As in-person events become a thing again, people will no longer be forced to join your event online.
That means they’ll now have the option of choosing how they would like to take part.
Understanding why they would choose to join your event online is key to delivering a valuable and engaging experience.
There are many reasons why people join events in general. But 2 stand out on why they would join your virtual event.
First is commitment.
Somebody less committed, who doesn’t fully understand the benefit of your event, will choose to join online. That’s clear.
It’s a safer option, less risk, less investment.
By joining online, they can listen to your event while multitasking at work. It’s sort of the student that plans to sit in the back of the class, we all know they are not really planning to be all-in.
Understanding how they engage with your event helps you understand how to design it.
Second is content.
People who join your event online are not looking to be networking. They also are not interested in all the side stuff, like the laser shows, the venue, the catering, etc.
For them is all about the content.
The people who join your event online are looking to solve a problem that is giving them pain.
As they search online for a solution, they come across your event. As they read about it, see the program, they come to believe that given the topic and the speakers, they’ll be able to find some answers.
In a virtual event, the real AHA Moments happen when speakers deliver presentations that help participants come across realizations that allow them to overcome obstacles.
In other words, in virtual events content is king.
Developing A Relevant Program
Start by defining the goal of your event. For that, just answer the questions below:
- What are the actions you want people to do the moment the event ends?
- or what kind of feelings, thoughts do you want them to experience?
With that defined, now you can move on to understand your participants before your event.
- What are they struggling with?
- What problem are they trying to solve?
- Why are they trying to solve that problem?
- What is it that they desire?
- What fake beliefs do they have about the industry, your products?
On a side note to this, you may feel that this is impossible because they are also so different and in very different stages of their journey, but in reality, it’s not true.
If you have an event about public speaking, it doesn’t matter if they are engineers or doctors, CEO or Personal Assistants, if they are coming to your event is because they are struggling with public speaking, and their lack of skills holds them back from achieving what they desire.
Use that info to develop a program that takes them from A to B and then support your speakers as much as you can for them to develop keynotes aligned with your vision.
Define the journey for your participants and you will be able to have super valuable content.
