Sidebar #1: 5 Steps to Virtual Conference Success

By Anthony Allen, director, digital media, at the American Society for Training and Development in Alex

1. Start Small, Grow Fast

   A virtual conference should contain six components: webcasts, networking, video, exhibits, audio, and archives. Planners don't have to incorporate them all right away, but should expand it over time. “It doesn't have to be this huge risk,” he says. Start with streaming a few sessions live, or recording a few for the archives — or use social media to facilitate networking. From there, find out what your members and vendors want and move forward accordingly. When ASTD first launched its virtual conference, it went strong on the exhibition side. But over time, ASTD has scaled back on the virtual exhibits because the vendors and attendees didn't get much out of it. “I don't hear my attendees or vendors asking for it,” he says. So now they provide only gold and silver sponsors with access to the virtual attendees as an added value.

2. Don't Stream Everything

   Don't plan to broadcast every session, especially the first time. “You set an expectation with each virtual conference, so if your first virtual conference has 60 hours of content, then there's an expectation that the next conference is going to be 60 hours or more — not less,” says Allen. Also, some speakers might not want their sessions recorded: Check with your presenters first.

3. Define Your Virtual Conference

   Decide which aspect of the virtual experience is most important. Is it the networking or the content? Do all the sessions have to be streamed live or can you make some available only as archives? How many sessions do you want to record for virtual viewing? How are you going to facilitate networking? How are you going to reuse the content? How many exhibitors will there be?

4. Name Your Price

   Once the virtual conference parameters are set, you need to determine how much to charge for registration. The price depends on “what skills you have in-house and what skills you have to go and get,” Allen says. Do you need a community manager to facilitate networking? Do you need a video content management system to stream content? Do you hire a vendor to provide the virtual meeting and exhibition platform? After you identify the vendors, technology, and resources you need, you calculate your expenses and set your fees. Virtual conferences “have to feed themselves, so figure out what you are going to have to charge to break even.” The cost to stream content is relatively minimal.

5. Don't Let Anyone Register Without a Computer Test

   Require attendees to test their computers to make sure they have the necessary hardware and software to access the conference before they pay their registration fee. If they don't and it doesn't work, they don't get a refund.

Sidebar #2: 5 Benefits of Virtual Meetings; 3 Ways to Use Them

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.”