The year 2020 shaped the event landscape like nothing else did before. The coronavirus impacted many businesses but foremost events, trade shows, conferences and pretty much every other gathering including human interaction. Business owner reacted and 2020 so far logged a doubling of virtually held events compared to last year. The new normal for the event is extremely challenging but bears a huge potential as well. As threatening of a situation this might be to the traditional event industry, the bigger the potential for virtual and hybrid events that are more and more becoming a vital part of today’s business world.
Today’s virtual event platforms lower barriers for every individual with an internet connection to participate or lecture in a virtual created space with the only limits of one’s imagination. Virtual event platforms offer far more than a plain webinar and provide users with a variety of branding, engagement and networking tools. Even physical events today rely heavily on digital backup, shaping today’s term of hybrid events.
NBA Restart – A Whole New Game
To protect the athletes and spectators, while providing a maximized experience, the NBA is giving fans the opportunity to watch games while being projected on in-arena video boards for players, coaches, and anyone tuned in around the world to see. This virtual fan experience, created with Microsoft Teams’ Together mode, uses AI segmentation technology to bring people together into a shared background. Furthermore, the concept involves virtual cheer buttons to support your colors, which convert into virtual arena sound effects.
Salesforce World Tour
Just on the brink of the pandemic, Salesforce went virtual and created within only ten days a highly successful virtual environment exceeding 80,000 livestream viewers, and 1.2 million video views across social channels. This success story lead to the decision to make the World Tour virtual-only and reap benefits of virtual business events in the years to come.
Tomorrowland’s Virtual Festival on a Virtual Island
The electronic music festival delivered a massive virtual music festival. The festival featured artists performing on virtual stages in front of thousands of virtual fans on a virtual 3D island. “Our biggest challenge is making sure festival visitors will be able to feel they are being part of something larger than their computer with an internet connection.” – Henry Daubrez, CEO & Creative Director of Dogstudio, that created the virtual environment for Tomorrowland
Why going virtual makes sense:
Virtual events are data mines. Potential leads leave all kind of traces and empower your post-event lead creation and nurturing.
The gathered data enables you to customize event experiences according to preferences and interests of your attendees, creating unique experiences.
Virtual events can save you a lot of money. Reduced labor, venue or cost per lead to just name a few.
Sustainability is demanded by customers and impacts your brand. Virtual events have a massively lower carbon footprint compared to traditional events.
But Challenges Remain
Most published research highlights the engagement of attendees in virtual events as the biggest challenge, followed by a lack of tech knowledge available, sponsorships and attendance rates.
On top of this, virtual events are not as profitable as their traditional counterparts. 70% of event professionals were unable to recoup more than 25% of their annual revenue using virtual events. Yet these numbers are likely to change with scale.
Beyond the current challenges mentioned by adopters of event platforms, cyber security plays an important role for the success of your virtual gathering. Just a fraction of event planners believe cyber security should be on top of the priority list. With virtual events being a goldmine for hackers, cyber security must be given full attention with virtual events as a solid component of tomorrow’s event industry.
Virtual Event Tech Guide – Event MB
Virtual events made simple! SpotMe is a home-grown solution with roots in the event app technology. Event apps help you to support your live event and create a digital meta layer to your attendees. But SpotMe got more to offer – with its straight forward and brandable interface you can create your own digital event, profit from various engagement tools and integrate the platform with your existing software, all under the highest standards of privacy and information security.
In our webinar with SpotMe’s CEO Pierre Metrailler we covered the necessity and the development of virtual event in a post-covid landscape. We looked at some best practice examples, the biggest challenges out there and what makes your virtual event successful now and in the years to come. For more insights, check out our on demand webinar or download our slides for free.
Virtual Events with SpotMe
SpotMe offers you a wide variety of tools and apps to shape your virtual event to your individual needs. Browse the marketplace and enrich your workspace with several clicks. SpotMe is easy to use, letting you set up your event in no time. Besides the event builder tools the solution offers a performance dashboard, giving you an overview of your event and attendees.
Create YOUR Event
Create engaging and fully branded event platforms tailored to your needs. Keep your customers engaged and updated and deliver a lasting experience. Simplify your event creation with templates, page layouts and even content. All without typing one line of code.
Deliver immersive Experiences
Deliver a unique digital experience to your customers and go beyond the usual webinar, with breakout sessions, gamification solutions and live interactions. SpotMe allows your attendants to connect amongst each other and breakout in 1:1 sessions.
Interconnected Platform
SpotMe allows you to interconnect with the tools of your choice and to integrate into your existing tech stack and use the communication tool deployed in your company.
Are you interested in pivoting to virtual or are you currently facing challenges in the process?
iundf Marketing Technology stands by your side as a reliable partner on all facets of marketing technology – from strategy to impact. We’re happy to be hearing from you!
iundf Marketing Technology AG
