Ode to Virtual Broadcasts

I am an extrovert. I am a social being. I would rather catch up with a friend in-person than over the phone or by text. I have done community theater and was a competitive figure skater for seventeen years. I do not shy away from a crowd; rather, I seek them out. I am more comfortable in front of one thousand people than I am in front of five people. I’ve been in the events industry for over 20 years, and during that time, made a good living off of face-to-face meetings. I believe in the power of events to create connections through shared experiences.

So, I am going to admit something I never thought I would at the start of the pandemic: I love producing virtual broadcasts.

I love the creativity involved conceiving new ways to engage the audience and deliver content. I love the rush of adrenaline when everyone including the crew and presenters are remote and you are relying on the stability of many internet connections in many different locations. I love watching presenters become better storytellers as they learn to talk to a camera as if it is one person. I love the intimacy involved in presenting from the comfort of your home. I love being in a studio better than being in a ballroom. I love the moving shot from a jib cam.

Not only do I personally love producing virtual broadcasts, but I also believe that, when done right, they can be an integral part of a company’s event marketing mix.

At the start of the pandemic, and for more than a year, no one had a choice. They threw themselves headfirst into virtual events of all types with little to no experience in producing them. Many tried to translate their virtual events exactly as they would be in person, which they quickly found out was impossible. The audience experience is different, and it was a mistake to not tailor the virtual event experience to audience behavior on the other side of a screen.

Now that we are able to gather safely again, companies are speeding back to in-person events and leaving virtual events in the rearview mirror altogether or only utilizing them to use up left over budget.

Another mistake is viewing virtual as the cheap option. Virtual certainly has budget advantages but limiting your virtual offerings to only the left-over budget scraps with no other purpose is a waste of those scraps. I do not know anyone that wants to actively waste money.

Now that we have more options, it is time we realize that in-person events and virtual events serve different purposes. Virtual shouldn’t be a replacement option when you can’t be in-person for whatever the reason.

In the book, “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek, he says, “Real, live human interactions is how we feel a part of something, develop trust and have the capacity to feel for others.” Prior to this statement, chapter four gets real science-y into how the human body releases certain hormones during physical contact. Most important to the events industry is oxytocin, the trust or bonding hormone. It is released during one action common at and important to events (at least pre-pandemic): the handshake.

We spent the past two years getting super creative with our virtual events, trying to give the audience an engaging and exciting on-screen experience, creating and delivering content in different ways, and trying to find new means to achieve our event objectives (and I have loved it!) The most challenging part of all of that was recreating those moments of connection.

Physical contact between humans is one thing that is currently impossible to recreate via a computer screen.

For all the clever ways we found to connect people and build relationships in the virtual space, nothing was as good as being in-person, face-to-face and able to shake a hand or offer a hug and release copious amounts of oxytocin in our systems.

And while we rush to get back to being together again to build ?those relationships and close sales fueled by oxytocin-induced handshakes, let’s not forget your yearly event marketing plans probably have other objectives than relationship building and closing sales.

What about events meant to inspire, educate, or deliver specific pieces of information like financial results? If networking in any capacity is not one of the “whys” of the event, consider putting your money and effort into an elevated virtual broadcast instead.

This does not mean your standard “death by Power Point” ?webinar format. No one wants to see a one-hundred slide presentation in-person let alone on a screen. If all you want to do is an old-school webinar, then do a Teams meeting and don’t waste your money on production. You will not get much of a reaction, but you also won’t throw money and time down the toilet.

Elevating your virtual broadcast from webinar status involves creating content and delivering your messages in ways that make it easier for your participants to consume the information on a screen. It is a more “edu-tainment” style approach.

Think about all the other media you consume on a screen and why you are drawn to it. Why do you binge watch a show on Netflix? (The storytelling, perhaps?) Why are you a loyal viewer of a particular cable program, whether it be sports, entertainment or news? ?(Maybe it’s the many scores and data points on screen while you listen to three people debate a topic?)

Pay attention when you are watching and think about what elements you could bring to your virtual broadcasts that could help you reach your audience and objectives. These could be as simple as a panel of people or a different graphics application. Even the weatherperson on your local news can inspire you, either with cool AV or simply their energy. You need to create and deliver must-see content that will hold the attention of those on the other side of the screen which is different than holding the attention of an audience in a ballroom.

Then, add some engagement elements. Your platform should offer some engagement tools, and yet probably does not need to be an expensive and robust platform that could support a full virtual conference. It should offer basic features such as chat/comments, Q&A, and/ or emojis and then it is up to you and your content to drive participants to utilize them in a purposeful manner.

One of the beauties of the virtual space is the increased ability to gather data on participants, especially organic reaction data. You cannot measure how many times someone smiles or claps their hands at an in-person meeting, but you can measure how many times and when they use emojis that signify the same sentiments in the virtual world. You cannot capture every spontaneous comment of praise or question one participant asks another at an in-person event, but you can in a virtual platform. ?It is all in writing and timestamped.

An elevated virtual broadcast does not have to be super complicated, but it does take more planning and investment to execute something that is a few steps up from a slideshow on Teams or Zoom. It could be fully remote and still be uplifted to a few levels above a webinar. Or you could go as far as utilizing a studio. In the end though, what you will create will yield measure-able results.

In summary, virtual broadcasts have great value if you spend a little more time, focus and money to make them a strategic part of your marketing mix and not an afterthought to in-person events.

And, selfishly speaking, they are a ton of fun to produce.?