After your business has grown enough, you might be interested in hosting a virtual conference. Nonetheless, it can be challenging. When you are tasked with such an endeavor, there are many problems you have to face.
First of all, you have to turn a full day of lectures into an engaging activity. Second, you need to determine at which date your conference can receive the most attention. Finally, you need to take care of all the technical aspects to provide your attendees with the best experience possible. Below, you will find many valuable tips on dealing with these and some other issues.
In a moment, you’ll learn about the best software you can use, why you may need translation services (you may want to read more about technical translations), or how to facilitate participant interactions. Read on and make sure your conference runs smoothly.
Making Your Conference Stand Out
If your conference does not offer any unique value, not many people will attend it. What is even worse, the people who will show up at your event will not pay special attention to it, and the number of participant interactions will be small.
To avoid this fate, you have to make your event stand out from the crowd. How to do it? There are a few ways you can go about it.
Curate Your Conference
Curating your conference means choosing a specific theme for it and sticking to it. Do not invite every presenter whose interests loosely relate to the topic at hand. Instead, focus on gathering as many specialists in a given field as possible. This way, your conference will gain more prestige and have a clearly defined purpose from start to finish.
Make the Conference Environment Inclusive
This point might seem to be the perfect counterargument for the approach we mentioned above. However, it is quite the opposite.
The art of making your conference stand out also involves creating an inclusive environment where everyone can freely speak their mind. If you wish more people to participate in your online event, avoid the mistake of inviting the representatives of only one organization.
When you gather participants from different cultures and backgrounds, but also with varying opinions, their interactions will be more interesting. Additionally, your company will earn the reputation of a fair platform, where everyone can get the chance to engage in a meaningful discussion with the other side.
Keep Discussions Constructive
This point neatly ties together the previous two. When you get the experts from different backgrounds, the atmosphere can sometimes get a little tense. To prevent unpleasant incidents from happening, always have someone moderate the discussion.
By keeping all of your sessions constructive, you will showcase your professionalism and prove that you care about the subject matter. In addition, it can help you build positive and long-lasting relationships with other businesses and boost your reputation.
Planning Your Virtual Conference
There is a lot of planning involved in organizing a big virtual conference. You have to take care of many important things and make sure you don’t lose track of anything.
To begin, you need to decide what sort of conference you want to host. Is it going to be a collection of webinars or rather something resembling a virtual workshop? The decision you make here will impact your other choices. As such, make sure that you carefully consider all of the options.
After you know which type of conference you want to host, you should take a look at the calendar and pick a suitable date for it. Remember not to plan your event too early, or your attendees won’t have enough time to prepare for it. Additionally, you should check if there are some other conferences scheduled around the same time. If so, you might want to move your conference to another, less competitive date.
Taking Care of Translation and Tech Support
If you plan to host a big virtual conference, you will need to get the right software to provide audio and video interaction, allowing you to give real-time presentations during the event. Besides, allowing attendees’ comments and questions is another essential aspect you cannot omit.
First, ensure you have enough equipment, such as projectors, microphones, speakers, and laptops with web conferencing software installed. You should also make sure that you have several backup options if one fails. Your best option here is to find a solution that is easy to set up and manage.
You may also want to hire AV professionals who know how to use all the equipment properly. Finally, ensure that all locations have a fast Internet connection and that you have at least one technical person per every 10 participants.
It’s also a good idea to look into translation services and find translators who know English and your native language. Ideally, they should be native English speakers who know the local language as well. They will translate the presentations and Q&A sessions into your native tongue and help facilitate communication between attendees from different countries.
Of course, keep your finger on the pulse even during the sessions. Make sure that everyone can hear the presenter and all the attendees can see the presentation. If something is wrong, a designated person from your tech support team should try to resolve the issue as fast as possible.
Choosing an Online Event Software
When choosing an online event software for your virtual event, there are several things you should look at:
Number of Attendees
Don’t choose an online event software that can handle a maximum of 100 attendees because it will be too small for your event. The exact number will vary depending on the niche and the amount of marketing involved, but at least 1000 people should be able to attend your event at the same time. It gives you enough room to grow your audience over time and increase the size of your next event.
Social Media Integration
You want your participants to be able to share their thoughts and opinions about your event with their friends and followers on social media platforms. An excellent online event software should make it easy for them by providing all the necessary tools. This includes badges, chatrooms, and social sharing buttons.
Price
Of course, price is always important when looking for new tools or services. Make sure you choose an affordable option that meets all of your requirements but doesn’t cost too much money either. Many online event software providers offer free trials so you can test new tools before deciding which one is best for you.
Conclusion
As you can see, hosting a big virtual conference is not the most straightforward task, especially if you have little experience organizing online events. However, after reading this article, nothing should stand in your way of throwing a successful online event.
Remember that you should make your conference stand out, take care of technical aspects, and choose the best online event software. So keep those things in mind and make sure all of them are taken care of before you go live.
Bio
Przemysław is a content writer whose primary focus is to deliver high-quality articles on new technologies. His other main fields of interest are philosophy and philology.
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