🌠 Making virtual events less torturous than whiny mosquitos?

Ever wake up one morning and think to yourself:

“Jeepers self, if only I could ensure that my future virtual events don’t do double-duty for something less boring than watching paint dry!”

If so you’re definitely not alone – Virtual meetings (Zoom, FB, Google, Smoke Signals, etc.) will only occur more and more as the months roll on by. So your challenge is to ensure… you really delight and make your viewer’s time worth their while!

That’s why you’ll love the following (and be sure to return back once you’re done so you can benefit from the goodies I uncovered for you):

contently.com/2020/11/19/3-trends-make-virtual-events-less-awful-2021/

There, you’ll discover goodies like:

“….Descriptor, Mhmm, and other production tools will help us up our “simulive” game

“Simulive” presentations—in which people pre-record their talk and then take Q&A live afterwards—have a lot of benefits. The audio and video quality is superior to what you get through a livestream. The presentations are smoother and tighter. And they allow for higher production value—music, graphics, animation, video, and other elements that are much more engaging than someone talking over slides.

The best virtual event talk I’ve given this year was at the MarketingProfs B2B Forum. They hosted the event through BigMarker, a new entry into the webinar world, which is easily the smoothest tool I’ve used.

I pre-recorded my presentation using the millennial content creator starter kit—Airpods, iPhone Pro, and a tripod. Then I asked my go-to freelance video editor to spend a few hours adding some simple graphics, video cutaways, and animation….”

and

“…Virtual events that go beyond presentations and roundtables

This innovation is less technological and more creative. All the virtual events I’ve attended this year were either standard presentations or—if we were getting really crazy—roundtables in breakout rooms on Zoom. Because who doesn’t want to spend more time making small talk on Zoom?

There was one exception: In April, I attended a Zoom-based gameshow thrown by my creative partner, Shane Snow. He used Zoom’s webinar/panelist designations to create something between The Price is Right and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. There were music, prizes, trivia, sequin jackets, and fierce competition.

Inspired, I created a game show called The Smartest Marketer for our Customer Advisory Board (CAB) event, and in hindsight, it was the best thing I’ve done all year. Our CAB members loved it, and most importantly, I got to expense a disco ball and gold streamers….”

and more!

Mastering how to ensure virtual events go peachy is a topic that could make for a grand challenge, cheatsheet, tutorial and more. You could structure it like so:

Step 1.) Ensure you know the basics of rockin’ out a great virtual event

Need help with that? Consider:

blog.hootsuite.com/virtual-events/

www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/06/25/virtual-events

www.entrepreneur.com/article/351295

Next, move to:

Step 2.) Decide *how* you want to structure and host your virtual event

Need resources for that? Consider:

venturebeat.com/2020/04/11/virtual-events-are-the-new-normal-heres-how-to-plan-one/

hbr.org/2020/05/how-to-host-a-virtual-networking-event

www.eventtia.com/blog/online-events-elements

Finally, move to: