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 As web conferencing becomes more and more popular – almost ubiquitous at this point - it’s becoming ever more important to achieve a high quality deliverable. Whether you’re trying to affect change in behavior through live, on-demand training, reach more potential customers, increase brand awareness, or convert more leads to sales, the quality of your online event is of the utmost importance.
What are five key considerations for delivering impactful online events?
While a full list of considerations for achieving a quality deliverable can be quite extensive, we’ve narrowed things down a bit to focus on the five key elements for delivering a successful, engaging, and impactful online event.
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1. Ease of Access
If you’ve ever attended a virtual event, you know how potentially painful it can be to try and rush to “beat the clock” as you transition from one project into attending an online meeting. You may find that you’re required to go through an extensive process of installing third party software on your machine, and possibly even having to get your IT group involved just to get past the login screen. |
| The goal is simple: get attendees into your event with as little effort as possible. Adobe Connect runs on the Flash platform - present on approximately 98% of PC’s in North America. This means easy access to online events for almost all PC users. Connect also runs on the OSX platform which means your Mac users won’t be left out. |
2. Production Quality
If your online event lacks polish – whether it’s a sub-par slide deck, less-than-desirable audio or video quality, or an under-rehearsed deliverable (intro, transitions, outro) - a smooth delivery is at the heart of a successful online event. Make sure to allow time to test the platform and rehearse your delivery. Also, have a back-up plan. For example, keep a hard copy of your presentation at hand so you can continue in case you come across a technical glitch. You’ll find that attendees can quickly lose interest and become disengaged if the presentation team isn’t effectively prepared and the platform properly configured, which directly affects your ability to achieve positive measurable outcomes. |
3. Audience Engagement
According to Shelley Ryan, author of Killer Webinars, 88% of respondents to one survey admitted to multitasking during webinar presentations. Using visual aids like slide decks and videos can certainly go a long way in engaging your audience, but you can do much, much more! Polling participants to get feedback and keep them tied into the session, sending them out to pertinent web pages, and allowing for interaction with hosts and presenters are all great ways to enhance the experience. This ensures that your audience doesn’t get sidetracked with emails, phone calls, and other work that will no doubt continue to roll in. In fact, a good rule of thumb is to allow no more than 3 minutes between participant interaction opportunities. Effectively engage your audience and you’ll achieve more of your objectives! |
4. Mobility
According to Brandon Hall research, 28 percent of smart phone users use their phones as their primary way to access the Internet. Certainly, as mobile devices become more powerful and robust in terms of features and functionality, the desire for users to attend virtual events on those devices follows. To engage your mobile audience, make sure to use a large enough font and keep important call-to-action slides up for at least 90 seconds. |
| Facilitating attendance from mobile platforms will extend your reach and drive more users to your online events. Both Adobe and InteSolv have developed mobile applications that allow end users to interact with virtual content. Adobe’s Connect Mobile allows users to attend virtual events, while InteSolv’s Connect Passport offers up ease of access to those events as well as content stored on the Connect server. Both applications are available for the iOS and Android platforms and are available in their respective app marketplaces. |
5. Post-Event Reporting and Follow-Up
An online event can only be defined as a success if it helps you achieve a desired outcome. Regardless of what that outcome is, you can only understand what’s been achieved through some sort of post-event review. Tracking attendance statistics to assess lead interest, re-engaging with attendees after the fact to drive the sales cycle forward, or following up to gauge knowledge transfer – these actions are made possible by the ability to report on your event metrics and effectively gather meaningful data. |
| So remember… |
- Select a platform that gives your audience easy access into your event
- Test the platform and rehearse your presentation
- Make use of visual aids and platform features such polling, Q&A and chat pods to interact with your audience and keep them engaged
- Don’t forget about your mobile audience
- Review your audience statistics and follow up accordingly
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| InteSolv can help! |
| In addition to world class platforms for webinars and webcasts, InteSolv can provide custom-tailored event services for your organization, giving you a high level of comfort in delivering your next online event. Our skilled and seasoned event specialists are comfortable walking the tightrope of virtual deliveries, having provided hundreds of hours of event services ranging from simple technical shadow to more high-touch, end-to-end services, including, but not limited to: |
- Storyboarding and full event planning
- Content refinement and preparation
- Host / presenter coaching / training
- Virtual environment configuration to optimize end-user experience (and streamline host and presenter responsibilities)
- Event facilitation, including introductions, transitions, and outros
- Dry runs to ensure a highly polished delivery
- Real-time technical support for the duration of the event, with technicians both in the virtual meeting space and available for telephone support
- Post-event reporting on attendance, audience polling, etc.
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| In short, InteSolv's Professional Services team helps you get the job done right. Whether your desired outcome is reaching more potential customers, converting more leads to sales, increasing brand awareness, or effectively imparting knowledge to end-users, our event specialists can help you manage risk and put together the type of high quality program that makes it all possible. |
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