Virtual Event Platform

1. Greater reach: Attendance generally increased by 20% when switching to a virtual event because attendees can join from their home or office without the need to travel.
2. Cost-effective: In-person event costs can add up quickly when including staffing, hotel, food and beverage, travel, etc. Virtual events can reach large audiences at a much lower price. Further, less staffing time is required to produce a virtual event.
3. Extended shelf life: One of the virtual event benefits is that it provides organizations with valuable digital content, which can be made available on-demand for attendees to access anytime. Pieces of the content can also can be distributed on social media channels or the organizations website.
4. Availability of experts: It is often difficult to book expert speakers for in-person events because of the time and expense required for travel. Virtual events allow organizers to invite industry experts from any location to lead sessions and participate in the event. Better speakers also translates to increased attendance.
5. Reporting data: Virtual event platforms track every attendee attendance, behavior, interest, webinar views, booth visits, etc. This data can be used to measure ROI and provide valuable insights for sponsors.

The best virtual event platform will depend on the type of event you are hosting and audience features. For example, a virtual career fair event may require different virtual components than a trade show or expo and vice versa.

• Company details: Find out how long the provider has been in business, where are they incorporated, types and levels of insurance they carry, D&B number, D-U-N-I-S number, etc.
• Where the virtual event platform (what country) is hosted. Also ask details about reliability, scalability (how many concurrent attendees it can handle), data security (protecting attendee information for compliance).
• Customization: Users want an immersive virtual event design. For example, if it is a University event, use images of the campus for the various rooms and spaces.
• Engaging webinar platform features:
  • Q&A, chat, and polls
  • Downloadable resources
  • Adaptive bit rate for video
• Offers networking opportunities with other attendees:
  • Intentional networking: The ability for attendees to search and connect with other attendees via text and/or video chat.
  • Unintentional networking: A platform feature that matches attendees with other like attendees based on profile data and content views.
• Entertainment surprises: The ability to incorporate gamification, social media walls, virtual photo booth, magic show, music, etc.
• Support: Find out exactly what set-up support is available. In addition, ask details about the type of support available during the live day(s) for the organizer, attendees, and speakers.

Click here for a 10 point check list for choosing a virtual event provider.

What is your virtual event platform pricing?

Virtual events are just like in-person events. There is no out-of-the-box or one size fits all solution. Every client virtual event is different and there are dozens variables depending on your particular goals, number of attendees, content strategy, engagement needs, support level, and other requirements.

Communique offers a choice of two virtual event platforms (one-stop-shop) for every event budget and use case.

We offer both both pay-per-event pricing as well as annual virtual event platform license for multiple events.

In terms of support, clients can choose DIY or full white glove support including project management, liaising with speakers, sponsors, and live day support.

The logistics of hosting a virtual event are similar to hosting an in-person event except the venue is a digital platform vs. a hotel or other physical venue.

Steps to host a virtual event:

1. Select a topic and identify your presenters.
2. Who are your attendees and what is in it for them?
3. Determine the virtual events format and components. Some virtual events are merely a series of webinars organized on a web page. On the other hand, more advanced virtual event platforms enable organizers to replicate an in-person event including sessions, breakout and networking rooms, exhibitor booths, help desk, gamification, photo booth, social media wall, etc.
4. Identify any special attendee requirements including language translation, closed captioning, section 508 compliance (screen readers), and role-based access to sessions, rooms or content.
5. Decide attendee engagement requirements such as networking and breakout rooms, matchmaking (networking suggestions), gamification, scavenger hunt, photo booth, social media wall, polls, surveys, etc. How will they engage with you (the organizer)? How will they engage with speakers? How will they engage with each other? How will they engage with sponsors?
6. Choose the best day and time to host your virtual event. Keep in mind that attendees are on different time zones. Most virtual events have 1-3 live days.
7. Promote your virtual event using email, social media, and other formats.
8. Pull together your virtual event content including documents, PowerPoint slides, videos, polls, surveys, etc.).
9. Create the graphic, promotional banners, and other branding assets to use for the registration landing page and virtual environment rooms and spaces.
10. Train the speakers on the virtual event platform, test their connections, and conduct practice sessions.
11. Prepare for live day activities including user guides and FAQs, broadcast message plan, assign chat reps to rooms and booths, live day support, and dry runs.
12. Execute the virtual event
13. Pull virtual event reports to measure success and provide data to sponsors.
14. Prepare post event activities (on-demand recordings, follow up, etc.).

Yes. There are two ways to include breakout rooms in your virtual event (a) During sessions the moderator can create breakouts, assign attendees, then bring everyone back into the main session (b) The agenda can include different breakout rooms that attendees can join by topic, etc.