Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the virtual events industry has witnessed unprecedented growth. Before 2020, meetings, conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and many more events were always in-person affairs. However, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the global events industry as organisations across the world were forced to cancel their events. The need to replicate all the events amid the lockdown mandates compelled organisations to take the virtual route.
Although considered a temporary solution at first, virtual events have quickly grown in significance. The world is slowly but surely realising the immense benefits of virtual events. Hence, it is no surprise that more and more organisations across the world are including a virtual events strategy in their business plans. As a result, even after live events are given a green light again, it will be advantageous for the event planners and organisers to continue conducting events through the virtual medium.
Check out the top 5 factors that explain why virtual events should not take a backseat even after in-person events make a comeback.
An increasing number of event planners today are preferring virtual environments over real venues to host their events. Although the medium of conducting events has witnessed a change, the objectives and fundamentals are still the same. Generating leads and improving brand awareness are the main goals of any event. And the more scalable an event is, the simpler it is to accomplish these objectives.
Event structure and design, audience capacity, networking rooms, etc are vital components of organising events. With virtual events, scaling all these aspects becomes a lot easier and effortless. It enables organisers to expand their events when required and deliver immersive experiences to a much wider audience. That’s not all, with virtual events, scaling up your events does not even require an increase in expenses.
Expense control and higher ROI are the most important factors when organising an event. Considering and comparing from this perspective, virtual events prove to be much more effective and beneficial for organisers and businesses than in-person events. First and foremost, virtual events reduce costs significantly by eliminating the need to hire numerous personnel for event planning, production, and management.
Live events also involve expenses related to booking venues, travel, roll-up banners, etc. Whereas with remote events, the major cost is that of the virtual events platform. With virtual environments, there’s no need to build a high-end studio to host amazing events. As you can cater to a larger audience with fewer costs, virtual events also ensure a much higher ROI than in-person or live events.
In the case of in-person events, it is very difficult for event managers to gain vital insights into attendee interests and behaviour. However, these concerns are completely eliminated with virtual events. Advancements in technology enable event organisers to track real-time user activity logs, attendee location, number of event app downloads, etc. This information can be quite helpful for you to deliver better experiences at your future events.
With an entirely digital event, there are a lot more attendee touchpoints that event organisers can take advantage of as compared to live events. Data collected through these touchpoints can help you refine and craft more meaningful strategies for your events. Analytics also enables event organisers to carry out data-driven decisions to generate maximum positive outcomes from their events.
Let’s face it – planning and organising an event or conference can be tedious and time-consuming. Choosing the venue for the event, managing the logistics, looking after sound and lights, etc takes up a lot of time. This can also distract organisers from focusing on the main job at hand – offering engaging and meaningful event experiences to attendees.
But when it comes to virtual events, planners need to dedicate extremely little time to organise successful events. This is primarily because virtual environments require minimal setup. As a result, preparations for virtual or remote events don’t take up a lot of your time. All these factors can help you plan and put together an event in a jiffy as compared to in-person events.
With in-person events, the audience reach is generally very limited due to geographical and financial barriers. Travelling long distances to attend events, no matter how important they are, is never feasible as it can cost a lot of time and money. But you can effectively eliminate all these concerns and make your events accessible to a wider audience by choosing to go virtual.
virtual events can significantly boost your audience base as people from all parts of the world are enabled to attend your event. Consequently, businesses can witness an increase in sales as well as enjoy improved brand presence. virtual events can also be useful in providing great value to your audience as they get to network and interact with a number of global expert professionals. Many organisations will thus prefer to continue with virtual events even after live events return.
The shift to virtual or online events is certainly something that’s been forced upon us by the Covid-19 pandemic. But with this shift, the world has woken up to the substantial benefits of virtual events. virtual events today are creating new possibilities for businesses and revolutionising the global events industry at a breakneck pace. With lower expenses, higher ROI, wider audience reach, zero travel time, maximum convenience and better scalability on offer, it goes without doubt that virtual events will be relevant even after live events make a comeback.
