Virtual event planning is now one of the next big things in every industry. Technology has improved at a great speed which means that virtual event planners should do their best to keep up.
Whether you’re new or very familiar with virtual event planning, this blog post will cover several items to help you make an ultimate virtual event checklist.
Before the Event
Define Goals and Objectives
Just as when you’re planning an in-person event, you should first define the goals and objectives of your virtual event. Think of who your event is for and why you want to organize it.
Ask yourself the following questions and answer them before you make any kind of preparation in order to not waste any time and efforts:
- What do you want to accomplish after the event?
- When do you want to hold it? Define the date and the specific time of your event.
- Which virtual platform will you be using for your virtual event?
- What will your speakers, sponsors, and attendees benefit from attending it?
- Who is your target audience for this event? The better that you can identify your audience, demographic, their way of thinking, interests, and dislikes, the more that you can create an event that’s perfect for them.
Make a Concept for Your Virtual Event
Thinking of a concept for your virtual event is important because this will help you make the right decisions and include activities that suit your audience and event theme.
Visualise in your head the kind of event you want to have. Make sure your ideas will make your ideas stand out from other events.
You can look at the virtual events of other companies and learn about what they did right or wrong. You can also draw inspiration from them and take note of what mistakes you should not make.
To help you develop a concept for your virtual event, you can put together a vision board whether in soft copy or hard copy.
Put Together a Team
Just because an event is a virtual event does not mean that you have to do everything on your own. Put together a team of individuals who are familiar with organizing virtual events. Create a timeline, set your deadlines, assign roles for each person, and set expectations.
If a problem or concern arises from anyone on the team, feel free to bring it up via chat or video call. You should solve problems right away in order to prevent you and your team from not executing your virtual event well.
Set Your Virtual Event Budget
In order to have a successful event, you shouldn’t just rely on strategizing and ideas. You should also know how much your ideas will cost when brought to life.
Without having a set budget for your event, you might end up spending too much or spending too little. Having a budget will help you determine where and when to use your money.
Make sure to define your projected income, expenses, as well as your emergency fund. Don’t forget to update your budget for every monetary transaction that you make.
Define the Format of Your Virtual Event
The format of your virtual event will definitely be different from an in-person event. What kind of event will you have? Is it going to be a webinar, livestream, or forum? You can have any kind of event, but you have to decide which will be best for you and your audience.
Do you want your speaker to talk directly to the audience or do you want your audience to engage with the speaker? If yes, in what ways? Will it be through Q&A sessions, contests, etc.?
Would you like to have time for breakout rooms? If yes, which part of your virtual event will you have your breakout sessions? Will it be in the middle of your speaker’s presentations or after?
Will you have an event sponsor? If yes, what kind of activities will they do in your virtual event? How much time will you give them to interact with your audience and promote their product? Which part of the event will be allocated for them?
Determine Your Needs for Audio-Visual and Production
What kind of equipment will be needed? Will you need lights, microphones, screens, tables, green screens, etc.? How many of each equipment will you need? Will you be buying or renting the equipment? How much will the equipment cost?
Aside from just acquiring equipment, make sure you and your team members know how to operate everything altogether. You wouldn’t want to have any technical problems on the day of your event.
Find Speakers for Your Event
The speakers of your event are one of the most important parts of the event. Since your event is virtual and not all speakers have been trained to speak in virtual events, make sure to ask your speakers about their virtual event experiences.
Ask them questions about the problems they encountered and how they engaged with their audience. If they can’t give answers you’re looking for, it will be best to look for other speakers.
Make sure that your speakers are credible and knowledgeable about the topics they will be speaking about. This will give you confidence that they will give valuable information and make a positive contribution to the overall event.
Look for Entertainment
Having entertainment in your virtual event is possible just like in in-person events. You can look for artists via YouTube, hire a band, actor, or any kind of entertainment that will fit into your virtual event.
Remember to set a budget for the talent fee of your entertainers. Also, decide how on the timeframe when your entertainers will perform. How long will they perform and which part/s of the virtual event will they perform?
Months Before the Event
Now that you have finished planning almost everything, what you need to do is to spread awareness and build the excitement about your event.
Ask your speakers, influencers, entertainers to post on their social media channels and websites all about your event. If necessary and within your budget, you can send out press releases to media outlets about your event.
Aside from spreading awareness about your virtual event, you have to do last-minute preparations such as confirming timeslots and availability of the people involved in your event. This can also be the time to send payments and answer any concerns or needs someone may have.
Hand out essential event information to your team such as the schedule, contact details of people involved, how to communicate with each other before and during your event, and other necessary information.
During the Event
On your big day, remember the tasks of each team member and consistently check-in with them during the event. You can collect feedback from your attendees about what they liked and disliked about your event by sending a survey link in the chat.
You can also view the event hashtag to see the comments or concerns of any event attendee. This will give you an idea of how to immediately make changes to your program for a better event experience.
After the Event
After the event, have a post-event team meeting. Debrief your team members, share all necessary information, and sort out all problems that you encountered.
You can review your event goals and see which goals were achieved, which weren’t and how you can achieve them next time. Go over your budget and the transactions made. Review the budget versus expenses and calculate your ROI.
Remember to send sponsors data gathered from your event and keep your own copy of the data to be used in your next events. You can send thank you notes to those who made your event possible such as speakers, entertainers, your staff, sponsors, and media partners. Also, make sure to keep minutes of your meeting for future reference.
In Summary
We hope you learned several things from this virtual event planning checklist.
The key to having a successful virtual event is to plan ahead of time, have great teamwork with your staff, and promote your event months before your event date.
If you’re looking for a virtual speaker for your event you can click the button below to find a speaker that will perfectly suit your needs and budget.