Understanding these reasons is half of the journey towards better, more engaging virtual events. If you’re ready to start making conference room bookings www.productreview.com.au for your hybrid meetings, create your free Skedda account today. Hybrid meeting effectiveness will vary from team to team so it’s important to gather insights on what’s working and what’s not. Using a conference room reservation system can provide you workplace analytics and data about your space usage, attendance rates, and more.
Hosting a networking event can feel different to a more exclusive event where you often have a defined guest list and know exactly who to invite. With a networking event, you might need to extend an open invitation beyond your network to attract new faces. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all adapting to the age of the “new normal”. Many events organisers have opted for a hybrid event alternative, utilising technology to deliver engaging events. Is your meetup focussed on a particular skillset or area of interest?
Passive Participation
For additional resources, we also highly recommend checking out the Virtual Events Handbook, as well. Keep it short and specific, what did attendees enjoy, what could be improved, and what would they like to see next time? Open-ended questions can lead to powerful testimonials and ideas you may not have considered.
Use Breakout Rooms (strategically)
Share the agenda with attendees ahead of time — including conversation topics and materials to prepare — so everyone has the time to bring their best ideas. How do I keep remote participants engaged in hybrid meetings? Use interactive tools like Miro, MURAL, or Mentimeter for real-time polls, brainstorming, and Q&A. Rotate speaking turns and encourage chat participation to include everyone equally. Gather feedback on the meeting format and encourage participants to share their experiences.
Before the event takes place, here are some areas to focus your attention on. The recent impact of Covid-19 has forced many meetup groups to go virtual. With the help of technology and our know-how, yours can too! Our guide will take you through the process of moving meetups online with key considerations and tips alongside advice on upscaling physical events.
For small group meetings, have everyone share a reflection, question, or key takeaway in the chat at certain points. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore 10 innovative ways to inject interactivity into your video conferences, training, and events. These tactics promote lively participation, imaginative thinking, and lasting retention. It is useful to capture feedback in real-time by using a phone-based survey tool like Poll Everywhere to collect feedback from each team member on specific discussion points. After the meeting is over, virtual teams must come together to identify what works and what doesn’t.
- Better yet, include a “convert to my time zone” link or use a countdown timer that adjusts automatically.
- There’s no cost to join Meetup as a member, and you’ll be exploring worlds of social possibility in minutes.
- Building an online community and weighing its success heavily relies on post-event actions.
Hand out a feedback form at the end of your meetup, so you can monitor reactions to the changes you’ve made and keep on improving it. Once you hold the first of your new and improved meetup, make sure you film snippets and share to your social media accounts and your website. If people are considering attending, they will want to see a taster of the experience for themselves. Make sure you’re using all the relevant online channels you can, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meetup and forums such as Reddit. You will already have dedicated social media accounts for the group, but triple check they’re working as well as they possibly can. Also, don’t be concerned about over-booking speakers, as contributors may fall through at the last minute.
This twist on speed networking helps people do that faster. There’s nothing like a shared learning activity as a way to build new connections with the people around you. It gives everyone a shared talking point and is a great way for less confident members of the group to get involved. Act as a moderator when conversations get challenging or when someone’s dominating the event and not letting others speak. Remind people of the amount of time remaining, and bring everyone back together before the event ends to round up what’s happened and get people excited about a future gathering. When your event day rolls around, you’ll play a crucial role in what happens.
Think of moderators as the backstage crew making sure everything feels seamless on camera. When done well, attendees don’t even realize how much work is happening behind the scenes, they just feel taken care of. This helps you attract a more targeted audience that’s already interested in what your event offers, boosting both attendance and engagement. By switching formats and pacing, your agenda becomes more engaging and easier to follow — which increases retention and participation.
When planning for your meetup, aim to leave some time at the beginning and the end for a check-in with folks. You can even offer to meet up a few minutes – 15 to 30 minutes – before the event itself starts so that those interested have time for a networking or social opportunity. Leaving the opportunity for some free-form conversation can help to strengthen and maintain our bonds, even if we’re meeting from our respective living rooms. This guide walks you through the exact steps on how to host a virtual event, plus the tools, tech, and tips to make it feel anything but mundane. A virtual event can benefit from the use of a virtual event platform. If you’re hosting a small virtual meet up, using a platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts may be all you need.
The main aim of attending the meetup for these people is likely to be socialising and forging friendships. Growing your meetup for them is a bonus, as long as it includes more of the same relevant attendees and doesn’t become repetitive. One key thing – make sure the event is easily added to a calendar.
There’s a lot to think about, from setting clear goals to keeping attendees engaged, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. This section walks you through each step to help you plan with confidence and keep your event running smoothly from start to finish. The right virtual event platform will create an interactive virtual experience that fosters participant engagement. Keep Connected, hosted by Meetup CEO David Siegel, is a conversation show about the power of community.
Remember to use various feedback collection methods so they are accessible for both your in-person and virtual attendees. This can be as simple as asking them to complete a short electronic survey. To ensure that people feel safe to share, be mindful of building an inclusive culture where people feel like they can voice concerns without retaliation. There are also many ways to anonymously collect feedback. Virtual networking events are popping up everywhere, and you want to make sure yours is unmissable. Seek out people who’d be interested in attending your event by reaching out to your network in real life, on Slack channels, and through social media platforms like LinkedIn.
If you have additional speakers you can create more of a workshop style meetup session. Use your new planning team to promote your meetup in style. Schedule your upcoming meetups with the aim of boosting your membership. You could incentivise people to refer friends and acquaintances. Another thing to consider – the cliques that formed at physical meetups are now removed.
Using high-quality microphones, webcams, and a stable internet connection is one of the most essential best practices for virtual events in real time. Use countdown posts, behind-the-scenes sneak peeks, speaker highlights, and interactive polls to build anticipation. Don’t forget event-specific hashtags to make your content easier to find and follow.
