We at Impact XM know the power of virtual events, and want to help organizations looking to host their own online events to harness that power and drive success. Virtual events have gained popularity over the past several years, and new technologies and tactics have been developed to help make them even better. For those organizations that may still be new to hosting virtual events, it may seem intimidating to get started. How should you promote your event? What can you do to increase revenue potential? There are so many questions to be answered when you’re starting the planning process.
Today, we’re here to help answer some of your most pressing questions about virtual events. To do so, we’ve compiled a list of the 31 top trends in virtual events that event marketers, organizers, and other professionals should know about. Here’s an overview of the categories of virtual event trends we have to share with you:
- Event Strategy Trends
- Sponsorship & Revenue Trends
- Session & Event Engagement Trends
- Marketing & Event Promotion Trends
- Networking & Collaboration Trends
- Safety & Security Trends
- Technology Adoption Trends
- Other Relevant Virtual Event Trends
- The Future of Virtual Events
To kick things off, let’s take a look at some emerging trends in virtual event strategy.
Event Strategy Trends
These trends all surround virtual event strategy and planning. Check out these trending ways to better appeal to potential attendees, ensure a more enjoyable experience for your audience, and more.
1. Diversity, inclusion, and representation for everyone
Being inclusive of all people has always been important. As our society continues to have a heightened awareness around inclusivity and diversity, it’s critical for organizations to overtly represent those values at the forefront of their events. It’s one thing to claim your organization is inclusive. It’s another for your event to actually fulfill those claims through, for example, inviting speakers from diverse backgrounds and catering to all audiences.
Why it matters:
An organization’s commitment to inclusion is an important factor many consumers consider when deciding whether they wish to support it. Supporting and representing the values that your company holds, and showing that to the attendees at your event, is of utmost importance.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Remain inclusive and accepting of everyone at your event
- Represent diversity by including members of marginalized communities in speaker panels
- Be clear about your organization’s values in all aspects of your virtual event
2. Prioritizing the attendee experience
When planning out your virtual event, it’s imperative that you consider what the experience will be like for your attendees throughout the entire course of the event. This is especially important for virtual events, as your attendees may be more likely to get distracted when tuning in from home. Ensure that your agenda will keep your audience excited about what’s coming next. If you were in an audience member’s seat, would you be enjoying yourself? Would you be engaging with the content being presented? Your answers to these questions should be a resounding yes.
Why it matters:
Ensuring that your attendees have a positive experience should be a top priority for your virtual event. Scheduling engaging content, interactive sessions, and creative visuals are just a few ways you can keep your audience entertained throughout the event.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Consider attendee perspective to be a top priority when planning your event
- Combat “Zoom fatigue” by planning an engaging experience for your audience
- Event planners should mentally put themselves in an audience member’s position
3. Authentic and transparent marketing
Historically, social media and marketing have been full of persuasive but “fake” messaging. These days, people are more interested in seeing genuine, authentic content. Working with influencers to promote your event is a popular tactic, but be sure to allow them to use their own voices to preserve the credibility and trust they have with their audience. This will be much more effective to influence their followers to sign up for your virtual event. Also, ensure that they follow laws and requirements for sponsored content, including proper disclosure.
Why it matters:
These days, your potential audience members (and consumers in general) are more into personal, authentic content than ever. If you work with influencers, allow them the creative freedom to create sponsored content that they believe will resonate best with their audience. In other words, don’t let your team fully script it. If your event marketing comes across as fake or misleading in any way, you could lose potential attendees.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Don’t hesitate to work with influencers, but allow them creative freedom to promote your event how they see fit
- Ensure influencers properly disclose sponsorship
- Remember that authenticity and transparency are both effective and important in promotional content
4. Designing events specifically for virtual platforms
If your organization typically runs events in person, you may be tempted to take plans from in-person events and just apply them to virtual ones. However, you may run into issues because hosting a virtual event has many differences. Designing your event specifically for the online platform you’re using will make for a better experience for everyone involved.
Why it matters:
Many event planners learned the hard way in 2020 that when switching to virtual events out of necessity, sessions that work perfectly face-to-face might not translate the same way online. Be mindful of the drawbacks of virtual events, while also taking advantage of their unique benefits.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Virtual events should not just be repurposed content from in-person events
- Tailor your event specifically for the medium/platform you’re using to host it
- Take full advantage of the benefits of online events (global scale, more speakers, etc.)
Sponsorship & Revenue Trends
Trends that can make you more revenue. Sounds good, right? The following trends revolve around sponsorships, pricing, and revenue.
5. Offer tickets at multiple price points
Many event hosts may choose to have just one rate for tickets at their virtual event. But offering tickets at various price points can help bring in additional revenue from your online event. Offering VIP or exclusive access to additional content can provide extra value to your attendees and give them a reason to pay a little extra for a higher tier ticket. While offering these higher-priced VIP experiences, you can still offer a more affordable admission price for those who cannot or don’t want to pay the higher fee.
Why it matters:
If you don’t provide your attendees with the option to pay a higher price for additional access, experiences, and information, you’ll be limited to only making one set amount of revenue per attendee. Providing the option for higher-priced tickets at various levels and proving the value they offer will entice your attendees to pay a little more for a better experience. This, in turn, provides your organization with an opportunity for more revenue.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Offer tickets with different levels of access to event content at various price points
- Prove the value of the exclusive content that VIPs would get access to
- Still appeal to those who are looking to test out one of your events with an affordable ticket option
6. Event subscription plans for repeat attendees
With virtual events growing in popularity, many organizations that are regularly hosting online events are offering subscriptions. This allows people who want to attend multiple events to have a “pass” of sorts to be able to attend them all. If you’re planning to host an event every month or even multiple times per month, for example, a subscription or event bundle option could be a great model for your organization to adopt.
Why it matters:
A subscription option provides organizations hosting virtual events with recurring revenue, as well as a core community of attendees. Your event subscribers could also be given rewards for signing up, like exclusive access to additional content. These rewards might also entice others to join your subscription program, bringing in more revenue.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Consider offering a subscription program for those who regularly attend your virtual events
- Reward subscribers with exclusive access and extras
- Foster a community of your most supportive and dedicated attendees
7. Tiered sponsorship packages
Sponsors can help provide additional revenue and boost your event’s budget. You can offer different benefits to your sponsors within different packages. Maybe a lower-level sponsor would get a more limited appearance of their branding in front of your audience, while a sponsor that’s providing more value to your event would get a heightened level of awareness and exposure for their marketing materials.
Why it matters:
It’s a good idea to explain clearly to your sponsors what value they’ll get out of sponsoring your virtual event, as well as what each of your sponsorship packages provide (and at what cost). This makes them aware of what options you have to offer. Attracting and securing sponsors for your event is important to support your event to have a high level of return on investment.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Build out sponsorship packages, and decide what benefits you’ll include in each
- Consider how many sponsors at each level you are prepared to accept
- Define the value you’ll provide to sponsors, and find ways to prove that value to attract sponsors to support your virtual event
8. Use popular events to boost sponsorship at your other events
If one of your virtual events has more sponsors interested in supporting it than you have the space for, you may be able to use this to your advantage. For example, you could require that a business sponsor one of your smaller or less popular events as a prerequisite for you providing them the exposure at your more popular event.
Why it matters:
When you have an influx of sponsorship interest, you should take full advantage of the opportunity to gain sponsors for any smaller events your organization is planning to host. Requiring sponsors to support one of your other events before being allowed to advertise at your largest event is an awesome idea. We especially love that this trend helps gain revenue across multiple events.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Utilize interested sponsors to gain sponsorship for your less popular or smaller events
- Require sponsors to support one of your other events before allowing them to support your more popular event
- Boost revenue across all of your events by using the interest sponsors have in a single event
Session & Event Engagement Trends
The following set of trends in virtual events will help you boost engagement and keep your audience interested during your sessions. Following these trends could even help you increase attendee retention and revenue!
9. Audio-only sessions for boosted engagement
Let’s face it: sometimes we just don’t want to have our webcams on or be watching yet another presentation. Clubhouse and many other apps have figured this out and gone audio-only. Now, giving up your audience’s visual attention may seem counterintuitive. But it could help you attract even more attendees, as the convenience of them being able to listen to your event while possibly also doing something else is very appealing. Running an audio-only online event may also cost less to run, as there’s no need for fancy visuals, slide decks, etc.
Why it matters:
It’s important to cater to what your audience wants and likes. While the concept of an audio-only virtual event may be new, it’s a direction many companies are exploring. If you don’t want to completely do away with visuals, consider offering a less expensive audio-only ticket option for those who would prefer to simply listen.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Keep attendees engaged while avoiding “Zoom fatigue” by only requiring them to listen
- Save time and money by not needing to create visuals
- Consider offering an audio-only ticket option if you don’t want to do away with visuals
10. Between-session entertainment for higher engagement
As virtual events gain popularity, your attendees are more likely to be attending other virtual events as well as yours. Your goal should be to make your event stand out from the rest. One way to do this is to focus on keeping your audience entertained. Try incorporating activities, games, or between-session entertainers (like DJs or comedians) into your events. These components will catch the attention of your audience and make your events extraordinary.
Why it matters:
Having interactive and entertaining elements within your virtual events will increase engagement and support attendee satisfaction. Satisfied attendees will be far more likely to become repeat attendees, and retention is a great KPI to aim for success in.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Consider hiring entertainers for between sessions (DJ, comedian, live music, etc.)
- Add interactive elements to your event schedule (activities, games)
- Make keeping your audience entertained a priority, with attendee retention being a key goal
11. Session tracks for different types of attendees
If your event might interest people with different types of roles in your field, consider building “tracks” into your program. In other words, provide attendees with custom agendas to help them figure out which sessions will provide them with the most value, including dedicated sessions tailored to specific needs and interests. This personalizes their experience so they’re never sitting through presentations that are irrelevant to their role(s). These tracks may also have differently priced tickets, depending on whether the sessions offered within each one cost more or less for you to run.
Why it matters:
Help your attendees have a more rewarding experience at your virtual event by personalizing event tracks by role. Your audience will remain more engaged and interested in the content being presented if it’s more relevant to them. This will add to their overall experience and satisfaction.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Define session tracks by role so attendees can get the most value out of your event
- Price tickets for each track based on what those sessions cost to run
- Offer an all-access pass with admission to all sessions for those who want the opportunity to attend any/all presentations that interest them, and make this the highest-priced ticket option
12. Keep the conversation going with live chat
Get the conversation going by providing your audience with live chat and Q&A features. Virtual event audiences love these features, as they allow attendees to interact both with each other and with the speaker(s) presenting at your event. Live chat helps keep an online audience engaged, so make sure the virtual event platform you choose to host on has a chat function.
Why it matters:
People love having the opportunity to ask questions and get answers. Affording them the chance to be recognized by your guest speaker by submitting a question will entice them to participate. Increase audience engagement and satisfaction by offering live chat and Q&A features wherever possible.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Engage your audience with interactive live chat during sessions
- Provide the opportunity for attendees to ask questions to your guest speakers
- Improve engagement metrics while keeping your audience interested in your event content
Marketing & Event Promotion Trends
Promoting your event is a very important part of planning a virtual event, as it will determine how many registrations you’ll have. The better your marketing strategy, the more successful your event will be. These virtual event marketing trends will help your organization advertise your event more effectively.
13. Customized messaging for a personal touch
This one is similar to the session tracks trend. Customizing the messaging that your attendees receive about your event, based on their needs and interests, will better encourage them to open your emails and click through the links within. Even if you decide not to offer curated session tracks at your event, performing a simple survey when people sign up for your email list will allow you to categorize your contact list by interest. With that, you can customize the messaging that each group receives.
Why it matters:
Curated messaging about specific aspects of your event makes your attendees feel like you understand their needs and are catering specifically to what they want to see. Improve email open metrics and click-through rates by personalizing the marketing emails that your organization sends out to attendees.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Categorize your attendees into groups to better target their wants and needs in your messaging
- Curate the marketing emails each group receives based on the aspects of your virtual event that will provide them the most value
- Increase click-through rate and email open rate with customized outreach strategies
14. Promotion over a longer period of time with “drip marketing”
Rather than marketing your event with a hard and fast promotional strategy, play the long game by employing a drip marketing strategy. Drip marketing is a more gradual approach where you market to your target audience over a longer amount of time. The idea is to gradually catch their attention and, in this case, more gently encourage them to register for your event. The goal is to have your event stick in the minds of your potential audience through repeated exposure to your promotional content over a longer period of time. This will, hopefully, prompt them to eventually register.
Why it matters:
Drip marketing over a more lengthy advertising campaign is a great way to keep your event at the forefront of your desired audience’s minds and drive registrations. It can be more effective than just a one-off burst of social media advertising for your virtual event.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Promote your virtual event over a longer period of time with less intense ads
- Gradually convince your desired audience to register for your event
- Keep your event at the forefront of your potential attendees’ minds
15. Promote up to the last minute
With virtual events being easier to scale, you may not have a maximum attendee limit. Because of this benefit, you can continue to promote your event up to the last minute and continue accepting registrations through your entire promotional period. To ramp up last-minute registrations, you could even consider offering a “last chance” discount right before your event begins. A similar idea is to allow people to register at a reduced cost after the event has begun.
Why it matters:
Maximize the number of attendees at your virtual event by continuing to promote it and offer registration for as long as possible. Even after your event has started, you could allow attendees to register for the remaining sessions and continue to gain revenue.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Maximize attendance numbers by opening registration for a longer period of time
- Offer “last chance” discounts on tickets to boost registration right before your event
- Consider allowing people to register for remaining sessions even after your event has begun
Networking & Collaboration Trends
Many of your attendees may be joining your online event looking for an opportunity to network with other people in their field. These trends provide some great ideas for ways to help facilitate those connections being made, all while keeping your organization and event as a topic of conversation.
16. Build an online community of attendees/supporters
Networking at digital events can be more challenging than in-person. Fostering an online community around your event will help facilitate attendees building connections between each other. Create a space where your audience can get to know one another over their common interests, including your event. You can even reward those who join your event’s community with exclusive content.
Why it matters:
Getting opportunities to network is one of the main reasons why people choose to attend live events. Building an online community will help provide your audience with those opportunities and allow them to form meaningful connections with others in their field.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Provide your attendees with opportunities to meet and interact with one another
- Foster a community of your virtual event’s supporters
- Keep your audience engaged with community-exclusive content or other rewards
17. Reward your most loyal audience members
Just like how your favorite department store rewards you for continuing to shop with them, organizations can create their own loyalty programs to reward their most dedicated attendees. Encourage your audience to sign up for your loyalty program with rewards like discounted tickets, exclusive content, and other extras that those not in your loyalty program would miss out on. You could make your loyalty program exclusive to those who have attended a certain number of events, or you could charge a fee for people to join.
Why it matters:
Rewarding your most loyal audience members with loyalty rewards is a great way to keep your attendees coming back. Promote this program and the benefits it comes with as an upsell to your virtual event’s tickets.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Reward the people who keep coming back to your events, and encourage others to do the same
- Provide exclusive rewards to your most loyal supporters
- Bring in extra revenue by charging a fee for people to join your loyalty program
18. Give your attendees a shared goal
Use your online event as an opportunity to support a greater cause. Examples include supporting a charity, finding a solution to a shared problem, or providing assistance to those who need it. Working toward a shared goal will bring your attendees together. It will also show them that your organization cares about the greater good and wants to actively support a good cause.
Why it matters:
Working together towards a common goal is a great way to unite your audience, even if they’re tuning in remotely from various locations. Supporting a charitable cause makes people excited about their contributions – and feel good about themselves in the process.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Support a cause and show your audience that your organization cares
- Unite your attendees despite them not being all together in one physical space
- Make your audience members feel good about their decision to participate and contribute
Safety & Security Trends
Cybersecurity is one of the most important systems that virtual event hosts need to set up when planning out their events. Heightened security features will protect your attendees as well as your organization from any potential threats. Following these trends will make sure your event is safe and enjoyable for everyone.
19. Add security features to protect your attendees
It’s important to put proper security measures in place for two reasons. The first is to ensure that only registered attendees are able to access your event. The second is to protect your attendees’ information. Online safety features such as passwordless logins or reCAPTCHA tests will help weed out bots and hackers with malicious intent. Make sure whatever host platform you choose to use for your event has security features like these available. You want your audience to be able to join your sessions without the worry of their information or devices being vulnerable.
Why it matters:
Keeping your audience safe while attending your event should always be considered of the utmost importance. The last thing you want is for your event’s lack of security to be the reason why someone’s personal information was compromised (or worse, stolen). Adding a few extra security features is worth any additional cost in order to ensure the security of your attendees and their information.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Prioritize the safety of your attendees, and allocate more of your budget for security
- Ensure your chosen event hosting platform offers an abundance of safety features
- Consider adding passwordless logins or reCAPTCHA tests to weed out malicious bots
20. Conduct a pre-event security audit
Many organizations opt to have a third party conduct a security audit to properly test out the security features in place before a virtual event begins. Putting your safety system to the test beforehand will give you and your attendees the peace of mind to go ahead with your event without worry. A security audit can catch any small issues that need to be addressed and resolved before any breach of security actually occurs. This is an added step that may cost a little extra, but it’s totally worth the added expense in order to prevent potentially disastrous safety issues.
Why it matters:
Putting security measures in place is one thing, but making sure they actually work as intended is another. It’s a good idea to properly test out your event safety system to ensure there are no “cracks” in your digital security barriers.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Put your security system to the test by hiring a third party to conduct an audit
- Find and resolve any potential issues with your safety features before one actually occurs
- Ensure your attendees and their information will be properly protected throughout your event
21. Lay down some ground rules
Creating a safe online environment for your attendees is about more than just protecting your event from hackers. It also means ensuring that everyone feels comfortable during discussions. Prior to accepting registrations for your event, create a code of conduct that will be provided to each potential attendee. Make it mandatory that they read and agree to your terms and conditions before confirming their registration.
Outline what types of behavior and language will not be acceptable, and explain how these rules will be enforced. Designate moderators for online discussions, and instruct them to ban any attendee who violates the code of conduct they agreed to prior to the event. Taking precautions like these will allow all attendees to have a positive, safe experience during your event.
Why it matters:
Outlining what is and is not allowed at your event will guarantee that everyone knows (or at least should know) how to properly conduct themselves when participating in open discussions at your organization’s online event. Let your attendees know that you care about their comfort, and want to create a safe environment for everyone to contribute to the conversation in a polite and respectful manner.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Let everyone know what is expected of attendees and what behavior will not be tolerated
- Hire moderators to enforce your code of conduct by removing anyone violating the rules
- Require attendees to agree to your organization’s code of conduct in order to confirm their registration
Technology Adoption Trends
Technological advancements are always bringing us new apps, features, and experiences that can be shared with virtual event audiences. With virtual events becoming more common, using advanced technology can help your event stand out from the rest. Check out these virtual event technology trends to learn about new ways to wow your audience.
22. Make use of virtual venues
When hosting your audience in person, you’d want to greet them with well-designed visuals, decor, and other displays. Who says you can’t do the same when hosting your event online? Give your attendees the real live event experience by choosing the right place to host your event from when presenting. There are venues that cater to organizations hosting virtual events by providing fun backgrounds, lighting, and production assistance. These “virtual venues” look far more professional than hosting from your home office, which will appeal to your attendees and sponsors.
Why it matters:
Increase the production quality of your virtual events with a professional-looking background, better camera quality, and more. If you’re recording event sessions to use for marketing purposes, the clips you record will also look more professional. This will help to attract attendees and sponsors to your future events.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Find a virtual venue to host your event from
- Give your event more polish and a professional feel
- Get assistance from virtual event production pros
23. Google, Alexa, Siri, & friends
Some event hosting platforms are now offering AI capabilities and voice-controlled virtual assistants to help your attendees with any questions or issues that might arise throughout your event. Virtual assistants are becoming increasingly popular, so your attendees will appreciate the familiarity and ease of use of an assistant similar to the Siri, Alexa, and Google ones they may already use.
Virtual event assistants can take the form of a chatbot or voice assistant, or be combined to create even more robust support features. For example, attendees will generally find it much easier to sign up for a session by giving a bot a simple command, rather than having to search around on your site to figure out where and how to register.
Why it matters:
Voice assistants and chatbots are rising in popularity, and your attendees will recognize these features as being high-tech and useful. While adding these features to your event will come with an added expense, they will make for a much smoother experience for your attendees, and eliminate the need for a large group of support staff.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Make it easier for attendees to navigate event sessions, register for activities, and more
- Provide a smoother experience to your attendees
- Make your event hosting site more high-tech and modern
24. Create a dedicated event website
Many organizations may choose to simply promote their events on their own company site. But a new trend we’ve seen is creating a dedicated website specifically for an event. Dedicated event websites make it easier for interested potential attendees to find all the information they need about your event in one place. They can look up the agenda, speakers, cost of tickets, and more. Creating a site for your event will also make it easier to promote registration, as people can go directly to your event site to do that. That means they won’t need to search for a page that might be buried on your company’s site in order to register for the event.
Why it matters:
A dedicated site for your virtual event is an awesome promotional tool. It allows you to heavily advertise your event without taking up extra space on your company’s main website. Make it easy for people to find all the information they want to know about your event, as well as links to register and buy tickets.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Easily promote your event on its own dedicated website
- Provide all relevant information to potential attendees and sponsors
- Link to pages for attendees to register, and for sponsors to contact your organization
25. Emphasis on fun & engaging experiences
Technological advancements make it easier than ever for people to feel connected online. As a virtual event host, you can provide your audiences with fun and engaging experiences by taking advantage of these capabilities. For example, you can offer breakout sessions for more intimate discussions and networking opportunities, or even use VR (virtual reality) with 360-degree video to allow your attendees to explore a virtual exhibit.
Why it matters:
Use technology to provide your attendees with engaging activities and unique experiences that they wouldn’t get at a typical webinar. These experiences will add to your audience’s satisfaction and keep them engaged. They’ll also likely want to come back for future events your organization hosts.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Make use of technological advancements like virtual reality
- Prepare virtual exhibits or environments for your audience to explore
- Keep your audience engaged and entertained with fun, unique experiences
26. Increasing tech proficiency
Event organizers these days need to know how to use all the modern event technology that’s being used to host online events. The rising popularity of virtual events has brought along with it a rise in technological proficiency amongst all event professionals. According to EventMB, 74% of event planners said they’ve become more proficient in tech as a result of having to pivot to virtual events throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. If your organization hasn’t already naturally increased its proficiency in event tech through hosting more virtual events than before, then it may be time for your employees to brush up on their technology skills.
Why it matters:
If your organization isn’t looking to hire an external virtual event production team, it’s important to ensure that your internal staff can do the job. That means being up to date with what’s new in event technology and knowing how to use whatever technology your event requires. Lack of proficiency in event tech can result in technical difficulties and a less enjoyable experience for your attendees.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- The popularity of virtual events throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in higher levels of tech proficiency in the community of event professionals
- It’s important for event organizers to know how to use the technology needed for virtual event hosting
- Brush up on your event tech skills if necessary
Other Relevant Virtual Event Trends
These trends don’t quite fit into any of the other categories we’ve discussed so far. But they’re still important to share because they can help you make your virtual events more successful.
27. Make people feel FOMO
When promoting live events, you want people to be so excited about your event that they don’t want to miss out on it. Virtual events shouldn’t be an exception to this. You want your target audience to have FOMO (fear of missing out) when it comes to your event. Promote the best aspects of your event, and the value your audience will gain from attending. Make people feel like your event will be the best one they attend all year, and draw them into registering.
Why it matters:
When marketing your event, it’s ideal if you can make it seem so great that people want to sign up just to not miss out on it. While FOMO might sound negative at first, fear of missing out is something you absolutely want your target audience to feel when they think about your online event.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Highlight all the best aspects of your virtual event in your marketing campaigns
- Make your event sound like something not to be missed
- Have a goal to make your target audience feel fear of missing out on your event
28. Boosting event management skills
Along the same lines as the tech proficiency trend we mentioned earlier on, upskilling is a huge trend for event professionals right now. Through hosting all kinds of events – including virtual and hybrid events – it’s vital for event management staff to learn new skills. It can also be useful for them to get certifications to back up their knowledge and experience (when possible).
Why it matters:
Organizations are much more likely to hire an event manager who is certified and experienced in running certain types of events, using specific technology, and other event production factors. It’s important that your staff continues to learn new skills and techniques, as well as keep up with new trends in virtual events and the overall live event landscape. This will help you remain competitive.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Keep up with new and current live event trends
- Gain new skills by learning about emerging techniques and technologies
- Stay relevant and competitive through continuously upskilling
29. New roles emerging for virtual events
Event organizers are working hard to learn new skills and keep up with changes in event technology. Still, many organizations are finding they need specialists to fill in the gaps. As virtual events become more common, there is an increased demand for dedicated event specialists in areas like audio-video production, technical support, design, and more. If your organization’s internal staff don’t have the time to learn all these new things before running an event, you can look to hire external specialists to fill these roles.
Why it matters:
It’s important to recognize areas where you may need to bring in experts to ensure your virtual events will run smoothly. If your organization needs a bit of help, don’t hesitate to hire specialists for certain aspects of your event production. If you’re an event professional who is very experienced with these specialized roles, consider working for other organizations on contract.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Identify areas where your organization needs help with online event production
- Seek out external event specialists to fill roles that your internal staff cannot
- Experienced professionals can and should seek out opportunities to help other organizations run their events
The Future Of Virtual Events
Looking ahead, these are trends we see lasting for the future of virtual events. Stay ahead of the live event game by paying attention to predictions for online events in the years to come.
30. Virtual events forever
The majority of event professionals agree that virtual events aren’t going anywhere – they’re here to stay. According to a survey by Bizzabo, 93% of event professionals are planning to invest more into virtual events moving forward. Some of this is driven by the attendee’s interest in participating virtually as they find it more convenient. Whether in-person, hybrid, or virtual, event professionals understand that they want to meet their attendees where they are most comfortable.
Why it matters:
Organizations continuing to host virtual events should create a more concrete strategy and template for hosting. This should make it faster and easier to repeat or put together events in the future.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Despite drastically growing in popularity throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, virtual events are here to stay
- Attendees love the convenience and flexibility offered by online events
- Work toward enhancing your organization’s virtual event strategy
31. Heightened attendee expectations
As virtual events continue to increase in popularity, it’s taking more and more effort to “wow” audiences. A year ago, it was considered fine to just hop on Zoom and give a presentation. These days – and moving forward – your audience will be expecting a little more. Following trends and using exciting new technologies will keep your audience engaged. And providing unique experiences will give them the “wow” factor that will keep them coming back for more.
Why it matters:
It’s important for event hosts to understand that their attendees will have continuously higher expectations of virtual events as time goes on. Organizers will need to continue to work to improve their online event strategies to keep their audience satisfied.
Actionable takeaways and benefits:
- Keep working toward giving your audience the “wow” factor
- Be aware of the continuously increasing expectations of your attendees
- Stay up to date with new trends in virtual events
That covers our extensive list of virtual event trends. We hope that these trends help event organizers, marketers, sponsors, and other professionals keep up with what’s new in the industry.
We also hope that, based on our observations, they learn unique ways to keep their attendees satisfied and interested. If you’re looking to host a hybrid event, be sure to check out our breakdown of hybrid event trends next or reach out to our team at [email protected] to discuss how you can apply these trends to your next virtual event.
