- Have any questions?
- 02 9247 6000
- media@commsroom.co
- Have any questions?
- 02 9247 6000
- media@commsroom.co
Menu
Spare a thought for event marketers and planners as we move into a modern event landscape.
In the past few years, they have had to switch from an almost exclusive focus on in-person events to virtual events. This has caused serious pain points for some marketers, including finding the best events software and technology, creating the right online branding, connecting remote attendees, and dealing with multiple time zones.
There is no turning back, though. Soaring costs for venue hire, food and beverages and attendee travel have hurt the viability of some in-person events, prompting many marketers to embrace a combination of in-person, virtual and hybrid events.
A study Zoom conducted with Morning Consult reveals that 91 per cent of event marketers believe hybrid events will play an important role in future event planning. The research suggests that hybrid events can increase networking opportunities, with event professionals who are directly involved with planning and organising events stating that hybrid events are ideal for facilitating interaction between virtual and in-person attendees.
The focus now must be on ensuring that such online events help organisers build relationships with potential customers, grow sales leads, and achieve a higher return on investment.
Modern virtual event platforms are filling a former market void, letting marketers do more with less. They can deliver engaging experiences to audiences of any size, from anywhere, and hand more control to marketers and planners.
For example, the latest comprehensive event management tools with advanced engagement functionalities now allow users to create immersive experiences for even just a single session, making it easy to create new landing pages, layouts and virtual backgrounds to showcase a look and feel that their audiences will remember.
Event and session branding can also be enhanced through virtual and hybrid events, which can limit the need to hire expensive audiovisual consultants.
For people grappling with different time zones, advanced tools let them pre-record webinar content that can be scheduled as an automated play, making it seem as though the event is live for the audience.
One of the major challenges in the past for salespeople and marketers has been measuring the success of an event.
Now, organisers can quickly generate marketing insights after a session ends. Easy-to-use dashboards enable hosts to generate comprehensive reports and download valuable metrics. This means they no longer have to guess ROI outcomes and attendee engagement because transparent analytics tools do the hard work, which empowers planners to make evidence-based decisions.
The capability to have in event engagements like polls, Q&A, 1-on-1 catch-ups, and networking sessions enhance the engagement of attendees and provide a much richer experience. Plus virtual events can be recorded and used as content in future campaigns, which further helps increase their ROI.
While the success of an event still depends on planning and really understanding your audience, backed by content that is engaging, running an interactive and engaging hybrid event is the holy grail of event organisers, which makes choosing the best hybrid event platform to delight your audience and increase their engagement vital
However, with the right technology platform, the power is in your hands as you navigate this exciting new world of event planning.
