Successfully hosting a virtual or hybrid event in banking & insurance

Hosting a successful virtual event is not always easy (especially in the banking sector). After many discussions with industry professionals, we have found the almost perfect recipe to help you transform your events. From choosing the right tools to ensuring engagement on the big day, we’re giving you all the keys to make your events a success.

Step 1: Choose the Right Tool

The tool is the most important part when building something great. Da Vinci was well-equipped with paints and brushes before painting the Mona Lisa. However, choosing the right tool isn’t always easy, but we have plenty of articles on our blog to help you make your choice. The key message to remember is: avoid using videoconferencing tools.

These tools are not (at all) suited for event management and may even create more work for you. As an event organizer, you need to equip yourself with the right tools to create high-quality, effective events. An Event Management Software (EMS) is an essential tool for Event Managers organizing virtual and hybrid events.

Step 2: Create the Event

Now that you’re equipped, it’s time to compose your symphony. Building your event starts with three key elements: the name, the date, and the topics. Fortunately, your virtual event platform will allow you to input all the essential information in one place. All of this can be published on a custom event website with just a few clicks.

Your event website is the headquarters for your event. It holds practical information, registration, agendas, speaker bios, important documents—everything. Don’t worry, we explain how to create and build your website in this complete guide.

Another important aspect is managing participants. Import your participant list into your tool for optimal participant management, and complement it with registrations that come directly through your event website.

Bonus: Use event templates to streamline your communication and create your event faster.

Step 3: Promote the Event

The foundation is set, the walls are painted (in your colors, of course, #TheEventdriveDifference), and now it’s time to promote your event.

Your main weapon is the invitation email. You know better than us that in banking and insurance, time is money, and your colleagues don’t have any to waste. Your invitation email needs to be punchy and clear. It should have an optimized subject line and content with a precise call to action: a button to register or decline.

Promotion doesn’t stop at the invitation. Remember to follow up with unconfirmed registrants and send automatic reminders to participants who have registered for various sessions.

Step 4: Improve the Participant Experience

We always talk about the ROI (Return on Investment) of your event, but too often, we forget about ROE (Return on Emotion). The return on emotion is closely tied to the participant experience.

Let’s be honest: bankers generally have high standards, and we must offer them the best possible experience. Your event website and the seamless communication you’ve managed to automate will greatly contribute to this experience, but they aren’t everything.

The journey through your digital event also plays a major role in creating an unforgettable participant experience. The navigation on your event’s virtual space replaces the traditional experience of arriving at a physical event and moving from room to room. Finding the URL to access your online event should be simple. With just one click, participants should land on a personalized space and easily find the main stage and ongoing sessions.

Step 5: Prepare Your Speakers

We’ve all been trapped in an endless flow of words during a presentation. What did we take away from it? That speaking for several minutes in the same tone, without pausing or engaging the audience, only serves one purpose: to put us to sleep.

To avoid this, you must prepare your speakers to speak in front of a camera and to a virtual audience.

In addition to speaking online, your speakers will need to know how to use the tool. How do you launch a poll? Answer a question? Allow a participant to speak? Share slides? Record the session?

If you’ve followed step one, this part should be a piece of cake. However, reviewing the key points, 5 to 10 minutes in a dedicated waiting room before going live, is always a good idea. What happens behind the scenes is crucial to a successful show.

Step 6: Engage the Participants

Engagement has always been at the heart of an event. Interactivity reflects the energy of your event and helps retain the important information shared.

For your online events, you need to recreate certain elements typical of physical events, like interactivity. To ensure your participants stay engaged and focused, you need to foster interaction. There are many ways to boost interactivity during your virtual events.

Encourage your participants to engage with others in the chat. Let them ask questions. Launch quizzes after an important presentation to ensure key information is retained. An engaged participant is an active participant, and an active participant is a happy participant. No one wants to feel like a wallflower.

Step 7: Collect Feedback

You’ve offered your guests an immersive and unforgettable experience, but now you need to know what they thought of it. Why? Because an Event Manager is a perfectionist and always wants to outdo themselves. Feedback is a valuable tool for improving future events, keeping the good parts, and avoiding the elements that didn’t work.

There are two types of feedback to collect: overall feedback and session-specific feedback. With an EMS, you can easily gather and centralize both.

Bonus: You can even integrate the satisfaction survey directly into the session for immediate feedback.

Step 8: Analyze the Data

The KPIs to measure for an online event aren’t always clear for Event Managers, unlike those for a traditional marketing campaign. Eventdrive has compiled the essential metrics in this article to help you build new goals and event performance indicators.

Remember step one? Your virtual and hybrid event management platform centralizes all your event data, including statistics for perfect reporting.

The most important KPIs are participation rate and engagement rate. Take the time to analyze the data, especially in the early stages of event formats. You’ll be able to gather plenty of best practices to improve future digital events.

And that’s it! You now have the tools you need to host a successful digital event in the banking and insurance sector. With these 8 steps, you’ll have everything covered!