{"id":3023,"date":"2023-11-27T14:15:24","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T14:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/project.co\/?p=3023"},"modified":"2024-06-12T10:25:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T10:25:56","slug":"host-virtual-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/project.co\/host-virtual-event\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Host a Successful Virtual Event [with FREE TEMPLATE]"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last updated 27th November 2023<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the year 2020 taught us anything, it\u2019s that – at the risk of stating the obvious – pandemics are terrible!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one of the best things about humans is our ability to adapt to change. A lot of industries had to innovate and change (evolve or die, as the saying goes<\/em>) as a result of the pandemic, including the events industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, the number of organisations planning virtual events doubled<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And those virtual events were a success! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

84% of companies who ran a virtual event reported that they spent less money than they would have on in-person events<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And swapping in-person events for virtual events has been great for the environment, too. According to Eventcellany 2020<\/a>, streaming experiences can reduce total climate pollution from events by 60-98%<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there are silver linings to be found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, these promising statistics don\u2019t make planning a virtual event any less daunting! So we thought we\u2019d help you out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we\u2019re going to walk you through how to plan a successful virtual event in 5 easy steps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Decide what success looks like<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before you embark on your virtual event planning, you need to ask yourself what you\u2019re trying to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you want a certain number of attendees?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A certain number of sign ups after the event?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe an increase in sales?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s important to select a primary goal that is quantifiable and can be used as an indicator of success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve done this, you can start planning your virtual event with your goal in mind – ensuring everything you do gets you a little bit closer to achieving that goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an email promoting an event by A Kids Book About<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is a free event, so they\u2019re not trying to increase revenue. At first glance it seems as though the goal of this event is to attract a certain number of attendees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at the bottom of the email we can see the light grey text \u201cmust create a free account<\/em>\u201d, meaning their event goal was probably to increase sign ups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever your goal is, you need to create all of your marketing materials with a view to achieve that goal – but more on marketing later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Plan out all of the practical elements<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When planning a virtual event, you probably think there\u2019s a lot less for you to do than if you were planning an in-person one. You don\u2019t need to worry about hiring a venue, transportation, security, and so on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are still several practical elements to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll still need to allocate a budget and decide how much you\u2019re willing to spend on things like promotion, and guest speakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll need to decide on the best date and time, and perhaps start shopping for a good camera, a microphone, maybe even some fancy lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you\u2019ll also need to decide what video conferencing tool you\u2019re going to use. The main tools dominating the market at the minute are Google Meet, Zoom and Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When planning all of the practical elements of your event, keeping everything in one place can make it a lot easier to stay on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Project.co we have <\/strong>a free event planning template<\/strong><\/a> that can help you do just that. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our template comes with ready-made, customisable tasks. Here, you can add all of your \u2018To-do<\/em>\u2019s for the event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can add a new task in a couple of clicks, assigning it to a date and team member:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And you can view your tasks visually with our calendar view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scheduler view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Or kanban: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Create your event itinerary <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve established your goals and decided on the practicalities of your virtual event, it\u2019s time to consider what is going to happen on the actual day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning out your itinerary, from start to finish, will help you to ensure that everything stays on track and you don\u2019t miss anything. This will also help you to achieve the goal you created at the start. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a mock up of a simple itinerary for a virtual event:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Itinerary<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Your event itinerary doesn\u2019t have to match this exactly, but hopefully this will give you an idea of how to split up the day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll notice that we\u2019ve included small instances of \u201cbuffer time<\/a>\u201d throughout the day. This allows for any technical difficulties or breaks you might want to factor into your virtual event, and helps to ensure you don\u2019t run over schedule if certain sessions last longer than intended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s best to think of your itinerary as fluid right up until the event. This way, you can swap out guests who cancel with new speakers, and move things around if you need to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can share documents like your itinerary via the files tab on your project: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So all of your team members can access the document and give their feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you prefer real-time collaboration, our embeds feature allows you to embed live documents and share feedback with your team in real-time, without ever leaving the platform:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Partner with people<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though your event won\u2019t be in-person, inviting guests can still be a great way to improve attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a study by Wild Apricot<\/a>, 70% of organisations had much more attendance at their virtual event when at least one guest speaker was featured.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But reaching out to different people and trying to keep track of all your communications can be messy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our kanban feature can help things run a lot smoother. You can customise each column of the kanban chart to fit your specific needs. When it comes to booking guest speakers, the columns could be as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And with our simple drag-and-drop format, you can move people through the flow with ease – based on where they are in your  booking process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Market your event<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only one way to get people to your event\u2026you need to tell them about it!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to promoting your event and creating hype, you should use as many marketing channels as you have at your disposal to find attendees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Markletic<\/a>, here is how businesses currently market their virtual events:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Virtual<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As you can see, the three best-performing methods are social media, email, and directly through websites. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social media is a great way to promote your virtual event because it allows you to market to a huge audience of people that could be interested. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example from NORD<\/a> (The National Organisation for Rare Disorders):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New #webinar<\/a>: "The Rare Sibling Experience\u201d on March 25 at 2:00pm ET. Join #NORD<\/a> for a discussion of commonly observed barriers and best practices for fostering healthy sibling relationships. #raredisease<\/a> #raresibling<\/a> Register: https:\/\/t.co\/nt9oSyS4vs<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/0Qicwjzl4e<\/a><\/p>— NORD (@RareDiseases) March 4, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>