The latest data by UP-OCTA Research Team reported that there is a surge in Covid-19 cases in Metro Manila.
This development again places the online event at the center of the spotlight for MICE Planners or Business Event Organizers.
We are now accustomed to online events, one of the challenges is removing the barriers the online event audience encounters during the actual event.
Onerous Registration Form
One of the challenges in the area of registration. In a private event, most of the organizers require the audience to fill out a very long form. This is a burden and sometimes leads to the potential audience not joining the event.
The ideal is to have a registration form that captures the essential data like name, email, and mobile at the least. At the most five data points where we add the company and designation of the attendee.
Having an easy-to-fill-out registration form will be a start in the right direction in generating more attendees.
Chat Box
Since most of the attendees are at ease with having to comment on their questions and feedback, the organizer can encourage these attendees by acknowledging their questions and thanking them for the moment the questions were posted.
This is a confidence booster to other attendees and a signal that their participation is highly appreciated.
Collate Questions and Reply Back ASAP
Due to the limited time in the discussion, have it announced that all unanswered questions will be collated and within 3 to 5 days a reply will be sent to the attendees.
As far as I am concerned, only a few organizers are doing this. As an organizer, this is one of the moment-of-truth that you can delight the attendees.
Regain their trust and confidence that they do matter. The next time you have an event, they will remember this moment and be more active in your events. They already know that they are important and that their concerns will be attended to.
Live Poll
Live Poll is an important platform to encourage engagement and generate insights into the state of mind of the attendees.
If you can prepare a live poll this will be valuable to the organizer. If you can share the results with the attendees, this will be a great added value that they can take when the event ends.
Breakout Rooms or Workshops
The more you can create customized topics and break the bigger number of attendees into smaller groups thru breakout rooms, the more the engagement increases.
Remember that almost all attendees are experts. They have opinions that when shared can enrich topics. Lastly, almost everyone loves to be heard.
Although you must be prepared to have a powerful and dynamic facilitator that can 1. Guide the discussion and sharing of ideas. 2. Control the discussion so that no person dominates the group. 3. Summarize the main points that the discussion produced.
In Summary
These are just basic processes and tools that you can use in removing barriers to encourage your online audience to be active in your event.
The more that your audience feels that they are encouraged to be active they will be active. In the end, your event will be memorable in the eyes of your attendees, and successful in the eyes of your stakeholders.