Association meeting planners have been hesitant to embrace virtual meetings, but the trend is starting to catch on. “Within three to five years, I would say, most associations will be moving to a three-dimensional immersive virtual platform to provide greater value to their membership,” says Mike Westcott, vice president of marketing at InXpo. “It still doesn't give you the face-to-face engagement that is so valuable to people, and it's never going to displace live meetings, but it is a wonderful complement to existing events.”

Westcott Outlined Five Potential Benefits of Virtual Meetings.

1. A broader audience, most of whom probably wouldn't attend the physical event
2. Additional revenue from online attendees and sponsors
3. Cost savings for virtual attendees
4. The ability to capture and reuse content by archiving sessions that members can access online throughout the year
5. An online community, where attendees can network, connect, and discuss issues and trends before and after the live meeting

Here are Three Ways Westcott See Associations Using Virtual Meetings:

1. For stand-alone educational webinars or virtual meetings where the association can generate revenue from registration fees and sponsors
2. To enhance and expand a face-to-face meeting by streaming content live to a virtual audience
3. To create a permanent online meeting space, which for associations can become a virtual community as well as a year-round meeting space for chapter meetings, board meetings, webinars, workshops, or for streaming sessions from a live event. Association members could access resources, information, and videos as well as chat with other members. “The future of all of this,” Westcott says, “is enabling associations and organizations to connect with each other on an ongoing basis by using these three-dimensional immersive environments to communicate and collaborate in completely new ways.”