In March of this year as the pandemic progressed into stay-at-home orders, the insurance industry, both carriers and solution providers, transitioned to working from home and implemented travel restrictions. Conference organizers faced difficult decisions about postponing or canceling events as well as whether to pivot them into virtual events.
For example, Novarica’s annual meeting for insurance carrier clients, originally scheduled to happen in Providence, RI in May, was canceled. We transitioned from the in-person event to weekly Virtual Town Halls with insurance carrier clients and monthly Vendor Town Halls for solution provider clients.
As the pandemic spread, we tracked 31 major industry events that were originally scheduled between March and September. Of the 31, 28 have been canceled, and only three remain postponed until later dates in 2020. Of the canceled events, at least 16 have gone to a virtual event or a series of webinars, and many solution providers have produced an increased number of webinars to replace user conferences.
2020 will be known for many things—add to the list that it’s the year that trade shows and user conferences went online. I’ve attended a few of these virtual events and discussed others with many of our vendor clients. The following are potential best practices for solution providers considering going virtual.
KISS (Keep It Short, Silly)
Attending a virtual meeting can be more difficult than an in-person meeting, and a series of presentations and meetings compounds the challenge. People are spending more time in online meetings both for work and in their personal lives. Extended screen time causes more fatigue than face-to-face meetings, and our habits around taking breaks between presentations and having side conversations in hallways are very different in a virtual world. It’s important to keep the presentations shorter than would be planned for an in-person event.
As we’ve learned more about online meetings by conducting our Novarica Virtual Town Halls, we’ve shortened up the presentations and added more conversational elements by including two or more of our senior team members. This has made the meetings more engaging for participants with interactive elements like poll questions and Q&A chat windows.
Lights, Camera…Sound!
Most of the online meetings I’ve attended wouldn’t be easily mistaken for professionally produced television or cinematic movie productions, and the good news is that audiences aren’t expecting that from virtual events. However, attention to lighting and audio quality with simple, inexpensive equipment goes a long way in making the event easier on the audience.
Presenters need to have enough light to clearly show their face, with low enough backlighting to make sure they aren’t washed out. Backgrounds should be simple and uncluttered.
Audio is also very important; if a high-quality, external microphone isn’t available, presenters should avoid using speakerphone on their smartphone or their laptop microphone and opt for a headset or even wired or wireless earbuds. Audiences will put up with poor lighting and low video quality, but they will quickly tune out if audio is full of static and background noise or if it sounds like the presenter is in a cave or an empty building.
Just Like the Real Thing
What made your past in-person events unique? Do you have any traditions you can build into your online experience? One of the user events I attended in the past includes a game night that follows the conference theme, and one virtual event I attended recently continued a tradition of having a concert at the end of the sessions.
If you can find a virtual way to continue a tradition or unique section of the event, it can provide a memorable experience linking to past events and will carry forward to next year when we will hopefully be together in person again.
Include Some “How” With the “What”
Many in-person events have an opening logistics review where the host explains the agenda and where to find the exhibit hall and restrooms. Likewise, for virtual events, be sure to spend time both at the beginning and during the event to remind attendees how your online platform works, what the next few sessions are, and what to do if they lose their connection.
The tendency in planning will be to focus on the content (the “what”) and not as much on logistical elements (the “how”) and providing slots to discuss them. However, repeating the operational details is vital to ensure you keep attendees informed since some may join late and others may need to go offline for a phone call or other needs.
In the (Virtual) Room Where It Happens
One of the most valuable benefits of in-person events is the networking opportunities, which tend to center around the exhibit hall and common areas, like coffee shops, restaurants, and those endless hallways at Las Vegas resort/casino hotels.
These are very difficult to recreate and depend on attendees making more effort to reach out than walking through the conference venue. If a conference offers opportunities for connections, find creative ways to engage with the attendees.
As with in-person conferences, plan to provide something of value in return for a few minutes discussing your solution and how it meets an industry need. This could be a raffle giveaway, but it could also be content providing thought leadership and education on an important industry issue. Being focused and providing a way for attendees to stay up to date with technology are more important for virtual rooms than the physical exhibit booths of in-person events.
Virtual Success
There are many other considerations when pivoting from an in-person to an online event for both sponsors and attendees. The above are only a few observations from recent virtual conferences and presentations. I’m interested in your thoughts and experiences. If you’d like to discuss ideas about virtual events, please contact me at [email protected].
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