With so many events moving to a digital format, we thought we’d begin exploring what makes for an enjoyable, engaging, and worthwhile virtual event.

First, we’d like to offer a few of our own tips and tricks for making the most of online events. These tips apply whether you’re hosting a small meeting or a large event, or whether you find yourself in the attendee or presenter seat.

  • When you’re dealing with a new online meeting technology, run a test meeting before the real meeting to make sure that everything is working satisfactorily.
  • Be aware of what’s being shown in your background.
  • Open the meeting with “housekeeping” items to keep the meeting organized and to explain to attendees how to participate constructively.
  • Become familiar with the mute button; be aware that all background noise will come through your microphone to the group.
  • Use the “polling” feature to engage the crowd.
  • Dress for success!
  • Come prepared to participate rather than just be present.
  • Make good use of your company’s promotional material. Create a company background or place your company coffee mug front and center! 
  • If you have access to two monitors:
  • When building your slides leave a “docking area” for your participants to put their chat and participant windows.
  • On your own screen use the presenter display so you can see the presentation and notes, and to dock images of attendees.  

Second, we’d like to share advice we’ve seen from others. “Attending a Virtual Conference for the First Time? 5 Experts Share Their Tips” offers insights into which conference tools work best for different types of presentations and activities, as well as excellent advice for winning at being an attendee and a host. We especially like this gem from one of the experts featured in the article on perhaps the biggest benefit of going virtual—good data—which asset management types can always appreciate:

From an organizer standpoint, data! You’re delivered a wealth of behavioral data that can inform what topics are most popular, where to double down on in the future and where to skip re: your content marketing strategy, what speakers were hot or not, what content types resonated the most, what partners to invite back, and you can ask all the polls or surveys for anything you want.

What do you think makes for a great virtual event? What lessons have you learned? Join the conversation at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stratumcp