Five reflections from the “Beyond Tomorrow” experience and learnings for 2021 Plans

I was recently involved in producing SAS’ Beyond Tomorrow event. This was a virtual three-day event focusing on the future and how we will use data and intelligent decisioning to become more resilient and ready for whatever the future brings.

A year or so ago, it’s fair to say that most of us had never attended or organized a virtual event. We might have caught up with a live event via Twitter or had a look at some videos from an event we’d missed. However, the idea of a fully virtual event is something relatively new—although it has very much come of age last year, in the light of travel and contact restrictions. 2020 has taught us all a lot, not least what we are capable of when necessary!

Over the year, we have all taken on new challenges, and many of them look like they may be here to stay. I think virtual events could be among those that will last into the future. They have some big advantages over face-to-face meetings, even if they also have some drawbacks. As we become more conscious of our impact on the environment, I think we will see more virtual meetings in future. I thought it is, therefore, helpful to reflect on what we learned from these virtual experiences to help each other make our 2021 plans. Jenn Chase, our Senior Vice President of Marketing, had shared her 5 tips to rock a virtual event based on her experience on our SAS Global Forum 2020.  Now I would like to share my learnings from Beyond Tomorrow, so that we can put that learning into practice for 2021 marketing plans.

1.      A virtual event experience is very different from a physical one—and it is easy to forget that when getting into details

I will confess that I quite enjoyed the challenge of designing a virtual event. However, it is very different from designing a physical event. You need to change your thinking completely. With Beyond Tomorrow, we started with the usual workstreams, and then considered how we needed to change them to make them work in this new format.

2.      There are two crucial questions to ask when planning a virtual event

The first is “What do we want to achieve?” This has always been the most important question to consider when planning an event. However, it is perhaps even more important with a virtual event, because it can totally change your design. The second question or issue is how to convince people to attend this event, and not any others taking place on the same day. There are plenty of options in the virtual world—and you must remember that you are also competing with real life. It is not like a physical event where attendees have already committed the time and presence. In a virtual event, the barrier to checking out is almost non-existent.

3.      Existing planning and delivery methods may not work

It is tempting to go to your tried and tested methods, especially if you have been delivering events on similar topics for many years. Often this starts with using the same team for each workstream. That is unlikely to work well. You need different skills to design a virtual event, and you will need new team set-ups. Think carefully about the skills required, and make sure they are available.

4.      Content is the big difference with a virtual event

You can keep the same messaging as for a physical event, and even the same value propositions. However, your content must be different to keep a virtual audience’s attention. Storytelling is more important than ever, and it must be consistent across the event. People will only stay with you if they feel part of the story that you are telling. Long presentations are ‘out’, and you really need a mix of presentations and discussions. Interactive sessions like Q&As, polls and games all increase your chances of keeping your audience.

5.      Social media can bring in an audience during the event as well as before

Social media has long been recognized as an excellent channel for promoting events. What is different about digital events is that people can join them part-way through. Social media is therefore a good way to recruit new members of your audience during the event, as well as before. However, you need a well-designed plan. Just one simple, smart post and a single click, and people can join you. Videos work. You can also let different people record their experiences or promote their own content on social media, because this gets huge engagement.

Social media is also an excellent way to assess reactions to the event during and afterwards. It can tell you what you did well—and also what to change next time to make it even better!

A new year has started with new exciting plans. We still don’t know what challenges we will have to take on, but it is obvious that virtual events will continue being part of our 2021 marketing plans and we will see more and more innovation based on our learnings from 2020. Looking forward to designing and attending great events going forward…

Happy New Year!