Why online events often don't work - and how to do it better

In most cases, events cannot simply be transferred unchanged to the Internet. But with the right concept, online events can be a success.

The event landscape is currently lying fallow - there will probably be no major events until summer 2021. That's why a format that had been rather neglected until then has been rediscovered: online events. Everywhere you read these days that events can simply be moved to the Internet. Streaming is the new magic word when it comes to bringing people together, communicating content and somehow making events possible again. But the big disillusionment was not long in coming.

Professional online events are complex and cost both money and preparation time. Event formats cannot simply be transferred 1 : 1 to the Internet. And on the viewer side, there has hardly been any willingness to pay for them. Livestreams have therefore simply been free of charge up to now. That won't work in the long run, because as in any other industry, everyone involved in a production has to earn money in order to make a living.

This mainly requires high-quality content and staying power until it becomes normal to pay for an event that takes place online.

We've summarized why online events often don't work and how to do it better in this blog article.

 

Motivation - why do people attend events?

Social aspects are at least as important as the content.

Of course, events are also about the content, the program on stage or the topics that visitors can expect. But that is only part of the motivation why people attend events. A study by Congreet GmbH came to the conclusion that 90% of visitors to business events want to make new contacts. Or to put it in a nutshell: information is imparted on stage, but the interesting conversations take place during the breaks. Social plays a big role at events. When I ask my colleagues at Eventnet what they look forward to most when they visit the Prolight + Sound trade show, the answer I get is that it's about meeting old university colleagues and colleagues from other trades.

Other motivating factors include:

• Keeping up with trends in the industry (81%)
• Generate leads (46 %)
• Continuing education (74 %)
• Interesting speakers (45%)

The situation is similar at music events. Of course, you decide which concert to attend based on the artist. But what matters most is the shared experience in front of the stage. Without the atmosphere and enjoying the music together with other fans, the experience would not be even half as intense.

You can see from this that it is not at all easy to simply reproduce an event online, as this often reduces it to the pure information level. Most of the social factors that are a main motivation for many guests unfortunately fall away when the participants sit alone in front of their screens at home.

The trick, therefore, is to still create a shared experience through which guests can interact with the stage as well as with each other.

 

Attention - how do you keep viewers happy?

Distraction beckons everywhere.

Attention is a rare commodity, which is why modern event concepts are often about keeping participants interested with exciting staging, gamification and interaction elements. But face-to-face events have one big advantage: the guests are on site and the opportunities for distraction are limited. With online events, which are typically followed at home or in the office, things are quite different. No one can see whether you're writing emails on the side or simply muting because the office talk is more interesting at the moment. It is therefore all the more important for online events that the content is so interesting and the staging so dynamic that the participants resist the multitude of potential distractions.

This is how you secure attention:

• Interesting content
• Exciting moderation
• Variety
• Interaction
• Atmosphere
• Presence / time frame / agenda
• Feeling of being watched

Distraction threatens by:

Presence events

• Smartphone
• Abort (leaving the event)

Online events

• Everything in the household (cooking, washing up, cleaning up)
• Any YouTube video
• Internet surfing
• Office Talks
• unobserved abort (thus easier)

 

Entertainment - brevity is once again the spice of life

Online events are often too long and too monotonous.

Make sure you have exciting content

Do you ask yourself? When do you click on a YouTube video? If the title sounds exciting and the first few seconds confirm that it is, you stay tuned. Otherwise, you're likely to abort. It is therefore more important than ever to critically question: is my program interesting and crisply prepared in terms of content? Is it interesting for the viewers and would I stay tuned as a viewer myself? Feedback from participants is naturally much more merciless at online events.

Entertaining moderation

At presence events, a not-so-entertaining moderation or a not-so-round program might still be forgiven. After all, where should you go if you're already there? But with online events, in case of doubt, the laptop is simply closed. A good moderator can pick up a lot here and are even more important at online events. Because here it is even more important to put on a show and give the participants a good reason to stay tuned. So it can be worthwhile to get professional support for this.

Variety - in the program and in the staging

The attention span on the Internet is short. Users are used to short chunks of information and video clips. It is therefore advisable to take this consumer behavior into account. It's best to take a look at some good web formats and get some inspiration. A vivid example are the so-called "TED Talks". This is a format from the USA in which the speakers each have 18 minutes to present a topic in an exciting way with a PowerPoint presentation. Not only do you learn a lot about good (and not so good) presentations - it's also often very entertaining.

An overview of TED Talks can be found here: www.ted.com

Shorten as much as possible

Often you think that it is completely impossible to cut even further. However, most of the time it is possible. Try to see it as an athletic challenge to squeeze the essence out of their content. The "TED Talks" I mentioned are limited to 18 minutes for a reason. Try to boil down a topic unit to a maximum of 15 - 18 minutes. If that's not possible, split your program into small bites that correspond to these time blocks.

Fancy a little experiment?

Remember the text messages of yesteryear. You had to formulate your entire request in 160 characters - and it worked. As an experiment, try to pack your entire presentation into a Twitter post of 280 characters. Of course, this is extreme and should be seen more as a playful exercise. But you'll be amazed at how well you can compress information when you have to.

The visual staging should also offer some variety. There is nothing more boring than a single rigid camera perspective. Here, too, take inspiration from other formats, such as TV shows. With three camera perspectives, between which you switch situationally, you already bring some dynamics into play.

• Keep your topics short (maximum 15 min. per topic)
• Squeeze the essence out of their content
• Give an outlook on the duration
• Include videos, images and anecdotes
• Moderate in pairs if necessary
• Offer multiple camera perspectives

 

Interaction brings variety to the online event

Engage audience

The feeling of being able to influence what happens on stage or on the screen is great and makes for much greater involvement. In contrast to presence events, you don't have eye contact with your guests at online events. Interaction is therefore all the more important, as it creates a feeling of togetherness.

Start with an interaction

Therefore, leave no doubt and start your event best directly with a small interaction.

• From which city are the participants
• Who watches on the laptop / who on the tablet
• Who already has experience in the subject

No matter what, the main thing is to briefly involve your audience right at the beginning. In this way, you show that this is not going to be a frontal sprinkling, but a joint event. Your participants will love it.

Visualize opinions

Let participants vote and answer questions and show the results directly in the stream and read out good comments from the live chat. It's worth having an editor here to coordinate the interaction and hand off individual contributions to the moderator.

If necessary, individual participants can also be connected via video or telephone. However, this requires good preparation and a technical editorial team that can check the picture and sound quality beforehand and then connect the participants to the program.

Dramaturgy

Plan your program in a way that motivates people to stay tuned. Give an outlook on what the audience can expect, announce highlights and put them rather in the middle or at the end of your program. Highlights include practical tips, a tangible benefit to viewers, action guides, etc. But they can also be a special interview guest or a summary.

Reward persistence

At the end of your program, promise small surprises or a special benefit for all viewers who are still with you. This could be, for example, a download code for an action guide, access to further content or the presentation of survey results. The only important thing is: keep your promise. Pseudo-surprises that have no added value leave a bland taste, because your viewers will feel they have been tricked.

 

Packaging counts - quality is also important online

Online events are not a cheap alternative.

Events are, just like the business card or the website, a figurehead that tells something about your company. You should therefore have high standards for the quality of the online event. In our consultations, we have received feedback from time to time that "it's only online, so there's no need to go to such lengths". But that's not the case, because online events also need to be optimally prepared. And here too: yes, it will cost money. Therefore, it is good to consider beforehand whether the event or the goal you are pursuing with it is worth it.

We have summarized some "do's" and "don'ts" here.

Dont's

• Do not use a smartphone for recording
  What may work for spontaneous streams is unsuitable for online events
• The classic webcam perspective
  no one wants to see jerky and half-sharp pictures and it just looks unprofessional
• Sound over the computer microphone
  that will drive away the audience as fast as they came
• only one, rigid camera perspective
  quickly appears boring

Do's

• Good illumination
  Your set should be evenly illuminated and bright as day
• Sharp image
  the resolution should be at least 720p
• Live direction
  the right perspective at the right time enhances your online event enormously
• Clean sound
  The sound must necessarily be free of interference and clear
• Prepare for live situation
  It can be irritating not to see the audience

Live direction

A control room brings your online event a big step closer to the feel of a TV show. Because instead of a fixed perspective, you can switch between different camera perspectives. Just as it suits the content of your program. For example, if you have several interviewees, you could always show a close-up of the person who is currently speaking. If you are demonstrating something, objects on a table can be brought into the picture in a big way at the right time. And when giving a presentation, it makes sense to alternate between the presentation slide and the speaker. This way your event gets a visual dynamic and it's just more fun to watch the program.

Tip: If you are interested in streaming your event online, check out our streaming service. We will help you make your online event a success with all the points mentioned.

 

Monetization - nothing happens in the long run without moss

There must be a willingness to pay money for livestreams .

Online events have a big catch. Most users expect them to be free. Most people are not used to paying money for content other than series or movies on the Internet. But that's exactly what won't be avoided in the long run, because in the end, money has to be made somehow. Unless there are other goals to be achieved with the online event.

It will certainly be a rocky road until then. Users have to get used to the fact that livestreams also cost money, and event organizers have to deliver content that is of such high quality that people are willing to pay for it. And certainly not all event formats are suitable for monetization. It is possible that hybrid formats will emerge in the future - i.e., combinations of conventional events and online events that are offered as a preparatory or supplementary measure.

What is the currency?

• Money
  As with normal events for which tickets are sold, it must also be possible to earn money with online events. A paywall can be set up for this purpose. This is a kind of digital ticket booth that can be passed by paying a certain amount or using a voucher code that has already been paid for. This is known as a PPV event (pay-per-view). Of course, it is also possible to offer a donation option.
• Access figures
  With promotional or sponsored content, the goal is to send content to as many viewers as possible. Here, distribution is the decisive factor.
• Lead generation
  Here, too, it is more about reaching many users. However, with the goal of getting contact data. Here you should think about setting up a preliminary page with an e-mail registration.
• Proof of participation
  For some institutions or public bodies, it is important to prove a certain number of participants, e.g. in order to legitimize funding. Here, too, registration of the respective participants is a good idea.

 

Conclusion

The potential of online formats has long been underestimated in the event sector. In times of the Corona crisis, however, it is overloaded with expectations as the seemingly only remaining alternative. With good planning and suitable concepts, online events can be staged in an exciting way and also have the potential to step out of the shadow of the free culture. And this applies not only to the time of the Covid 19 pandemic, but also to the time after.

Of course, not every event format is suitable for online implementation, and real-life events can probably never be replaced by a digital equivalent, especially in terms of atmosphere and magic (fortunately). But with good concepts and the right ambition, it may be possible to create new formats that don't have to be an alternative at all, but rather complement existing events and tap into entirely new visitor groups as an independent category and independent of location.

But this requires the courage on the part of the organizers to invest in good online events so that the quality leads to a willingness to pay on the part of viewers or sponsors. Perhaps in the future we'll see interactive programs in which we participate for a small fee, as an alternative to a Netflix evening. Or there may be digital formats that artists always stream live to accompany album releases. There is definitely a lot of room for creativity and new concepts here, depending on the purpose of the event. Let's hope that the potential is exploited.

It's best to also take a look at our streaming service. We will be happy to advise you on your project.

 

Are you curious?

We will be happy to advise you on possible approaches for your event.

Contact us at 030 - 60 98 36 74 or info@eventnet.de