Posted on February 17, 2021
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Evenland’s launch featured industry leaders and provided valuable learnings as well as great entertainment. If you missed the event, you can still watch it on-demand here.
In that light, we have outlined the key takeaways from Eventland´s launch.
Eventland´s first session delved into how to mitigate, prepare and react when faced with event-day problems. As Zackes Brustik – the event´s moderator – said, virtual events are unique in the sense that elements are scattered around the world, so it is difficult to achieve full control.
Kathryn Frankson, Director of Event Marketing at Informa, talked about having a robust communication plan. She recommended having specific comms channels by the nature of the problem that arises.
And, she underlined the need to define clear team roles and responsibilities, so that someone is accountable for every single tech issue.
Alongside that, she noted the importance of a defined external communication strategy if and when technical issues come up. For instance, there needs to be comms drawn up beforehand in case there is a server outage.
For his part, Stuart Mitchell, Managing Director at Catch the MICE, discussed implementing an event feedback loop, whereby event professionals learn from failures and rectify for future events.
Also, Mitchell turned the spotlight on what he called the “random event monster”. If some issue arises that you have not planned for, you should have a clear mindset and think on your feet.
Audience feedback is a key success metric
When discussing key event success metrics, Eventland speakers highlighted attendees´ feedback as crucial.
Alla Skvortsova, a renowned virtual events consultant, advocated using the Net Promoter Score (NPS) as a benchmark. She recommended setting a target NPS before the event and evaluating success with a post-event survey.
Added to that, Skvortsova suggested closely monitoring the event´s live chat and considering how much buzz has been created.
Finally, she mentioned countless LinkedIn connections with positive messages as a clear indicator of an event´s success.
Set up fast-paced events
Bill Dolan, President and Creative Director of Spirit Media, emphasized the need to set up fast-paced events. Indeed, contrasting with in-person events, at virtual events attendees can just press a button to leave with no social cost attached.
Similarly, Dolan turned the spotlight on the concept of episodic engagement. After 7 minutes, if you aren´t engaging your audience, attendees are gone.
Keeping that in mind, he stressed the importance of creating an experience that is memorable, actionable, and engaging. It is not only about providing useful information but about touching the audience’s hearts and emotions.
Build a loyal community
Eventland speakers also discussed the value of a loyal community. By having a devoted community, you can depart from the rationale of having to convince people of your value all the time.
The community trusts that you are going to deliver, and come back to you time and time again. That can be incredibly powerful, as it can act as an army of ambassadors or even as a marketing arm.
In building that community, Naomi Hoad, Event Manager at FIX Trading Community, highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion. Indeed, everybody should have a platform to contribute to a community, and event professionals need to proactively engage with that commitment.
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