Hosting a live event is an amazing chance for organizations to engage with their clients, business partners, and build strong relationships. If the purpose of the event is to promote knowledge, the speakers will get a chance to promote their work and engage with other professionals.
Overcoming current challenges in hosting events will be a great opportunity for you and your team to test your strengths and behavior during stressful times.
How to overcome challenges in hosting events?
Audience and objectives
Whether you plan on hosting live or virtual events, both the audience and the objectives are essential for your event’s success.
If the audience is not right for your objectives, the entire event will fail. Define the right profile of attendees that will understand your objectives and be susceptible to your goals.
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The objectives represent a set of goals you wish to achieve with this event. You need to sit down with your team and define the purpose of this event and the expected results.
Once you define your audience, establish the objectives, you have a great starting point for the rest of the event planning process.
The format defines the experience
Once you define your ideal audience and the objectives, the next step is picking the right format.
There are many formats to choose from like hosting a seminar, conference, workshop, tradeshow, pannel session, etc. The main thing you must prioritize is this one question.
How can you provide your attendees with a unique event experience? If you have to look into your competition, do it just to see how they’re doing. Use such info to inspire your own unique experience.
Get to know your audience and learn what format they would like to explore and take part in.
Pre and Post event communication
Communication is crucial at any moment of event planning. If you want to achieve your event goals, you have to give the same attention to communication.
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Both pre- and post-event communication flows are important. Before the event, communicate the date and time to your audience across all channels. Pre-event communication is especially important if you’re keeping the date and time but moving from an in-person event to a virtual one.
Remind your attendees to confirm their participation. Also, advertise across social media channels if the event is not intended for a limited audience.
Post-event communication is of value if you want to receive feedback. Feedback helps to analyze the event and obtain the right insight.
Use a brief survey that covers all the key points you intended to make with this event. If there are any shareable materials, share them with the audience and encourage further participation.
Explore the potential of technology
If you truly want to have a professional and polished event, the expert event management team will take the stress out of planning and ensure your event is a success.
They will know how to handle the current situation and advise you on how to switch from a live event to a safer option. Switching from a live event to a virtual event is not something you should do overnight.
Explore the potential of technology and find a way to host your event in a different format instead of canceling.
The type of content
You need to give your attendees the right value for their time and interest. Otherwise, they won’t spend an hour of their time listening to something that doesn’t interest them or is too mundane.
Be reactive with your content and rely on the pre-recorded content of keynote speakers. Advise your speakers to keep it within the agreed timeframe, and not a minute short or long.
In between speakers, you can a host answering questions and engaging with attendees over a Livestream option. This person can present the speakers to the audience before the their presentation is due to take place.
This will give the in-person element to something that happens online and engages remote attendees.
Engage your audience
We’ve already said that a host can engage the audience to ask questions and respond to them. This person asks for feedback, and stimulates further discussion among attendees over a live chat or other communication channels.
Also, you can directly engage with your audience before the event and include them in planning process. They can answer polls, post questions, or suggest topics they’d like to hear more of during the event.
During the event, the host can further ask for questions your audience can ask the speaker if their presentation is live-streamed. Give some control to your audience, but also respond to difficult questions in a timely manner.
Q&A’s are also a great way to engage your audience in real-time. You should also explore this option at some point during this event.
Run several tests before the main event
To ensure that everything runs smoothly, you need to practice a few times before the main act. They say that the practice makes perfect and you should due your due diligence before the event.
Communicate the length of each presentation before your speakers submit their test-presentations. Ask them to pre-record their speech at their home. Once they submit their video, you can make a mock event outline.
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This will help to fit the speakers according to the topics of their presentations. This will also ensure that your speakers practice in advance without you telling them.
They will arrive prepared for your studio to record in a professional setting. You’ll have enough time to suggest some changes before the main act.
This will also ensure that everything goes trouble-free or with a minimum of issues.
Find a suitable venue
Even if you decide to switch from an in-person to a virtual event, you need to find the right venue. This doesn’t have to be something spacious, but it has to be right.
First, the venue has to have the right amount of light. Second, it must be soundproof so that you can record quality content.
Check this: Why Choosing a Venue is Important to Make your Event Successful?
Lastly, it has to have the right backdrop has to be beautiful and clutter-free.
You can use your office to set up the recording equipment, find the right backdrops online, and have your hosts come in and record their presence in the professional environment.
You can also set this recording environment at a beautiful venue. Ultimately, you can go to a studio that has all the necessary prompts, equipment and professional crew.
Advise your speakers to come prepared so that you won’t waste valuable time on setting things up with each speaker.
virtual events
But, you can also adapt and consider the benefits of virtual events. Either way, find a way to unpack the potential of events, whether in person or in the digital format to stay in step with the competition.
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