Amid the COVID-19 times, digital events have picked up in a big way. They can be conducted anywhere across the world. Virtual event saves your money, increases engagement with your audience and prospects, generates potential leads, and helps build your brand.

Here’s a quick roundup of the powerful tips that your event management company can employ to pull off a successful online event.

Forge a game plan

Every event, be it small or large, offline or online, needs a robust strategy to pull through. Start with the main goal and its outline, then take it ahead from there. The quicker you get into the planning mode, the better it is.

Picking the right time

Irrespective of the scale of your event, it’s crucial to choose the right date and time. Ensure no competitive activities, holiday or festivals are going to coincide with your plans or interfere with participation.

Power of promotion

Jot down the USP of your event in terms of what exactly it is offering to its participants: it could be a popular speaker, sharing expertise, networking opportunities and more.

Whatever you pick, make sure the content proposition is clear in your marketing campaigns. You must engage all the major social media platforms to ensure that the word is spread all across.

Propagate Engagement

It’s simple: If you generate audience engagement possibilities, your participants will be more involved.

Nearly every online platform has certain features that are inherently interactive. Ask the audience to take part in polling or quizzes. Encourage live tweets. Take requests and recommendations. Lastly, ask for feedback at the end of every session.

Picking the hosting platform

Hosting an event is fundamentally more than simply sharing a URL link to a webinar or a virtual meeting. A virtual event hosting platform should be the one that addresses all of your requirements for digital event management, such as handling audience registrations, transactions and live streaming— all at one location.

Tricks for conducting a successful virtual event

Here are a few tricks that may come handy for conducting profitable virtual events.

Courses and workshops

Webinars, workshops, and specialized courses might be a better fit to attract a niche audience. Such formats can offer profound jumps into specific topics, skill sets, and tools, offering the content of immense value to the interested participant.

Interview or Q&A sessions by industry experts/leaders

Conduct a live Q-and-A session to tap in the speciality of your in-house experts. You may even plan to host a relaxed and casual ‘Ask Me Anything’ live session on your social media handles.

Artist performances

You can invite a few renowned artists or speakers during a live event to give scintillating performances, do a pep talk, or pull off a stand-up act.

Webinar

Usually, a webinar is a live online presentation. But it can also be shared and viewed later-on. Most of the time, when narrating, a speaker will display their screen to go through presentation slides or démos. If the interface and host permits, the attendees can even ask questions via audio or a chat box.

Hosting conferences and summits via virtual platforms

There are several renowned platforms like HeySummit, VFairs and more that offer a series of tools that include live streaming, chatrooms, and more for conducting virtual meetings, conventions, workshops, and summits. Incorporate these in your Virtual events to gain more traction.

And with so many free online event management resources available at your disposal, it is no wonder that more and more event industry professionals are keen on exploiting their hidden potential by using these software’s.

We’ve put together a list of event industry’s top-ranking digital tools based on customer reviews, their comparative scores, and standout characteristics that we know all event organizers will absolutely adore.

Monday.com

Lately, you might have witnessed the magic of their joyful and imaginative advertising on YouTube— this team and its project management program has now become a standard in the event toolkits of several organizers.

The power of Monday.com lies in its highly visual monitoring program and streamlined status updates.

Eventzilla

In the words of its creators, Eventzilla is an all-in-one registration platform for In-person and Virtual events. The best part about this digital tool is that it bills you only if you are charging your attendants to register. Available in basic and pro plans, it imposes a fee of $1.25 flat per sold ticket/registration.

Explara

Explara is an India based online event ticketing enterprise that covers the metropolitan cities including Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai, and Delhi. Their services are also available globally catering UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Philippines markets.

The venture is also an enabler in crowdfunding and community building exercises.

Splash

Launched in the year 2012 and driven by One Clipboard, Splash is another renowned and trusted online tool for event management. The software helps users to schedule, advertise, execute and evaluate their event success— with an emphasis on standardizing the implementation of event marketing.

They have sold tickets worth $70M till date.

Social Tables

Social Tables propagates innovation by helping you out with the venue finding, event flowcharting, guest attendance and management, and check-ins. This free event management tool enables you to generate scale diagrams within moments. Even the tiniest bit of information can be worked out and shared with sites, consumers, and associates in real-time.

Bizzabo

Bizzabo is an all-in-one event software for event organizer which allows to build websites, sell tickets, have an event community and offer attendees an application. The key features of Bizzabo are ticketing and registration, event website builder, event app, contacts management, networking tools, polls and surveys, and reports and dashboards to measure success.

Boomset

With this event management tool, you can efficiently handle on-site check-ins, print emblems, reclaim coupons and do a whole lot of other interesting stuff. It can also help you gather data about the event and advertise it. In short, Boomset is a superb addition to every other event management tech suite.

Socio

Socio makes it easy and affordable to create a fully customizable event application for conferences, trade shows and other events and easy for attendees to use. It’s a one-stop shop to help attendees to get the most out of the event. Socio delivers an unprecedented event experience to the attendees.

Event Farm

Event Farm is an event & experiential marketing platform that breeds innovation. From creating bespoke invites to managing guest attendance and check-ins, this amazing platform covers it all.

Bold Marketing plans to use many of these tools to offer an enriching experience to their clients.

Sometimes new possibilities come in the garb of adverse situations. The world order is about to change entirely. The lockdown has given ample time to the event industry professionals to prepare, lay a strong foundation, and return future-ready! Here are a few things that you can invest yourself in to brace the approaching times and get into the attacking mode as soon as the market reopens.

Follow the trends to stay up-to-date.

With technology acting as the sole support system of the event industry during the outbreak, it is likely to remain a firm backbone in the post-pandemic event management paradigm too.

Over a span of two months or so, many conventions have undergone a virtual makeover, while the majority of the players in the event industry are constantly fixated on innovating their services. Keeping yourself updated with the cloud-hosted live streaming and telecasting solutions and their associated platforms will make the full-fledged transition smooth and swift as the world order returns.

You may enroll into online courses teaching about live-streaming platforms to hone your skills and strengthen the base.

Fire Safety lessons

Elementary Fire Safety training programs are devised to provide you with all the necessary skills and information prerequisite to deal with a fire-related emergency, such as how to respond on discovering fire, locating the source, using extinguishers, finding escape routes, besides the appropriate means to deal with vulnerable groups, such as geriatrics and impaired people.

The program will give you not only an added edge but also the newfound confidence to deal with adverse situations that may unfold anywhere, anytime.

Waste management

Cultural events and business conventions can be significant economic drivers for venue and food catering service providers— but they also come loaded with specific challenges when it comes to waste management. The goal for any large-scale event is to minimize waste production and effectively manage what is already generated. To do so, industry professionals need to know about green techniques and cost-effective multi-stream waste management systems that ensure safe disposal with no or minimal damage to the environment.

Enroll into online courses to consolidate your knowledge about waste management.

Disaster Management

Be it a mild case of food poisoning, domestic conflict, fire outbreak, or a ghastly terror act, an array of unexpected events may ruin even the best-laid plans. Preparing for the worst is never fun, but it can surely make a world of difference when tragedy strikes at your end. You can use this lockdown time to hone your Disaster Management skills that can come handy as and when the adversity arises.

Attend webinars

Ensure to be part of the webinars and virtual conferencing sessions being conducted by the event industry experts from time to time. These concourses will help you immensely in broadening your outlook and strategies in your operations post lockdown era. Exclusive tips and techniques shared during the webinars are going to come handy to pull off a successful event, creating an enchanting and memorable experience for your clients.

Learn Design Basics

It is also of paramount importance for people in the event industry to know the basics of design software’s such as Photoshop, Illustrator and CorelDraw. Watching some tutorials on YouTube or doing a basic course that covers the basics of the software will help you be prepared with an additional skill in the future. This new skill will help you stand out of the crowd, increasing of your chance being selected to be a part of more projects.

We are all well aware that like any other sector, the event industry is also sailing through troubled waters. Everybody in the division has just one question encircling their minds— with brand spending on event marketing on standby, how soon will the operation resume to normal? Would we be able to go back to the world of pre-COVID times? With the world’s leading corporations heading towards the full-fledged implementation of social distancing protocols and zero-touch policy, would they be any longer interested in allocating a share of their budgets on event marketing?

The present time can be seen as challenging for the event industry; however, the decisive and right use of technology and digital Monetization techniques with a solid strategy can prove to be a game-changer. The close association between the event professionals and the sponsors is going to be a cornerstone where both are going to support each other and play a definitive role in pushing the numbers. Here’s are a few major growth escalators that are going to drive the experiential marketing sector in the year 2021.

Social Media Promotion

Although there are archaic ways to advertise events, social media has proved itself time and again to be an increasingly effective and far-reaching tool for boosting event attendance.

The findings are extremely impressive in view of the fact that most social media promotions cost either nothing or comparatively little, particularly in comparison to more traditional methods of marketing.

From Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest to Twitter, Snapchat and even LinkedIn, you can use these highly influential social media platforms to run your paid promotions and target the niche audience to boost response rates and registrations.

Professionals from Bold Marketing opine that be it hybrid or purely virtual events; both are going to benefit immensely from the set-up.

E-mail marketing to target old clients

No matter how far we have come in terms of technological developments and digital revolution; yet, good old E-mail marketing still continues to hold its ground pretty strong.

In the coming times, event professionals can make use of the potent power of e-mail marketing to target participants who attended their engagements earlier. This will not only boost their PR but would also help escalate the rate of attendance manifold. Collective database of sponsors and event industry marketers can be used to double the impact.

Choosing the right platform for monetization

There are plenty of things to remember when evaluating and selecting the right virtual events platform for monetization.

Apart from considering commission overheads, you might want to have a look if the platform provides the following features before you take the plunge.

• Branded event website/applications
• Bespoke registration capabilities
• Customizable e-mail templates

Creating an enriching experience

Last but not least is the experience and ambience you are going to create for the attendees. Implementing all of the above is going to be of little use if your hybrid or virtual event is not engaging enough. Like everywhere else, the quality of content is paramount to leverage event industry growth too.

Shifting to the current scenario, the novel coronavirus aka COVID 19 has afflicted more than 200 nations across the globe, leaving the world crippled with continuous deaths and excessively rapid spread. The Outcome? In addition to mass casualties, the pandemic has brought the business around the world to a complete halt – and, the event management sector is also heavily affected with this development.

True to the adage “adversity is the mother of creation” the world order has risen to respond to the unprecedented situation by taking the support of technology for addressing two significant hurdles. The first is alleviating the damages caused by the outbreak and, second, matching stakeholders’ event management demands while respecting social distancing rules.

Here are a few decisive means through which the industry is gearing up to tackle the challenges and be future-ready.

Going Virtual

Over the span of the past few weeks or so, many conventions and business meetings have undergone a virtual facelift. At the same time, a leading event management company such as Bold Marketing is focused on improvising their services and going virtual. The conventional set-up of physical events is slowly making a shift towards a virtual venue by making use of cloud-hosted live streaming and webinar solutions— each tailored to suit specific event requirements. The virtual broadcast mechanism has arisen as an efficient alternative in the present world order for event-planners as well as the participants who intend to be the part of the engagement, but wouldn’t dare to compromise the safety of their neighbours or their own.

The online environment removes territorial barriers for consumers, such as people can communicate in real-time with each other from any part of the world; they also get to take teaching lessons while sitting in any part of the globe. Organizers may then use the right mix of technologies to pull-off virtual activities while at the same time reaching out to a more extensive audience base than they would ever have in a conventional physical environment. In addition, conventions and webinars are going the live streaming way, the costs associated with regular events such as the renting of premises, workforce and catering services, etc. are also omitted in one go. Therefore the model of the virtual meetings is quite cost-effective too.

Exploring Hybrid possibilities

At some point of time in the near future and with the arrival of necessary medication, we hope to conquer the virus. With this thought in mind, organizers are also actively exploring the idea of going hybrid by blending physical and virtual elements for event execution. This model makes it possible for a significant number of non-local participants to engage remotely in the event that might be taking place at a far off physical venue.

Apart from relying on solely virtual meeting options, this creative and balanced approach can provide additional benefits for event organizers in the form of increased revenues and employment sustenance.

Never before, at least in our lives, had we seen a disease spreading concurrently and on a global scale, carrying a devastating blend of economic meltdown and humanitarian crisis.

By prudently examining how the consumer is reacting to the situation, several industries tried to take stock of the situation. Soon it became amply clear that this crisis was quite dissimilar to the ones we have faced till date. While some sectors such as tourism and hospitality were hit particularly hard, for many other enterprises, there seemed to be an immense need and incentive in scaling up their marketing game by involving Digital Advertising.

However, the archaic marketing strategies would need a facelift to fit in the new scheme of things and exploit the hidden potential of the market. Here are a few considerations that marketers may examine while planning for the post COVID-19 era.

Cost-effective creative/Content production

Most companies still fall back on outdated content and creative production prototypes developed for television and print advertisements, in which each work has to be manually generated, edited, circulated, and compensated for. As marketing platforms continue to expand and brands look to deliver value through customized experiences and innovation, the production costs have gone through the roof.

Owing to the imminent funding cuts for marketing, this is one field that is perfect for using technology to save millions of dollars in production. Innovative Marketing Strategies, including the latest trends such as dynamic creative technology, enables the automated versioning of creative content in several languages, packaging design, etc. without having to manually design and pay for each work separately. You can also easily adjust exclusive deals and prices without having to spend lakhs on development costs.

Digital Model for Consumer Marketing

COVID-19 has almost shut down the store sales during shelter-in-place period, but brands with e-commerce backing and having direct-to-consumer marketing models have been able to step up their number game— even during crisis times. FMCG and CPG firms that rely heavily on Television, Out-of-Home and print advertisements are now redirecting their marketing investments to Digital advertising as a new means of compelling consumers to buy through their websites and apps. The latest trend shift in marketing strategy is their response to the continued plummeting of retail sales that are not likely to recover anytime soon because of social distancing protocols— whether motivated by customer fear or government-enforced.

No wonder, digital advertising is going to be the cornerstone of marketing operations both during and post-COVID times.

From event apps and webinar platforms to technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Facial Recognition, and Virtual Reality, here are the Top Event Trends of 2020 that are sure to change the face of the industry.

Interactivity through Chatbots

How often do we turn to Siri and Alexa for assistance or suggestion? Quite frequently, right? Working on the same lines, we should soon be seeing digital guides and chatbots powered by AI popping up in the event apps and resolving our queries too. Automating CS will lead to faster user response while the organizers can continue to focus on their core areas, i.e planning and event management.

Online check-ins

Event check-in is an important and fundamental part of every engagement. Going digital has its own benefits— check-ins are fast and safe, and they are already changing the way entries are granted into several corporate events nowadays.

Geofencing

Several event apps are making use of this powerful location detection functionality called Geofencing through native Android and iOS devices to empower location-based interactions and engagements.

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition technology is commonly used in airports and other such similar locations where a huge count of people need to be recognized in a non-intrusive manner from an established database.

While still used only sporadically at conventions and online congregations, the face recognition program has similar potential benefits for the event organizer in the upcoming times.

RFID Bands

RFID wristband is amongst the hottest new things in the event management circles— It stands for radio frequency identification. These special bands have an electronic chip embedded inside that helps to track your geo-positioning using radio waves. In short, this technology overrides the need for physical contact to make registration of an event entrant.

Live Streaming

The live streaming feature is already being using liberally to conduct real-time conventions and online sessions using Facebook, YouTube, Zoom, Instagram, and such similar platforms. Companies like Bold Marketing are already into this in a big way, catering to a variety of clientele with perfect finesse.

Gamification

Event gamification uses conventional game mechanics to involve the participants and achieve event objectives. The technology employs age-old fundamentals of gaming tactically to promote competition, push intended behaviour patterns, and engage attendees in tackling real-world issues.

Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality integrates digital data, imagery, and visuals in real-time to the actual-world environment, usually through a smartphone, tablet, or headset. From trade shows, conventions, to education and entertainment— all can benefit from it.

Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is by and far, the most coveted digital technologies of existing times. It takes over the senses of the guests and offers unprecedented participation and focus compared to a regular video or a chat session. Bold Marketing is already making profuse use it through the event management and engagement services that they offer.

Cyber Security

As the event industry goes online, cybersecurity becomes important too. The event industry has already taken note of the requirement and has put several checks in place to make their system robust and maintain the data security of the participants.

So what is the way forward? Here are a few Employee Engagement and event management practices that are being experimented with and are soon going to be the key to business success.

Virtual Events:

We already see it all over. The way our country heads are interacting and holding conferences, i.e., through the digital medium, it is a clear cut pointer in the same direction. In fact, a considerable number of meetings and conventions outside the government circles have also been revamped into virtual gatherings in the last few weeks gone by— In these extremely challenging times, it is potentially the best choice if tractable.

Digital events, by their very nature, require attendance regardless of travel constraints and promote the distribution of information through leaders. Moreover, this model is entirely consistent with the techniques of event marketing and sponsorship, helping the planners to be ready for what’s coming. And by making the right use of Virtual Reality and Live streaming applications, these digital events can be carried out in a way that their outreach may surpass the conventional gatherings by substantial numbers, reaching a broad range of audiences breaching the physical boundaries.

Going Hi-Tech:

Extraordinary circumstances call for exceptional handling measures. There are several ways to conduct successful events even in these challenging times— and the liberal use of technology can make things even more exciting and easier to implement.

It’s time to invest in Event Apps, 360-degree photo experiences, Virtual reality gear, Projection-Mapping as well as motion gesture recognition games to stay ahead of your competitors and be future-ready. Post COVID-19 world is going to be different than how we know it now.

The working style would require a complete shift from the way it used to be. The focus will be on live streaming, which will include the liberal use of popular social networking platforms such as Facebook, IG, YouTube to perform for the audiences online. Applications like Zoom meetings, WebX are going to lead the way in conducting employee engagement sessions and business meetings. Even when the assemblages, conferences, and events are going virtual, yet, their social dimension cannot be overlooked; hence, the presentations, ice breakers, and virtual watercooler or coffee break sessions are still going to be needed even in an online concourse. So, the focus lies on creating a perfect balance and then maintaining it too.

And why just the meetings, event management companies like Bold Marketing carrying a vast experience in conducting virtual sessions are going to play a much broader role in streamlining Personality Development workshop, Emotional Intelligence webinars, Smart Investment / Financial Planning workshops and a series of other Employee Engagement activities, especially with everything going online in an unprecedented manner. We know there are ample challenges, but then there are some remarkable opportunities too. Only those businesses will survive that will innovate and improvise according to the fast-changing times.

]]> https://boldmarketing.in/events-will-always-take-place-events-in-the-current-scenario/feed/ 0 https://boldmarketing.in/impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-different-segments-of-the-event-industry/ https://boldmarketing.in/impact-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-on-different-segments-of-the-event-industry/#respond Thu, 23 Apr 2020 06:48:10 +0000 http://boldmarketing.in/?p=6284 From a few relatively harmless news reports to rising global mayhem, Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has seized the world’s attention in a way similar to its contemporaries Ebola, Bird Flu, and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) have already done in the past. The only thing is that the concern is much more widespread this time—threatening to push the global economies into chaos, with event planning and management industry among the worst hit.

COVID-19 is following the path trodden by previous viral outbreaks; however, the only difference is that it is much more brutal and quickly evolving and spreading at an unprecedented pace. As on date, more than 2 million people have got infected, resulting in 100,000 deaths across 211 nations worldwide.

Looking at the gravity of the situation, the response to this outbreak has been dramatic – governments across the world have put their respective countries under strict lockdown. The transport industry is shut; flights have been grounded; holiday-makers are held where they are, locked up in cruise ships, event venues, and resorts— All this and more in an unprecedented effort to stop the spread and flatten the curve.

Implications for the Event Industry

One industry that stands to endure significant losses, (in fact, it already has) is event planning and management. The risk of a contagious disease like COVID-19 circulating quickly amongst guests as they travel from one region to another is an alarming one, especially for an industry that feeds on strengthening and celebrating networking by bringing people together from across the globe.

Several event segments of the business are bound to take the hardest blow because of the sudden change of the circumstances and a grim and uncertain future looking into everyone’s face. Here are a few implications that we see coming and would require elaborate preparation to counter.

Event Cancellations:

With the infections and death tally rising at a phenomenal pace, the hospitality industry has gone into the shutdown mode. In short, the venues, hotels, any accommodation required to organize and conduct an event is not available until the spread of the virus is contained.

Clearly, no-one can predict a timeline here. Consequently, the event management industry is left with no choice but the cancel all events on their watch and raise refunds.

Event Postponement:

A few of the clients have taken cognizance of the situation, and instead of cancellation, they have decided to postpone their engagements by selecting new dates, 3 – 6 months in future. It’s a dim ray of hope for vendors, employees, and business partners associated with different segments of the event industry, but still a very challenging task on the plate because of the uncertainty involved.

Relocation:

Some of the engagements that cannot wait long are being relocated too. Changing the environment could be helpful in some cases. However, with the majority of travel arrangement services also under the shutdown mode, it is going to be highly challenging to make things work with the available apparatus.

The need of the hour is to do some brainstorming and come up with innovative solutions such as live digital streaming, VR, event apps to counter these extraordinary times with extraordinary measures and keep the event industry afloat.

With complete lockdown ongoing in several countries, the economy has already suffered a massive blow. These are unprecedented times in which every industry is suffering and uncertain; event management is no exception. The times have certainly hit the Event industry hard, but there are a few robust remedial measures through which it is challenging and overcoming them fiercely. Let us have a look at the few.

Online Events:

Since the deadly COVID-19 spreads from person to person, the entire nation has been put under the lockdown mode to contain the spread and flatten the curve. The move has automatically put a curb on the range of corporate events and social gatherings too.

The most effective way to counter this situation is to go digital. Already several reputable event management companies are conducting online events such as webinars, video conferencing, and live engagements using platforms and technologies such as Zoom meetings, WebX, 360-degree photo experiences, Projection-Mapping and much more to keep the ball rolling for their clients.

Digital Activities:

Employee engagement programs and social events do not have to suffer the onslaught of physical distancing when the event management industry has already equipped itself to keep the workforce and clients involved even during the lockdown, albeit virtually.

From conducting Emotional Intelligence, Smart Investment / Financial Planning workshops to Personality Development, dance sessions, and Stress Management sessions, now everything is feasible at a mere click of a button. No wonder, digital activities are picking up in a big way during the lockdown, coming out as the most powerful means in the present times to keep your employees, as well as clients, engaged right inside the security of their homes.

Social Media Platform Support:

By making use of a potent and impressive live streaming feature of Facebook, YouTube, and IG, one can easily do away with the need for a venue and still pull off an engaging event to remember. The event industry has already made substantial inroads here, and many companies are already making progressive use of these compelling and engaging social networking platforms, leading to an unprecedented rise in the count of virtual activities being conducted across the globe.

The arrangement is conducive from the client perspective too— live performance or class via a social media platform doesn’t put a cap on the number of participants, and is pretty affordable also.

The Way Forward

With transportation, hospitality, and catering industries being totally shut, too many challenges have been thrown in all of a sudden, where the event management industry needs to reinvent itself and restructure its services in-tune with the approaching times.

Companies like Bold Marketing are already leading the way managing Virtual Events and Employee Engagement programs while making liberal use of virtual engagement technology and online platforms like Facebook, IG, YouTube, etc. to conduct live sessions and webinars. In the current times, these happen to be the best means to revolutionize the way proceedings are managed, without endangering lives and keeping the businesses afloat too – until, of course, we can go back to the ‘normal’ times.

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