Inspired by the creativity and effectiveness of our clients’ events in 2021, vFairs honored excellence in virtual & hybrid events through the vFairs Eventeer Awards. Here’s how it went.
About the Eventeer Awards
This past year vFairs helped clients host over 2000 events, which brought in over 1.5 million attendees from over 150 countries. The Eventeer Awards were created to celebrate these achievements and recognize excellence in virtual & hybrid events. Following a nomination and voting period, the first ever virtual awards ceremony was held on 15th February 2022.
The vFairs platform is host to a number of innovative clients that create truly mesmerizing virtual and hybrid events. Not only do these events drive business value for their organizations, they also help contribute to the expansion of the vFairs platform! Clients continually come up with clever ideas and ask vFairs if it can be done. This challenges the vFairs team to build an even better platform! Many of the vFairs team members have their personal favorite events too!
Yet, what truly makes a good virtual event? vFairs wanted the public to decide, and so we opened up nominations for 20 different award categories. The nominees were then showcased and votes were opened for anyone to send in. Once the results were in, the award ceremony provided due adulation to the winners, runner ups and remaining nominees!
With 200 nominations, 6000 votes and 700 attendees at the event, Eventeers was a huge success.
“We hosted some incredible events [in 2021]. Our clients’ events have helped them grow their businesses, provide new opportunities to marginalized communities and platforms for minority groups and helped bring people together from all walks of life to network, learn and discuss important topics” – Muhammad Younas, CEO, vFairs
Objectives
The purpose of the awards were namely:
- Create a platform to celebrate both vFairs and its clients’ success as an events community.
- To give recognition to some of the amazing and versatile virtual and hybrid events held under vFairs.
- A way for customers, vFairs team, partners and friends to come together, to let loose and celebrate their accomplishments from the past year!
- To bring to light the various ways vFairs features can be used to better serve individual event purposes.
- To thank vFairs clients for working with and trusting vFairs as it continues to grow.
Inputs
Creating a virtual awards show can be exciting! vFairs made use of its own platform in a manner that other hosts would do. Meaning, vFairs used vFairs and its own features to provide a state of the art virtual event experience.
Landing Page
Creating hype before your event is important. Thus sharing information about your virtual event is key. A landing page is the perfect place to do so. The vFairs Eventeer Awards landing page featured an event overview, the agenda, and major highlights of the event. Sugar Ray’s, Mark Mcgrath, provided the promotional video to the event singing the number one song from 1997!
Pre-Event Marketing
Using vFairs’ native pre-event marketing feature, the vFairs Eventeer Awards were marketed through an email drip campaign. By making use of an effective email marketing strategy, vFairs was able to draw in 200 nominations from within its clientele.
The nominees were then showcased on an entirely new domain. Voting was open for about a week and closed a few days before the event. Nominees were promoted by clients via social media, emails, press releases and more to ensure they got as many votes as possible for their event!
3D Customized Virtual Environment
The virtual event venue emulated a true virtual awards show by creating a feel of the Golden Globes!
Attendees landed ‘outside’ of the custom designed virtual venue, right onto the red carpet. Guests then entered into a lobby with chandeliers and a grand staircase. Diverse 3D avatars were standing about dressed in cocktail dresses. A step-and-repeat with camera lights flashing as they would at a red carpet event further added to the luxurious feel. From here attendees could venture into the auditorium or the halls of fame.
Virtual Auditorium
The virtual auditorium was created to replicate an orchestra auditorium with seating in the main hall as well as elevated booths. A live webinar was held with CEO Muhammad Younas’s inaugral speech followed by emcees Candice and Carlos. The webinar was then available on demand for anyone who wished to chime in at a later time.
Virtual Hall of Fame
Attendees could visit the halls of fame to see each category and scroll through the various nominees. Attendees could either view the images and descriptions here or even hop onto the event’s URL.
Virtual Engagement
The vFairs Eventeer Awards event itself showcased how hosts can truly use the platform in an engaging and fun way, all from the comfort of one’s homes.
Virtual Photo Booth
Attendees could take fun pictures of themselves which were then showcased on the event’s photo wall. Other attendees were free to scroll through and like each other’s images. The snazziest photo with the most likes at the end of was eligible to win a $50 Amazon gift card & a vFairs swag kit.
Social Wall
With the use of hashtags or simply scanning the QR code on the website and creating a post, all social media posts shared by nominees, hosts and their friends were then featured on the social wall. This was a great way for attendees to be engaged prior to the event. They could then see some of their hard work pay off by scrolling through the social wall. This was another great way to get attendees to see the likes and appreciation in social media forums. This was also a way to create greater traction for the vFairs Eventeer Awards, the vFairs Platform and each individual client’s organization and event.
Virtual Wrap Party
Dj Supermix from New York City really kept the audience engaged with wonderful music. The chatroom was full of exciting comments and even birthday wishes which DJ supermix gave a shoutout. This piece was a huge success, and a great way for attendees and the vFairs team to unwind and interact in a less formal setting than within the awards ceremony.
Takeaways
Some key takeaways from this event include the engagement with 700 attendees, 200 nominations and 6000 votes! This truly showed how engaged vFairs clients are with their events and the platform. The social media wall was a true representation of this commitment.
vFairs also set an example of how its platform can be used to the best of its ability. Including use of diverse avatars ensuring inclusivity, customizing certain features such as the red carpet, event exterior and auditorium. The virtual DJ certainly engaged the audience with shoutouts in the chat.
All in all, the event was a tremendous success. For this reason, vFairs has decided to continue the eventeer awards into the next year!
