If we’ve learned anything the past few years, it’s that uncertainties will always be a certainty.
World events, economic inflation, technological advancements, and an ongoing recovery from an evolving pandemic have brought many challenges to planning an event.
But there’s something you can do to avoid future headaches or the stress about planning your next event. You can create and streamline a plan to adapt to uncertainties and bring some peace of mind. And if peace of mind alone doesn’t convince you to plan ahead, here’s a statistic that might:
Even in 2022, major events continue to get canceled or postponed with all the ebbs and flows of the current climate, a trend that’s likely to continue into 2023.
Now, we’re not suggesting you go into overdrive and try to anticipate every possible uncertainty. But we do recommend that you start reimagining some things.
What to Consider When Planning an Event
When planning an event (hybrid or virtual), there are many things to consider However, we’ve found it’s always best to start by focusing on the one thing that can make or break your event: your audience.
Define Your Target Audience
It would be futile to try to develop an in-person or virtual event idea without truly knowing who your target audience is.
Keeping your target audience at the center of your planning process will help ensure your virtual event is meaningful and aligns with your audience’s interests.. Additionally, by preparing yourself with the facts on your target audience, you can effectively track and predict the number of people attending. Predicting these numbers allows you to leverage the functional technology to manage your virtual attendees and predict future event costs.
But more on that later. Let’s first discuss a few factors you should keep in mind when defining your audience:
- Demographics: age, gender identity, occupation, race/ethnicity, educational level, nationality, technological knowledge, and level of income.
- Company dynamics: ethos of the business, industry, size, budget, age, market growth, and ambitions, as well as the employee in charge of the purchase decision.
- Organizational culture: mission, vision, values, and strategic goals.
This information can easily be assessed via:
- Focus groups
- Questionnaires
- Surveys
- Contacting past attendees
- Surveying your mailing list
Getting in touch with your target audience is the first step in establishing an event budget and helping you predict event costs — so don’t skip this step!
Leverage Functional Technology
The next step in virtually planning an event is leveraging functional technology. Whether in person or virtual, advanced technology has become the expectation and not the exception. And deciding what tech to put in place to guarantee a successful event and connection is how you can accomplish that.
Some technology to consider for connecting with your audience could include:
- Virtual and hybrid platform experiences
- Streaming tools and cloud-based production studios
- Audience interactive tools
- Virtual greenroom
Implement Personalized and Interactive Experiences
The final step in planning your event is establishing a personalized and interactive experience. Doing this will make sure to convert a first-time attendee into a loyal audience member.
Creating a unique experience for your virtual attendees is essential. This is where you have the most flexibility to reduce event costs, maximize your revenues, and grow your virtual numbers.
You’ll want to use the characteristics of your target audience to create a specialized experience. Answer these questions as you envision how you’ll personalize your event experience:
- How can you best connect with the attendees to provide content that demonstrates why they shouldn’t miss out on the event?
- What message will connect with this audience and benefit their daily lives?
- What unique interactive content will keep them engaged and eager to learn more?
- Which speakers can you invite virtually that would contribute or cater to this demographic?
Answering these questions will bring you clarity in deciding the best plan for your event. It will also help you ensure engagement during and after the event.
Using Uncertainty to Budget Events
Now, let’s discuss how to establish a safety net and factor in the uncertainties as you budget events.
Because no matter how well you think you have the details down, you never know what could arise, even when things seem to be going to plan. And with so many things beyond our control, we highly recommend planning for uncertainty.
You can do this by ensuring your plans are adaptable to the ever-changing needs of tomorrow.
You’ll want to budget accordingly for expenses like sponsors, new safety and sanitation protocols, entertainment, insurance, etc., while keeping in mind that things can change on a dime.
The Importance of the Virtual Segment
Today, there should always be a virtual segment to any event. Unlike an exclusively in-person event, hybrid events (in-person events with a virtual segment) allow you to scale your event’s exposure without additional costs associated with adding more attendees at an on-site location.
And beyond the benefits of scale and reduced hard costs, virtual components are a great way to offset the uncertainties in today’s climate. Regardless of what happens in the world outside, the show can always go on and your attendees can still participate online from anywhere.
Bring Your Next Virtual Event Idea to Life with Reimagined Experiences
The key to preparing for the unexpected is carefully planning for it.
If you still need some guidance on how to navigate future uncertainties that may come about when planning your event consider bringing your next virtual event idea to life with Reimagined Experiences! With extensive experience running seamless online events, we can take the worry off your plate so you can focus on the experience. Contact us to set up a discovery call today!
