Creating Memorable Experiences Both In-Person and Virtually

We live in a world that is fast paced and full of possibility. This can make it challenging to keep everybody interested in what you have to offer, and more importantly, interested in coming back to your event or business. Here are some ideas to make your audience feel more involved in all of your events. By continuously supplying the audience with things to do, you can make any event engaging! 

When live events come back, we will be challenged as planners to think of new and exciting ways to keep people entertained and indulged. After over a year of working from home and interacting through our computer cameras, coming back to an in-person event will feel like a very new and exciting experience that we have longed for. But with this excitement, may come new expectations. Events and meetings are a natural habitat for networking and people come to socialize with people with similar interests. Planners are already challenged to find ways for attendees to network with the entire audience both virtually and in-person. Guests tend to feel more comfortable at an event when they are familiar with the community. Construct a LinkedIn or Facebook event group where participants can have conversations leading up to the event and can continue discussions and remain active during the event. 

Just like with live events, it is very important to keep its participants engaged in virtual events. Virtual events can be tricky because it is easier to get distracted while attending an event online. Some factors to keep in mind are polling, chat, and live attendee engagement. Polling is a tool used by marketers to receive data but also increase guest engagement. Pre-event polling lets the guests believe that their interests will be incorporated into the content delivered at the virtual event and makes them more interested in participating. Pre-event polling could also be related to a gift, a catering order, or even an activity that attendees will partake in like Odyssey Team’s Virtual Team Mosaic. Engagement doesn’t start or stop when you start your zoom meeting, it starts as soon as you capture the interest of your attendee and goes through their post-event experience. 

There are several other ways to create memorable experiences at events both in person and virtually. Attendee gifts are a great way to get people excited about attending an event. People love receiving something they can take home. Sending your guests event bags is a perfect way to guarantee virtual event participation, especially if you fill the bag with something they can enjoy during the event. In the recent Virtual Planner Master Class, Garrett Popcorn introduced their new snack-sized bags that are individually packed with your favorite flavor and delivered. These bags are the perfect way to stay engaged with a snack in virtual meetings or even in-person meetings since they are safely packed and sealed. The recent Planner Master Class early registrants enjoyed a gift box shipped to them with a snack pack of Garrett Mix, NEW Garrett Simply Indulgent S’Mores flavor, and Frango milk mints which were great snacks while attending the meeting. 

Entertainers are, of course, great at entertaining the audience and driving engagement. There are so many forms of entertainment to keep audiences engaged and having fun. Some examples of entertainment are live music, DJ, comedian, guest speakers, or even a live show or performance. Entertainment is important for both live and virtual events and can be a real game changer with online programming. It can be used to make the event fun or to get your guest attention for another topic. The world famous Blue Man Group shared a pre-recorded performance for the Planner Master Class to kick off the networking happy hour.  This Webinar performance helped kick off the fun portion of the event into the networking portion and kept the participants interested.

There are so many ideas to keep audiences engaged. Knowing your audience and providing them with options is the perfect first step to any event!

Author: Megan Collins, Ateema