Embracing Virtual Events
According to the 2021 Community Industry Leaders Report half of community professionals think virtual events have positively impacted their communities and 51% will still offer virtual events when in-person resumes safely. In addition, 80% of community professionals say virtual events are more critical to their strategy.
As a community professional, I am a firm believer that virtual events are a great way to engage a larger community and recruit and retain a much larger membership base than when the focus was on in-person events. In-person events require time and money to attend. Both of those resources are hard to come by for students and young professionals that have student loans and families. Engaging with your community through virtual events allows networking opportunities across the globe for members who would not be able to participate if they had to buy a plane ticket and book a hotel room. As associations move forward, we need to focus on inclusivity, virtual meetings are essential as part of that package. But what are some of the keys to embracing virtual events?
Utilize the technology at your fingertips
You don’t need to pay for a fancy platform or tech support to pull off a meaningful, virtual event. I’ve seen organizations pay for tech support or consultants to watch technical difficulties still happen. Sometimes internet connections, bandwidth, bugs, you name it happen. There’s nothing a consultant can do to fix it. If Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google, (you name the big tech company) has an issue, you will have an issue. Put your best foot forward and be flexible if things go wrong. Paying thousands of dollars to someone who doesn’t work for the big streaming service you're using won’t prevent any issues – all they can do is put in a support ticket and wait.
There are so many community thought leaders that have put together events using free/opensource technology. You don’t have to pull out the checkbook to engage people. You just need to be thoughtful of the experience and what tools are at your disposal. There are so many virtual events available these days. People are less likely to pay for events and certainly not the kind of money that would give you an ROI that would justify investing in expensive solutions for virtual meetings. I encourage you to think long and hard about ROI before investing in expensive solutions. Use what you have. If all you have is your free Zoom account – use it! No one wants to be on a call longer than 30 minutes anyway.
Crowdsource content and contributors
Putting together virtual events doesn’t have to consume all of your time. Trust your community, empower your members. I can’t stress this enough! Community is not community without empowering the community. You don’t need to have all the answers and create the content. Read threads, look at search analytics, brainstorm with members. I guarantee you their ideas are more relevant to the community than yours. Finding speakers and presenters doesn’t have to be a chore either. Look at who has participated in community discussions on the topics you want to feature. We have a mentoring program where people opt into topics. I utilize this early and often when looking for experts. As a community professional, you have so many resources at your fingertips! Use them! Side note, it also expands the community network by tapping into your members networks. And they're more likely to engage in the future when you ask them to participate. We hosted a weekly roundtable (now monthly) during the pandemic with 3 to 4 guests. We purposely did not invite someone twice. Being a speaker is the highest level of adoption/engagement/leadership opportunity. We wanted to make it available to as many members as possible.
The importance of chat
As someone that has moderated 30 plus calls and participated in many virtual events, chat is SOOO important. Engage the members or nonmembers in your chat. Share resources and be mindful of the questions and who is participating. Be a good host. The chat allows you to know who is in the room. Take advantage of this important tool.
Make it engaging!
Zoom fatigue is real! Your event must be engaging. Please, please, please let the term webinar die! No one wants to be on another webinar. PowerPoints kill engagement. Get ride of them! We need to create better places for connection and traditional means do not work. Think outside the box.
In closing
Virtual events are here to stay and they have the potential to transform your membership. Embrace it! Please feel free to contact me directly through LinkedIn or the comments. We’re living in a whole new world, make the best of it!