My Gen Tec

Tag: virtual events

  • How Do You Make a Virtual Meeting More Effective?

    How Do You Make a Virtual Meeting More Effective?

    Today’s work culture was compelled to adopt a remote culture, which now appears to be an excellent way to get everyone from the organization together at the same time. Online meetings are here to stay even after all the restrictions on traveling and lockdowns will be lifted. But the question is how to make these Virtual Meetings more effective? How should one make up for the deficiency of face-to-face interactions?

    To cope up with this, we have compiled some vital steps that will help you conduct even better and productive virtual meetings;

    1. Define Your Virtual Meeting Objectives

    Every online meeting needs to have a definite objective. Discuss with different managers and leaders of your organization what should be the goal of your meeting. Ask a few questions to yourself such as;

    • What will be the KPIs of your meeting?
    • How will you achieve the meeting objectives?
    • What will be the Meeting Agenda?

    These essential questions will help you conduct a successful virtual meeting that will recreate the experiences of an in-person meeting.

    2. Plan The Meeting Agenda

    A virtual meeting Agenda offers a pre-decided order that needs to be followed during the meeting to avoid any confusion. It is necessary to map out the meeting Agenda and mention the same in your invitation emails. This way, the participants will have the complete meeting information beforehand for easy reference.

    3. Set Ground Rules

    First thing, you need to follow some basic rules. A good meeting needs to include some ground rules for participation to be followed by all the attendees. For example;

    • Do not leave the meeting without informing
    • Mute your mic when someone is speaking
    • Use raised hands to feature if you have any questions
    • Introduce yourself before speaking or asking any question, especially if it’s an audio call
    • Ask your employees or attendees to log in at least 5 minutes before the meeting
    • Encourage your attendees to restrict any distractions like background noise to put their entire focus on the meeting

    Setting these vital ground rules helps maintain the decorum of any virtual meeting. It also keeps everyone updated regarding the ongoing and upcoming sessions.

    4. Schedule Your Meeting Carefully

    It is important to decide the meeting’s date and time carefully to welcome more attendees. When you schedule your meeting, make sure to consider the different time zones of the attendees. With people attending the Meeting from different parts of the world, this becomes even more necessary.

    Also, make sure that your virtual event does not collide with any other distinguished events of the industry. You can use several tools that can help you plan the meetings even more efficiently.

    5. Invite People

    Conducting a virtual meeting needs a proper protocol. First, pen down a list of attendees who you want to involve in the meeting. Then, send out the meeting invitations. These invitations should look professional. Make sure to include the following information:

    • Compelling subject line to convey the purpose of the Meeting
    • The names of some important speakers to lure more attendees
    • The list of the specific ground rules
    • The complete meeting Agenda
    • The time and date of your virtual meeting

    6. Keep Shorter Sessions

    Distractions are just a click away for virtual attendees. Hence, this is why it is necessary to keep short sessions or include breaks between the sessions to keep everyone involved. We understand that it can get super monotonous for attendees to sit at a place for long hours. Therefore, plan your sessions properly.

    Consider keeping a break or refresher just before an important session. Attendees can use this break to either have a coffee or they can simply stimulate themselves. It will pump their energy, and it would be easier to deliver the message of the upcoming sessions rightly.

    7. Promote 2-way Interactions

    It is important to make way for 2-way interactions to conduct a successful and engaging virtual meeting. Make the most of the live chat feature, live polls, surveys, and Q&A sessions to encourage real-time interactions.

    So, be very wise while selecting the virtual venue partner. It is important to look for a virtual trade show or meeting platform that has brushed its skillset to include features like virtual networking tables, AI-based recommendations, networking lounge, CXO lounge, and many more to make your meeting more interesting.

    Consider starting with an icebreaker activity to keep your attendees engaged right from the beginning. You need not necessarily begin with the meeting sessions instead you can ask the attendees about things like “Which activity did they miss the most during the lockdown?”, “What new did they learn during the lockdown?”, or you can ask the attendees about their latest accomplished goal that they are proud about. A few moments of a casual chat allow attendees to connect and interact with each other.

    8. Leverage the Right Technology

    Now, that you are familiar with the steps involved in holding a successful meeting, it is time to decide on the technology and virtual meeting or AGM platform. There are enormous platforms available in the market, so do your research and then pick your enterprise solution carefully.

    Your virtual meeting platform should be able to organize live polls, surveys, or Q&A sessions that can help attendees learn, interact, and connect.

    It should also have a strong data trackability feature to provide comprehensive data regarding attendee navigation and the KPIs of your event. It will help you gauge the success of your online meeting and make necessary improvements to plan even more successful events in the future.

    Another notable feature that the platform should possess is 24/7 customer support. This feature ensures that if the audience faces any issue while signing up, immediate assistance can be provided by a mindful team of experts.

    Wrapping Up

    Working remotely and virtual meetings are sure to persist. Hence, it is vital to keep conventional practices at bay to make way for new features and innovations. To elevate the level of your online meetings, make sure to pick the right virtual event software.

    We hope the above-mentioned ideas will help you plan even more successful and effective virtual meetings.

  • Top 5 Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Events

    Top 5 Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Events

    The consequences of the global pandemic have summoned businesses in the virtual events sector to find occasions to grow in new ways. Technology and the virtual environment play a significant role here, hence this is why many companies considered shifting to the online sphere to ensure the continuity of their businesses. 

    Today, virtual events have become the pathway to boost brand value and enhance the reach of global audiences. People can attend online events from their desired locations. The only thing they need to have is a reliable internet connection and a compatible laptop or smartphone. Connecting with attendees virtually is the best alternative when face-to-face meetings or gatherings are forbidden. Moreover, with time, everyone has realized that virtual events platform have their definite set of benefits when compared to live or physical events.

    Here are the top 5 benefits of virtual events;

    Maximizes Global Reach

    Obtaining the perfect date, venue, and time is vital in event planning. When we talk about physical events, it can be a bit challenging to find the perfect location and decide on the count of attendees. You may be worried if the location is comfortable and welcoming for your attendees. 

    But, with virtual events, all of these concerns are spontaneously eliminated.

    Adoption of a virtual environment allows the attendees to visit the events from the convenience of their homes or their desired remote location, provided they have a reliable internet connection and a compatible laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Because online events are so comfortable to attend, the participation percentage is undeniably way higher than an on-site event could have. 

    Flexible and Cost-effective Alternative 

    Virtual events are an excellent alternative to save on several expenses and resources. The cost of traveling, hiring a venue, accommodation, food, and drinks get completely eliminated. Virtual events simply require a mere registration fee which is way less than the expenses involved in a physical event. 

    Virtual events have a lot to offer as compared to physical events. They require less time and capital for advertisement and promotional plans as compared to physical counterparts. Registration and online check-in happen promptly, unlike in-person event check-in methods. Rather, organizers can concentrate fairly on shaping their virtual event a lot more methodical and valuable. For physical events, it is not possible to have a look at the desired flash of the event after its execution. But, with online events getting a glimpse of the missed streams is instantly possible. It happens through the availability of on-demand content that lets you visit the event later according to your preferred time.

    Detailed Data Analytics

    During a physical event, it’s moderately challenging to maintain track of attendee’s every activity. Situations are a lot easier when we talk about virtual events, conferences, meetings, or exhibitions. It is convenient to prepare the attendee navigation data during virtual events. For example, when a participant entered a live session, attendee hotspots of your event, how many participants used the live chat feature and networking options, which virtual exhibitors booth gained maximum visitors, to how many downloads have been made regarding the content, and many more. With more insights, it becomes way easier to assess the success of an online event.

    Accurate data plays a crucial role in taking a follow-up from other attendees and getting their valuable feedback. You can ask your online audience to fill up simple forms to submit their feedback. Using this feedback, you can make necessary improvements for the upcoming virtual events.

    Added Value for Exhibitors

    Virtual event software offers endless ideas to create sponsor packages and convert your virtual events into lucrative and profitable affairs. Sponsors and exhibitors can readily learn how many participants attended the virtual booth or virtual session, and how many times. For participants, one of the advantages of visiting virtual events is that with zero physical travelings, they can still make time to communicate with more exhibitors and sponsors in real-time.

    Another significant aspect of virtual events is endless networking opportunities. It is one of the excellent reasons that can help you host a successful and remarkable online event. Virtual events offer distinguished networking opportunities to interact and network with other attendees, hosts, exhibitors, and speakers in real-time. To promote networking, you can use virtual networking tables that include live chat, audio, and video features to facilitate both 1:1 and group discussions.

    At physical events navigating through a crowd of several people to have meaningful interactions with the attendees and exhibitors is not possible every time. At times there are long queues, or an individual may feel reluctant while having face-to-face discussions.

    With virtual events, you can readily avoid all these hurdles. Virtual events offer several networking moments that make it a lot easier for the attendees and exhibitors to connect, network, and make meaningful relationships from the comfort of their desired remote locations. 

    To facilitate networking, choose your virtual venue partner reasonably that can include exciting features to give way to meaningful interactions. You can incorporate 1:1 and group live audio/video chats, exciting games, virtual networking tables, B2B meeting scheduler, AI matchmaking, and many more to make your event a bizarre and unique affair.

    Less Promotional and Operational Costs

    When you’re conducting a virtual event, you need to strategize your marketing endeavors and plan out your budget accordingly. Even with decisive partnerships, elevating your associates’ brand won’t need printing expenses for conference booklets, huge banners, and buntings. Everything happens digitally and you can expect greater ROI of your commercial spend through email marketing, SEO, and more. 

    Operating expenses are also managed to be as minimum as an organizer can. You do not have to spend on venue charges, AV production, service personnel, transportation, VIP accommodation, logistics, or F&B. Overall a virtual event requires fewer expenditures compared to an on-site event, with much better and notable results. 

    Final Word

    The advantages of going virtual are countless. All you need to do is leverage the right event technology and pick the appropriate virtual event platform to make your event unique and realistic.