The majority of the corporate world, along with most industries, now recognises the advantages of organising virtual events.

Virtual event planning is here to stay, at least until we are in a position to organise live events again. If you are inexperienced with virtual event planning, however, you will need some pointers in the right direction, in order to avoid a steep learning curve.

In this blog post, we share some best practices you should ideally follow when planning your upcoming virtual event, for ensuring its seamless production.

Virtual Event Best Practices for Your Planning and Production

Best Practices for Virtual Event Planning

Determine the level of effort required for production

If you have a lineup of speakers and are planning to deliver sponsored content live, or perhaps offer it as premium content after the online event is over, it’s worth investing in proper branding and professional quality production. You may want to work with a technical producer who can help you achieve the production level you need and make sure the event lives up to the audience’s expectations.

Give enough time to each aspect of virtual event planning

Just like live events, virtual events too can take several weeks or months to plan. We recommend that you try and take at least one month to ensure you have invested sufficient time for the following:

• Finalising the event agenda
• Engaging with speakers and technical assistants
• Recording any content that can be pre-recorded
• Editing and revisions

Make sure you conduct a test run before broadcasting your virtual event

Doing a rehearsal before the showdown is a good way to identify any issues that could potentially lead to glitches and affect the audience’s experience, during the actual event. Make sure you test the platform, everything is in the correct order.

Best Practices for Virtual Event Production

Consider including pre-recorded sessions into your event stream

If you want to ensure that each session in your virtual event turns out great, it’s a good idea to simply pre-record it. This way, you can not only incorporate more visual effects, but also edit or redo any elements ahead of time, if needed. It can also give you extra time for setting up the upcoming portion of the event, especially any live sessions you may have planned, such as a Q&A session with the audience.

Find a virtual event tech solution that offers you several options for branding

Needless to say, Zoom and other similar live streaming solutions may not be the ideal solution, if you are planning to stream branded content. Instead, you should choose a virtual event platform that provides you with suitable options for integrating branded content within both the event stream and the overall virtual experience.

Make use of high-quality visual effects to improve virtual brand engagement

For virtual corporate events, it’s ideal to use high-resolution graphics in branded slides, transitions, and overlays. Working with a technical producer is a good idea if you want to use the right kind of visuals with the right specs.

Set up a green room to let your crew coordinate with the speakers

Setting up a green room or a virtual space that’s not a part of the standard live stream is a great idea. In the green room, the event planners or technical producers can coordinate with the speakers, keep them updated, or check in with them, as they wait for their sessions.

Consider setting up a virtual venue for better event production quality

Think of a virtual venue as a physical space or studio that’s specifically set up for the purpose of pre-recording event content or for hosting your virtual event. Such venues are typically set up by virtual event tech providers or AV production companies, so they come ready with the right kind of equipment to produce and broadcast professional, high-quality content.

Keep variations in the formats and layouts you use in your virtual event

Avoid letting your audience feel bored, watching the same split-screen or slide layout for hours on end. You can keep their attention for longer, if you could shake it up with multiple types of layouts, content formats, and visual elements, such as charts, overlays, and backgrounds.

Final Thoughts

If you do choose to do it all on your own and plan on bringing a group of people together into your virtual venue, keep the latest health and safety guidelines in mind. Having said this, finding the right virtual event tech platform to support your hybrid virtual event can go a long way towards ensuring your event’s success. By doing that, you can focus on your overall event strategy and let them work on virtual event planning and production.

To learn more about how our team of virtual event planners and AV production experts can help make your dream virtual event a reality, contact us today!