Smart Meetings July 2022 Digital Issue - 8

* * * DASH OF SMART
5 Tech Tips
for Virtual Event Success
S
<1>
till struggling to make your virtual event a great online experience? The competition is fierce: a barrage
of content from a multitude of channels all vying for your attention. How can your digital meeting
beat a Netflix binge or mindless scrolling?
Here are 5 tech tips from Bishop-McCann Executive Producer Melissa Patruno to make your virtual
event engaging:
Cut the quality and you'll cut your audience
Broadcast quality is a must, both in terms of the image quality, as well as how the event is produced.
In the early days of the pandemic, attendees were more accepting of bad camera angles, awkward
transitions between segments, or video that looked grainy.
But we're not so forgiving anymore. Invest in a platform that supports high-quality broadcast video,
and call on skilled professionals to design compelling content to keep your audience engaged.
<3>
<2>Engage all the senses
It may sound contradictory, but by
appealing to more than just the visual
senses, you'll actually make the content
you're delivering digitally stand
out even more. For instance, you could
start with the " soundtrack " of your
event. What do they hear between the
formal presentations? What greets
them when they sign in? How can music
play a role in setting the mood?
For other senses, consider sending
an event box full of items to appeal to
all the senses. Maybe a fidget toy to
keep their fingers busy (and away from
clicking on other tabs!). Maybe it's sensory
putty with calming or invigorating
scents to make this a 2-for-1 win! Food
is another way to keep the audience in
front of your presentation, instead of
getting up to go to the fridge. And don't
forget " old school " notebooks. Writing
down information makes it stick, so give
them a nudge to take notes.
Meet the demand
with on-demand
Attendees may not be watching the event
in real-time. Or more than likely, they
were, but they missed some key content,
so they want to watch parts of it again.
Beyond having the presentations available
on demand, which has become fairly
standard, what about sharing supporting
documents? Or background information
that will help attendees learn faster?
Before saying " no " to anything that's
not a video, remember not everyone is an
auditory learner. Some people prefer to
read and some like to do both-make those
options available.
<5>
Details add up
Last but not least, don't overlook
the small details. Make sure platform
registration is easy to navigate,
mobile-friendly and supports engagement
(Q&A, chat, polling). Have tech
support ready to help in real time. As
we all know, you can't predict what
technology problems will pop up out of
nowhere! A distracted audience is a lost
audience.
Corporate events probably won't win
Oscars any time soon, but they can be
just as engaging as an award-winning
movie, if we think of it as a production
- with all the related quality - not just
an event online.
<4>Rock the content
While your technology can't be an after-thought or " good enough, " content still counts. TED
Talks are known for their speaker-based content-meaning, no flashy animation or stunts-
that gain millions of online views.
Take the concepts that make those talks successful and apply them to your presentations.
Keep the talk focused on a singular idea; relate your idea to a story (the universal
attention-getter); back up the idea with data; make it personal; and make it actionable.
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JULY 2022 * SMARTMEETINGS . COM

Smart Meetings July 2022 Digital Issue

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Smart Meetings July 2022 Digital Issue