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With more technology at fingers' length comes more mobility, more flexibility, and more accessibility enabling professionals to be productive, no matter where they are. According to a Successful Meetings survey, 48% of nearly 100 corporate meeting planners, association representatives, and private planners said they would be hosting more virtual meetings in 2015 than last year. In addition, 14% said their (in-person) meetings budget would decrease this year. While there may not be an adequate substitution for in-person interaction and face-to-face meetings may even be more productive at times, virtual meetings, whether audio and/or video web conferences, have become an increasingly vital communication strategy in the workplace (physical or not). Virtual meetings or conferences can be as simple a multi-caller voice conversation, or as involved as a large, virtual, multi-media web conference involving hundreds of hosts and attendees.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud, for example, recently hosted an internal conference for over 900 of our Services employees who plugged in from nine countries around the world that mimicked a live, in-person conference in a fully digital, virtual environment. Whether simple or sophisticated, here are some key tactics for hosting a winning virtual meeting to ensure business goals are achieved, attendees walk away with value, and collaboration is sustained (and maybe even magnified)!
Accessibility - Clearly communicate login instructions and what to do if errors occur. Have support available and on-call.
Attendee Identification. Help attendees present themselves and showcase their identity and what role, division, team, or company they represent. Enable attendees to create a personalized user profile like virtual nametags that can also be used to track attendance and event results.
Backup/Plan B’s for Connectivity. Equip event hosts or speakers with suggestions and a backup plan if the primary technology fails or experiences a hiccup. For example, sharing a powerpoint when video doesn’t work or simply using a voice call and following up with the full content afterwards.
Be Your Brand. Incorporate your company colors, logo, and even showcase your office in the background of a video conference. Create an event or leverage your company culture theme to further a sense of community and enthusiasm surrounding the event.
Collaboration and sharing. Whether it’s using the virtual meeting software chat feature, or providing a Twitter #hashtag to follow event-related conversation, encourage attendees to feel connected and foster a feeling of inclusion throughout the meeting or event. Help attendees to feel heard, present, and appreciated. We used an online discussion board group through our enterprise social collaboration and software product, Chatter, to compliment presenters and event coordinators, share our most valuable takeaways, ask questions, and even post pictures of ourselves logging in virtually and sporting our company logo to capture our culture and brand spirit.
Content Archive and Library - For in-person or virtual events, attendees may have scheduling conflicts so they’ll need access to event content afterwards. Record presentations and point them to a single repository where they can access event information on-demand.
Crowdsource Content - Ask for participation in creating the event content. Team involvement empowers attendees to share and support each other, reduces the strain on one person or team developing all event content, ensures variety for increased appeal, and allows for participation across levels and departments.
Non-virtual Options. When hosting virtual events for related professionals, chances are high that several attendees may be in the same location. Encourage attendees to reserve conference rooms, or designate local offices where the event can be attended virtually as a group, creating an opportunity for new relationships to form and live discussion.
Personalization - Showcase photos of your presenters, if they're not featured in a video, so attendees feel a personal connection to the voice they are hearing.
Planning, Preparation, Expectation Setting- Provide attendees with clear instructions on how to register and login, including add-to-calendar event invitations with start and end times. Make an agenda categorized by topic and sequence easily accessible in advance so attendees can rearrange their schedules accordingly.
Real-time Visual Content. Incorporate video or live web-cam (which can even be accessed on mobile devices) to make the virtual event as personal, interactive, and as “real” as possible.
Real-time Results. Foster involvement and inspire the audience by sharing real-time results like attendee count, conversation, even a Twitter feed. For example, attendees could witness the exact attendee count at any given time during the 4-day virtual event.
13. Search/FAQs/Help/Resources - Provide ways for attendees to find answers to their questions on their own to reduce interrupting event hosts or weighing on resources that are focused on running a successful event.
Next time you host a virtual meeting or event, pretend you’re wearing many hats -- one of a tour guide, concierge, technical support representative, public speaker, brand advocate, and more. Think full-circle from speaker, to attendee, to prospect who hears about your winning event and comes knocking on your door for a virtual (but real) invitation to the next one.
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Rebecca Otis is a Marketing Consultant at Salesforce, collaborating with clients to optimize their digital marketing and email marketing programs with the latest tools, technologies, and trends top of mind. She is also a blogger, writer for NBC Chicago, and speaker for groups like Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, BlogHer, Startup Institute Chicago, University of Indiana Kelley School of Business, and DePaul University. She serves on the Social Media Club Chicago Board of Directors and was named an Austin Business Journal Women of Influence Profiles in Power Rising Star Finalist in 2012 after founding her own marketing consultancy. She's an avid Linkedin-er too. Let's connect @RebeccaOtis.
