It’s October 2020 and for many residents of the UK, the introduction of even tighter #COVID19 restrictions movement, on social mixing and going about ‘normal’ life.
For a few months now we’ve been considering the changing face of events and how the industry can emulate live events in the virtual sphere.
But does it have to be this way? Do things have to be the same?
As Maya Angelou once said, “If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
Right now we can’t change the situation we find ourselves in, in the midst of a global pandemic – events as we know them simply aren’t possible but that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of positivity to embrace when it comes to virtual events.
Here are some of the ways we’ve found the move to virtual a positive one…
We’ve gone international
We run a series of events called Female Tech Founder, previously a monthly live meetup, during lockdown the event pivoted to become an online event and since then we’ve welcomed speakers from not just across the UK but from Ireland, Germany and even as far afield as Canada – this simply wouldn’t have been possible with the regular Manchester-based event.
Community Growth
We’ve always had a strong community but now more people than ever are part of our online community, we’re able to advertise our events online and anyone can join us and since our events are now all hosted via Zoom and recorded, we’re able to produce a podcast too meaning more people than ever are engaging with and learning from our community.
We’re Evolving
We’ve got plenty of experience delivering live events from small seminars to large scale conferences but we’ll admit our experience of virtual events and platforms was limited – not any more! Since March 2020 we’ve run and supported multiple virtual events using platforms like Zoom and Teams but also embracing full event solutions like Hopin and MeetYoo gaining experience of virtual exhibitions, round tables and taking part in hybrid events delivered with both studio and virtual elements.
So, whilst we are the first to admit we LOVE live events, we are truly seeing the benefits of embracing change and the new world of virtual event offering and solutions – we’ve seen some fantastic innovations from the businesses in our event community focusing on event experience and audience engagement and we’re excited to see where the world of events is going next.
Talk to us! We’re running quick polls to find out more about the topics our community want to hear more about. Whether that’s #virtualevents #hybridevents #eventech or something else. Why not vote and let us know!
What do you want to learn more about? Vote to let us know.
What are your virtual event concerns? Vote to let us know.
Concerns about Hybrid Events? Vote to let us know.
Which event tech platform? Vote to let us know.