Top 13 Virtual Event Engagement Activities to Win Over Attendees

It’s criminal to host virtual events packed with back-to-back sessions that don’t offer attendees a moment to relax. But while icebreakers and games are common at traditional events, virtual event engagement activities take a bit more creativity. 

As we’ve been hosting engaging virtual events for the past few years, we know the value of a collaborative breakout session or fun trivia that cuts the monotony of a conference. That’s why vFairs has many virtual event engagement features that make every event fun, collaborative, and exciting.

Signs Your Virtual Attendees Aren’t Engaged

Before diving into what works, it’s worth recognizing when attendees aren’t engaged. Watch out for these red flags:

• Logging in without interacting
• Watching sessions passively with no chat or questions
• Visiting a virtual booth without connecting with reps
• Leaving a session just a few minutes in
• Filling out a survey but ghosting the rest of the event

Passive attendees aren’t a lost cause; they’re a signal that your engagement tactics need to be sharper. The activities below are designed to fix exactly that.

Virtual Event Engagement Activities 

Are you stuck figuring out how to make virtual attendees stay at the event longer without it feeling like a chore? This list of virtual engagement ideas for events is the answer.

1. Engage Your Audience on A Social Media Feed

You can engage your attendees at the event using social media. Encourage people to post their experiences on a selected social media platform. Use an app like Wall.io to integrate the ongoing social media feed into the virtual event platform. 

Attendees can see what people are talking about and how they’re engaging with the event. Social media walls are great at helping attendees find out different activities and sessions they might have missed. 

You can track event hashtags and collect user-generated content through this virtual event engagement feature. It will also offer an opportunity for the attendees to connect. 

2. Host Q&A Sessions

Do you want to know how to make a virtual conference engaging?

Virtual events often feature webinars. However, keeping the webinar audiences engaged is not always simple, as long information sessions can quickly get boring. An easy way to turn them into a two-way conversation is to use Q&As. They encourage virtual attendees to tune in more attentively and contribute.

vFairs offers highly interactive webinars that feature Q&As. The best part about this virtual event engagement feature is that you can moderate the Q&A section to make sure only relevant queries make it to the platform.

3. Conduct Trivia and Quizzes to Spark Competition

With the help of virtual event engagement tools such as in-event trivia and quizzes, you can add an interesting element of competition to your engaging virtual events. You can set up questions and quizzes on topics that the attendees are interested in. This virtual event engagement idea is great for testing their knowledge of industry-related topics.

vFairs also has an integration with the highly interactive trivia game, Kahoot! Kahoot! brings people with similar interests together in a game of trivia to see who comes out at the top. This game is integrated with a lot of vFairs events to add an element of friendly competition. It’s very popular amongst educators as a teaching tool as well.

4. Collect Votes with Polls

Polls during webinars let you take a pulse check on your attendees to see how they feel about the sessions, what their preferences are, and what they’d like to learn more about. There’s a lot of attendee information that polls can help you extract as attendees appreciate every opportunity to offer their input. You can also use the feedback from these virtual event engagement activities to optimize your speaker sessions.

5. Excite Your Audience With a Virtual Photo Booth

Who doesn’t like event memorabilia to take home? Taking fun photos at a photo booth is an easy way to do this. Attendees enjoy adding their pictures to the event photo wall as it gives them a sense of being part of the community. Also, these virtual photo booths are great for breaking monotony in between sessions. You can engage your remote audiences by offering branded photo templates and fun filters. 

They can play around with those backgrounds and filters to make their photos stand out. Attendees can even like their favorite photos posted in the photo gallery. Such virtual team engagement activities help entice the interest of the event attendees. Plus, hosts can reuse these photos on social media to create some buzz during the event or even for post-event content activities. 

6. Create Breakout Rooms for Discussions 

You can create breakout rooms within your event webinars for virtual event engagement. It will create better discussion opportunities for attendees to dig deep into certain topics. These online team engagement activities provide a platform to help attendees brainstorm on industry topics or solve a problem. You can even incorporate breakout rooms for corporate events and design a virtual employee engagement activity where they can split into teams and interact with each other.

7. Stimulate Your Audience with a Scavenger Hunt

Send attendees on a quest for clues! Hide items around an event and share a list of clues to find them. Each hidden item has a score attached to it. The more items an attendee finds, the more points they win. At the end of the event, the highest scorers can win prizes. 

Use a scavenger hunt to send more attendee traffic to a gold sponsor’s booth by placing a hidden item there. You could also place them at the auditorium so more people end up attending a keynote session. Scavenger hunts can also be used as a virtual employee engagement activity during corporate events.

8. Spin the Wheel and Give Away Prizes 

Looking for more audience participation ideas for virtual event giveaways? Use the customizable Spin the Wheel. Attach different values to each segment and choose what happens when the pointer lands on each of them. Such event gamification features can elevate the attendee experience and leave them with good memories from the event. 

9. Host a Virtual Contest

Fun contests are one of the most unique virtual conference engagement ideas. You will need to promote a grand prize and create contest entry tickets. To host an ideal contest, think of ways your audience will feel engaged. It can be a simple user-generated content idea such as asking your attendees to share their pictures or pictures of their settings while attending your virtual conference.

The picture that gets the most amount of likes wins. Incorporate such short online team engagement activities throughout the virtual event and assign points for participation.

10. Create a Leaderboard

With the help of a leaderboard, you can easily incentivize your attendees’ behavior by assigning them points. These points will be based on their participation during the event in keynote sessions, webinars, sponsor booths/exhibitor stands, surveys, chats, polls, Q&As, scavenger hunts, and more.

Be sure to award the winners. A giveaway at the end will have everyone waiting anxiously and extend the time they engage with your event as well.

11. Add A Live Feed to Your Event

Live feed offers an engaging and interactive platform for both attendees and booth administrators. Imagine it as a virtual social media feed, where real-time interaction takes center stage. Attendees can actively participate by sharing their thoughts, posting images, and commenting on each other’s posts. If you wonder how to engage customers virtually during tradeshows, sharing product reviews can be a great solution. These reviews serve as authentic testimonials that foster trust, helping potential clients feel connected with your brand and decide in your favor.

Live feeds are great virtual event engagement tools where ideas are exchanged, questions are answered, and conversations come to life. Organizers can also access live feed reports on data including post titles, number of likes and comments, and names of attendees participating in the feed.

12. Foster Collaboration on a Virtual Whiteboard

A platform where attendees can brainstorm different topics and get together to create something is one of the great ways to engage employees virtually. The vFairs platform integrates with Miro, a platform that lets attendees collaborate on an interactive whiteboard to share their ideas, workshop projects, and plan activities. The great thing is that it all happens on a video call so you can simulate group work. This type of virtual employee engagement activity can elevate the connectivity of attendees.

13. Enable 1:1 Speed Networking Sessions

Networking is often the main reason people attend events, but it can feel awkward in a virtual setting if not structured properly. That’s where speed networking comes in.

It is set up to be short and timed, where attendees are automatically matched and rotated every few minutes. This removes the pressure of initiating conversations and helps people meet more participants in less time.

You can guide the experience further by suggesting prompts or themes, like “What brought you to this event?” or “What’s one challenge you’re currently facing?”

This kind of structured networking keeps energy high, encourages meaningful connections, and makes the virtual experience feel much more human.

Don’t Let Engagement Stop When the Event Does

The event might be over, but the engagement doesn’t have to end. In fact, what happens after the event often matters just as much as what happens during it. Scott Gould, Engagement Consultant at Ampersand Group, puts it nicely:

Many event planners and organizers think about the head of the event, which is pre-event marketing. But, what they forget is the heart of the event, which is engaging with the audience after the event.

Scott Gould

Author, Consultant, and Advisor on Engagement

So, let’s talk about how to keep the conversation going in simple, thoughtful ways that lead to stronger relationships and long-term impact.

1. Send a Thank You That Actually Feels Like One

Skip the generic ‘Thanks for attending!’ emails and send something that makes people feel seen.

Here’s how to do that:

• Mention the session(s) they joined or their role (‘We loved having you at the marketing panel’).
• Add links to replays, speaker slides, or bonus resources.
• Include something warm and personal like a video message from the host, a photo collage or even a fun blooper reel from behind the scenes.

2. Turn Great Content Into Ongoing Conversations

You’ve already created a ton of valuable content — now it’s time to make it go further.

Break it down into bite-sized, share-worthy moments:

• Post 1–2 minute highlights of your best sessions on social media.
• Share key takeaways in a follow-up email or newsletter.
• Turn thoughtful audience questions or quotes into mini posts or carousel slides.
• Ask reflective questions like: “What’s one idea you’re taking back to your team?
• Add session recording on the virtual platform and inform your audience about it.

Case in point: LASHCON, the world’s largest lash artist event, leveraged vFairs to host over 70 educational sessions, with 40 recorded and made available on demand post-event. This approach extended the event’s value, allowing attendees to revisit content and continue the conversation well beyond the live sessions.

3. Ask a Short, Smart Survey

You don’t need a long form. Just ask 3–5 sharp questions that show you care and help you learn:

• What stood out the most?
• What didn’t land well?
• What topics would you love next time?

Segment responses by audience type — attendees, speakers, partners — for deeper insights. And end with something fun, like, ‘Would you come again and bring a friend?’

4. Give Them a Clear ‘What’s Next.’

Don’t let the connection fade. Tell your audience what comes next, and make it feel like a natural continuation, not just another sales pitch.

You could:

• Offer early access to your next event.
• Invite them to join your community or Slack group.
• Run a follow-up session or roundtable the week after. Send an email asking, ‘Loved this session? Join us for a deeper dive with the speaker — just 30 minutes, smaller group, live Q&A.’

Use your event analytics to fine-tune future experiences:

• Where did people drop off?
• What content got replayed?
• Which chats or polls sparked the most energy?

78% of event organizers say post-event analytics are key to improving future events and proving ROI (Kaltura, 2025).

Common Mistakes Event Planners Make When Choosing Engagement Tools

Even the best intentions can fall flat if the tools don’t support your event’s goals, your audience, or the journey you’re trying to design.

Here are five common mistakes planners often make when selecting engagement tools, and how to avoid them:

• Too Many Tools Leading To Choice Paralysis: When you throw too many engagement options at attendees, it can actually backfire. Instead of exploring, they hesitate or disengage. Keeping things tight and intentional with just a few well-chosen tools makes it much easier for people to jump in and participate.
• Skipping the “Why” Behind Tool Selection: It’s easy to get excited about features and forget to ask what they’re actually doing for your event. If a tool isn’t tied to a clear goal, it ends up feeling random. Starting with the outcome you want helps you pick tools that actually serve a purpose.
• Ignoring Audience Fit: Not every audience engages the same way. What works for one group might completely miss the mark for another. The more your tools reflect your audience’s preferences and expectations, the more naturally they’ll engage.
• Not Testing Tools Ahead Of Time: Nothing disrupts an event faster than something not working as expected. Skipping testing can lead to awkward moments or low participation. A quick trial run with a small group can save you from those surprises.
• Getting Distracted By Shiny New Tech: New features can be tempting, but not all of them add real value. If a tool doesn’t clearly improve the attendee experience, it’s probably just adding noise. Staying focused on what actually enhances the journey keeps your event smooth and engaging

For a deeper dive into pitfalls and smart fixes, this guide on virtual engagement mistakes offers some excellent insights.

Transform Your Virtual Events into Attendee Engagement Hubs

If you’re not getting a good response at your virtual events, it’s not that attendees don’t want to be at the event, it’s that they’re not feeling engaged and connected enough to stay. Increasing opportunities for virtual event engagement will benefit both you and your attendees in the end. Thinking out of the box and offering fun and valuable virtual engagement activities is your golden ticket. The vFairs event management platform offers several virtual event engagement features to help organizers keep the attendees awake and active throughout the event. 

Still want more virtual event engagement ideas? Hear it from the event professionals.

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