If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that “virtual technology is a superpower”. It has proven to be true, especially in the event-hosting landscape. Not to mention that the virtual event industry is growing at a rapid pace, and such events are commonplace now.
The lockdowns may have receded but virtual events are still going strong. In a recent survey conducted by experts at PCMA, it was found that 79% of event planners are choosing the virtual route.
A virtual event not only has the same appeal as an in-person event, but it also allows organizers to reach a larger audience. No longer do the event attendees need to worry about travel costs and other constraints to join an event. Even people from the most remote parts of the world have the freedom to join, as long as they have the basic facilities available.
As an organizer or a creator of a virtual event, you get so many many financial and promotional advantages., When you go virtual, you can reduce your operational costs by eliminating the need for a physical location, a large staff, and other in-person expenses. Therefore, with lower overhead costs you can instead put the effort into creating a flawless event.
Moreover, It becomes so simple to figure out stats about your audience when it’s all online. You can figure out the largest demographic and age group among the attendees all in real-time. You can then use this data to find the right collaborators and sponsors for your events easily.
With well-thought ideas, strategies and trends to follow, you too can host successful virtual events.
Here’s a comprehensive list of some unique ideas to join the trending markets, and host or organize exceptional virtual events in 2023.
9 Unique Virtual Event Ideas
1. Educational Workshop
Workshops and seminars have always been great ideas for events. It’s quite certain that they’re not going to lose steam anytime soon. With new technology and evolving culture, there’s much demand for training in today’s new generation skills. The opportunity to learn while attending your event might be provided by virtual educational workshops and seminars.
You can instruct and direct your guests on challenges and trends that are crucial in your domain. If you’re planning a corporate event, think about offering a leadership course or a virtual guided meditation session. Additionally, you can augment your training programs by adding certifications and small rewards rather than just sessions. Because offering credit for attending a virtual conference can bring a sense of trustworthiness to your virtual event.
2. Q&A with an Industry Influencer
With the rise of the attention economy, you’ll need something to catch pique the curiosity of your potential attendees. Seek influencers and micro-celebrities who have an impact on social media. Invite them to have a back-and-forth conversation or a Q&A. People will easily recognize them and would be keen to join your event.
It is the reason why podcasts are so popular today. Remember, this is not just to bring in the crowd for your event but to provide them with something valuable from a genuine personality in that particular field.
3. Launch your New Product
If an unpredictable situation arises for an in-person event, you can always do your new product launch in an engaging virtual event. On top of that, you can provide your audience with a discount coupon or online gift cards. Announce a giveaway and share it on social media and ask for reshares using your unique hashtag. You might even have a more successful product launch virtually than an in-person event.
4.Charity Awareness Webinar
If you run a non-profit organization or simply want to promote one, you can do so in a webinar. Talk about your cause. Let your audience know about your initiative, and how they can assist you financially or by volunteering. Furthermore, You can include a post-event request for donations to your cause.
5. Health and Well-being Classes
Health and fitness were perhaps the hardest hit by COVID -19. However, virtual technology once again came to the rescue. Virtual personal training and home workout classes became pretty popular. Numerous yoga studios, fitness trainers, and other experts in the health and wellness industry have established their virtual classes and training successfully. It’s one of the best event ideas if you’re a health and body improvement enthusiast.
6. Virtual Conference
You should take your future conferences online if you’re looking for virtual event inspiration for businesses. It will result in lower overhead costs for your organisation. Most importantly you can broaden your reach by tapping a worldwide audience pool through the power of virtual technology.
7. Virtual Comedy Night
Assemble an exclusive lineup of comedians to a large audience by hosting an online open mic or comedy night. Hosting on a streaming platform like Twitch, YouTube or Discord with a live chat and comments feature would be more engaging, as it enables the audience to express their enjoyment or admiration.
8. Digital Tour
Give a virtual tour of historical places, museums, or other renowned sights. You can do it in multiple ways, whichever you find suitable for yourself. You can curate a well-organised and informative slideshow which you can present to your audience.
You can just live-stream the whole thing on any of the popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook or YouTube live or simply make a tour video that can be recorded in advance (maybe in the form of a vlog). Additionally, you can ask the viewers to tip the virtual tour guide or make a small donation to your cause.
9. Virtual Concert
On TikTok, The Weeknd performed a live, interactive virtual concert that attracted over 2 million spectators from all over the world. At its height, the event had 275,000 concurrent watchers, breaking the previous TikTok record. Then there’s the ongoing trend of in-game concerts like Fornite and Minecraft. Therefore, the Virtual Event industry is only going to get bigger with the whole metaverse and augmented reality buzz around.
Music concerts are bound to bring people in huge numbers. Suffice it to say that some recent virtual concerts got even more attendees than live ones. A good piece of advice to create a genuinely unique experience is to incorporate VIP or behind-the-scenes choices in your virtual concert.
Some Key Virtual Event Best Practices
Whether you’re organizing a corporate or an informal event, the following right practices will always work in your favour:
1. Price it Right
You ought to price your events based on the value you provide to the attendees. Find out how much other people and potential competitors charge for their events. Offer early bird- incentives and other such schemes to encourage more people to attend. You can also provide sliding-scale or donation-based pricing.
2. Promote your Virtual Event
The meetings and events industry has been transformed unequivocally by virtual technology. Consequently, virtual event ideas demand new types of event marketing and promotion techniques. You must utilize social media to promote your event. Ask your followers and friends to reshare your post. You can otherwise organise an online giveaway where customers may participate to win an item.
3. Feedback from Attendees
Conduct a survey soon after your event concludes to take advantage of the new perspectives provided by your guests. Your following virtual events will therefore be better aligned with the attendees’ expectations.
4. Use only genuine Software/Platform
Always host your events on authentic platforms. Some of the best Virtual Event software include names like vFairs, SpotMe, ON24, Webex, etc. Not only do these platforms ensure a seamless experience for your virtual event but they are more trustworthy as well. With a flood of cheap third-party event-hosting applications out there, you must strive to choose the best among them.
Conclusion
Going virtual is not only trendy but a necessity as well, in today’s tech-driven ecosystem. Event hosting is being redefined with modern techniques and ideas of virtual events. To be relevant and consistent, you must surf the new virtual wave. Research the ideas thoroughly. Use only trusted virtual event software, seek more innovative ideas to implement them and follow along with the above-mentioned ideas and practices to ace the game of event hosting indomitably.