement features. Zuddl, for instance, has a feature called ‘Raise Hand’ which attendees can use to ask organizers if they can ask Speakers on stage to ask them questions. In this case, your moderator will first need to connect 1:1 with attendees to screen their questions first before approving their request. 

This role is more important than you think. A great moderator nurtures that social and community feeling by making a chat feel comfortable and inclusive enough for attendees to confidently engage with fellow attendees, speakers and organizers as well. 

b. Virtual event hosts and emcees
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Your host or emcee is the one steering the event so to speak, so they’ll need to be someone comfortable with your platform, event goals, and with engaging with in-person and virtual attendees. 

c. Technical producer
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This is the person who will advise you on whether you should be recording or live streaming your event, etc. They are responsible for the production of the entire event. They will have to work with your A/V team or tech support to ensure that the cameras and mics are functioning properly and have to arrange the sets and lighting for your speakers at your in-person venue.

d. Tech support
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There are A/V technicians and tech support for in-person events. But at virtual events, they play a more prominent role. They handle your event's technical aspects like protecting the event from cyberattacks, creating a response plan for any incident, and ensuring internet connectivity. Some technical glitches are expected in a virtual event but you need someone who will ensure that it doesn't disrupt the flow of your event.

Trend 7: Breakout rooms

Breakout rooms are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must have’ because of the value they add to the attendee experience. As breakout rooms allow attendees to interact in smaller groups, they facilitate more focused discussions and interactions and help attendees to get to know each other just a little better.

Breakout rooms that also let attendees in the room view what’s happening live on a Stage are extremely useful. Instead of just listening to Speakers, within the room, attendees can express their thoughts about what is being spoken about, listen to the opinions of other attendees and just have a great conversation. On Zuddl, you can ‘tag’ Rooms based on the industry and topic, to help like-minded attendees connect better.

Organizers can use breakout rooms in a variety of ways - for discussions, for simple socializing or for quiz rooms, trivia rooms, etc. You can be as creative as you like.

Trend 8: Gamification

Gamification is a fun and interactive way for you to drive attendee actions while simultaneously creating value for them, for yourself, and for your sponsors. By simply assigning points to actions like answering a Poll, visiting an Expo Booth (thereby driving traffic for a sponsor or partner), and asking questions during sessions, organizers can encourage attendees to get more involved, especially if the top three attendees on the Leaderboard win a prize! 

Here are a few ways to use gamification:

• Drive interaction with speakers
• Boost posting on social media about the event
• Photo contests
• Scavenger hunts
  

Keeping attendees engaged during your event can be challenging, especially with the many other distractions easily available online. Gamification is a great way to address this.

In conclusion...

Knowing the latest trends and tech will help you to not fall behind, but keep in mind that digital and technological acceleration is a continuous cycle, so event organizers will need to continually evolve their event strategies and production to meet changing expectations. 

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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 didn’t post about your event on social media, did it even happen?

It almost goes without saying that in our digital world built on attention and visibility, social media has become an indispensable, irreplaceable way for businesses to cut through the noise, and be seen, be heard, and be memorable.

This is especially true when it comes to virtual events, because consumer attention online is a scarce commodity.

Remember, your event is not only competing with the many other virtual events out there, but Netflix, Amazon, Twitch and Youtube as well. 

So, how do you get people away from Netflix and to your event?

For your virtual event to stand out in this sea of online distractions, social media can be the ace up your sleeve. 

As most event marketers already know, sharing UGC - all the activity, conversations, and reactions by attendees during your event - is one of the most powerful ways to grab attention and stoke FOMO. Retweeting and resharing their tweets and posts is a simple but effective way to showcase your speakers and content. This, in turn, will help drive attendance, hype, and engagement up. 

That’s why we’re excited to announce our latest app integration: Taggbox Display!

Zuddl x Taggbox Display!

With Taggbox Display, you now can add social media walls to virtual events hosted on Zuddl. 

The app collects content from 15+ social platforms into a stream of user-generated content in real-time, making it easier to amplify moments that matter from your virtual event.

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How does this partnership help your virtual event?

1. Amplify your virtual event’s reach

Putting up a social wall at your virtual event is a simple way to encourage attendees to talk about your event in real-time, because it highlights their participation and makes them feel valued. And after all, it’s only natural for attendees to be motivated to post more, when they see their posts appearing immediately on the social wall. 

And with every tweet, retweet, like, share, and comment from the social wall, you increase your event’s reach, making it more visible and stronger than your competitors - and thereby making it more likely that prospective attendees will want to join in.

2. Boost visibility for event sponsors

Zuddl already gives virtual event organizers plenty of creative ways to showcase event sponsors. For instance, organizers can put up sponsor logos in their virtual lobby, or put up a partner’s branding at a Stage that has been sponsored. 

Additionally, organizers can enable sponsors to put up Booths in the Expo Zone. As each Expo Booth can be customized, a sponsor can make full use of image and video widgets to showcase their brand and products.

Now, with a social wall, boosting visibility for your sponsors becomes even easier. Sponsors can use the wall to post tweets or Instagram updates during the event so that their logos and social handles can be seen by everyone at the event. 

Bonus: you can add these stats to your event sponsorship packet.

3. Build a sense of community and camaraderie

Using specific event hashtags that attendees can use when sharing their content to the social wall is a simple way to connect people at the event with each other, and to those who are not present but are following your updates online. By doing so, you also help to create a sense of collective buy-in. 

Instead of your event attendees feeling like they’ve just spent time at your event, the social wall, displaying their updates, can help them feel like they’ve actively contributed to it; instead of merely attendees, they become valued collaborators with the brand.

How to integrate the Taggbox Display at your virtual event on Zuddl

Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Signup, or log into your Taggbox Display Account (14-days free trial available)

Step 2: After logging in, you’ll be taken to the Taggbox Display dashboard. Click on ‘Start Now’.

Step 3: You'll see a pop-up stating 'Choosing Your Source Network'. 

Choose a source for your social wall from 15+ social media platform options.

For instance, let’s say you want to choose Instagram.

• Choose the tools provided: Hashtag, Handle, Stories, Mentions, Tags and Personal Account to collect content from Instagram
  

• Click on ‘Create Feed’. A preview for your social wall will appear on the Taggbox Display dashboard.
  

• Click on the Display icon at the bottom-left corner in the dashboard.
  

• Choose ‘Virtual Events’ from the options to generate the embed code.
  

Step 4: Login to your Zuddl account. 

Step 5: Go to 'Zone Setup' and click on 'Lobby'.

Step 6: Choose 'Lobby Widgets' from the header menu.  Now click on ‘'iFrame'.

Step 7: Name your widget, and past the copied social wall URL there.

Step 8: Click on 'Create Widget'

And that’s it! You’re done! Your social wall should appear populated by the content pulled from your platforms.

In conclusion...

Happy and engaged attendees are the best advertisement for your virtual event  so letting them post about their experience and submit authentic UGC via Zuddl x Taggbox Display can fill your event with participants, reinforce credibility and trust in your brand, and influence purchasing decisions too.

Talk to us about how we can help level up your next virtual 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.

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Imagine you have to address a crowd. After preparing long and hard for this speech, you’re ready with everything you wish to share with the audience — knowledge that you’ve been curating and practicing talking about for a while now. But as soon as you near the speaking session, you end up in a sweat, and fear delivering a boring and ineffectual speech. 

You’re not alone.

Whether  you’re meeting with a group of investors, leading a discussion with your  team, or presenting at a conference, speaking your mind clearly and  confidently can be challenging for anyone.

But how exactly can you build your speaking skills and make it second nature to you?

Speaking well essentially comes from listening well. Listening to other speeches and lessons from great speakers across different fields can help you transition into a naturally effective speaker. 

By looking at their body language, the words they use, how they weave words into a story, and their impact on the audience, you can understand a lot about what it takes to be an impactful and memorable Speaker.

Deepak Pareek, the CEO of Career Keeda and a 5-time TedX speaker says:

“Being a public speaker is difficult. Every speaker who steps up on stage is scared, nervous, excited and all other emotions combined. But what matters is you take the first step, walk up on stage and embarrass yourself because that’s the only way you learn. You learn from making mistakes on stage, some irreversible ones, but all that’s a part of the journey.

One tip from my side: go ahead and expose yourself, face your fear and you’ll thank me later when you see yourself overcome stage fright and come out as a confident public speaker.”

And with this stellar advice, we have compiled ten lessons you can learn about speaking confidently from some of the best speeches out there.

Lesson 1: Explore and cultivate a confident mindset

Speaking in public can trigger anxiety for many. It’s natural to fear the prospect of speaking to a crowd when you suffer from stage paralysis.

But the best antidote to this is to find confidence within.

A University of Wolverhampton study concluded that confident speakers are considered more knowledgeable, accurate, and credible.

So, your journey to becoming a good speaker begins with confronting your fear of public speaking. Break down the nervousness that holds you back, and nurture inner confidence in your ability to communicate.

Watch and learn: Caroline Goyder’s Ted Talk

An accomplished voice coach, Caroline Goyder, presents the perfect path to transition from an under-confident, fearful speaker to an expressive one in her TED talk. She shows how you can use your voice as a prop to deliver better speeches and speak with greater confidence.

Lesson 2: Learn active listening

Active listening hones your thought process. It helps you better understand and interpret what is being asked of you, making it easier to provide an answer. When you listen with concentration, your mind is able to process every piece of information more comprehensively, thereby allowing you to speak with more clarity and precision.

Watch and learn: Brian Chesky’s interview

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s interview with Fortune magazine demonstrates the practice of active listening and responding thoughtfully to questions.

Lesson 3: Hook your audience through storytelling

If there’s one practice you can always rely on for speaking effectively, it’s storytelling.

Creating a narrative about your experiences is a great way to gain your audience’s attention. Whether you’re talking numbers at a stakeholder meet or delivering a valedictorian speech, weaving storytelling into your speech will create an impact.

Great speakers excel at storytelling because through stories, you can show your message instead of just telling it.  

Watch and learn: Arnold Schwarzenegger speech

In this speech, Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about his life and shares the lessons he’s found on the journey. He weaves multiple life stories into his speech to make it more hard-hitting. There’s a clear narrative flow, starting from his life in Austria to that of an actor.

Lesson 4: Speak candidly about your personal experiences

Delivering a speech or addressing a crowd becomes a lot simpler when you’re sharing your story. The best speakers always hit a chord with their audience by sharing their personal experiences. Instead of complicating your talk with industry jargon, just share what you have learned, and your experience in doing so.

This will be more relatable for the audience you’re addressing. Talk like you’re one of them, offering the knowledge and ideas you’ve learned so far.  

Watch and learn: Barack Obama’s convention speech

Barack Obama’s speech at the DNC Convention 2004 exemplifies how you can share personal experiences. His story is inspirational for many and shows him as a human being rather than a presidential candidate.

Lesson 5: Learn the art of making presentations 

Fact: 91% of speakers feel more confident speaking with a slide deck.

Presentations can be the best resource to help you deliver a great speech. However, a bad presentation can also break your flow.

Designing good presentations is a skill in itself:

• Create an outline for your speech and divide it into multiple slides.
• Include a mix of textual and visual content in each slide to add more context to your speech. 
• Practice with the slide deck multiple times to become familiar and comfortable with the presentation. 

Watch and learn: Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone

The iPhone launch event perfectly shows how you can use presentations to your advantage. Jobs uses his presentation to add a visual dimension to his speech, which significantly helps the audience understand and follow along with what he is saying.

Lesson 6: Maintain a calm and composed body posture

What you speak is equally important as how you say it.

The way you present yourself to the audience can make a huge difference. Your body posture and gestures convey your conviction and confidence. Even if you are not instinctively confident while speaking, your poses and body movement can make your audience believe otherwise.

Watch and learn: Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk
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Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist at Harvard, talks about the pivotal role of the body in speaking confidently in this TED talk. She sheds light on how power posing can help speakers grow while showcasing postures of a confident speaker—a great attribute to include in your speaking skills.

Lesson 7: Vocal delivery matters

Perhaps the most significant lesson to speak effectively is the delivery.

To become a good speaker, you have to hone your ability for vocal delivery. The process involves a few crucial aspects like:

• Articulation: How precisely you enunciate the words, like "going to" vs. "gonna."
  

• Pronunciation: How correctly you pronounce every word.
  

• Pitch: Your ability to speak about different ideas in different tones.
  

• Rate of speech: Your ability to find the right balance for speaking to the audience.

Watch and learn: Donovan Livingston’s convocation speech

In his graduation speech at the Harvard Business School, a poet and spoken word artist, Donovan Livingston presents an excellent example for this lesson. He delivers a speech with precision on all fronts—right from the tone and speed of his speech to diction and expression.

Lesson 8: Structure your speech for the layman

Good speakers know how to capture and keep their audience's attention. The best way to accomplish this is by speaking their language.

You can speak effectively and actually be heard when you are talking to and for the audience.

Here's what you can do to practice this:

• Identify your target audience, their pain points, and their needs. 
  

• Shape your speech around these ideas and talk from their perspective. 
  

• Serve your thoughts in a digestible platter and simplify the process of connecting the dots. 
  

• Add humor and relatable context for your listeners.

Watch and learn: Tim Urban’s Ted Talk

Tim Urban, a blogger and illustrator, talks about procrastination in the most relatable manner in this speech. Peppering it with examples and scenarios, he creates very realistic and relatable scenarios for his audience.

Lesson 9: Speak with emotion and empathy

An essential yet often overlooked aspect of speaking well is an emotional appeal.

Build a level of understanding and empathy with your audience. Connect with them on a deeper level and convey a moving story to influence their senses.

Here are few ways in which you can become more empathetic as a speaker:

• Identify what your listeners want to hear from you.

• Listen to your audience to gain more clarity about their concerns.

• Speak from their perspective.

Watch and learn: Simon Sinek’s speech

Simon Sinek, an author and motivational speaker, displays the perfect blend of emotion and information in his speech on understanding empathy. 

Lesson 10: Share actionable ideas

The show, don't tell writing technique works well for speaking effectively.

Don’t just share ideas without giving your listeners a basis to implement them. It’s always better to share examples and ways to help the audience use your information.

If you aim to make your communication more actionable, identify the problem you're addressing and make it crystal clear from the beginning. Offer potential solutions for the same and explain with examples.

Watch and learn: Mark Cuban’s speech

Mark Cuban's interview video shows how entrepreneurs can make the best of their businesses through actionable insights and examples. He uses the example of Dirk Nowitzki early on to explain how discipline and dedication can outweigh talent — among other examples that support and add more clarity to his statements.

Conclusion

Effective communication is one of the most sought-after skills today, so use the lessons detailed in this article to upskill and enhance your ability to communicate.

If you are a complete rookie, start by building confidence and a fast thought process. Then you can work towards the content and delivery of your speeches. As a more experienced speaker, pay attention to how you're talking to your audience.

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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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While it appeared as though virtual events were a temporary fix to in-person event cancellations a year ago, the success businesses have gained through them have ensured that virtual events are now here to stay. 

What this means is that businesses who previously approached virtual events as an interim solution, cannot afford to do so anymore. With virtual events now a critical element in marketing strategies, it’s imperative to get better at successfully conducting them. 

How your attendees can help you improve your virtual event

The best source of information on how to improve is, of course, people who attended your event(s). Getting data on their experience and accordingly tweaking and optimizing your event strategy is key to continuously hosting great events online. 

And to get this data, virtual event surveys are your best option.  

It’s not as simple as creating a form and sending it out en masse via email, however. Your virtual event surveys will have to be engaging so as to entice attendees to answer your questions, and secondly, you’ll need to carefully think out exactly what information you need, and frame your questions accordingly.

To this end, to get the maximum number of attendees to answer the survey, it’s best to inform them about the survey towards the end of the event. Now, we’re not saying that you can’t ask attendees questions before the event or during it - in fact, doing so will help you build a more comprehensive view of your event. 

For instance, pre-event, you can ask the audience which event they are most looking forward to, and if they have any specific requests. During the event, using Polls to ask if sessions have met their expectations can help you gain real-time data & insights, and make changes on the fly. Virtual event surveys can help you assess overall opinions and expectations. They can also let you better see whether changes you made during the event have resulted in favourable outcomes.

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So post-event, do send attendees a request to fill in your survey and a link via a push notification in-platform, or mail them right after the event is completed. This way, there’s a higher chance that they will commit to answering your virtual event survey right away

You also need to ensure that your respondents do not lose interest midway through the survey. For this, your virtual event survey questions have to be framed smartly, while getting you the details you require.  To help, we’ve put together 10 questions that you need to ask in your virtual post-event survey so that you can level up your virtual events game.

10 questions to ask in your post virtual event survey

When building your post-event survey, keep in mind that you can ask both quantitative and qualitative questions to get data and insight about your event.

Here are ten questions that you can use as a reference when making your own post virtual event survey.

Question 1: Please rate each aspect of our event as per your experience

Type: Rating

Rating different aspects of the event experience on a scale of 1-5, with being ‘unsatisfied’ and 5 being ‘very satisfied’ or using radio buttons, is a simple but effective way for you to understand which areas need the most improvement. 

Feel free to choose which areas you want to ask to be rated, but we would recommend that you include the following:

Event logistics - Ask the audience to rate their satisfaction with the ease of registration. It would be wise to put in a qualitative question below the rating scale as well, asking if there was any point of confusion regarding the landing page, credentials or any other details that they received before the event.

Accessibility - Ask your attendees to rate accessibility to the event as well as content in-platform. Your follow-up question can be more suggestions on ways to help you make your next event even more inclusive ((for instance, providing live captioning and live audio translation in multiple languages).

Engagement - No one has time for boring events these days, so ask your attendees how engaging they found your event. This can be further drilled down into how engaging they found the speakers and sessions, and also whether they found in-platform tools to interact with speakers and attendees sufficient.

Question 2: Please rate the speakers at the event based on the value you gained pertaining to the topic

Type: Rating

Ask attendees to rate individual speakers on a scale of how much they learnt from them. You can accordingly pick speakers for future sessions.

Question 3: Please rate the sessions at the event based on the value you gained pertaining to the topic 

Type: Rating

Similar to the previous question, ask your attendees to rate individual sessions based on how much they learnt from them. Take the responses to this question as a judgement of the content offered at the event, and factor this into your next event strategy.

For a follow-up question, you can ask attendees ‘which session was your favourite, and why?’ This is an excellent way to learn what those components that go into a great session are. 

Question 4: Did you find the event platform satisfactory?

Type: Rating

   Virtual Meets with Zuddl

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This is perhaps the most critical question to include in your survey, as the platform you use can make or break your event. From smooth login and seamless live sessions to amping up the fun factor, your event platform can be the deciding factor in audience experience.

Question 5: How likely are you to recommend this event to a friend or colleague with similar interests?

Type: Rating

Attendees can use ratings between ‘extremely likely’ and ‘extremely unlikely’ to answer this question. A majority of ‘extremely likely’ tells you that you’re on the right track, and suggests that you could even repurpose content from your event to reach a wider audience. 

A follow-up question would perhaps be to ask the attendees likely to recommend the event to others, to share the email addresses of friends who would find recordings of the event helpful - this way you can build your database.

Question 6: Please rate your overall experience with the event

Type: Rating

Again, asking attendees to rate your event between ‘extremely satisfied’ to ‘extremely unsatisfied’. You can use this as an objective metric to rate your event in total.

Just this metric won’t tell you where you need to improve or the changes you need to make. To understand these things better, having open ended questions where the audience can give their opinions is important. However, you can use this to see the percentage of your audience that was satisfied with the event, to compare with future events.

Question 7: What did you like most about the event?

Type: Open-ended

Positive feedback is not just congratulatory. It also serves the purpose of telling you what should not be discarded from future events, or shows you the areas that you can capitalize on. 

Question 8: What did you dislike about the event?

Type: Open-ended

Look at getting negative feedback as an opportunity to improve your performance. Take the feedback constructively and work on these aspects for future events.

Question 9: What changes can we make to improve future events?

Type: Open-ended

Question 8 will already give you an idea of what needs to be worked on, so use this question instead to gauge exactly what is expected by attendees at your events. 

For example, if in question 8, attendees mention that they found the sessions boring, it can be tough to narrow down exactly why. However, with this question, your attendees could suggest a variety of ways to make sessions more interesting that you might not have thought of.

Question 10: Please share any other thoughts or feedback you have about the event

Type: Open-ended

Although questions 1-9 cover most things you need to know from your attendees, keeping an open-ended question at the end of your survey, which lets them share anything they wish, can be a good addition to your virtual event survey.  This way, attendees can freely speak their minds about anything related to your event; the responses just might surprise you!

In conclusion

Understanding the audience's take on the event is the best and perhaps the only way to conduct better events in the future. Feel free to make use of the questions we’ve shared when building your own post virtual event survey. Once you collect your answers, it’s time to analyze your survey data and use it to plan your next event.

 Hrishikesh Pardeshi is the co-founder at Flexiple, a fully remote bootstrapped company with $2 million+ revenue. He's passionate about remote working and has also built Remote Tools & Buildd.co.

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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 last year has been one of pivots and possibilities for organizations across sectors, and around the world, especially when it comes to driving new online revenue streams to supplement projected revenue from in-person events. And this has been particularly beneficial for companies whose fundraising efforts have been affected by COVID-19.

Virtual events are one of the most innovative ways nonprofits can fundraise today. In fact, a study on Fundraising Through a Pandemic indicates that 62% of businesses converted to a virtual fundraising event over the last year and that the majority of those who did, described the event as successful.

And with audiences having become accustomed to a digital and virtual-first world, a virtual fundraiser is a great way to leverage this medium to match (or even outdo) the best in-person fundraisers in terms of reach and donations raised.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to go about planning, promoting, and executing a successful virtual fundraising event.

1. Set a fundraising goal

What are your organization's current goals? Are you looking for more members, volunteers, or donors? For which projects are you raising money? It's important to keep all of these things in mind when setting your fundraising goal. Once you’ve done so, you can start planning sessions and activities at your virtual fundraiser that will help you reach your objectives.

2. Make a list of donors and keep them engaged pre-event

It's best to start your list of donors by compiling a database of all the people who have donated at past in-person events. These can be people, businesses, community members, etc. You'll want to make sure you note why they gave and what sparked their interest in doing so. But this list isn’t just of people who have donated to your cause, it’s also important to have an idea of people who are interested but may not yet be ready to donate. Make sure you keep everyone engaged before you host the virtual fundraiser using social media and email marketing. You’ll need to acknowledge and thank the efforts and money raised towards your cause thus far, and what you’re hoping to achieve with your upcoming event, so potential donors can feel aligned to its purpose.

3. Decide what type of event you will host

Part of the beauty of virtual events is that you can choose from or blend together different types of formats, for instance, a webinar, crowdfunding, live stream, or even a virtual race, which you can all host on a virtual event platform. Here are a few examples:

• Webinars or educational lectures: Organize interviews or panel discussions pertaining to your fundraising goal, with experts in the industry, volunteers out in the field, or even leadership at the organization. Skid Row Housing Trust did a Facebook Live video with the CEO of a nonprofit organization that provides 1,040 beds every night at different shelters and talked about how they can help end homelessness. A link and code were provided so attendees could watch the discussion happen and even donate or ask questions if they wished to do so.
  

• A virtual silent auction: Try out a virtual silent auction where attendees are given access to an online catalog of items that are available for auction and then bid on items that interest them. Unlike in-person auctions, virtual silent auctions can happen for a longer period, like a week - just like on eBay. Usually, auction items that receive the most bid activity are ones that appeal to a donor’s needs or interests, are unique, and of course, are reasonably priced.
  

• Hold a virtual gala: This is a great way to connect with and thank your supporters when you can’t do that in person. With a virtual gala, you’re essentially inviting your supporters for an interactive program that showcases your mission and your program. Using the right virtual event platform, you can schedule a program of speakers, live appeals, videos, and even entertainment to keep your attendees engaged and enthused. In fact, you could even incorporate the virtual silent auction here if it suits the purpose.
  

• Virtual/hybrid tours: Whether a university or a museum, taking your supporter and donors on a guided tour through the space or exhibit can give them an insider’s view of the work that your company is doing, and help them feel more connected to your goals, and increases the chance that they will donate to your cause. And unlike hosting an only in-person event, there’s no limit to the number of attendees you can take on your tour.
  

• Crowdfunding via virtual activities: First, you need to set up a page with information about your cause. Then organize an activity for which participants can pay a registration fee and then take part in, like a virtual race. This event is best done as a peer-to-peer fundraiser where the participants can seek donations for how far they’ve run or the time they’ve been running for. Afterward, you can use a virtual event platform to hold an awards show, celebrate the participants, and give them the opportunity to connect with each other.
  

4. Pick the right event technology

You’ll want to make sure that your virtual event platform supports whichever virtual fundraiser event format you’re choosing to go with. And to that end, you’ll need a platform that gives you the ability to easily customize it to execute your vision.

Keep in mind that your event can have different components - a live presentation or discussion, an area where attendees can connect and chat, and an area where you can showcase your organization’s work. So on your event platform should be able to have a lobby area where attendees can wait before the event begins or interact with other attendees.Then there should be a Stages area where you can livestream sessions or play recorded videos, and pull together a real-time audience with whom you can communicate your fundraising goals. It’s also good to have breakaway rooms or networking areas where your attendees can mingle and chat. 

And in all areas of your event, it’s beneficial if your virtual event platform gives you the ability to use widgets or buttons that link to your website, landing page, or crowdfunding page, to promote in-the-moment donations.

5. Promote your virtual fundraiser

Go on social media, plan an email blast, advertise on public radio – whatever it takes to get the word out about your event. This will only encourage more donors to come forward You'll want to promote it at least one month in advance so that people are aware of the event dates and format, and can make space in their schedules.

6. Make the attendee experience a seamless and enjoyable one

This point might seem like it goes without saying, but what we mean to say is to leverage the advantages of a virtual platform to deliver an experience that is authentic and relevant for your attendees, and is high-impact for your business. This can be as simple as putting up images of your volunteers in the lobby, or playing a video of everything you’ve achieved for your cause so far.

Keep in mind that because you’re no longer hampered by geographical constraints, you can now invite Speakers to your virtual fundraiser who were out of your figurative and literal reach before. For example, if you are raising funds to build a park, you can invite a high-profile athlete to talk about how important outdoor activities are for children or if you’re raising money for wildlife conservation, you can try to recruit famous conservations to make a virtual appearance at your event - who knows, maybe even David Attenborough?

And a smart way to leverage high-profile speakers would be to set up private roundtable discussions or a 1:1 meet-and-greet that can be accessed by specific ticket tiers.

7. Prioritize audience interaction

Level up participation and engagement by leveraging the features and tools of your platform, such as a social media wall (that makes visible the posts and tweets about your event). This allows you to amplify the activities and energy of your attendees, thereby boosting your reach and interest in your cause.

Using interactivity tools will also go a long way. When hosting a live session with high-profile speakers, encouraging two-way dialogue via Polls or Chat is a way to make your attendees feel more involved and engaged. And you can have a virtual emcee to remind your donors why you’re raising money and give them an easy way to contribute by clicking on a donation button on the page.

Another  way to ‘level up’ your audience interactions is by introducing gamification  at your event. Simply put, gamification introduces game mechanics to a  setting, and can be used to   increase attendee engagement. So you can use it at your virtual  fundraiser to educate and entertain your audience. You can award points for  asking questions at a session, answering polls, or watching a video about  your project. You can even launch a virtual scavenger hunt, where attendees  need to visit different rooms or virtual expo booths to find clues that lead  to a prize.

In conclusion…

Virtual fundraising events give organizers great opportunities to drive better results, far more than what you can expect at in-person events. But it’s up to you to think of out-of-the box fun and unique ideas for your virtual fundraiser that make people want to attend. Once you’ve done that, the next major step is to then engage with all levels of donors during the event itself. And last but not least, make donating during your event, engaging, simple and easy. 

If you’re looking to explore the capabilities and benefits of virtual or hybrid virtual fundraiser – let’s talk! 

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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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Everyone knows that our world of work has forever changed. The massive pivot to remote working a year ago has shown business owners that employees are as productive when they are working from home as when they were in an office. In fact, according to a Great Place to Work study, remote work productivity was stable or increased when working remotely from home, according to a 2-year study of 800,000 employees.

So it’s no surprise then, that according to a study by Enterprise Technology Research, the percentage of workers who are permanently working from home is expected to double this year. Clearly, remote work is here to stay, which means that platforms and tools that facilitate communication, collaboration, and community are more important than ever.

Now, with great platforms come great capabilities - but only if you know how best to leverage them towards supporting your remote workforce. So first, it’s important to identify the ways in which your employees need to be supported.

Research shows that working from home has its own set of challenges for workers. For instance, being always accessible by technology has led to the blurring of work and home life, which contributes to burnout. Or a lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues can contribute to a feeling of isolation, which can negatively affect collaboration and motivation.

What’s needed to deal with these challenges are clear: empathy, support, communication, rapport . And to this end, virtual platforms can help. Here’s how:‍

Hold interactive sessions with employees‍

When you don’t have any in-person office parties, coffee breaks, watercooler hangouts to bring employees together, virtual event platforms can come to the rescue - in a way that tools like Slack cannot.

In a Medium post, software programmer Alicia Liu wrote last year about how the ease of using Slack can actually result in lower quality communication. She comments, “[it’s] far too easy for everyone to default to using Slack for communicating, even for all the myriad things that don’t make sense to use Slack to communicate…” So by defaulting to dropping a message onto Slack channels, and responding via emojis, all the work you would otherwise put into building cohesion and trust with your colleagues when you were in an office, disappears. 

That’s  why virtual platforms like Zuddl are so important. With platforms like these,  you can host virtual events, as well as create a virtual office space.  Within this virtual workspace, you can set up areas for different interactive  employee engagement activities, and build interpersonal relationships.

The best thing about Rooms is how versatile they are. You can use them to hold different sorts of fun, interactive activities with employees. For example:

• Virtual watercoolers
• Brainstorming sessions
• Project discussions
• Daily standups
• Movie nights
• Trivia nights
• Coffee-break hangouts
• Or even for karaoke session!

But remember, a helpful virtual event platform is only one part. It’ll take dedication from leaders in the organization to bring everyone together to overcome distance, both physical and figurative.‍

Recognize and appreciate a job well done‍

It feels great when your manager or colleagues appreciate your effort and hard work in reaching a target or goal, right?

Not only do you feel encouraged and motivated, but also more connected to your team. In fact, a lack of recognition at work can lead to increased stress and anxiety, and can lead employees to quit. 

Case in point: a whopping 44% of employees switched jobs because they didn’t receive any recognition or reward, according to this Achievers study. And in another study, it was found that 40% of employees said they would put more energy into their work if they were appreciated more often.

That’s where a virtual engagement platform comes in. Virtual appreciation makes your remote workers feel seen, and valued - and you can do this in a variety of ways on a platform:

• Host a virtual party to celebrate birthdays or work anniversaries
• Plan an employee appreciation day, and use the virtual event platform to make the celebration special, by for instance setting up an Expo Booth celebrating Employees of the Month, or creating small videos thanking an employee for their effort.
  

A little appreciation can go a long way!

Make your employee onboarding amazing

Employee engagement platforms can make the onboarding process an easy and fun one. Instead of walking an employee around the office and introducing them to countless people as you would pre-pandemic, you can now host a mass onboarding event. This may sound impersonal, but it’s actually not. 

With a virtual event platform, you can 

• Easily set up a meeting Room for new joinees and hold an intro and Q&A session for them.
• Direct them to meetings with their teams held in adjacent Rooms.
• Set up a branded expo booth that presents the company’s story, values, norms, and team achievements 
• Set up another expo booth that acts as a repository for information or documents that are important to new and current employees alike, and can be downloaded, such as a holiday list, procedure documents, reimbursement format sheets etc.
• Or set up a photo gallery booth to give employees a trip down memory lane with videos of photos of events, team building activities, conferences, CSR activities, etc. conducted throughout the year
  

Don’t squander the opportunity to make a great impression that will stay with new employees for the duration of their careers.

Use gamification to make even mundane meetings fun 

Remember pre-pandemic meetings? We’re guessing that half of your colleagues felt that the meetings held were a waste of time, while the other half felt that they were anxiety-inducing. Remote working has helped a little on this front. Now, asynchronous and synchronous communication has cut down the need for many, many meetings, and people who do attend meetings can do so with their mics and videos off, speaking only when they need to. 

While that’s all well and good, it does raise the question of how effective virtual meetings held among remote workforces are. With everyone now hiding behind their screens, it makes it difficult to know whether or not they’re actually “attending” the meeting.

With virtual engagement platforms like Zuddl, you can use Gamification to make meetings actually fun to participate in. Gamification lets you add game mechanics to the virtual meeting, allowing you to award points to colleagues for completing tasks, such as asking questions, answering a team poll, doing quick research tasks, ie. actively participating in the meeting. You can award the top three on the virtual leader board with gift coupons or something of the sort. After all, everyone is happy to have their efforts recognized.

Make it easy for employees to get to know each other

Using AI-powered matchmaking, companies can organize inter-company smart networking events. This is a fun and easy way for employees to meet colleagues they normally would have not had the opportunity to meet in person. And it helps every one to get to know each other just a little bit better beyond just their work roles. This can help build trust amongst teams, and across the organization. Win-win.

And what’s work without a little play

Everyone needs to take a break in between tasks, so give your remote workforce ways to relax and re-energize.

For instance, you can set up a gaming zone on your virtual meeting platform. Employees can let off some steam by playing games before refocusing on tasks.

Or keep energy high by using Stages to host a variety of entertainment, whether that’s performances by musicians, speeches by leaders in the field, quiz nights, movie nights, and more.

In conclusion…

As  the workplace itself continues to be redefined, companies need to be a  support system for their remote workforce as they navigate uncertainty. To  this end, employers and managers can use virtual platforms like Zuddl to keep  remote employees in sync and motivated. Talk to one of our experts  today on how you can use our platform to improve employee well-being, improve attendee engagement and  perform better as team members and collaborators.

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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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In a world where change is the only constant, coming together (despite distance keeping us apart) to (re) affirm purpose, align leadership, strengthen collaboration across an organization, or build a resilient future has never been more important. And to this end, when executed well, summits play an indispensable role.

This is why over the last year when lockdowns and social distancing prevented in-person gatherings, the need for virtual meetings skyrocketed. In fact, the number of search impressions for web and video calling software massively increased by 500% in just the first 4 months. 

However, while the need today for virtual summits is clear, many organizers lack the know-how to capitalize on the benefits that only virtual meetings offer. Without an awareness of how to leverage a virtual platform effectively, organizers can end up with a summit that fails to achieve its goals.

But first, let’s explore the many benefits that you can achieve with a virtual summit before we discuss the steps that will help you reach them.‍

Why a virtual summit is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but a ‘must-have’

More people, more ideas, more collaboration‍

One of the primary benefits of holding a virtual summit is that you’re able to reach far more people than if you were holding an in-person event. This means that people from all over the country and the world will be able to attend. Take, for example, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly.  When it was held in 2019, 16,200 participants attended the event. However, when held virtually in 2020, more than 26,000 individuals from 134 countries attended the summit. ‍

‍Less travel, space, and marketing costs‍

The second main advantage of holding a virtual summit is the reduction in expenses. It’s around 75% cheaper than in-person meetings given that you no longer have to pay for travel or venue costs. And the bonus is that virtual summits still allow businesses or campaigns to generate a lot of revenue through either virtual ticket sales, donations, or the purchase of products. ‍

Steps to hosting a successful virtual summit‍

When you’re planning and executing a virtual summit, you can’t simply copy-paste your previous approach to in-person meetings. Keep the following steps in mind to maximize the benefits of using a virtual medium for your summit.

1. Look for ways to leverage the benefits of virtual into your logistics
   
   There’s plenty to consider when planning your virtual event - for instance, will you have live sessions as well as recorded ones, or how to ensure a seamless experience for attendees joining in from different time zones. But it’s important to think about ways you can use the fact that your meeting place is a virtual one to your advantage. 
   
   For example, you can combine synchronous and asynchronous activities during your event so that no matter when someone is tuning in, they will be able to have an interesting, immersive experience. At the recent international congress hosted by the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, organizers planned live presentations and some pre-recorded workshops into the schedule. That way an attendee from London and from Australia could both join at different times, but have access to important content - something that would be impossible at an in-person event.
   
   Another benefit of hosting virtual events is that you are no longer hampered by geographical or travel constraints when recruiting Speakers. This means that you can approach more speakers, as well as more exclusive ones to speak at your summit.

2. Choose the right tech for your virtual summit
   
   The online event platform you choose to host your virtual summit will make or break your event, so it’s important to pick one that enables you to host your event exactly as you envision it.
   
   So choosing a platform that is completely customizable will make your life a lot easier. You should be able to use the platform to easily set up everything you need at your virtual event venue, from Stages to Networking areas.
   
   Secondly, it’ll be really helpful if your platform has all the tools you need to facilitate a seamless experience for speakers and attendees, by which we mean that it should not require your participants to have to install or download any software to attend sessions or interact with each other. It’s a lot easier to centralize your efforts instead of switching between tools, which is both time-consuming and confusing.
   
   Finally, you also need a platform that enables two-way communication and engagement - keep in mind that your summit may be the only time in the year when many attendees see one another.
   

3. Set up informative and easy-to-use landing pages
   
   If you have a simple website, you can make do with a single landing page for your virtual summit, but it’s also worth the effort to have a dedicated website to the virtual summit with its own domain. Keep in mind that the website or landing pages should be designed to drive attendance. You can also create individual landing pages for each speaker so they can drive traffic to those pages. 
   
   To get people to opt-in to your virtual summit, you’ll first need to make your page as informative and attractive as possible. Don’t be afraid to get creative - you want your landing page visitors to be wowed. The virtual event platform you choose can really help you out here. Zuddl has a landing page customization feature where you can use ready-made templates. You can customize it to clearly explain the purpose of your summit, highlight who the speakers are, and set out the different sessions and activities that will take place.
   
   Additionally, remember to make registration really easy for attendees.
   

4. Create a marketing and sales funnel
   
   Don't make the virtual event registration procedure super-complicated. All you need to do is set up a basic automated email sequence that is triggered when a prospective attendee opts into the event on the registration page. 
   
   Marketing integrations enable organizers to send attendees successful registration emails along with follow-up emails about the event. This is especially useful when combined with analytics from the event. Platforms with Zuddl will give you details about your attendees’ micro-movements throughout the event, giving you insight about what sessions they found most interesting, what questions were most upvoted, etc. 
   
   You can use this information when your event is over to create targeted campaigns and communication.
   

5. Promote your virtual summit
   
   Around 65% of marketers say you need more than 6 weeks if you want to drive the desired amount of registrations, so make sure that you plan in social media and email marketing ahead of time.
   
   And don’t stop there. You can use podcast interviews and guest blogging to also promote the event. Ask your sponsors and speakers to spread the word. Giveaways and paid ads are other ways to promote your virtual event if your budget allows. This is a great way to reach people that you would otherwise not be able to reach. 
   
   Ads are fairly simple to purchase on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram but you’ll need to create an advertisement concept that is eye-catching and memorable. 
   

6. Host your virtual summit!
   
   On the day of your summit, you and your team are going to have to keep everyone in sync - but you can use your virtual event platform to pull this off. Tools like event tickers will let you share important information with attendees at your summit, such as upcoming sessions or surprise activities. And you can use in-platform tool reminders to alert Speakers about session timings. 
   
   And with an arsenal of tools and zones at your fingertips, you’ll be able to host a series of structured discussions designed to generate ideas and alignment, keep conversations lively and interactive, and facilitate collaboration.‍‍‍

Tips for after the virtual summit‍

Keep the momentum from your virtual summit going even after it officially ends, to optimize performance. For instance, you can make recordings and other material from the summit available for access to attendees, and repurpose the content in your post-event emails and social media campaigns. And you could also send out a survey to see if attendees felt the summit goals were achieved, and to get their opinion on what worked and what could be improved for next year’s summit. ‍

In conclusion…‍

Virtual summits take careful planning and execution but if done right, they can help you drive far greater value than you achieved at previous in-person summits. But keep in mind that with this new medium, comes new opportunities as well as challenges. Talk to our experts about how you can use a platform like Zuddl to get the results you want and need from your virtual summit. Let’s talk.

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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 is no disputing that the pivot to digital and virtual, so tenuous over the last year, is now firmly here to stay. And in this new normal, marketers are increasingly appreciating the value that virtual mediums, such as virtual events, offer today. 

Virtual events are an effective way to reach new prospects, engage (and re-engage) existing ones, increase conversions, and track results. They're also easier to organize, are less expensive, and are more accessible to attendees than traditional in-person events. All this means that virtual events are also the perfect vehicle for brand marketing.

How so? Read on to learn how you can effectively leverage virtual events to effectively market your brand.

A quick recap - what is brand marketing?

Brand marketing is the process of promoting your products or services in a way that draws attention to your overall brand. Its purpose is to connect your identity, beliefs, and personality to your target audience through successful targeted brand communication.

It’s more than just slapping your logo and company name on as many surfaces as possible and hoping for sales. It entails representing your company's identity from who you are, what you do, the level of quality you offer, and your reputation.

So why are virtual events are brand marketing’s new BFF?

While the advantages of virtual events are fairly obvious, the ways in which marketers can creatively use events for brand marketing are less. So here's how you can drive better awareness and impact via virtual branding

1. Express your brand identity throughout the event

Virtual events give you unlimited opportunities for creating touchpoints between attendees and your brand.In other words, you can use every event asset, from your event landing page to your stage backdrop to bring customers and prospects closer to your brand.

Take, for instance, event branding. To get customers and prospects to feel excited about your brand, a generic image with your logo slapped on it just won’t do. Instead, markers can use branding creatively, such as through a visually spectacular welcome video, to reflect a distinctive look and feel, that attendees instantly recognize and remember afterward. Here's an example of a great welcome video by Razorpay for their FTX 2020 event, hosted on Zuddl.

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2. Relationship marketing via a micro-virtual events strategy

Micro virtual events are a series of smaller virtual events that eventually feed into a larger marquee event. These events give marketers an opportunity to nurture brand intimacy ie kindle a personal relationship between them and the brand.

For instance, you can give attendees the opportunity to participate in activities like a Digital Round Table or a Panel Discussion at a virtual event. Rather than talking about yourself throughout your event, you can give your attendees opportunities to express themselves and ask questions.

3. Boost brand loyalty by leveraging the advantages of a virtual event platform

According to a recent study by Invesp about returning customers – those loyal to your brand- are 50% likelier to try more of your products and spend, on average, 31% more than newly acquired clients; yes, brand loyalty is essential.

You can increase brand loyalty at your event in a variety of ways, thanks to how you utilize the features and tools of your virtual event platform. For instance, why not invite your customers to be speakers at your event? Not only does this show existing customers that you value them, but it’s also a great way to show other attendees who are potential customers why they should try your products or services.

Another way to build brand loyalty is by setting up networking sessions for attendees at your virtual events. Enabling current customers to talk to prospective ones is an indirect but positive way to drive brand awareness. Furthermore, it’s a simple way to add value to your customers’ lives. Helping them match with professionals who can add value to their businesses will earn you a lot of goodwill.

Finally, you can also drive loyalty by rewarding loyal customers with exclusive in-event experiences. This could be anything from arranging 1:1 virtual meet-and-greets with your brand’s ambassadors or enabling exclusive access to specific Stages at your event. 

4. Use giveaways to promote brand recall

Everyone loves free goodies - but it’s good for business as well. Just look at these figures in a report by The ODM Group: 

• 85% of clients enjoy receiving marketing products
• 58% retain these products for up to four years
• Eight out of 10 attendees remember the promoted brand
• Approximately 21% of the attendees buy products after receiving promotional items
  

You can send giveaways - both physical or virtual - to your attendees immediately after the event is over. This can be made easier by using virtual event platforms like Zuddl that have integrated ticketing, so that you have a complete list of attendee details such as email or office addresses to which you can send the mementos. 

5. Extended brand coverage through social media and other channels

It’s a no-brainer that social media can drive more business for your brand, which is why marketers put in time and effort in planning campaigns, reposting testimonials, and curating good-looking Instagram pages. 

Virtual events can contribute to amplifying your brand on social media, through the use of in-platform tools like an integrated Social Wall . This would be a simple, fun way to encourage attendees to share posts about the event (without requiring them to download and install anything) that will appear on-screen within seconds.

For example, using hashtags can help you gain reach, putting your brand awareness virtual event in front of people who might not have heard of it before. Or you can also get your attendees to share photos and videos of the event using the same hashtags so that you can reshare user-generated content. This will help bring your brand to life.

Continue sharing memorable moments from the event and ask attendees to share their favorite discussions and experience. This will keep them excited about attending your events, and keep your brand in the spotlight.

The social wall will also let you drive more visibility and awareness long after the event is over. 

6. Leverage event analytics to drive better value for customers

One of the best things about virtual event platforms is that they are a data gold mine. At in-person events, it can be extremely difficult to source feedback and opinions from your attendees. Virtual event platforms make this a breeze.

Marketers can use Polls, for instance, to gain insight into the needs and wants of your attendees about a variety of things - preferences and complaints about products and services in your industry or topics that attendees want to know more about. This information can then be used to tailor your brand’s offerings down the line. And needless to say, asking your customers and attendees their opinion is a simple but significant way to tell them that their voices and opinions are important thereby fuelling brand loyalty.

In conclusion…

It’s clear that there is plenty of opportunity in using virtual events to market your brand - they offer unlimited opportunities to create touchpoints between your brand and attendees. All it requires is for marketers to be inventive and creative in the way they use virtual event platforms to meet their goals. 

Need any advice? Our team is full of ideas. Just connect with us for a quick conversation on how to deliver better virtual event branding - we’re happy to chat! Let’s talk.

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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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Did you know that around 77% of people in business use virtual events and conferences to connect with remote employees and around 78% of businesses use video conferences to hold team meetings? Given these stats, it’s quite clear that virtual events are becoming the new normal. They’re here to stay.

But what point is it holding a virtual event, if it fails to make any impact whatsoever?

The  key to holding a virtual event that drives value isattendee  engagement. 49% of marketers believe to be the  largest contributing factor to running a successful virtual event - but many  organizers do not know how to effectively engage their attendees. Indeed,  according to Meetings in America, around 91% of people in businesses admitted  to daydreaming during meetings while 39% admitted they fell asleep at some  point.

Why is engagement such a challenge? 

Many organizers think that virtual event engagement issues can be solved by simply inviting famous speakers to the event, and having them present or lecture on a given topic - but this is a mistake.

Keep in mind that virtual events can be interactive spaces - where attendees can learn and connect with experts and thought leaders, as well as chat and network with other professionals. The differentiator between a flat event and a memorable one is having active attendees instead of passive participants.

If you’re a business that’s struggling to increase engagement at your virtual events, don’t worry, we’ve put together 9 ways you can make sure your next event is interactive, interesting, and impactful.‍

‍1. Define what good engagement means to you and how it can deliver ROI‍

Boosting virtual event engagement can lead to better business outcomes in terms of quality lead generation, increased brand awareness, and much more.

So, before you host a virtual event, set your event goals, and then understand how good engagement can help you meet them. For instance, if one of your goals is to drive leads for your business or that of your sponsors, then encouraging attendees to watch a product demo, or consume marketing material can help you run effective and targeted post-event nurtures.

Or let’s say your goal is to drive awareness around a product launch during the event. You can run a social media contest for your attendees, encouraging them to post about the product and event, for a prize. This should help to boost your reach. Of course, the virtual event platform you choose should have the functionality to link from within your event to social media platforms.

It’s also important to choose a virtual event platform that lets you easily track and view the impact of engagement on your ROI. For instance, begin able to see which session topics had the most engagement, and the questions attendees had at those sessions, can help you plan your post-event marketing strategies and campaign messaging more effectively.

Also read: Event trends in 2023

2. Choose a virtual event platform with customization capabilities‍

Customizing your virtual event with intuitive tools is a parameter you cannot ignore if you’re looking to increase engagement. 

A platform that offers a customizable interface, different types of widgets, and interactive tools will allow you to leverage interactivity and participation in creative ways, offering your attendees so much more than a set of speakers on a stage

Don’t get us wrong. Having great speakers is definitely important, but it’s not the solution to engagement in itself. Your platform should have in-built tools to encourage your attendees to ask questions and take part in conversations, such as Q&A or a Chat at the least. Without this, the discussion will be one-sided - and nobody likes that.

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Additionally, keep in mind that even the best of us have limited attention spans. Give your attendees a variety of ways to stay engaged at your event. When they want a break from Stages, give them other spaces to connect and interact with others at the event. Customization will enable you to create breakaway rooms for example, and limit the number of attendees per room so that smaller group discussions can take place. ‍

3. Create Polls‍

One of the best ways to drive engagement from your audience is through the use of polls. It’s also the easiest way to find out what your attendees think of your event, product, and brand

When you are managing a virtual event, you can share different types of polls about the event or about anything specific that happened during the event. The attendees can share their opinions, evaluate the virtual event, and provide feedback if any. Understanding what your audience thinks of your event can help you set up the next event to be bigger and better. For example, if a poll result showed that attendees like a certain track or session topic than others, you can include them in your next virtual event, which will likely increase the engagement for that event.

4. Hire entertainment 

Listening to a lecture or a presentation hour after hour can be too reminiscent of sitting in school or university, so schedule in some entertainment to keep things interesting and fun. 

For example, at the virtual summit, the organizers of (Almost) HYBRID brought in NYC’s Premiere hip-hop improv team North Coast for a live performance. And North Coast made their performance even more interactive and personalized by asking the audience questions about their favorite parts of the event. Even before the act started, attendees were already reminiscing about the best moments from the event in the Chat.

Afterwards, North Coast delivered a customized improv hip-hop sketch that was pulled from the unique experiences that the attendees had shared.

Just like North Coat, book entertainment acts that will keep your attendees attentive and active. Bringing on comedians, creative videos, sketch artists, and even magicians is sure to keep everyone riveted.

5. Leverage gamification‍

Gamification refers to the application of mechanics that are traditionally associated with video games in a non-game scenario - such as in a virtual event. Incorporating gamification adds a competitive but fun element to your events, and it’s a proven way to promote higher virtual event engagement levels as 59% of organizers use gamification as a way to improve engagement.

For example, for visiting a virtual booth, an attendee can receive some points. After gaining enough points, they can win a prize. You can even have smaller contests at each virtual booth so the attendees have to interact with the sponsors, leading to a win for you, your sponsors, and your attendees. 

Or, you could award points based on interaction as well, like taking part in a poll or asking a question. This way, your audience knows they need to pay attention to the session as a poll could come at any moment, as well as listening to the content in order to ask a relevant question.

There are many ways to use gamification strategies to improve virtual event engagement but you need to remember to track participation and clearly communicate the rules.

6. Use translators to make your content more accessible‍

One way to substantially increase virtual event engagement is to improve inclusivity and accessibility. One simple way to do this is to have your content translated into different languages. Unless the event was specific to the locality that you’re in, you can assume people from different countries will attend your event, considering the event is online.

If the content is translated, your attendees will feel more comfortable participating. It’s reported that around 65% of non-native English speakers prefer content to be in their native tongue although they are proficient in English.After all, simply translating your website for the United States, China, Germany and Japan can give you access to 50% of worldwide sales potential.‍

7. Schedule breaks during your virtual events‍

It’s been proven that planning breaks can increase attentiveness, prevent fatigue and improve motivation. You can use a push notification to inform attendees of breaks, and even encourage them to grab a cup of coffee in the interval, which everyone is sure to appreciate.‍

8. Use a mobile app‍

Mobile phones are used 58% more than computers and laptops, which means that when you make your virtual event accessible by mobile, you make it so much easier for your audience to access it quickly, no matter where they are.

Now, we know phones can be a great source of distraction during any virtual conference or meeting, but you can counteract this by making engagement via mobile simple and seamless. 

Moreover, mobile apps can offer businesses further insight into their event and brand. Do people interact with sessions differently when they are on mobile for instance? Do they have more conversations with attendees? These are all interesting points to consider.‍

9. Promote interactive real-time sessions

A lack of real-time conversations ruins the momentum of an event. By introducing opportunities for real-time interaction with your online attendees, you can help develop a sense of community within your event.

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Just like how impromptu conversations take place at offline events, you can also help your attendees forge new relationships and connections if you create spaces for real-time socialization. Enabling networking is an important part of this.

Conclusion

With the right platform, you can increase virtual event engagement, and make it truly valuable and memorable for everyone involved. Keep in mind the tips mentioned in this piece, and choose a customizable platform that can execute all of them.  With a little creativity and customizability, you can create an amazing, engaging virtual event experience that everyone will be talking and writing about for years to come. 

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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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Can you remember the last time you were at a networking event? You were probably in a room full of other guests, all wearing their name-tags, and making small talk. At the end of the evening, you would have probably talked to a few dozen people and made 4-5 relevant business connections.

Today, virtual networking gives you the unprecedented opportunity to build and nurture business relationships at a scale far greater than you ever did before. At an event on a virtual network platform like Zuddl, which is accessible to 1000s of people around the world, you can easily connect with the right kind of people - whom you may never have been able to meet otherwise. If done right, virtual networking through ai-powered matchmaking can drive real value for attendees, and turn a good event into a fantastic one. To host virtual events in 2021, organizing effective networking is critical.‍

A timeline of the evolution of networking 

While the world is continuously switching between online & offline, online meeting platforms seem to be the winner by being accessible to people around the world.

The earliest forms of digital networking for the masses can be traced back to the 1990s when dial-up messaging, emails, and web portals were being just introduced. In the last 30 years since then, we've been spoilt for choice over the channels for communication.

We have seen the evolution from wired to wireless, text to speech, and now speech to video discussions. While all of these forms are retained in some form or the other, the evolution of networking has rather played a key part in how businesses today network with their audiences. 

But if the scope of communication and the channels to deliver content have been so convenient and powerful, how come the majority of the events have always been offline in nature?

It is primarily due to the level of virtual event engagement on offer and one not-so-secret ingredient, networking!

Events have evolved and so should networking

The events industry has seen a major transformation over the last year - largely because of seeing the opportunity in catering to the needs of an audience that expects a lot more Virtual events have enabled organizers to bring in people across the world without worrying about the venue, logistics, and whatnot. But amidst all of this, networking seems to have been left as an afterthought. 

Networking has always remained a sought-after activity in real-life events and most event platforms today fail to deliver a way for attendees to connect with the right people. What if virtual events can do much more than what an offline event can. Think about it - in an offline event, an attendee spends about 4 hours meeting X number of people.  Out of these X numbers, only a handful of them are actually of value to them.

We believe this has been taking away the many precious interactions that speakers and thought leaders such as founders, leaders, mentors, etc. have with the attendees. But should we just accept this is how networking works in a virtual world?

Definitely Not!

At Zuddl, we like to keep pushing the boundaries of what a virtual event is capable of. Today, we're proud to show you what we've been working on behind the scenes over the last 3 months. 

With this, we add a lot more value to business networking, by helping the attendees have more meaningful and insightful discussions throughout the event. We achieve this by not only taking feedback from our clients but also ensure to receive even the tiniest of feedback received from an attendee. Today we're proud to bring out our latest feature to the table - The Smart Networking.Smart Networking is Zuddl's effort to ease the cumbersome process of networking at a virtual event. Our AI-powered matchmaking algorithm ensures that your attendees are matched with individuals who share common interests just like you. ‍

How Smart Networking through ai-powered match making transforms the attendee and organizer experience

With other virtual event platforms, attendees are aware of just the speakers and have little context on who else is part of the event. This is not only a challenge for the attendees but for the organizer as well since they’d like to have some more control over the quality of interactions between attendees.‍

Here's how Zuddl's Smart Networking takes networking to the  next level:

Creates meaningful connections:

We enable interest-based matchmaking for your attendees, to ensure maximum value in an interaction. ‍

Create Attendee Profiles

Give your attendees a chance to create their own attendee profiles by updating their personal details, occupation, interests etc.  ‍

Generate More Leads 

With Smart Networking attendees or sponsors can find prospects by sharing what all services they are open to discuss about. One can also list out what they are looking out for and what they are offering to have an added level of filtered matchmaking.‍

Curated Connection List

‍Within smart networking, Zuddl curates a list of individuals you’ve already connected with so that you can reach out to them all through the event.‍

Interacting without limits

Your attendees can access the entire list of attendees and  schedule 1:1 conversations or 1:1 quick based on mutual interest. Get the option to schedule a 1:1 at a date and time convenient to both the attendees.‍

Exchanging virtual business cards

Generate more leads by sharing your business coordinates right on Zuddl, just like any physical event. All virtual business cards get saved in your briefcase, which can be downloaded while you leave the event.

And it is not just about the attendees! 

Enabling smart Networking is as simple as switching your wifi on and off on a mobile device. All you do is click on a toggle and the feature gets instantly activated. 

Smart Networking also ensures that the right people get matched, and by default, you can choose numerous interests and matchmaking filters your attendees can choose from. Want to further customize this? You can always add custom interests and matchmaking filters based on the type of audience invited for the event. These filters also act as Tags, which can be used during or post the event to segregate your attendees as per their interests, jobs, personas etc.‍

So, are you ready to impress your attendees?

Zuddl's Smart Networking elevates the way networking has been done until today. Whether it is an online or offline event, networking still remains one of the key aspects that determine the event's success in the mind of an attendee. In our quest to ensure your events stay engaging and immersive, Smart Networking is a breakthrough to ensure your attendees stay engaged till the very end of the event.

So, are you ready to try it out? Get in touch with our event experts here! 

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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.

Incorporating virtual events into marketing strategies is almost inevitable for businesses due to their apparent benefits, such as enabling access to a broader and more global audience, better opportunities for attendee engagement and lead generation, and more. As a result, virtual event registration has become a crucial aspect of event planning. The presence of a million distractions in the online world leads to a dearth of virtual event ideas that can efficaciously convince your target audience to sign up for and show up to your event.

If this is a challenge you’re facing, here are 8 steps that help you, your business, agency, or association boost virtual event engagement.

Step 1: Offer early-bird registration‍

If your event is going to be a paid one, it’s wise to run early bird ticket sales. This is a reliable virtual event idea to boost interest and hype in your event.

To encourage early registration for your virtual event, you can offer a discount that expires on a certain date. By releasing the full price and the early bird offer simultaneously and setting a deadline for the discount, you create a sense of urgency and exclusivity that can drive more registrations.

This should help you obtain better results in terms of ticket sales. Furthermore, attendees who opt for the offer are also likely to tell their friends or colleagues about it, creating a snowball effect.‍

Step 2: Showcase your event speakers to build hype‍

One effective way to increase virtual event registration is by featuring celebrities, industry thought leaders, or subject matter experts as speakers.

One of the best examples that demonstrates the benefits of leveraging celebrity power for virtual events can be seen in Vanity Fair’s Live Cocktail Hour that took place in April 2021. The event was carried out as a charity fundraiser, with donations going to Covid-19 relief efforts.

The event featured a huge roster of celebrities. The list included names like Serena Williams, Gal Gadot, Michael B. Jordan, Julianne Moore, Laura Dern, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba and many others. The event schedule featured discussions and conversations on a variety of topics relating to the entertainment industry. There were also live performances, games and trivia challenges. With that line-up, who wouldn't want to attend this event?‍

Step 3: Leverage promos to kick curiosity and excitement up a notch‍

The lead-up to your virtual event is as important as the event itself, so marketing it in the right way can lead to a rapid increase in the number of people who want to attend it. 

What this means is that your promotional content, in the form of videos and graphics, needs to really showcase the USPs of your virtual event as opposed to a physical one. For instance, you could have video sneak peeks of your virtual venue completely covered with company branding.

Get creative with tools on social media! You could use Instagram stories’ for attendee engagement or Facebook Polls to amp up curiosity and enthusiasm. Twitter Spaces is a great way to have a small interactive session before the actual event takes place.

The power of digital marketing is limitless, and you should harness different platforms in the right way to make sure your target audience is interested in attending your event.‍

Step 4: Keep attendees invested pre-event‍

Once the number of registrations start to swell, the next challenge is to keep your attendees interested and engaged. Here are two ways to do this:

Send an in-depth pre-event attendee guide

A pre-event guide gives your potential attendees an exact idea of what they can expect from the event not only in terms of the agenda but also in terms of the timeframe. Additionally, a pre-event attendee guide serves as a reminder of the valuable learnings that attendees can expect to take away from your virtual event. In that sense, it works to further the excitement that surrounds your virtual event.

Create a resources hub for attendees

As the title suggests, a resource center is a directory of the tools and information that your attendees might need to access before, during, and after the event.

Depending on the scale of your virtual event, you could create a dedicated website for your resources, or it could be something as simple as a Google Drive folder. The main aim is to ensure that it has any tools or information that your attendees may need - for instance, a Frequently Asked Questions in your resource center would be very useful.‍

‍‍Step 5: Give your attendees reminders through multiple channels‍

The internet is full of distractions, and it can be hard for attendees to keep track of your virtual event. 

Usually, the virtual event platform you use to host should have automated reminders that are sent to attendees weeks before the event - or whenever you schedule them. It’s also good practice to send reminders across multiple channels, just in case some attendees lack access to a specific platform.

Be careful not to spam your attendees, however, as this can be a huge source of annoyance.

We hear you, Kim.‍

Step 6: Keep your attendees engaged through creative activities‍

Scheduling small activities before the event helps to generate a buzz, as well as keep it top of mind for attendees - and the more creative, the better. 

With many platforms nowadays allowing you to customize your virtual event, it’s a smart move to use it for your pre-event activities. For instance, within your platform you could create different rooms for attendees to wait in and socialize before the main event starts, or you could host a small ice-breaking introductory activity to help attendees learn more about each other.‍

Step 7: Share resources post-event‍

After your virtual event, you should send out tools, brochures, or resources that may help your attendees. This is also extremely useful if you are going to have another similar event in the future, as it makes your audience feel valued, and shows them that you are trying to drive value for them.

It’s also a good practice to reach out to those who registered for your event but didn’t show up. This not only shows them what they missed out on, but it can also help you find out why they could not attend your event, which can assist you in improving your next virtual event registration strategy.‍

Step 8: Ask your attendees for feedback‍

Collecting post-event feedback is a significant part of the process. Through this, you can find out what went right and what went wrong with your event, from the perspective of your attendees — offering you insights into improving the next one that you might be planning. Additionally, feedback also shows your attendees that you care about their experience at your event. Click here to read which important questions you should ask on your post-event survey.‍

Conclusion ‍

Maximizing virtual event attendance can be a daunting task, requiring significant organization and management. By utilizing this comprehensive list of steps, you can drive registrations and attract attendees, resulting in a successful and fulfilling virtual 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.

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It’s probably safe to say that you’ve attended at least one virtual event over the last year – and that’s probably an extreme underestimate. As businesses pivoted to using virtual meets, they became a frequent part of everyday life. More than just conferences becoming virtual – product launches, trainings, classes, panels, virtual job fairs, meetings, happy hours and more took place virtually as well.

In 2019, the global virtual events market was valued at $77.98B. Now, the industry is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23.2% from 2020, with an expected valuation of $404B in 2027.

To provide inspiration as you elevate your live and virtual strategy moving forward, here are some of the best virtual event examples in 2020 and 2021 that stood out as they took a new approach, elevated experiences or engaged audiences in a new way,

1. CES 2021

For the the first time ever, CES was all-digital, and made history as the largest digital tech event. Close to 2,000 companies launched products, the worlds largest tech companies exhibited, and industry leaders from Verizon, GM, Microsoft and more led keynotes. The event featured more than 100 hours of programming. Attendees from more than 150+ countries were able to attend sessions, receive personalized experiences and recommendations, and connect and network with others from around the world.

Online conferencing software - Zuddl

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2. Salesforce World Tour Sydney

Salesforce World Tour Sydney was transformed into Live: Australia and New Zealand for 2021. It featured keynotes, interviews with industry leaders, panels with innovators, partner product launches, and workshops designed to inspire action. Held over more than a month, the event focused on segments for key verticals and audiences.

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3. Zoomtopia

Zoomtopia is Zoom’s annual user conference and in 2020 it went completely virtual. With world-renowned speakers, deep dive technical sessions, product announcements, demos, networking and grammy-award winning music performances, the event was open to all and focused on both entertaining and educating.

4. Microsoft Ignite

Microsoft pivoted their annual event and changed its week-long in-person conference into a global, 48-hour digital gathering. With customized language localization, digital local community meetups that included instructor-led technical learning, skill building, certifications, keynotes, product updates and more, the company ensured that their virtual event was impactful and unique.

5. REACH 2020

G2 took their annual conference online and jam-packed it with over 100 speakers and sessions from entrepreneurs, sales, and marketing leaders. The event was built in collaboration with attendees who had input from registration to the event schedule (they shared the topics they were most interested in). The speakers then incorporated these requests into their keynotes and presentations.

6. Inbound

Hubspot took its annual user conference, Inbound, online for a two-day immersive digital experience. They held fireside chats that each had a pre-recorded and live component, and had educational sessions with live Q&A, debates, AMA’s, case studies, 1:1 meetups, audio-only sessions and virtual networking. With surprise guests, office hours with speakers and live entertainment, each attendee was able to stay engaged and enjoy a personalized experience.

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7. NASSCOM's Technology and Leadership Forum

NASSCOM is the premier trade body for the tech industry in India with over 2,900 member companies, including the world’s leading technology companies. In February they held their annual Technology and Leadership Forum virtually. No longer limited by geographical or scheduling constraints, more than 1,600 attendees from 30 countries joined sessions with 94 speakers from the world’s leading companies. Additionally, they decided to hold the rest of their events, virtually. This included a total of 8 virtual conferences with over 1,000 speakers, and 80,000 attendees.

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8. Tomorrowland Around the World 

A fully immersive digital festival with eight stages featuring the best artists in the dance music industry. With 60 artists performing, the event included chat rooms, games, interactive meetings and workshops - more than one million people attended. The event was converted from in-person live festivals, to one worldwide digital event in just 2.5 months.

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9. Oktane 21

Okta took their industry conference, Oktane2, virtual with keynotes, exhibitors, networking, breakout sessions, certifications and more. Attended by thousands of industry leaders, IT executives, security professionals, developers, product leaders and more – the conference prioritized small group and 1:1 networking.

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10. SXSW

South by Southwest celebrates the convergence of interactive, film, music and tech industries and in 2021 it moved online. Attendees had the opportunity to join via an online platform, television, digital devices or an XR platform streamed daily on five channels. With keynotes and sessions, film screenings, music showcases, exhibitions and professional development opportunities including mentor sessions, roundtables, networking and more, SXSW connected attendees in new and meaningful ways.

11. Think

IBM’s THINK is the premier hybrid cloud and AI event, and in 2020 it was re-imagined as a premiere digital experience. With live streamed content, interactive sessions, certifications and locally hosted smaller digital events. Over 100,000 clients and business partners registered, more than 3x their typical audience for the in-person event.

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12.  NRF

Retail’s Big Show, NRF, went virtual in 2021. With 330+ speakers across 130 sessions, a virtual expo with 300 solution providers, AI-powered matchmaking, lunch and lounges, interactive discussion rooms, musical entertainment, cooking with a celebrity chef and a startup zone – they elevated the attendee experience and made diversity and inclusion a central focus.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 67% of B2B marketers utilized virtual events in 2020, and the use of livestreaming increased 19% to 29%. Those same marketers said virtual produced the best overall content marketing results for their organization in the last 12 months. 

As virtual events continue to grow and see increased demand, how can you create an engaging, unique and memorable experience for your next event?

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.

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Cover image credit: Austin 360

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It’s time to plan your next virtual event. But as expectations evolve and technology improves, how can you make sure to drive the success of your event through a holistic strategy, defined goals and most importantly - measure what you’ve achieved?‍

Why this event?

The reasons for hosting an event go beyond budget and convenience. As the frequency and scalability of virtual events become more prominent, it’s vital that you define both the goals of your event and build a virtual event strategy to reach them. The first step? Start with your why.

You need to be able to articulate why you are holding any particular virtual event, which will help in defining the overall goal of the event for both your company and your attendees. So, what is your why? Most can be categorized in one of the following areas. 

•  Generate demand‍

From demand for a product or service or more information on a specific topic, drive attendees who are engaged, who may have watched a webinar or read a blog already, and are looking for more information on what is being presented.

•  Build awareness

From brand awareness to awareness around a specific product or service the aim is to get in front of your target audience. Maybe the event is a product launch. For attendees this is an opportunity to more closely align with your brand or learn specific details and even increase awareness on an offering you have that may fit their needs. Drift built awareness with their target audiences by hosting the Rev Growth Summit virtually, bringing together leaders and executives across sales and marketing, providing keynotes and courses.

• Increase thought leadership

From experts sharing their vision on the state of a niche segment, or detailed explanations on a technical topic – educate your industry. The opportunities are endless, but this is an opportunity to educate and elevate key figures in parallel with your brand. G2 hosted REACH 2020 virtually, bringing together thought leaders across sales, marketing, customer success, operations, and product from a variety of companies, including their own to share their strategies, expertise and playbooks.

• Customer, partner and employee engagement, education and retention

Education is one of the most valuable opportunities for a brand to connect directly with their most closely aligned audiences – partners, customers and employees. From trainings and educational sessions to retention driven events, continued engagement with these audiences is imperative.

Once you’ve decided on your why, and overall goal, how do you better specify that goal, make it SMART and define KPIs to keep you on track?

First, align these goals with your business goals. Be specific, make sure it’s measurable and achievable along with having a timeframe to accomplish it.

In fine tuning your overall goal you will want to further specify exactly what you are aiming to achieve, and how. This also means better defining the type of event along with your audience so you can more clearly specify your goals and ultimately measure success with KPIs that you set, and finally - build your strategy. ‍

Defining your needs and deciding your goals often means hosting multiple events to achieve different goals or different audiences so you can deliver the highest level of value possible. NASSCOM, the premier trade body for the tech industry, has leveraged this strategy to great effect, having hosted a variety of virtual events over the last year, building on the success of each. Here's Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at the most recent conference, the NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum.

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If you are hosting an event to generate demand around a product, is it for industry contacts, customers or both? Or if you’re looking to increase thought leadership who will your attendees be? Be clear on who your audience is and make sure you understand what the goals of your attendees will be.

For example, when WhiteHat Jr. hosted a Creator Summit for young students from around the world, they wanted to create an exciting and impactful learning experience for them.  Because children get more easily distracted, the company needed to design a thrilling virtual venue that was colourful and exciting, which was achieved through their Lobby.

The company also organized interactive virtual sessions between leaders in coding, math, and space, with engagement tools that encourage them to ask questions, share opinions and get involved.

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There will always be a multitude of possibilities for your event goal and event format such as increasing thought leadership via an industry panel or partner education via a live learning course – thus in deciding which type, it’s important to prioritize what will help in achieving the clear goal set forth for the event. 

Building your strategy

Goals are imperative to build your road map and strategy for an event. Without setting goals, it is difficult to define whether the event, means and channels utilized drove beneficial outcomes for your organization. The key is to have a strong vision and simultaneously make sure that you do right by your audience.

In building your event strategy there are multiple components that are vital to executing a successful event and achieving your overall goal. This includes content, promotion, engagement and technology.

• Content plan. Who is participating in the event, when will the content be created and when will it be shared prior, during and after the event?

• Promotional plan. Where are you promoting, communicating and distributing information for your event? How frequently?

• Engagement plan. How will you engage your audience, drive networking and create a memorable and unique experience?

• Technology. What platform will you be using to host and deliver your event effectively and reliably?

Further defining your goals with data

Once you specify the efforts you will focus on as the core of your strategy to drive towards your overall goal, it’s important to finalize the KPIs that will help you measure success and understand your progress. The most successful events set clear goals and build a path in which steps can be taken to achieve them.

With this, it’s important to understand event data and utilize it properly. The metrics used can vary widely as different events and audiences will require varying priorities of what is important to measure. Deciding on KPIs in advance of your event will help you in digesting the data, because without clear direction and intent it is difficult to sort through and prioritize the appropriate data. There are typically four key areas to measure.

• Promotional Data‍

This includes information on performance of promotions across email, social and websites prior, during and after the event.

• Registration data

This includes how many people registered, sources of registrations, who registered, specific audiences that registered and more.

• Engagement Data

This includes participation in sessions, polls, networking, chat, questions and more.

•  Attendee Data

This includes information on attendees’ activities within the event, duration of attendance, attendance rate, demographics and more.

At the end of an event, it’s important to holistically evaluate it in its entirety – and reviewing data and comparing against your KPIs will help you to define your level of success in driving toward your overall goal. By taking attendee, engagement and registration data you can build a picture to understand the stage and relationship each person in your audience has with your brand in relation to your overall goal, and even use lead scoring for each.

While virtual events require different strategies and goals than in-person events and other marketing channels – to find success you ultimately will still aim to entertain, engage and educate your audience.

Interested in learning more on setting goals for your next event? Join a demo with our team here.

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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In the last year so much of our lives beyond business have undergone digital transformation – schools and organizations, family celebrations, concerts and more – absolutely every type of event we participate in. Even mundane parts of our everyday lives that we never expected to become digital, have. With this, behaviors have changed, as have our expectations and preferences of how we experience interactions, exchanges, and events. 

As businesses look to stay competitive and to connect and communicate with our audiences, new strategies, mediums and channels are imperative to not only be used in extenuating times, but to integrate and scale for the future. At the forefront of this are virtual events and the solutions that power them. But it's more than just the technology, it’s the opportunity to globalize and scale events unlike ever before. In my time in the event industry there has never been a time of such change and with it, excitement.‍

A new era

‍Even as we return to in-person gatherings, events are forever changed. We’ve gotten a taste of the opportunity to unite people around the world with ease, without limitations of geography or scheduling.  Events that were previously 1,000 people are now becoming 10,000. And events that weren’t even able to exist due to varying limitations, are now thriving not only because they are more cost effective, but logistically simpler. The increased value of events now is their ability to easily scale both in size and frequency.

‍Events wherever you are‍

We are entering a new era in which events will no longer be defined by the channel, location or medium in which they exist, they will automatically be expected to be fully integrated and accessible. Can you remember a time when you couldn’t watch your favorite sports team because you didn’t have the budget to purchase a ticket or the time to travel to the city to where they were playing? Probably not, because in that scenario you would just watch it by streaming it on one of your many digital devices. But what if the only way to view it was by attending in person? It’s almost unthinkable.

Most of us have lived in a time where the teams we cheer have always been able to be viewed remotely on television, and more recently, our phones or any other digital device nearby. Today, where you watch is often arbitrary. The channel could be a venue or a digital medium – but almost always, you have the option to choose.

As events continue to transform, the expectation will be the same for business events of all types - from trade shows and conferences to product launches and trainings. That you will always be able to join in one of two places: the venue itself, or the virtual event  platform where it is streaming from. Both will have attendees and while each will have varying experiences, the result will be the same. They will each provide you with the ability to network and engage with other attendees, listen to speakers and most importantly - have a memorable and unique experience.

‍Experiences built by data‍

In-person events have notoriously had huge data gaps, and with it they continued year after year to attract the wrong audiences - from individuals without buying power to those just aiming for an all-expenses paid trip out of town. But remote events are providing a more detailed understanding of attendees. They will accurately help leaders qualify individuals, taking into account micro-engagements beginning with attendance at virtual events through the entirety of their digital journey with the brand. This information will change the way attendees are communicated with, further driving personalization and ultimately increasing the value of every event, for attendees and hosts alike.

‍Scaling event frequency‍

Traditionally many of the world’s largest events have only been held once per year. But only having annual events diminishes new opportunities and the ability to better engage and nurture key individuals. Just as most types of content have become episodic and often series based, so too will events - in their own way. Beyond scaling in size, events will scale in frequency as remote events will be held more regularly. This means marquee events will no longer be siloed. Virtual events will provide support with regularity and consistency as they become a pipeline for physical events – driving relevant audiences to them and providing unique experiences. With this increased opportunity to scale, individual divisional events with engaged audiences will have the opportunity to become niche, full scale global events.

‍Increased expectations‍

Boundaries that once limited guests and speakers to some of the world’s largest events, have been reduced, if not eliminated. Meaning the accessibility to any expert or thought leader has been leveled. New innovations and technological advances will continue to create opportunities to differentiate interactive communication such as AI-powered networking, parallel sessions and more.  In short - you are able to tailor your events, to your customized needs.

As all of these changes lead to a significant increase in the number of events happening, it will become extremely important to create unique experiences that are not just run of the mill, and are truly unlike any other. Otherwise, you will get lost in a sea of events that both look and feel exactly the same. 

Steve Jobs once said that he reinvented the phone to completely change your expectations. Events right now are being reinvented. So, as you plan your next event it’s important to ask yourself - how will you make it memorable, how will you differentiate it, and how will you change expectations?

If you've stayed with me this far, thank you.

In the wake of the deadly second wave of Covid 19 in India, please join us in donating to Give India, a non profit organisation that helps support COVID patients, affected families, and care centers needing support. We're all in this together.

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 marketer or organiser, we’re betting the one question you get asked about most often is also the one you loathe the most: what’s the ROI of your event?

Needless to say, ROI is one of the most important KPIs for marketers and businesses - this isn’t a point of debate. But what most (honest) event organisers also know, is that most of the time calculating the ROI from an in-person event is more of a guessing game. 

There are so many components that go into the calculation, of which many are difficult to track accurately, that it’s almost impossible to know if your event is the reason a customer decided to purchase your product or service. Any attempt to answer “what’s the ROI of your event” is a trap many marketers fall into.

‍Virtual events and ROI‍

So while ROI for in-person events is usually difficult to measure, it’s clear from the increase in the number of virtual events and people's response to them, that virtual events are helping organisers generate quantifiable results for their businesses and their partners. Here are some examples:

Have your event attendees ever spent an average of 2 entire hours in discussion rooms?

‍Top-ranked engineering institute in India, IIT Madras, accomplished this at their virtual Entrepreneurship Summit on Zuddl this year.

What about being able to boost registration for your events?

‍NASSCOM, the apex body for the IT-BPM industry in India was able to drive the number of registrations for their first virtual event from 1000 to 6000.‍

And how about generating leads for your partners? Sponsors generated 10,000+ leads from NASSCOM’s virtual conferences.‍

You need not be frightened of calculating the ROI from a virtual event. Driving and measuring returns is way easier than you think.

By virtue of being hosted on platforms that enable the tracking and collection of a range of measurable indicators, be it engagement, time spent at the event, average time at a Stage etc, organisers need to know that ROI tracking for virtual events can be easily understood and better leveraged for future events. Further, with better quality data, lead generation and nurturing happens more organically and effectively because there is empirical evidence to back it.

But considering ROI data is the lifeblood of effective event planning, organisers can benefit from a better understanding of how to actually measure the impact of virtual events.  

‍Set your KPIs and know the tools to measure them

Unlike the traditional measure of ROI, virtual events demand that you measure based on the ‘Return on Engagement’ (ROE) and the ‘Return on Objective’ (ROO). Just like on-ground events, there may be certain intangible mechanisms within these categories, which is why it pays to clearly define the indicators.

To help, here is a breakdown of these 3 key categories.

ROI is measured based on:

• Revenue
• Profitability
• Number of attendees
• New business
• Leads gathered
  

ROO is measured based on:

• Educational session comprehension
• Educational session surveys and evaluations
• Brand awareness for sponsors and the organization
  

ROE is measured based on:

• New business
• Leads generated
• Retention
• Attendee reach
• Brand awareness
  

To measure ROO and ROE, virtual event organisers need a platform that firstly lets them execute activities within their event that can help them reach their goals, and secondly has the tools to track the impact of their activities. 

For instance, when the objective is to help generate brand awareness for an event, the virtual event organizers or sponsers should be able to leverage the features of a virtual event platform to drive visibility in myriad ways - displaying the sponsor’s logo at a welcome lobby for example.

Or giving a sponsor a dedicated Expo booth wherein they can play product demos or share downloadable marketing collateral.

And the virtual event platform should be able to measure the results of these activities - for instance, by counting the number of people who watched a demo or downloaded the marketing collateral.

Get the most out of tracking technology 

To reiterate, measurement functionality is critical, so the event platform you use must have the capability to track online interactions effectively. Features that enable live analytics and post-event analytics are equally important. Ideally, post-event analytics should include the following data.

Registrations

• Total
• Registrations per day in case of a multi-day event
• Number of returning attendees

The number of registrations can help you understand how interesting or valuable your content is, and you can use this insight to plan future events that better resonate with attendees.

Attendee demographics

• Age
• Country
• Industry

Demographics will tell you the type of persona that finds value in a specific session or an interest-based room, or a product or service showcased in an Expo booth. You can use this insight to better market your offerings based on the consumer group you’re targeting.

Leads for sales

• Number of leads generated

Virtual events can drive leads for sales far more effectively than their in-person counterparts. Attendees can indicate their interest in specific products or services within a virtual event - for instance by watching a product demo, claiming exclusive deals or downloading marketing materials. Booth owners can then nurture the lead post-event.

Attendee engagement

• Polls
• Surveys
• Q&A
• Chat options
• Average time spent at a session, Rooms, Expo Booths or Networking
  

Data on attendee engagement provides more insight into an attendees interests and needs, allowing you to execute more highly targeted campaigns post-events. And at the end of the day, the more engaging a virtual event is, the more attendees will engage with an organiser or sponsor’s products and services post-event.

Connections and networking 

• Total number of connection requests 
• Total number of connections 
• Connections by attendee

One of the main reasons for people to attend events is to make new, valuable connections. Asking for an attendee’s data during onboarding not only allows you to match them with the right people but gives you a wealth of demographic information to effectively segment your audience after your event, and create targeted campaigns.

Sponsor engagement 

Data on booth traffic, conversations, and how many attendees watched product videos or downloaded marketing materials gives sponsors valuable insight on attendee interest, such as where they are in the buyer’s journey. It helps pave the way for sponsors to turn leads into customers.

All of this data and more should be available as reports, summaries or charts for easy analysis. With this, you can easily define data-driven goals for future events.

Use real-time data for better event ROI

Real-time data can even help you make improvements on the fly, especially if it is a multi-day event. You can use a virtual event platform’s features such as Polls to take quick surveys to truly understand what your audience wants – right then and there.

Turn this insight to inform strategic decisions around the relevant messaging they’re responding to, such as additional activities within the event, post-event email journeys, social media or other touchpoints.

Drive better ROI for hybrid events from virtual events

Better insights translate to effective strategizing - there isn’t an iota of doubt that virtual events can deliver in this regard. A good way to leverage this benefit is to use virtual events, in a hybrid setting, to drive better ROI for the on-ground event. In such instances, the on-ground event is preceded by a series of virtual events, which act as tools for identifying a truly engaged audience

Based on the data, you can handpick attendees who check all the boxes that define a perfect attendee. These members can then be invited to the on- ground event, thus ensuring better returns.

To sum up...

The bottom line is that with virtual events, that dreaded question of returns on your event is no longer a trap.

With virtual event platforms giving you the features to host an event that targets your KPIs, as well as the tools to track event data, you can easily tell your bosses how many leads you generated, how much engagement you nurtured, how many (more) registrations you brought about, how much new business you brought to your partners, and what value the event brought to your business. 

To get a better understanding of how a virtual event platform can help you maximize ROI, book a Zuddl demo now. 

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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.

From virtual happy hours and new employee onboarding, to birthday celebrations and shareholder meetings – almost no event has been left out when it comes to their digital transformation. And most everyone has stories of varying experiences for a handful of these scenarios.

For the better part of a year, our primary communication and personal interactions have been virtual. So, it is no surprise that so many people are ready to get back to in-person interactions and this includes events. But what does it mean for events now that both in-person and virtual events have meaningful places?

‍Is it virtual events vs in person events, or in-person events AND virtual events?

As virtual events have become the dominant, and often only format for events over the last year – many have asked what this means for in-person events as some have said we should always opt for in-person events. But this is simply no longer realistic. So, for many it’s been a question of in-person events versus virtual events.

To start, it’s not in-person events versus virtual events, it’s and. In-person events provide a value and opportunity that can never completely be replicated by virtual - that human connection and spontaneity unique that comes from being physically in the same location. But virtual events provide new solutions along with scale to meet the demands of a more digitally aligned world, in parallel to changing costs, continued globalization and new behaviors.

Quite frankly, neither event type will ever return to be exactly as we knew it prior to 2020. How we define events is forever changed. And very soon, if not already, they won’t be defined by their medium – but solely by the experience and content.

While we are all eager to be in-person once again, a singular medium is no longer superior. Virtual events are imperative for businesses to connect with employees, customers, industry partners, prospects and more – around the world, regularly.

Technology can now remove limitations encountered through in-person events. Virtual events are now essential, and those who embrace them, will continue to grow. The advantages of remotely and virtually holding events far supersede their perceived disadvantages. And often that’s just what they are – perceived.

In-person events will be back, and virtual events will never leave

In the United States, 50% of respondents in a national survey said they are now ready to return to in-person events with proper Covid-19 safety precautions in place.  And a majority of event planners are planning to incorporate virtual events into their strategy in 2022 and beyond. So, it’s safe to say neither format is going anywhere, but the frequency in which they are each utilized will continue to change.

As audiences are becoming more and more distributed, virtual provides an option that is accessible to all.

Although we crave physical human interactions – it’s no longer the only defining component for a successful and purposeful event. As brands create innovative and differentiated virtual experiences, attendees and hosts aren’t missing the travel, logistics and budgets required of attending events in-person. Without attendance limits, opportunities for both attendees and brands alike have increased. Virtual event platforms provide a flexibility that wasn’t previously an option.

Building experiences and community‍

Over the last year business leaders have gotten incredibly good at building experiences virtually as we’ve lived online, pretty much exclusively. Moving forward we can all agree that we don’t want to exclusively live our lives online. But the value to businesses who are embracing changed behaviours and with it building online communities and communication channels to connect, educate and engage will be an incredible advantage moving forward.

This last year Salesforce’s Dreamforce Conference reached 75 times as many people through their virtual event, as it did in-person attendees the year prior. And in July of 2020, Ford Motor Company took the launch of their new F-150 virtual, going live in an interactive format. More than 690,000 people around the world tuned in live or have watched since, a stark contrast to the few hundred that were originally planned to be in attendance in Detroit, Michigan for the big reveal.

Brands are creating highly produced video content, that following an event can be accessed on-demand and used by industries and brands for sales, marketing, education and more. The value that is gained from continued usability of content from virtual events cannot be understated.

NASSCOM, the premier trade body for the tech industry in India has over 2,900 member companies, including many of the world’s leading technology companies. In March they held their annual Technology and Leadership Forum virtually and no longer limited by geographical or scheduling constraints, more than 1,600 attendees from 30 countries joined sessions with 94 speakers from the world’s leading companies.

Some of those speakers? The CEOs of Zoom, IBM, Cisco, Accenture, Infosys and Zoho, plus the COOs of Unilever and VMWare, and CIO of Adobe. These leaders of some of the world’s most prominent technology companies were able to join to speak and engage in a conference that they otherwise might not have been able to attend because it was virtual.‍

Redefining expectations

‍The future of how we network and interact has been forever transformed, powered by digital event platforms that allow us to connect regardless of time and place.  With this, the value found through virtual events extends more broadly than as a replacement for traditional, in-person events. While 80% of people join virtual events for educational purposes, the second biggest reason individuals join is networking.

Yet, seemingly one of the biggest faults of virtual events is that we can’t create the same experiences as in-person events. A little ridiculous, right? Just like the experience of riding in a car isn’t the same as taking an airplane. While they both might get you to the same destination, the experience, expectations and medium are very different, and understandably so

The goal of virtual events isn’t to replicate the event in its original format, but to build a virtual experience that in the end has shared the same purpose and achieves the goals set forth. It’s okay that remote and virtual events aren’t able to replicate the same experience of in-person events.It’s not a medium problem, it’s an expectation and experience problem.

Innovation in both technology and new experiences for virtual events will continue to change communication well beyond the confines of the traditional four walls of in-person events spaces. Otherwise, attempting to exactly replicate an in-person event, virtually, is a sure way to fail.

The definition of events, their mediums and how they are executed is evolving into something new altogether. And as technology and behavior continues to change, the expectations of what is needed to connect, communicate and educate continues to transform. Change is scary, which is why it took a pandemic to change the event industry and prominently drive virtual events.

One thing that we’ve all gained over the last year despite Zoom fatigue and technical mishaps is the expectation that we can attend more events because we can always watch them later. We can meet more people and learn more from others because geography and time are rarely an issue. And that we can opt out of attending events in person because our schedules don’t allow it, but we can still attend because the future of events allows us to remotely connect, circumstances aside. And that’s a big win for virtual events.

The ultimate power of virtual is that limitations and conflicts that were often defining obstacles for in-person events have been eliminated and channels to more easily communicate, connect and engage have been simplified. The future is live, remote and connected.

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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.