Top five tips to ensure your online event is successful

Over nine weeks ago, when the world changed, organisations rushed to move their events online - and did a great job to do this.

However in the scramble to adjust, many simple considerations have been overlooked.

Now is the time to stop, take stock and review how you are managing your online events. 

​Now is the time to closely look at your events, your format and any tweaks you can make to continue to strengthen your engagement with your attendees.

Each online session should be a chance to improve, review what you have done and see what tweaks you can make for next time.
 
If you have been running online events, or are considering it, start with these five top tips to successfully engage with your audience:

1. Tell your attendees about the format of the online session
   
   If you were sending out communication regarding your in person event, you would include important information including time, location, format to name just a few.
   
   The same should apply for your online event. Be sure to send reminders and let people know:
    - Time & duration of session
    - Format (eg webinar, Q&A, networking)
    - Clarify if they will be on camera or broken off into networking groups etc
   
   The more you can inform your attendees, the better the journey and the stronger the engagement.
   
   You don't want your audience to suddenly join with their camera on and be put in a networking room with no warning and be completely surprised! (as has happened to me.....)
   
   
2. Treat your online event with the same respect you would treat your in person event
   
   Just because you are running the event virtually, it doesn’t mean standards should slip. Apply the same standards and best practice that you do for your in person events.
   
   If you rehearse and conduct a pre event run through for your in person event, also do this for your online event.
   
   You would brief your MC and panel before they go on stage regarding the panel discussion and flow at an in person event, do this for your online event.
   
   You would expect all your panellists to start a Q&A session on stage together for an in person event, do this for your online event.
   
   You would hold an AV Sound Check before your in person event, do this for your online event.
   
   Your speaker would have their presentation locked and loaded for a live event, ensure the same for your virtual event. (Ie Don’t allow your attendees to see (and wait for) speakers to load presentations, skip through slides or play around with settings).
   
   Think about your planning for your in person events and ask yourself if you are doing these for your online events as well.
   
   
3. People engage differently online to in person
   
   Consider this when planning your session.
   
   Research shows that people have a shorter attention span online than in person – consider how you will devise your content accordingly.
   
   Everyone will join with a different device, including ipads and laptops. Therefore if you are using slides in your online session, ensure the slides and content are a size that can easily be read and viewed on any size screen. Avoid small graphs and copy heavy slides – remember you are not broadcasting on a large screen in a conference room.
   
   If people are working from home, they are likely to face more distractions. Consider how you engage to offset this.
   
   When not in an in person setting, there are live cues that people are not able to gauge, therefore think about your presentation skills. Simple things like smiling and smiling as you talk, will create a warm and engaging presence.
   
   Consider how you will engage with people during the session to hold their concentration. Whether it is chat function, poll questions or other engagement touch points, look at what you can do to get them involved early and feel part of it. Shift it from a passive to an active session.
   
   
4. Don’t break engagement
   
   Many virtual events have looked to utilise multiple programs and platforms which means attendees need to use multiple screens.
   
   If you are running your webinar or meeting on Zoom, avoid using another platform such as Slido for questions. Each time your attendees need to switch screens, you are breaking their engagement.
   
   Use the functions you have on the one platform.
   
   The equivalent for a live event would be asking your guests to keep moving rooms if they wanted to ask a question or get involved.
   
   
5. Always look at your participant data
   
   The best insights you will get on how well your online audience were engaged, is through your session data.
   
   Always look at how long people stayed online. This will give you the insights on how engaged people were.
   
   If it was a live event, it would be the equivalent of how long your audience stay engaged and in the room before they start walking out (which of course no event wants).
   
   I have sat in on many sessions as a participant where the audio or visual quality was poor and I watched the number of participants drop by over 200 people within 5 minutes.

 
Each online event provides an opportunity to improve. Take the time to look at what you have already done, or start to think about what you can do in the future. Re-watch your recordings and see what you or your panellists could improve on regarding your presentation delivery (eg looking at the camera lens, talking with a smile).

Online events are here to stay, even when restrictions ease. Make the most of it and take this opportunity to development strong engagement online.
 
If you need help with your online events, contact Fetching Events & Communications. We have an Event Online Training Package to help you with your online engagement through running your own online events.

Author

Georgie Stayches is Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Fetching Events & Communications, a boutique agency specialising in event management, communications and volunteer management.