What Are The Different Phases Of Online Event Planning And Hosting?

 

Online Conference Platforms over the past few years have rapidly adapted to the changing needs of the consumers which have helped them to develop a sense of trust among the general public. It has helped to evolve the educational as well as institutional sectors by removing the barriers to communication that was created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has also helped to efficiently relocate the workforce that was disrupted due to the pandemic and bring them into a virtual in-person platform with ease of a click. Hosting online events is no different from the above revolution, it has also evolved in these uncertain times where online event planning can be done and executed more efficiently with a smaller workforce that has efficiently reorganized the whole sector.

 The shift from an offline system of organizing events to an online event planning has proven to be more efficient for companies to implement as they can take the advantage of a much larger audience by mapping their consumer behaviors via the cross-referring of their interest in attending various programs and seminars.

 The registrations help companies identify the consumer engagement in their programs. They have also opened new avenues for companies to monetize upon their content. Hosting online events involves a lesser workforce, which simplifies the whole process making it simpler and more efficient. Also, the wider acceptance has evolved the industry itself to adapt these new age models to be more data driven and map their audience’s behavior patterns.

Also, the techniques have changed tremendously since the Covid-19 pandemic and the event planning has been made more accessible. The physical barriers have now faded giving a wider acceptance to the online conference platforms. From booking a physical place for an event or gathering physical responses most of these processes have been automated.

However, organizing an online event does have some prerequisites that have been listed below:

●       Research

Hosting a virtual event requires a tremendous amount of user-generated content to plan upon. It requires surveys, mapping the right audience, and identifying the key areas to work upon that help with the engagement. It involves surveying and matching each user to their interest-related seminars and events which helps to boost the attendance for the same. Not only does organizing an event involve the consumer side of the research but requires formal training of the staff to better equip them to handle the events smoothly in a virtual environment. It also involves the estimate for the whole event, and resource management to solve any issues that may arise during the event.

●       Design

Designing involves engagingly restructuring the whole event to efficiently organize the content that helps with its accessibility. Often when doing a virtual event, grabbing the attention of the audience plays a huge role in determining the success of an event. Usually, the content part is taken care of in this process and long portions of information are simplified in such a manner that they become a part of the speech rather than the presentation. Designing also involves restructuring the event in a manner that adds value to the content and helps with engaging the participants rather than a one-sided conversation, etc.

●       Brand

Branding serves the purpose to reiterate the content in a manner that the engagement is promoted and the objectives identified are fulfilled. It involves reaching out to the audience and connecting with them via the event that’s going to be organized. It’s a very structured process that starts with the publicity of the event that associates and differentiates it in front of the public and helps consumers identify the event virtually. Virtual Event organizing involves branding as a major part of their process development which adds uniqueness to the program.

●       Evaluate

Evaluation is the last step in virtual event planning that involves organizing every process in a structured manner and checking the fluency of the program in a test run online. Key areas are checked again and improvements are worked upon to generate the final content.

●       Marketing

Organizing a virtual event requires a lot of advertisements to map their audience. To efficiently get engagement companies usually market their events via mail, etc. to let the general public know about their planned events in advance. The process begins with marketing and ends with it. To do so, here are the steps that are followed.

1.     Event website

The event website is the most important aspect of it. It serves the purpose of a key promotional tool to engage potential attendees and entice them to register for the event. The event website however should communicate the value of your virtual event, include an event schedule, showcase speakers, including FAQs, and direct potential attendees to register.

2.     Registration

Registration is the first data collection tool and is critical in determining the success rate of that event. Registration tools allow attendees to register for virtual events, submit preferences and personal information, and provide payment if needed. A robust online registration tool makes it easy for attendees to register and gives planners and marketers the data they need to plan a great event and prove the event a success.

3.     By email

Email marketing can increase event demand and registrations, inform attendees before the event and use it to engage attendees before your virtual event and ultimately through feedback surveys. Email is the best way to communicate with participants at all stages of the event. The use of an email marketing tool helps to deliver branded, personalized emails, automate when and to whom emails are sent based on participant data, and provide open rates and click-through metrics.

Conclusion

The process to organize a virtual event online via an online conference platform, like Mixhubb, has been widely accepted by the public due to its accessibility. Also, companies tapped into a more efficient manner of marketing, that is different from the traditional way of organizing an event and has proven to be more economical. Companies can easily find engagement as the online platform is not restricted to a geographical area which has also aided their transition to this medium and helped them with their outreach.