Tips to Engage Your Virtual Event Attendees COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown to overcome has changed our perspective towards everything in life. Face-to-face meetings are not possible due to which a lot of event planning companies are turning towards virtual events. Webinars, online seminars, and exert talks are a big part of virtual events; however, it can be a bit challenging to keep the audience engaged remotely. People have a habit of multitasking while attending webinars, it’s unintentional, but they start checking their social media, and emails. Many times they face issues while signing up, logging in or internet connection, etc. There are numerous reasons why your audience might stray away from your event, and all the event organizers need to make sure that they keep all these things while planning their event. To help the event planners our there, we have accumulated a list of tips and tricks to maintain audience engagement throughout your event organizer app. Virtual audiences are captivated by three things : Content- helps them get relevant information Engagement- helps them feel like a part of the event Entertainment- helps to keep their attention Event planners need to keep these top of the mind things to ensure that their audience stays engaged. Let’s dig a bit deeper about the five key points that can help you enhance attendee engagement during virtual events. Human connection Human connection is the core of face-to-face and even virtual. During Live events, face to face interactions are there, but also at that time, the event organizers struggle with this concept of engagement. In virtual events or settings, it is even harder to achieve a human connection. For a successful interaction and engagement, every communication tool should be used continuously for conversation between users, sponsors, and planners. Users should have the option to voice their questions and participate in any conversation they want. The delivery mechanism and the type of event can help decide the tool for communication. E.g., social media channels or in-app chat support in event app. A team member should be delegated to ask questions or gather them before the speaker starts his session. Directly responding to the queries is also an option, but it will be a bit time-consuming. You can have a Q&A session, or live chat on social media handles with experts and speakers before the event goes live to create a buzz. Educating the team to maintain eye contact with the camera during virtual conversation is essential. Know Your Target Audience Event planners need to keep this in mind in mind at all times,” the reason why people are attending the event.” The type of event doesn’t matter; people participate in virtual and in-person events to gain knowledge or increase their network. Knowing the demographics of your target audience will help interact comfortably with them. It will also help you shortlist the tools and techniques that your audience is comfortable in using. These tools are important as they will be used to interact with audiences, speakers, and your team/management. Grupio is the best event application to help you master this; you can have an in-app chat feature where one to one or group conversations can be done. It will help your audience to engage before the event and make them feel comfortable with like-minded people. Design Thoughtfully Things can become a bit boring virtually, so developing a fast-paced program with updated content is necessary. Dynamic speakers during your virtual events are a good option as people might get bored listening to just one person for a long time. Your attendees are attending the event actively because they are interested, so you need to plan your agenda accordingly. During virtual events, every minute counts, and even a minute of dead air will be noticeable. Virtual events are not just about content; it is about representation and execution of that content. You need to make sure that your audience is involved throughout the event. You can opt for creative and interactive activities like Q&A segments, short quizzes or gamification, polls, chats, contests, etc. This will help people communicate and participate in real-time with the best event organizer app. Design Content That’s Compelling and Consumable In-person events are more of an entire-day or multi-day deal, but that is not the case with virtual events. Chances of your virtual audience getting distracted by their surroundings are very high. You need to make sure that you do not waste your attendees’, sponsors’, and the team’s time. They might have some other commitments. You should have a white space or break of 15-20 minutes between sessions with dedicated content so that your audience can take a break. You can have in-app popups in your event planning app for that. The overall length of your sessions should be less than or equal to 60 minutes. Keep a buffer time so that your audience can have a Q&A session with your presenters. Before you take a break, tell them about the next meeting with a compelling introduction so that they have a reason to return. Support Team and Sessions Attendees need to feel comfortable during a virtual event. Not all of your attendees will be comfortable with the environment. If you have a mobile conference app or other platform in mind, make sure that you share a user manual or technical logistics information beforehand. It will help users to navigate comfortably. You should have a support team ready to answer and assist at all times. Many users drop out of events if they face login or buffer issues. Users also expect 24×7 support from event planners, be it on social media or in-app. Make sure you have a dedicated team to keep all these things on track. Before starting your virtual event, you can have a presenter or facilitator cover issues related to events app, engaging with customers, in-app navigation, etc. Keep reminding your audience that you are there if they need any help or assistance. Summary : Virtual events are not that different from in-person events; you need to make sure that you keep your audience engaged with whatever tools you can. Technology has helped us bring the world on our fingertips; it’s up to you how you spin it.