A blog post

How Do You Engage Attendees During Your Virtual Event?

Posted on the 25 June, 2009 at 9:28 am Written by in Virtual Event Tips

I was just reading a post by Heather Morford who recently attended a virtual event. While she loved the convenience of plugging into the event from the comforts of her office, she was disappointed that most of the sessions were practically sales pitches and were extremely boring.

She challenges companies who want to participate in virtual shows to step it up. In particular, Heather writes:

“It takes greater effort for someone to get up and walk out during a presentation in person, but online within 2 seconds you can be clicked out and onto a new site, never to return again. Companies who are considering exhibiting or presenting at online events need to take their presentations to the next level. What is really going to engage the audience and keep them from closing the window and are their speakers really prepared to be engaging through video or even just audio.”

Throughout her blog post, she used the word engage. This is truly a nebulous word and while Heather didn’t define what engagement meant, I want to know from those of you who host or attend virtual events how you define engagement.

I recently gave some suggestions on how to encourage audience interaction during your virtual event, but I’m looking for your suggestions. How can companies and speakers engage audiences during their virtual sessions? Leave your comment below.

  • http://www.vconferenceonline.com Katherine Elliott

    Some additional ways to engage attendees:
    1. Never forget that Content is King! The materials need to be relevant, interesting and be either educational or entertaining. As in an in-person event, the presenter must be energetic and (here’s that word again) engaging. And, encourage or expect the presenters to be active in the live chat during their pre-recorded presentation.
    2. Offer contests with giveaways in “must be present to win” mode. Run a ticker in the event to make announcements or interject a live announcement.
    3. In the exhibitor hall, encourage vendors to film walk-ons to greet attendees. Make the live chat lively.
    4. Make sure the conference is easily navigated. I’ve been in events where you physically have to move your mouse to “walk into” the place you want to go. We’re all happier with a quick click and you’re in.
    5. Remove fluff. While some may like the 3-D look of a conference, all I want to do when I join is get in and watch the sessions or visit the vendors. Clean lines, simple graphics. Definitely personalize your event.

  • http://www.heathermorford.com Heather

    As the original author of the blog post mentioned above I’ll add my two cents for my description of “engage” with the audience. I believe to “engage” with an audience is make them wonder and anticipate what’s coming next. Keep them either asking questions or thinking about what you’ve said. The worse response you could have is no response. Whether it’s video or a recorded audio session, keep the listeners on the edge of their seats. Use language and voice tones to create a dynamic presentation and most importantly, throughout the presentation, never forget that there are real people at the other end and that you genuinely have to earn their attention.

    I agree with the above comments, but even though content is king it’s a double edged sword. You can have the most fascinating content in the world and if you can’t present it in a way that grabs attention then it’s useless.

    My advice to companies doing virtual events. If you don’t have a superstar presenter, someone who really knocks the socks off your audiences then hire someone. Don’t let the head of Product Development do the session because they are the most experienced. Experience does not translate into engaging and just like with a website, in a virtual conference you only have seconds to create a good impression once the session starts. I’ve jumped off sessions in less than 5 minutes because I could tell the speaker was going to be horrible.

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