How to plan a successful virtual event
At The Idea Hunter we work on a variety of virtual events and our role with every experience is custom tailored to the needs of our clients. Whether we are providing an entertainment break, an interactive workshop or overseeing the entire event, we reference the same principles in our planning process. I believe that a successful virtual event is a combination of talented professionals, well thought out execution plans and several simple ideas, derived from great insights. Many of the principles listed below are built on truly understanding your guests and knowing who they are. By taking the time to understand them, you will have an incredible power to be able to influence their experience in any way you like. Sometimes it is the most simple ideas that can take your event from good to great!
Principle #1: A Warm Welcome
Picture yourself being invited to a friends home for dinner. When you arrive, the door is wide open. Questions like, “should I walk right in?” “Should I say hello?” “Have my friends run away and left me with a pot roast for myself?” start to flood your mind. This feeling of unease is not the emotion you want your guests to feel when inviting them to your live, virtual or hybrid event!
When we connect with our clients, we reference this experience. Why? Because it is a universal truth that the experience described above is uncomfortable and awkward. This is why our planning for virtual events begins right at the door. Using the platform zoom, as an example, we allow our waiting room to fill in before admitting the guests. You will hear our team behind the scenes, calling “Doors to open in 2 minutes.” This is what we have always done for live events, and it creates a feeling that we are prepared and that we are responsible the second we allow guests into the virtual venue. This is our house, and we are bringing people into it.
Upon entry, we have created a very turn key solution that anyone reading this blog can do on their own. Take your clients logo, event branding, or graphic and put it into a video editing software like iMovie. Then you can layer on a countdown timer and music. This visual communication allows guests to see what is happening and ensures we give people enough time to join the event. The music sets the tone and helps to create that warm welcome. Everyone is relaxed and we have full control of the experience from the second they join.
Principle #2: Program Emotion
When you plan someone a surprise party, you have pre-programmed an emotion. Your actions, if executed well, should result in the recipient feeling overwhelmed by happiness and excitement. If you create a slide show for your father on Father’s Day, you have programmed emotion so he feels appreciated and connected (he may even shed a tear, but thats probably what you were hoping for!). If you are capable of all the above, then you are capable of programming emotion into your virtual events. The challenge is that we become so logistics focused, we forget that we have this power. So add “emotion programming” to your next pre-event meeting and discuss it with your team. Find the cracks in your event where opportunity may lie for an impactful moment.
When we work with our clients, one of the questions we ask is - How do you want your guests to feel? Celebrated, appreciated, acknowledged, informed? This helps guide our emotional programming.
For example, many clients request our virtual mixology experience when they are celebrating a milestone/special occasion for their organization. This is a great virtual activity for this type of celebration because it is a social ritual to cheers to achievement. However, we like to take it a step further by creating additional moments to elevate this celebratory emotion. In a recent project, we were tasked with creating mixology gift boxes for an executive who was retiring. To amp up the box we added in a light-activated sound card that played the song, “Celebration” so that when guests opened their kits, the party had already begun. You can imagine what the guests must have experienced when they opened this box and were surprised by the gift they received and the fun music that played - we could say this was a mini surprise party in a box.
There are many more ways that we program in emotion. But the easiest way to do this when planning your own events is to first identify how you want people to feel and then think to yourself - What moments in my own life have made me feel that way? You would be amazed at how much you can pull from your own experience and translate into a great idea.
Principle #3: Create meaning - create engagement
In principle #2 we discussed programming emotion. With Principle #3 we are getting down to the significance of the experience and connecting meaning to things that commonly get overlooked as opportunities. The more meaning something has, the more we pay attention to it. The same way, we hold on to some things from our past and discard/donate others or we take photos of certain experiences and not others. It is our goal to create significance in as many components of our experiences as possible.
Idea # 1: We recently ran a trivia game for a group that was looking to raise money for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. They had a group of about 100 players, and when we have groups of that size we are very cognizant of the fact that we we will get 5-15 super strong players that are really engaged and we could start to lose people who are the bottom of the leaderboard. This is why we schedule in random prize draws throughout the game for those who are not ranked high in the game. With this particular game, we changed things up a bit. We decided to incorporate facts about the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation to help us decide who should win the random draw prizes. For example, one fact mentioned that there were 72 surgeons on the team at PMCF, so we shared that information and then awarded player 72 with a prize. It was a simple, effective and meaningful to educate guests and let them have fun at the same time.
Idea #2: Our client called us and asked us for ideas on a gift box for sales award winners. From the stories I have shared above, you may start picking up on the fact that many of my ideas stem from my own life experience and values. I have always loved the saying, “you are who you surround yourself with.” That saying came to mind when I thought about these top performers. Top performers want to be the best, have the best, connect with the best and be around the BEST! It was this insight, that sparked my idea to create an award winning gift box. Every item we selected to go into the box was a Gold Award winning product. We did not settle for silver or bronze - it had to be Gold. From the champagne we chose, down to the chocolate - everything was the very BEST and told a story that resonated with the recipients.
Principle #4: personalization IS KEY
This principle is critically important with virtual events. People will stay to engage with a virtual event if it feels personalized to them. Whenever we can add in personalization, we do! If you have been following our blog, you will have seen some recent activations that leveraged the personalization principle in a major way. Check out the custom concert we did for a client, who was announcing their 2022 conference destination. Our artists toured Halifax and showed guests all the major attractions in between their musical sets. Talk about a personalized experience!
It has almost been 1 full year since we immersed ourselves into the world of virtual events. It is incredible what we, as an industry, have been able to learn together. The two rules I had for myself in 2020 was to try everything I possibly could and be ok with failing. I called 2020 the learning year and I knew I had to take advantage of it, even if it meant falling down a few times. I now see 2021 as the implementation year of everything we learned over the last few months. I really hope some of our learnings will help you with your next virtual event. I also hope that you see how simple ideas, compounded on top of each other can make a huge impact. No idea is too small or too simple. Explore it, try it and test it!
