How to host an online event effectively?

When teams are working from home or scattered at various distances, Video meetings, one-on-one chats and online groups are great ways to stay connected with each other. Online meetings and video calls are no hidden secrets, but how do you organise an online event effectively?

Below are a few tips which will help you host an online event effectively.

Plan in advance about the event

You need to plan ahead about the theme of the event. What is the purpose of the event and what will be the benefits you and the audience will benefit from this event? Finding answers for these questions is necessary to get everybody putting it together and participating. And it will help you design an event that will give participants greater insight into your topic or product demonstration. The event which is purposeful, meaningful and specific will draw attention and attract registrations.

Identify the audience and the right medium to engage.

An online event can be organised using various platforms. Online webinars, live demos using screen sharing or Q&A through various e-learning apps are few of the platforms that will allow meaningful opportunities for your audience to learn and engage. Considering the strength of the audience, you can decide which platform would be effective. Live-streaming is a great way to engage an audience of any size. Adding Q&A session in between the live presentations will engage the audience more. You can even record your video in advance, make an interactive ppt and display them in the webinar, while you talk with the audience and engage them with QnA. Animated presentations always attract. It is a fun way to engage and educate your audience while keeping your budget in check.

Online events are cost-effective, time-saving and more return-oriented.

Unlike the traditional way where you would plan months before to invest lakhs of money to host an event, you could actually plan and host an event within a couple of days. Online events help people retain information and give you a chance to build community. It provides various interactive ways to engage people.

The speaker of the event should be a great presenter with a soothing but clearly audible voice to keep the ears connected till the end of the event.

Online events should not be lengthy

Audiences generally tend to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter or listening/reading to straight content. Avoid making lengthy events. Break up the event with quizzes, polls and QnAs activities to engage the audience. Allow attendees to ask you questions.

Enable an online friend to help with technical difficulties during the event

While the speaker is presenting, enable an online friend who will look into the technical issues like screen sharing, sound, login, logout and network issues. Answer to the questions that arise in chat. So that the speaker doesn’t get disturbed and finishes the presentation on time.

Last but not the least, Make sure meetings have a clear goal and agenda, and pre-reads are set out in advance.

Creative Social Intranet Software is one such engaging platform which enables online polls, QnAs, video streaming, chat and more to a group of communities.