It’s a tricky situation, isn’t it? You wake up one morning and the entire world has made a 360-degree shift. This has been a shocking time for event organizers particularly. All those traditional strategies that you and your forefathers in the events industry had been following for decades are suddenly obsolete.
What now?
Well, luckily, as an event organizer, you know how to start from scratch and build a memorable experience for the entire world (or your own niche, really). So here it is – not a setback, but an opportunity for you to roll up your sleeves and get started. But first, here’s how we suggest you do it.
1. Learn about changed behaviors and habits
So, you think you know your target audience. Sure, you might be right. But with the new landscape of a covid-struck world, you might want to re-think the insights you are planning to develop your future strategies upon.
While your target audience might be the same people, their needs, habits and behaviors that make them a part of your target in the first place have transformed immensely over the past few months. As an event organizer whose work begins from attracting, engaging and delighting attendees to fulfill a certain goal, you need to first learn about few of the following elements:
- Channels that your audience spends most of their time on
- Hours of the day that you will most likely be able to engage with them (with minimum distractions)
- Things they care about
- Problems that they need to solve
- Places they currently reside in, and so on
Once you have studied your audience and have created a target persona, you’ll find yourself to be in a better position to build an action plan that helps you achieve your goal.
2. Research, React and Adapt quickly to innovative tools
In a rapidly changing environment, the key is to be open to new areas of opportunity, even if it is things you’re trying out for the first time. After all, isn’t everything happening for the first time around?
Depending on your business goals, look for tools and technologies that are benefiting others in the market. Don’t forget to get on board as soon as you find them. There’s no point of postponing or cancelling events when you can still host them brilliantly with a brand new approach. The quicker you set yourself up, lesser will be the chances of you bearing the losses of the changed environment.
You might be interested to read the Step-by-Step Guide to Move your Events Online in 2020.
3. Use engagement tools and online platforms to stay connected
What is one of the primary goals that every event organizer strives to achieve at their event? High engagement!
While social distancing has disrupted all kinds of physical interactions and connections, for an ordinary mind, this might be the end of an era. However, when one door closes, let’s admit, we have quite a few others to open.
As soon as physical contact was terminated, online tools such as Zoom and many others helped all kinds of business and personal entities to maintain their connections.
In times like this, while these tools benefited the entire world at once, virtual event platforms, such as vFairs, enabled event organizers to redirect their efforts towards an online setup, and connect entities of all kinds with each other, from the comfort of their homes.
Some of the most effective engagement tools that you can benefit from at your next event include:
- Live text, audio, video chat (1:1 and group)
- Live Webinars
- Q&A sessions
- Quizzes, Polls and Surveys
- eCommerce integrations
- Gamification techniques (such as leaderboards and scavenger hunts)
Learn more about these online features and tools by talking to one of our representatives.
So, for example, sellers can still meet future customers at a virtual trade show (in place of a physical trade show), chat with them in real time, and make their purchases without having to move an inch from their couch.
Another example is that of networking events such as job fairs and conferences, which have now been changed into successful virtual job fairs and virtual conferences, enabling event organizers to connect global audiences in order to fulfill their hiring, networking or educating goals.
Read more: How to Engage a Remote Audience at Your Virtual Event
4. Capitalize on current trends
Needless to say, you need to be aware of what’s trending in order to be on top of your game. Currently, since people are restricted to their respective spaces, eCommerce has been growing every day. Not quite surprisingly though.
Now you can well imagine just how much opportunity lies there.
Digitalizing brands and hosting virtual trade shows, with respect to the industry you belong to, is just one of the low-hanging fruits you can gain a lot from.
5. Work on your business goals
Lastly, yet most importantly, you must begin planning and setting up your event by keeping in mind your business goals. This includes:
- The industry that you’re targeting
- Learning what competitors are doing and how
- The kind of marketing efforts that are needed for a successful event with maximum reach
- The technology that is required
- The ROIs that need to be met
Final Notes
As an event organizer, at first, it might feel like the world has cracked open and you’re falling into a never ending space. However, it’s usually not about what’s going wrong, as much as it is about what can be done to prevent its impact. Similarly, during the COVID crisis, although there’s been a bit of a panic initially, we are now learning what’s working out, and what needs to be upgraded to monetize our efforts and make long-lasting global connections at the same time.
