Happy mid-week all! Let's kickstart with our next edition of the Tip of the Week discussion!
While virtual conferences offer planners and marketers a way to connect with a broader audience, often leading to higher registration numbers than in-person events as travel and cost are no longer burdens attendees must bear.
A successful virtual conference takes cross-functional teams that include planning, marketing, IT, and digital, as well as reimagining content that engages attendees from home.
Just because you're not sitting across the table from an attendee or speaking to them at a physical booth doesn't mean you can't leverage your virtual event to make that connection. When planning networking for your virtual conference, there are three different types of connections to consider when building a community experience.
- Sales networking with attendees - You've been conducting virtual one-on-one meetings for years, certainly for the past few months as onsite visits aren't practical. Apply those same principles to your virtual event. With appointment scheduling tools, sales can set up meetings with attendees before the event, taking a valuable spot on their agenda early.
- Attendees networking with attendees - Your mobile event app will be critical for these connections. Using messaging tools and the event feed, attendees can connect with other attendees. You further encourage networking by scheduling happy hours, breakouts, and one-on-ones.
- Sponsors or exhibitors networking with attendees - Exhibitors, other attendees, and even your sales teams can review the registration list for the virtual event and make appointments the old-fashioned way, by sending an email with a Zoom link. You'll likely get more and better engagement if you make it easy and seamless to schedule an appointment from within the virtual experience itself.
Question for you:
- Which method do you use to network with the attendees at a virtual conference?
As always, feel free to drop in your suggestions in the comment section below! #CventTip
#Flex-Creating/ManagingEvents#ManagingVirtualEvents------------------------------
Megha Jetley
Assistant Manager
Cvent Marketing Department
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