How to Host an Interactive Virtual Conference: Best tips and practices

How to Host a Virtual Conference?

Identify the Goals of your Event

Identifying the goals of your conference will help you identify the right target audience and cater to their needs and requirements. Therefore, the first step to planning a virtual conference should be identifying the goals of the event. Once you have identified the purpose of hosting the virtual conference, you can identify your target audience and devise your marketing strategy accordingly. Moreover, it will help you make the event interactive and help you address the attendee’s problems.

Set the Agenda of Your Conference

After identifying the target audience, the next step should be to set the agenda for your conference. This will help you get some clarity about the activities and sessions that will take place at the conference. Moreover, this will also help attract people to attend the event as they will be able to know about the benefits of the conference. You can display your conference agenda on your event landing page or send it to the potential attendees via email. 

Select a 3D Virtual Conference Platform

While conducting a virtual conference, your primary goal should be to create an interactive environment for the attendees. Therefore, you must select a virtual conference provider that has a 3D dynamic environment and allows 360-degree views. This will help create an interactive environment for the conference and help create an immersive and realistic event experience. Make sure you match your needs and requirements with the platform features before selecting the virtual conference platform. In addition to that, you must also ensure that the platform you select provides advanced features for engagement like gamification, live polls, Q&A sessions, etc. 

Set a Budget and Timeline

Once you have identified the goals of your event and selected the best virtual conference platform, the next step is to set a budget and timeline. It will help you and your staff to stay on track and complete all the tasks within the stipulated time. Set a separate timeline for completing each task and set a budget. Make sure the budget is realistic and the timeline is achievable. This will also help you arrange funds for the conference in advance. 

Integrate Social Media

To make your virtual conference more interactive, you can also integrate social media. You can integrate a social wall into your virtual conference, where you can display the posts related to the event. All the social media posts being made using event-specific hashtags are displayed on the social wall in real-time. Social media integration will help add an interactive element to the event. 

Promote your Conference

Promoting your virtual conference is the most important practice for the success of your event. Social media is the most powerful tool to promote the event. You can post event-related content on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Furthermore, you can also create event pages on these platforms and promote your conference through those pages. You can also ask your guest speakers to promote the conference on their social media platforms and conduct live sessions to interact with the potential attendees. This will help attract more people to attend the event. Although it might seem outdated, email marketing is still the most powerful promotion tool. You can use email marketing to inform the attendees about the agenda of the event and make them register for the conference. Make sure you include the event registration link in the email.

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Get a Celebrity Speaker Onboard

Onboarding a celebrity guest speaker is a great way to attract people to attend the event. You can also build suspense around the name of the speaker by keeping it a secret till the end. This will help increase the excitement levels of the attendees. Make sure you select the guest speaker depending on his/her popularity among your target audience. You can also ask the guest speakers to promote the conference on their social media.

Include Engagement Activities

To make your virtual conference interactive, include a lot of engagement activities in the event. Select a virtual conference platform that provides advanced engagement features. Here are some features you should include in your virtual conference –

• Live Polls

You can include live polls within your conference. They are a great way to check the alertness levels of the attendees and keep them engaged. The live polls could include questions related to the conference. To add a little extra fun, you can also keep small rewards for people who show a high level of participation.

• Q&A Sessions

Q&A sessions are a great way to make your conference interactive. Moreover, these sessions provide the attendees with an opportunity to ask their doubts and interact with the host. 

• Gamification

You should include online games in your event. This will help keep the engagement levels high. Moreover, it will allow the attendees to interact with each other. You must look for a virtual conference platform that allows you to embed your games. 

• Leaderboard

Leaderboard helps save the host from the pressure of counting the number of attendees throughout the event while also keeping the attendees engaged. 

Choose a Platform that Provides 24×7 Support

Look for a virtual event platform that provides 24×7 support. This will help ensure that the conference runs smoothly. 

Data Analytics

Make use of the advanced data analytics features of the online event platform you choose. This will help you track the attendee metrics like views, likes, shares, and most and least liked sessions. Moreover, you can also make improvements in your future conferences.

Pre-event Survey

A pre-event survey can help you identify the problems of your target audience. This will further help you find the right solutions and cater to their needs and requirements. 

Final Words

After reading this article, you must have understood the steps that you must follow to host an interactive virtual conference. Furthermore, if you follow the above steps and select the right online event platform, you can host a successful virtual conference.