#Virtual Events

Today everybody is talking about virtual events, and there is an adopted opinion that it is a new phenomenon that became one of the most popular online activities. Phenomenon maybe, but it's not new. What most people do not know is that virtual events exist for almost 30 years. Yes, you heard it right. So let us start from the beginning.

In April 1993, Alan Saperstein & Randy Selman launched "ConventionView" as a presentation for investors at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. They were recording trade show stands and then attached those videos to HTML floor maps. It was the groundbreaking solution back then and today considered pioneers of virtual events. Even they had initial success, the company closed it down, but in November 2010, they come back with an incredible virtual tradeshow platform called - MarketPlace365.

It took almost a decade until virtual events become trendy. During the 2000s crisis, their potential was intensively tested because of one of their significant advantages - they grant an economically powerful way to bring thousands of attendees to the event from around the world. But how do you turn a multi-day conference filled with networking opportunities, educational sessions, and the attendee insights they generate into virtual events?  

You can't, and you should not! Real contact can't be exchanged for virtual. At least I believe in that. It would help if you focused on how all the features can use this platform to accomplish what is impossible with real events. And believe me, there are many!

First, impress your audience with creative design—this is your opportunity to brand your virtual venue as much as you want. No restriction from hotels, no expensive branding solution, and what stands between you and fantastic venue decoration is only the brief you should give to the designer. The sky is the limit.

Second, how many people you want to invite? 100? 500? 10 000? It doesn't matter! A platform like this can support you with any number of attendees you choose. And again, no venue limitation, no budget limitation - your agency needs to create an HTML invitation and send them to all your partners, clients, and prospects in one campaign. You see, you already save hours of hassle choosing the seating set up and wondering will your budget cover DDR for all your guests.

And I didn't even start with the best part. I know how challenging it can be to find and gather all speakers you need for your event from my personal experience. Your sales team is traveling nonstop, the CEO is not a talkative person, and the marketing department already has full hands. Now, you can pre-record all your sessions a week before the event, edit them, and have them ready way much before the event. Another advantage - for the first time, you will experience the event that starts on time, fully respected agenda, and of course, all will finish exactly when you planed. On-time!

Let's not forget about attendance flexibility! The virtual event can last for days, even weeks, and your invitees now will not have an excuse that they do not have time to attend or they are not available because of some other commitments. With this platform, you give them a 100% user-friendly experience to log in and log out whenever they want.

To not go into details, these are just some of the features available on this platform. Soon, I will be talking more about each of them and explaining the advantages and disadvantages they have. But before we jump on that, there is one important feature I believe all marketing people will love - Data tracking and report.

Trust me; it's much better than you think. Virtual event platforms can integrate Google analytics, which, as most of you know, can track every single move your attendees make after they log in. You can have clear visibility, which one of them watches video presentations, how long they stayed on a particular page, visit all sponsor's booths, with whom they chat, and the list goes on and on. Amazing, right?

I know I can talk about this until tomorrow, but I will never convince some of you, that is why I have one small surprise for all you who read this article. Whoever is interested in learning more about Virtual events, please get in touch, and I will send you a demo where you can find all the information you need on how the virtual events platform works. And even more - for all of you who want to design, you own, a custom-made virtual event, I guarantee the first 10% discount. It can't be better than this!

Still not convinced? No problem; send me an email or contact me directly at [email protected], and I will do my best to do a full evaluation of your event objectives and, together with you, find a solution that will ensure you the best ROI.