When In Doubt Host Virtual Meetings & Events

While your in-person meeting or event may be canceled, we’re lucky to live in an age where there are so many different virtual meeting programs like Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, and more to use. However, just because they’re easy programs to use, doesn’t mean there won’t be any distractions. Distractions are just one click away, whether it’s an email, social media post, or a funny image, our attention can be redirected easily.

We have highlighted some ways you can keep your meeting and event attendees engaged and focused, as well as promote your event.

Share Engaging & Compelling Content

We’re sure if you were planning a lavish event at the local convention center, or your next company meeting was highlighting some of the most important team members, you were planning on sharing great content.

Just because your event was canceled or rescheduled, doesn’t mean you still can’t share compelling content with your audience. Find ways to draw in their attention and pique their interests, whether that’s with a live question and answer session, live polling, surveys, or knowledge tests. The goal is to keep your audience engaged.

You could even have your meetings and events incorporate a theme to them. Your attendees can wear a funny hat or a costume; make your event engaging not just on a content level, but also leave your attendees talking.

Promote Your Event Digitally

If you’re hosting an event that is usually better suited for in-person attendance, but you want to give your community something to look forward to, think about hosting it on Zoom. Virtual events are great because it gives everyone something to look forward to during the day.

You might be wondering how you can have a large number of guests attend and interact with your event. Zoom has a variety of packages and options to choose from, you can find out more information on their website.

It’s important to promote your event, just like you would if it was in person still, it’ll be in a different way though. Use social media to promote your event, take advantage of digital advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Host a giveaway before and after your event to make it fun not only for your guests but for yourself.

Virtual Meeting/Event Tips and Tricks

Just because everyone is at home with nothing to do, doesn’t mean your virtual meeting or event should take two hours. Although your in-person meeting or event would be about that long, it doesn’t mean your virtual one should be. Be mindful of your meeting and event length, keep them shorter than you normally would keep attendees engaged and focused on the content you’re sharing.

Have a set agenda for what’s going to happen; no one wants to sit and stare at their screen while they’re waiting for something to happen next. Make sure your agenda flows easily and if there are any hiccups they’re ironed out easily and efficiently.

Test out your equipment and get into the software you’re using before everyone else to make sure that it works okay. Enable the chat feature in your meeting – programs like Zoom and Google Hangouts usually have a chat bar section, where you can ask your attendees to engage with you while someone else is presenting.

We’ll get through this uncertain time together, but while we do that doesn’t mean that we should stop hosting events and meetings. We can still host virtual events and connect with others.