Why it’s time to get used to virtual conferences.

As a conference organizer, what do you do when you suddenly can’t run your in-person event? You leverage technology to take your content online. That makes sense during the COVID-19 pandemic, of course, but it’s also a sensible approach in general, for financial, environmental, and time-saving reasons. Things are never going to be quite the same in the conference world — here is why and how.

This isn’t a temporary change

This month, O’Reilly media canceled all its future in-person conferences and close down the events arm of its business. “Without understanding when this global health emergency may come to an end, we can’t plan for or execute on a business that will be forever changed as a result of this crisis,” wrote Laura Baldwin, President of O’Reilly Media.

The decision to stop running in-person events and fully pivot to virtual shows us the change happening to in-person events and human interactions at large. With many companies moving their events online, people’s perception of large gatherings and the efficacy of virtual networking and online engagement will change forever; virtual events will be the new norm.

How COVID-19 will change people’s behaviors long-term

Source: Forbes

As a result of many businesses adapting to working from home, workplace experts expect that companies will change the way they run their businesses even after the pandemic. Employees, clients, and customers are getting used to this style of work — and are discovering that they prefer not to have to travel to get things done.

The longer the crisis goes on, the more reliant people are on online communication, leading us to significant interactive shifts. In short: people didn’t stop interacting, but they moved their communities online. This shift means a lot to industries that have traditionally been very in-person focused — in particular, the event industry. As an industry we are not looking for temporary solutions until the pandemic is over; we witnessing the beginning of a permanent migration from physical to online conferences.

The beginnings of a permanent shift

The upheaval of the events industry is going to affect many employees and businesses negatively. There is a silver lining, too, however: online virtual events are an improvement on in-person events in several ways:

A broader audience: The new world of virtual events makes the conference more accessible and increases your event’s pool of potential participants, as it expands your reach beyond a specific region. Virtual attendees don’t worry about travel costs, accommodation, scheduling, or visa issues, and the physical space is no longer a limiting factor for your attendee headcount.

Invite speakers from anywhere in the world: With the additional flexibility of remote speaking, speakers don’t need to put multi-day gaps in their schedules for a single speaking engagement. Great news for conference organizers: You can now invite speakers based anywhere in the world, at a much lower cost than ever before.

Lower financial risks: Virtual conferences offer the opportunity to deliver the same kind of experience as in-person and with lower financial risks, especially in this hard time.

Venue hire, accommodation, flights, food, drinks, technology, and more costs are just non-existent in virtual events. All that you will be paying for is the software, speakers, and promotion.

Virtual events are environmentally friendly: Traditional conferences present a huge environmental challenge. The CO2 emissions for a flight from London to San Francisco for one person are 1.3 tonnes. There are more than 445 million business flights every year, so it all adds up — with people staying at home, the earth can finally breathe!

Virtual events reduce the need for attendees to travel, it saves businesses money, and, most importantly, reduces the impact on the environment.

Virtual events are flexible: If you can think of an event you can host in-person, the odds are that you can host it virtually. You need to ensure you have the right platform and tools at your disposal. And because the cost is lower, you can even get more experimental in how you do your conferences; choose different speakers than you usually would, or invite attendees who might otherwise not travel to come along.

Virtual events are resilient: The economic loss of event cancellations globally because of COVID-19 has surpassed $1.1 billion. Unless the internet goes down, your virtual events can go ahead as planned, even if travel restrictions or financial limitations might otherwise have prevented your attendees from showing up.

Virtual events are a deep vein of data: In virtual events, you can get instant data in realtime. You can know which parts your audience enjoyed more, how many stayed throughout the event, how many left and when. You can get all the information you need to fine-tune your content in future events — or adjust your event on the fly as it is happening!

Where is the opportunity?

Virtual conferences are an opportunity to unleash your creativity and stand out, with a cost-effective, hassle-free to organize and zero impact on our planet. They are a win-win solution for both organizations and attendees. You can plan, organize, and host a virtual conference all in one place using a virtual conference platform like Konf.

Ready to take your conference to the virtual realm? Drop us an email at Konf.co!