Digital Events – One Night Stand Or Long-Term Relationship?

Turning first dates into relationships

Just like a short-lived romantic encounter, a traditional digital event has a beautiful beginning and (most of the time) a mutually agreeable end. The purpose of such digital events is to meet an immediate need for connection, share information and ultimately generate leads. To be sure, one-time digital events can lead to the formation of valuable connections. But, while these connections are kindled at the event, they needed to be developed through other mechanisms.  

As the industry continues to mature, the door is opening for a completely different type of event – one that will turn first dates into ongoing relationships. These digital events will abandon the definition of an “event” as a defined set of activities at a specific time and will embrace the opportunity for always on experiences.  At these events, content, resources and company representatives will be available 24/7/365 to build long-term relationships with customers. In other words, digital events will not only be places where long-term relationships begin; they will be places where long-term relationships are developed and nurtured. Digital events will never end; they will continue to add value over time, well beyond the initial kick-off day. 

When digital events become “digital experiences”  

While the concept of always-on digital events is still far from the norm, there are several great examples that are worth paying attention to. These long-term events are designed to create collaborative and engaged communities that come back on a regular basis to experience products and engage with company representatives.  

An example of the creative use of digital environments to build relationships year-round is SC Magazine. The publication, which targets IT security professionals, runs numerous digital events a year. In addition, it maintains an ongoing digital destination where IT Professionals can assess archived events and supplementary information. In their own words: "We created a year-round, permanent digital environment with a trade-show floor populated by vendors who bought into the concept of the 12-month cycle.” These digital events as well complement their in-person events and related content. 

Five questions for an always-on digital events world 

Ironically, the technology already exists for companies to organize long-term digital events that add value over time. In my experience, the biggest barriers for companies that want to create a sustained digital presence are related to people, systems and processes. Following are five questions that every company who is thinking about organizing a long-term digital event should think through and discuss with their digital event provider.

1.      How can I keep content fresh over time? Content development is one of the most important aspects of preparing for a digital event. This is even truer when the event represents a long-term commitment. Rather than leave things to change, in many cases, companies should assign content ownership to a member of the event team and insist on having a written content strategy and editorial calendar several months into the future.

2.      What can I do to enable ongoing interaction between customers and employees? No matter how fancy the user interface, it is difficult to call a digital event an “event” without human interaction. At the same time, in many cases it will not be possible (or advisable) to have your star product managers available at all hours of the day. As a result, each company should think through the levels of interaction that they want to achieve.

For example, as a first point of contact, a company might give customers and partners access to an AI Assistant (bot), who can answer questions, qualify intent and pass on to a member of the tele sales team as and when the customer is ready to engage.

Second, they could schedule times for regular live presentations and chats with product managers. Finally, they could hold invitation only events with senior executives and other VIPs. Of course, each company is different, but the point is to have a plan up front to avoid “going-dark” in the days after the initial launch of the event.

3.      How can I manage a long-term presence between planning cycles? Since always-on digital events require a sustained investment, careful planning is necessary to make sure that they do not fall victim to internal planning cycles. The last thing that a company wants is to establish an online community around a digital experience only to have momentum fizzle while budgets are reshuffled between priorities.

4.      What behaviors do I want to drive over time? Many digital event providers have already build game dynamics and other behavioral mechanisms into their platforms. These tools become even more powerful in a long-term setting where customers can be encouraged to interact with content, employees and each other over time. While companies do not need to understand all of the ins-and-outs of the technology/process, they should take the time to think through which behaviors (end actions) are most important to them over the long term and discuss these needs with their platform provider.

5.      How can I leverage profiling to tailor my experiences? While one-day digital events offer explicit profiling (the information that people provide when they register for the event), always-on events offer opportunities to capture organic profiling information too. Organic profiling involves capturing and using information regarding the activities that users participate in and the content that they respond to most favorably. By thinking ahead, companies can develop a plan to customize each digital event experience to the needs of individual customers based not just on what they say, but also what they do.

Digital events – a never ending story…

While it is impossible to predict the future of the industry with any certainty, one thing is clear – digital events in the future will be neither purely “digital” (they will have physical components) or “events” (they will reach out well beyond the launch day). Perhaps all that we can say with certainty is that the model that digital events represent (a model that uses technology to connect people, ideas and places) will permeate every aspect of business life. In short, digital events will become a paradigm for a more connected business world, not just a better way to hold meetings. 

An overview of the Social27 Digital & Virtual events platform:

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