The confluence of information and communication technologies, location and venue systems, and media and event productions can now be viewed as virtual event platforms due to the change of location of events from physical to digital space. However, with the increasing popularity of online and hybrid events, comes the challenge of properly selecting a platform to use so that both the organization and the participants have good experiences.
In this article, we will identify five useful characteristics of a virtual event platform that you should embrace if you wish to grow the stature of your event and your business in the future.
Customizability and Branding Options
Why It’s Important:
Indeed, this is one of the most crucial elements: the platform must fit each event rather than every event being uploaded on a standard platform. The ability to alter the event-hosting perspective helps to increase professionalism in an organization, as it helps to seek the interest of the organization’s targets.
Key Customization Features:
- Dedicated Event Pages: Several platforms have tailor-made event pages where you can present branding materials, brand colors, brand logos, and brand messages. This elevates the level of professionalism of the event and compliments the brand further.
- Online exhibition: For Expos and Trade Fairs, the features to edit the virtual exhibition walls with enshrined logos, products, or services being showcased and with fantasy topic-related items enables the exhibitor to give relevant Information to the participants.
- Event Agendas and Sessions: The use of a smartphone or a computer to enable event coordinators to tailor session agendas and arrangements which include room formats, panel discussions, and on-demand materials among others is commendable and enhances the effectiveness of the event.
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Best Practices:
Select a tool that not only supports visual changes, but also offers control over different aspects like attendee registration forms, notifications, in-event communication features, and much more.
Seamless Integration with Other Tools
Why It’s Important:
The ideal online event platform should be compatible with other tools and applications within your marketing, communication, and data management toolbox. This facilitates ease of data collection, organization, and management in a manner that enhances the overall experience of the participants.
Key Integration Features:
- CRM Integration: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) integration with services such as Salesforce or HubSpot provides an opportunity to collate attendee information and follow up with these targeted individuals or track leads and sales opportunities.
- Email and Marketing Tools: Attending and using a series of email tools such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact facilitates the communication of attendees before and after an event.
- Social Media Integration: This functionality allows companies to promote their events, reach out to participants, and utilize the events and their content through streaming live videos and posting them on social media channels.
- Analytics and Reporting Tools: Using an integration of Google Analytics or any tools for reporting event-specific activities can give important insights into the behavior of the attendees and assist in evaluating the success of your event based on real-time data.
Best Practices:
Make sure your virtual event platform offers plug-and-play integration or API integration that fits within your current technology framework to minimize operational constraints.
Engagement and Networking Features
Why It’s Important:
The success of the virtual events is often dependent on the participation by the attendees and the possibility of meeting other attendees. When in-person mingling is out of the question, the means of fostering interaction with the platform become most important in mimicking the atmosphere of a physical event and capturing the audience’s attention to the subject matter.
Key Engagement Features:
- Interactive Polls and Q&A: They are nervous and need a little encouragement, and someone asking questions helps. During the presentation or the panel, the audience can interface in real-time. Polls and Q and A sessions make it possible for the members to pose questions and apprise the presenters as well as the hosts.
- Networking Breakouts: Some networks provide virtual networking including those with breakout rooms, speed networking, and matching of the attendees based on similar interests using AI.
- Chat Functions: However, hosts, attendees, and exhibitors need to converse and will want a mechanism for this with the presenters and other guests.
- Gamification: Such platforms use game mechanics like attainment of points, ranking, and use of games like scavenger
Best Practices:
Choose the tools that suit the requirements of your particular event. The more engaging the event is, the more satisfied and retained the attendees. In the case of virtual events, the ideal platform should be able to support the current size of the event and its future development, e.g. if you are running a small webinar now, and when it grows to become a worldwide conference how will it operate?
Scalability and Flexibility
Why It’s Important:
Possibility to handle the number of attendees: Ensure that the platform is sufficient for the number of attendees that you expect and that there is an option for upgrading if the number of the audience unexpectedly increases.
Key Scalability Features:
- Hybrid events support: Many platforms are supporting hybrid events i.e. the combining of Virtual and In-person events. This is important owing to the rising trend of hybrid events.
- Multiple Sessions and Tracks: For big events, it is also important to be able to organize the activities into multiple sessions or tracks held at the same time. People should be able to move from one session to the next with ease, as they would do in a face-to-face meeting.
- On-Demand Access: Scalability also provides the possibility of providing certain content on demand for the attendees sometime after the main event. Several platforms give such an option — recording sessions for the future so that participants who were unable to attend certain presentations or would like to review important ideas later on, have them available.
Best Practices:
Select a solution with an appropriate pricing model that charges based on the targeted number of attendees or other desired features, thus ensuring that there is no cost incurred on unutilized space. They are also providing options on how you would want your events in the future as these platforms include hybrid events.
Robust Security and Data Protection
Why It’s Important:
However, with virtual events come privacy and security issues. Information from events which include personal information, payment, and even business intelligence is often very sensitive and private to its attendees. Any virtual event platform should be heavily security-oriented and also adhere to data privacy policies.
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Key Security Features:
- End-to-end Encryption: Confirm the platform has encrypted video streaming and the protections on the attendee’s data are end-to-end encrypted.
- Compliance with GDPR and CCPA: Where your potential audience has attendees from the EU or California, there is the need for compliance of the platform with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
- Secure Registration & Payments: Platforms must make provision for placing safeguards on the registration processes and any type of banking activities whereby a secure payment module has to be put in place.
- Access Controls: Only use platforms with access prohibition features: This enables the organizers of the event to regulate who can see, attend, and record the sessions or all on any one person. This is very crucial for events which have a segment for private deliberations or három
Best Practices:
Make sure that the platform you choose practices data security compliance and informs its users how the data will be used, what measures are put in place to ensure privacy, and so on. You may also want to check such factors as the breach history of the platform as well as reasons for the breaches if there were any to determine how reliable the platform is.
Conclusion
Virtual events have gained momentous ground in most corporations and choosing the right platform is half the success of the event in question. Focus on tailor-making, integration capabilities, engagement tools, scalability, and security features and you will be able to present a seamless and professional environment for your event attendees whilst achieving your event objectives. As more virtual events feel like traditional meetings, the effective user-friendliness and technological upgrades for web-based tools mentioned above will guarantee that you will be successful whether delivering a few participants or hosting a global conference.
Choosing the right platform is not just a question of features; it has to do more with the uniqueness of the individual event. It is better to formulate your objectives, audience, and technical requirements in detail before entering into a contract for a specific platform, and in such a case, it will be possible to execute a successful online event.