that produced poor‐quality video or choppy, broken audio. Webcasting technology that unites high‐quality, crystal‐clear audio and video, PowerPoint, live chat, and Q&A into a single streamlined interface has removed technological barriers for large and small businesses. Now all you need is a strong internet connection and you can deliver a TV‐style broadcast right from your home.
And with all these advancements, there is still a lot of resistance and uneasiness because of the misconceptions around virtual events.
Before we go any further in the book, I want to take you through all the myths you're going to hear and tell you exactly why they are not based in fact.
Myth #1: My virtual event or hybrid event will cannibalize my physical event attendance
Reality: I talked about this in earlier examples, but I'd like to give you another. A good friend of mine puts it like this: every year there are only about 70,000 total tickets to the Super Bowl. If I don't get a ticket, does that mean I'm not going to watch? Of course not; I'll watch but it will just be a different experience, and usually a cheaper one.
The reality doesn't support the cannibalization myth, but instead it shows how you should be thinking about the bigger picture. If you only offer an option to attend a physical event, you're leaving out a large segment of your prospect universe that won't get to see any of that content or engage with any of those attendees. You're missing an opportunity to extend your reach to a global audience that you were never in front of before.
For those determined to attend the physical event, your repeat customers, they fight each year for the travel and budget approval to see customers and partners face to face, and they're not going to give that up.
Myth #2: It can't be monetized, and I'll lose my sponsor and attendee revenue streams
Reality: Any good virtual event platform will have the option for you to collect attendee registration fees. Plus there are a number of customizable elements that can be monetized for exhibitors and sponsors to provide visibility, thought leadership opportunities, and custom messaging throughout the event experience. If it's customizable, it's monetizable.
Myth #3: It's not interactive; people will just be watching presentations
Reality: This couldn't be further from the truth. A virtual environment offers participants the option to participate in live polls during a session. Based on those poll results the speaker can pivot within the presentation to put more emphasis on areas of the topic attendees said they want to hear about.
Attendees can also take advantage of live chat, video chats, and Q&A. I've seen chat threads get really lively with people making connections, answering questions for one another, and offering their expertise on the topic. And lastly, you're able to pose questions directly to the speaker and get those answered in real time.
Myth #4: People won't stay as long for a virtual session as they would for an in‐person session
Reality: It's just as easy to walk out of a physical session or not even show up to the meeting as it is to click out of a virtual event. I would argue that there are more distractions at a physical meeting where most are located in cities with great climates and an abundance of leisure activities. When you click out of a virtual event, you're just right back where you started from, at your desk.
Plus, in a virtual environment we can measure how long people stay within a session with more accuracy than a badge swipe so we can confidently tell you which sessions are the most popular.
Myth #5: I'll only get limited reporting
Reality: This one is always a bit of a shock to me because within a virtual environment, like everything we do online, there is always activity data being collected. Any virtual event platform that you choose should be able to provide you with enough data for marketing to develop a lead scoring model, for sponsors to know who visited their booths and what assets were downloaded, and for your executive leadership to be confident that the exact audience they targeted actually attended.
So now that you know what a virtual event is, it's time to introduce you to some of the innovative tools you can use in order to create a compelling virtual event.
CHAPTER 2 Understanding Virtual Communication Tools
So, before we really dive into the playbook, I'll walk you through the difference between webinars, webcasts, streaming, virtual events, and web conferences and the best use cases for each. Each of these options can be part of your virtual event, but in order to have success with each option it needs to resonate with your audience and meet your business objectives.
Think about what you want to achieve with each program and your call to action for the participants desired. Is your goal to have them buy something, learn something, or engage with the program? Keep in mind the viewing habits of your audience: will they be watching from their computers, TVs, tablets, mobile devices, or potentially all of the above?
Also keep in mind you don't have to pick one; I am a big fan of using a blended mix of all the virtual tools at your disposal, because they all bring something unique in the way you get to deliver your message.
WEBINAR
A webinar is traditionally an audio‐over‐slide broadcast that includes Q&A and chat functionality. The presenter is not visible on‐screen and the focus is on the slides using a microphone embedded directly in his or her computer or via a telephone connection. The virtual audience can type in questions and can also engage in open chat with a few viewers. Webinars are most commonly used for product launch or IT presentations where the focus is more on product specs or engineering details. These events are usually smaller in nature and may not always be available for on‐demand. They can also be ideal for presenters who have low internet bandwidth that can't support video or do not want to be on‐camera. Also, traditionally you would think of a webinar more as a seminar tool and one‐way technology and not used for collaboration.
As well, one of the most attractive elements of a webinar is that that the software available to create webinars is fairly easy to use, the software is readily available, and they are a low‐cost way of creating content and delivering it to your targeted audience.
Use Cases
Product Training ‐ you launch a webinar series that will educate your channel partners about the technical details and functionality of a new product. You want to be able to have live Q&A available as well as open chat. You may not want the webinar to be available on‐demand because of confidentiality issues.
Internal Communications ‐ Your company introduces a brand‐new expense tracking software that needs to roll out to regional employees over the course of a few weeks to educate and train as many employees as possible on detailed process flow. You need to focus on slides so employees can see how to go from one step to another. Because this is a training, you want to include audio over slides, Q&A, and a quiz at the end. In this use case it is important to have the program available on‐demand so that your audience can take the learning course whenever they are
