Virtual Events vs. In-Person Events: Why & How to Host an Online Event

Special events, trade shows, and conferences are a huge part of the professional ecosystem. With rapidly increasing business needs and business expansion globally, conferences held either virtually or in-person are more important than ever.

It’s not for nothing that professionals and organizations show up to events, travel long distances, and pay hundreds of dollars in travel and lodge. Why would they spend their precious time from morning to evening for several days? The obvious answer is to meet others from their industry, listen to experts, and to network with peers. The eventual outcome of events is to generate value for stakeholders.

Virtual Events or In-Person Events

There is, however, a better way to do this. The world is changing rapidly, and there are a lot more virtual events today than ever before. In-person events can surely be a great way to meet, tie-up, and network, but are they the most effective way? This question was never more pertinent today than ever before, with the coronavirus pandemic taking its toll on gatherings and human to human contacts.

The renewed focus of digital alternatives to events has its source not just in COVID-19 but a host of other factors. Businesses and governments today desperately want to minimize the carbon footprints to tackle climate change. The best solution to these problems without obstructing the rhythm and pace of activities is the virtual events.

Why and How of Virtual Events

Why virtual events? It is easy to answer ‘why’ when we understand what we mean exactly by virtual events. It is a large online event with multi-session that may include webcasts and webinars. At its most basic level, you can think of it as a virtual environment where multiple people interact. They are as great as in-person interaction except actually being physical. You get to meet people, interact with them, form associations, and network.

Different Types of Virtual Events

There are different types of virtual events, depending on different goals. Entire Productions is able to produce virtual conferences, open days, trade shows, benefit fairs, and galas.

Virtual open days are practical alternatives to physical university open houses. Students get an opportunity to learn more about potential academic institutions so that they can make an informed decision.

Virtual conferences are like conventional conferences that include one or more sessions. The participants attend sessions and streams conducted by thought leaders.

Virtual career fairs are online job fairs. Employees connect and interact with job seekers in a virtual environment. The potential employers interact with prospects in the same way as they do in a career fair.

Virtual trade shows have an advantage over traditional trade shows in that they break the geographical barrier of distance. The attendees from all over the world interact with hosts and sponsors in real-time.

A virtual benefits fair uses the online medium that connects employers and workers to communicate about the benefits provided to the workers. It leverages the power of technology to scale up the employers’ maximum reach to make the employees more informed on compensation.

Advantages of Virtual Events

There are several benefits of virtual events. They can be as flexible as you need. You just need the right platform to host it. Moreover, it drastically reduces the costs associated with holding a physical event. It may cost thousands of dollars a day for venue hire alone that doesn’t take into account the cost of food, drink, and accommodation for speakers. While physical venues have limited seating capacity, you can host several thousand attendees in a session online. The engagement of the attendees at virtual events is far greater than physical events with tools like live chats, Q&A, polls, and several others.

The virtual events are environment friendly. There is a zero-carbon foot-print with these events as against the physical events. These events are reliable. You don’t need to cancel them for the reason of the weather or lack of attendees. In addition to all these, you also get comprehensive analytics and reliable data such as the number of attendees, questions asked, and other hard stats.

Entire Productions is active in creating virtual events and will work with you to create your event at any stage. We design, organize, and produce virtual events such as summits, conferences, fundraisers, club awards for President, summer picnics, and launch events.