Even though face to face interaction is vital in one’s life virtual events are the need of the day like literally, especially during the times when one has to maintain strict social distancing.
With the recent outbreak of the coronavirus it’s not possible to keep doing in-person events. People are not allowed to go to public places, they are restricted and there are company policies. Most of the events that were supposed to be hosted in the year 2020 have been canceled. Well, event planners can still cope up with the crisis by organizing virtual events.
But the main question that arises in mind is how do you convert your video conferencing or an educational session into a virtual event?
Virtual events require the same care and attention as in-person events. The only difference is that the former is hosted on the web.
Let’s check out different tools to make virtual event possible:
GOOGLE HANGOUTS
The most common platform for video and meeting is GOOGLE HANGOUTS. The tool makes it easy for the event organizers as well as the attendees to connect virtually. Hangouts provides direct messaging, group chats, video, and emoji usages
It is a free tool and your participants don’t have to register for it to join, also it doesn’t take too long to set up an event. Google Hangouts can be used for small and medium events.
ON 24
It is a platform that combines cutting edge technology, a global network, and scalable solution for any type of business.ON 24 Gives you ability to create online events that can be customized to fit your needs allowing you to showcase your branding and logos while also giving you access to large library built-in features – interactive tools like live Q&A sessions between presenters and attendees, real-time participation in social media directly from the webcasting console, collaboration and content sharing tools and even resources to share your event with other online channels. On 24 is an easy to use platform as it features a variety of intuitive presentation tools. It gives you simple ways to create and share content while also interacting with fellow presenters and attendees. When your webcast is over your content continues to remain in the cloud and can be websites or social media forums. On 24 also gives you analytics and reporting features, so you can gain insight on audience engagement, determine the overall ROI, or compare your results with those of your peers.
GoToWebinars –
With GoToWebinars organizers can arrange a recorded or a live webinar on a large scale. With it you can reliably host a webinar of 500 people, 700 people or even 1000 people easily. It is not only for presenting but it gives you a lot more valuable features like you can do polls, interactive polls where people can click on the answers then you can show the results which is a great way to engage the audience and collect insights about the audience. You can also have surveys and handouts. In a nutshell GoToWebinar provides you custom webinar invitations, registration page, automated email reminders, and also presenter tools to make your next webinar a highly engaging and easy experience.
Glisser –
For engaging the audience throughout the session the speaker must touch on relevant topics as well as the event must offer a variety of options and fun ways for the audience to participate in the event. Glisser is a new generation audience engagement platform. It allows the event organizers to share real-time slides to the audience and features like Q&A, live polling, analytics. That’s all you need to have a successful online event.
ZOOM
The most popular conferencing and meeting solution platform today is zoom. It is a cloud platform that is used for video conferencing, chats, content sharing. Zoom allows you to have an in-person environment over the web with high-quality audio and video. With zoom you can connect with any of your suitable devices, even your smartphone. Zoom supports up to 1000 video participants and features like dividing participants into sub-groups, recording the sessions etc. It also provides streamlined calendaring services with Outlook and Google. With zoom’s free plan one can host a meeting for up to 40 minutes with up to 100 participants and have unlimited one to one conversations.
Taggbox
Taggbox is a UGC platform that allows you to aggregate content from social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and many more. After aggregating you can create a feed using hashtags, mentions, or handles and embed it on your website or display it on screens. Taggbox has recently come up with a new Ticker Theme which provides live streaming possibilities in events. With ticker theme users can create a social media wall and display it along with live streaming. Suppose you have a live twitter feed streaming your event then with the help of live streaming software, the ticker theme can be integrated with the apps to display social media feed content on the streaming screen.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft teams provide HD video conferencing technology. It allows organizers to host up to 250 participants along with screen sharing and recording features. Teams users can conduct corporate conferences, online training, webinars, etc. MS Teams have features like sharing and editing Word, PowerPoint, and Excel all help to accelerate collaboration and spark creativity. Microsoft Teams is available in both the free version and paid version.
CONCLUSION:
In our current situation, we cannot have in-person events. But as they say “The show must GO ON”! So let’s switch to virtual events and use technology to grow new markets. Try any of the tools above that are suitable for your purpose and keep going and keep growing!
