How To Make the Most of Your Virtual Meetings

By Deborah J. Hodges

With most conferences and events going virtual for several months, creating your virtual experience should include what attendees want to advance in their organizations and be successful.

Whether your virtual meeting is 100 people or 10, 000 attendees, it is vital to do it right and be professional. Since early 2020, Zoom video conferencing platform has 200 million DAILY meeting participants, compared to an average of 10 million participants in December 2019. There is a dramatic increase in attendees using virtual conferencing, and higher numbers are coming.

Conducting research is valuable before producing your virtual meeting. Not only in selecting a video platform; however, when creating your content. Also, it is important to consider how you will measure your virtual meeting impact. You are investing in a virtual conference that takes time and effort. It is desirable to know how it will convert to their interest and add value.

The top video conferencing platforms are:

• Zoom is the number one video conferencing platform, at 40.49% market share.
• GoToWebinar is the second video conferencing platform with a 19.82% market share.
• The third biggest platform by market share is Cisco Webex at 12.31%.
• ON24 is the next biggest platform for video conferencing, with a 3.53% market share.
• The fifth-largest video conferencing platform is Adobe Connect, at 3.38% market share.                                                                                                                                                SkillScouter 5.2020

Here are 25 tips on what you should consider when planning your virtual meeting:

1. Know what communication and marketing tactics are effective for your attendees and demographic. (Yes, different strokes for different folks.)
2. Consider your messaging and use power words that sell and connect with your attendees.
3. Define or obtain your target market’s attributes. (Yes, it works and vital for post-event analysis.)
4. Write an article about why this is important to your organization?
5. Conduct a poll as a pre-event marketing tactic and provide this info to the speaker and panel when planning the session.
6. Promote your speaker(s) by highlighting their passion for their subject area of expertise, not only their topic of your virtual meeting.
7. Consider asking the speakers to send a 30-45 second video with their speaker proposal. Or consider a video interview as a part of your selection process, especially if they are an unknown speaker to your organization.
8. Create a professional presentation deck- branded, with images and clean, easy to read slides.
9. Use multi-channel marketing to reach your attendees in your pre-event marketing. (Email, social, print, strategic partners, advertising, and more.)
10. Select tactics and channels that you can measure your marketing effectiveness.
11. Combine your conference with a social cause to add more opportunities for sharing photos and your story of why you are proudly supporting this cause.
12. Ask for questions to be submitted in advance when registering for the event. It will help the speakers when preparing the presentation.
13. Be consistent in branding and messaging- snubbing its importance is a missed opportunity.
14. Build applicability in your content for your attendees to identify with and synthesize in their environment.
15. Define objectives and take-away’s from the session in your marketing materials.
16. Conduct a practice session with the speakers! Coach them-no judgment.
17. Brand your marketing materials.
18. Look at past virtual meetings and select the best speakers.
19. Keep your conference time to 30-60 minutes per session.
20. Divide the sessions into central areas of interest.
21. Use video and images to build trust and other persuasive appeals with your attendees and keep it visually appealing.
22. Use the moderator or a meeting facilitator to manage the ‘chatbox’ and introduce questions and comments during the presentation.
23. Have fun breaks between sessions if there are multiple sessions, such as in a summit or a full day. Music or images are ideal.
24. Plan a follow-up action-send the presentation, an article, or paper after the virtual meeting to provide more value and for attendees to take to their colleagues.
25. Measure the satisfaction of the attendees with a post- evaluation.

Incorporate these tips into your virtual meetings and conference, and they will boost your team’s confidence and give your organization an opportunity to be more successful.

Don’t forget to evaluate if your strategy and tactics were effective. Whether you consider the number of attendees as the goal or their satisfaction with the speaker and content, it is essential to know what you are going to measure from your virtual meetings before you invest in creating your virtual meeting.

We suggest researching your attendees’ attributes and needs. Our research and assessments have shown measurable improvement in engagement and impact. We engaged 2-3x more attendees with our strategies and tactics than the industry standards. Don’t forget to plan some time to celebrate what worked and learn from what didn’t work with the virtual meetings. These lessons are impressive and great information when planning your next virtual meeting.

Deborah J. Hodges, MA is a skilled strategist, marketer, and communications expert. She serves on several executive boards such as the Chicago Engineers Foundation, Future City Competition (STEM-Discover-E), Society of Marketing Professional Services, and serves as an advisor to several enterprises. Her past experience includes Lend Lease, OWP/P(Cannon Design), RTKL(Callison), Professional Service Industries(Intertek PSI USA), Walker Parking Consultants, American Bar Association, American Hospital Association, United Way, and others. 

Deborah Hodges can be reached at dhodges@goldensquare.biz or by telephone at 312.675.6080.

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