10 Reasons to Host Virtual Events & Webinars in 2022
Modern video conferencing software brands, like Skype, became household names in the late aughts and early ‘10s, following the rise of smartphones with front-facing cameras and computers with built-in webcams. Despite over a decade on the market, most people did not utilize their full potential before remote work became the norm.
As the pandemic forced a shutdown in March 2000, brands embraced video conferencing as a way to fill the void of in-person communication. Rather than simply a necessity when connecting with an office in another city, the software was a necessity to connect with anyone. New product launch? Board meeting with international stakeholders? Powerful webinar to establish your brand as an industry thought leader? These all became virtual events.
As a result, the best live event software is built with intuitive features that make it easy to organize and execute live events and webinars, as well as engage attendees. Rather than simply allowing people to talk via live video like conferencing tools, purpose-built virtual event technology, like OpenReel Events, empowers participants and hosts to actively engage in a virtual environment.
Why Should You Host Virtual Events?
While the rise of virtual events came out of necessity, it revealed untapped possibilities for brands. OpenReel Events, our platform for live events and webinars, ensures a more streamlined, collaborative, and affordable workflow for events than ever before — in-person or virtual.
Below are ten reasons to embrace the revolution and host virtual events and webinars in 2022.
1. Reach a Global Audience
In-person events often limit audiences and speakers logistically because of the event’s physical location. In contrast, all a speaker needs to present at a virtual event hosted on OpenReel Events is an internet connection, any browser window, and their own registration link as an event speaker. Attendees also simply need to register, and then hit the link from their confirmation email. For virtual events, people from all corners of the world can access and have a front-row seat to your events without the former hassle characteristic of in-person events
2. Increase Attendee Numbers
Of course, as a virtual event expands a brand’s reach to the global level, this also means brands can bring in a higher number of attendees. Without the limitations of travel, travel time, and cost, more people can attend — and are actually encouraged to by their own companies whose budgets’ and workloads often bear the burden of event attendance.
Additionally the virtual “location,” can often hold more people than many event venues, which have physical size limitations.
3. Save Money
Virtual events are not only more cost-effective for attendees. Virtual organizers are also saving money — and a lot of it.
When you add up the cost of renting a venue, catering, travel and lodging for staff, speakers, and other organizers, venue insurance, audio-visual equipment, speaker fees, and marketing, the expenses for hosting just a one-day event can push into the tens of thousands.
For virtual events, the primary costs are the virtual events platform, the speakers’ fees, and your digital marketing efforts.
4. And Save Time
Even though virtual events also need proper planning and preparations set in place, this can’t be compared to physical events. For virtual events, of course, you will need to conduct registration, marketing, and promotion, but all of these are done digitally.
This means that they are often a seamless process that takes place simultaneously. The result is having some time to spare which can be used to do other productive work in your organization.
5. Be Empowered to Scale Your Event Program
The cost- and time-saving aspects of virtual events, combined with the expanded reach, mean that it’s incredibly easy for any brand to scale their events program once they go virtual.
OpenReel Events’ streamlined workflow easily fits into a team’s existing routine, enabling you to host more events — rather than stress over the time it takes to plan, organize, and host a single one.
Hosting a similar event to a previous success? Just hit the duplicate button and update necessary information. You’ll have a brand new event already planned and ready to publicize in less than a minute — and you can follow your past promotional strategies to get the word out to your audience.
6. Engage with your audience like never before
Because of their digital nature, virtual events are often more interactive and engaging compared to in-person events. Take, for instance, large venues where individuals and their questions can get lost in the sea of guests, it can be quite difficult for the speaker to forge meaningful connections with their audiences.
Virtual events facilitate interactions through tools such as Q&A, live chat, polls, and emoji reactions. All of these have a resounding impact on all participants. Want ideas on engaging your audience? We have a list of 10 ways to better engage your virtual webinar, just for you!
7. Easily Generate New Content
Every OpenReel Events’ main session and breakouts are automatically recorded and the final videos are available for download in your event portal. You can take advantage of the most insightful content or engaging moments throughout your event and use those videos to continue enticing your audience. These can be saved and made available for re-watching at a later date, shared on social media, websites, or even directly with prospective clients.
You can have a video catalog of previous presentations on your website, which can stir up the interest of those who did not attend. This can be both an advertising and marketing tool for your business.
8. Readily Gain Insights and Analytics
One of the greatest benefits that come with virtual events is the ability to gather comprehensive data and feedback from attendees. Want to know how many people viewed an entire presentation? Or, how many questions were asked? Or even, what did your audience think of the entire event?
Getting these answers from in-person sessions can be difficult, but they are at your fingertips with virtual events. By understanding how your audience engaged with your speakers and having an automated record of questions asked or resources downloaded, you can fine-tune your content and determine what’s working and what’s not so that your next event is even better than your last.
9. Confidently Maintain Oversight & Control During Each Event
No matter how much planning goes into an event, there can still be hiccups. The room for error expands when you’re managing large, in-person events. Attendee badges got lost in the mail? The toilet is clogged in the event hall? A speaker left her presentation back in the hotel? The problems can be varied and infinite.
Virtual events are resilient when it comes to unforeseen circumstances. Unless you experience a power or internet outage, which can quickly get sorted out, there is minimal room for surprises. And if you do have issues, during an OpenReel Event, you can support your own hosts and speakers in a virtual backstage, and rely on OpenReel’s white glove service for support of your own.
10. Be an Eco-Friendly Organization
Virtual events are more sustainable and reduce adverse effects on the environment. Statistics show that in 2018, U.S. residents made 463.6 million person-trips for business purposes. 38% of these were for meetings and events – that’s more than 175 million trips.
Virtual events take away the need for travel and offer an eco-friendlier alternative. This not only saves organizations tons of money, but also saves the environment from adverse impacts.
Host Professional Live Events with OpenReel
Virtual events offer an engaging, flexible, and highly resilient way to host events. This makes them a practical addition to an organization’s event strategy. You can decide to completely replace physical events, or make your in-person events hybrid.
Whatever the case, taking your events online can significantly increase your reach, reduce costs, and provide a highly engaging environment for your audience.
Interested in setting up a virtual event? Get in touch with us today to hear more or start your 14-day free trial.
