Organizing a successful virtual event is not always easy (especially in the financial industry). After many discussions with industry professionals, we have found the (almost) perfect recipe to help you transform your events. From choosing the right tool to engaging on the big day, here are the keys to making your events a huge success.
Step 1: Choose the right tool
Tools are the most important things when building an event or almost anything for that matter. Even Da Vinci was well equipped with paint and brushes before painting The Mona Lisa. However, choosing the right tool is not always easy, but we have plenty of blog articles on that to help you choose one that is perfect for you. The most important thing to remember is to avoid video conferencing tools.
These tools are not (at all) suitable for events and may even create more work for you in the end. As an event organizer, you need to equip yourself accordingly to create successful ad events. An event management platform (EMS) is the main tool Event Managers should be using to organize virtual and hybrid events.
Discover the 5 reasons why banks and insurance companies love to use the platform Eventdriveto organize their events in this video. Wink, it's not just because the tool is easy to use.
Step 2: Create your event
Now that you are well equipped, it's time to create your symphony. Building your event starts with three key elements: name, date and topics covered. Luckily, you have a virtual event platform that’ll allow you to enter vital information in one place. All this information can be published to a customized event website in a few clicks.
Why an event website? It’s basically your event’s headquarters for your participants. There they can find practical information, register, see what’s on the agenda, check out the speakers' bios, download important documents… In essence, your participants can find everything they need related to your event. Don't worry, we walk you through how to create and build your event website in this comprehensive article.
Another important part or event organization is managing your attendee list. You can easily import your participant list if you have one or simply build one from scratch as you guests fill out their information on your registration form.
Bonus: Use event templates to quickly create a virtual or hybrid event and harmonize your branding.
Step 3: Promote your event
The foundations are laid, the walls are painted, in your brand colors of course (#TheEventdriveDifference), now it’s time to start marketing your event.
Your main weapon is your event invitation. You know better than we do that in banks and insurance companies, time is money and your colleagues have no time to waste.Your invitation email must be clear and concise. For this, you need an eye-catching email subject line and content containing a specific call-to-action: a button to Register or to Decline.
Promoting your event is not just creating a stunning invitation. You must also think follow-up emails for unconfirmed guests and automatic reminders before a session begins.
Step 4: Improve your participant experience
We talk about event ROI (Return On Investment) all the time, but we too often forget about ROE (Return On Emotion). Your ROE is directly linked to what your participants have experienced at your event.
Let's be honest, bankers have very high standards in general and we, as event organizers, are committed to providing them with the best experience possible. Your event website and smooth communication that you've managed to automate will go a long way in enhancing this experience, but they don't do it all.
The journey through your online event also contributes to the participant experience. Navigating a virtual event space is a lot like that of a physical event: arriving on site and moving from one room to another. Finding the link to access your virtual event should be easy. You want your guests to arrive, in one click, in a personalized space where they can easily find the plenary room and other sessions in progress.
Step 5: Prepare your speakers
We have all been caught in a sea of endless words during a presentation. What have we learned from this experience? We’ve learned that talking monotonously for long periods of time, without interacting with the audience only results in one thing: falling asleep.
To avoid this type of incident, you must prepare your speakers for presenting in front of a camera and catering to a virtual audience.
In addition to speaking via webcam, you’ll need to prepare your speakers to use your virtual event tool. How do I start a survey? Answer a question? Allow a participant to speak? Share my slides? Record the session?
If you have followed step number 1 correctly, this part is a piece of cake. However, having a final 5 to 10 minute run-through in a waiting room right before going live, wouldn’t hurt. What happens behind the scenes is important for a successful show.
Step 6: Engage your attendees
Engagement has always been at the heart events. Interactivity is synonymous with energetic events and contributes to the overall retention of important business information shared during your event.
At an online event, you must try your best to recreate the traditional experiences of an in-person event such as interactivity. To ensure that your participants stay engaged and focused, you need to make sure that you’re cultivating interactions. There are many ways to boost interactivity at your virtual events.
Encourage your participants to interact with other attendees directly in the chat. Let them ask questions. Launch a quiz after an important presentation to see if key messages have sunk in. An engaged participant is an active participant and an active participant is a happy participant. There aren’t many perks to being a wallflower at a corporate event.
Step 7: Gather feedback
You’ve given your guests an immersive and unforgettable experience, but now you have to know their thoughts. Why? Event Managers are perfectionists and always want to beat their own personal records. Feedback is a valuable element in improving your future events and will allow you to continue with the good, work on the bad and avoid the ugly.
There are two types of feedback: the overall feedback of your event and the feedback of specific sessions.Thanks to an EMS, you will be able to easily collect and centralize participant feedback.
Bonus: you can integrate your surveys directly into a session for feedback hot off the press.
Step 8: Analyze your data
Knowing which KPIs to measure for an online event has yet to come naturally to Event Managers. Eventdrive has gathered all the stats of an online event in this article to help you build your new event objectives and performance metrics.
Do you remember Step 1? Your virtual and hybrid event management platform centralizes all your event data including key statistics for impeccable reporting.
The most important KPIs remain the participation and engagement rates. Take the time to analyze key data especially since we’re at the very beginning of designing virtual events. You’ll be able to determine best practices to improve your future digital events.
And There you have it! You have everything in hand to create successful virtual and hybrid events in the banking and insurance sectors. If you follow these 8 steps, your event is sure to be a hit!
