Your Ultimate Guide to Host a Successful Virtual Career Fair

What are virtual career fairs?

Virtual career fairs allow employers and job seekers to connect in a virtual environment, helping employers upgrade their staffing without compromising on recruiting targets or quality of employees.

They have come as a rescue for both employers and employees alike, removing the limitations of the traditional job fair. Imagine not having to go through piles of tedious paperwork. Imagine a simplified virtual setup paving the way for opportunities beyond geographical distances. That is what a virtual career fair is. 

Virtual careers fairs - The next big thing!

Virtual career fairs have become a big game changer for recruiters and organizations seeking to keep their recruiting funnel active. Having a pool of global talent to hire from, minus the travel expenses and venue rental, plus online networking and branding opportunities are enticing organizations around the world. Here's why virtual career fairs are here to stay:

• Automation of tedious planning tasks through virtual event management software
• Quick setup of the event
• Enticing sponsorship opportunities for organizations
• Easy branding with virtual exhibitor booths 
• Easy interview scheduling and one-on-one sessions in networking lounges
• Parallel interview sessions at a single virtual space improving time efficiency and efficacy
• Improved networking opportunities and easy follow ups with the candidates
• Easy CRM integration to quantify events’ performance
• Polls and surveys that ignite a meaningful conversation & feedback
• Long term sustainability - digital distribution of collaterals such as brochures, assessment tests and marketing collateral resulting in less paper use 

Planning a virtual career fair : How virtual event platform features can make it a cakewalk

If you are an organization planning to host a virtual career fair, remember that the success of an engaging career fair massively depends on well-planned event strategy plus an amazing feature set that ensures not just a hassle free recruitment process, but impactful interactions and of course measurable performance outcomes. 

Let's do a quick rundown of the key features offered by virtual event management software or virtual trade fair software. Use these features to strengthen your virtual career fair and create a lasting impression on the visitors.

Seamless navigation - Virtual event platform feature #1

While hosting your virtual event, choose your package wisely. An integrated reception wall on your virtual event platform can help your attendees navigate through the event easily.

If it is not a part of your package, you can pay some extra bucks and create a fantastic user experience for attendees to see the event agenda, sessions timing and contest scoreboard all in one place.

Virtual booth to promote employer brand - Virtual event platform feature #2

Just like how you pay for stalls for your product/organization branding at real-life events, you can leverage a custom virtual booth that mimics the feel of a real life event.

Employers can also exhibit promotional collaterals including images, graphics and videos of their organizations. You can also offer downloadable collaterals to job seekers and attendees.

Networking lounge to foster meaningful interactions - Virtual event platform feature #3

Allowing job seekers and employers to have one-on-one interaction/interviews or round table conferences, networking lounge is the feature that can be of the most use for virtual career fairs. Sessioned networking definitely ignites valuable interactions which is why the networking lounge is another perfect feature for a career fair.

Integrated surveys and polls - Virtual Event Platform Feature #4

With this feature you will get an instant feedback and evaluation from the job seekers enrolled in the virtual job fair platform. The feedback and stats recorded would evaluate the performance of your event and help you improve your performance in future career fairs and virtual events.

Things to consider while planning a Virtual Career Fair

• Set a specific goal

You can reap rewards of virtual career fairs if you know what you are targeting at. Ask these questions

1. Do I plan to simply go for the branding of my organization or am I targeting at specific job opportunities?
2. Who all should attend my event?
3. Do I want to conduct interviews or just share corporate content?
4. What is the content or information do I expect to get from job seekers before the interview?

Chalking out specifics will help you set a goal for your virtual career fair ultimately resulting in a measurable outcomes

• Pre-event marketing

Once you have concluded your goals, like who should be attending the event and what will be the goal, spare no time and begin strategizing your pre-event marketing. 

Learn more about audiences and reach out to them with email marketing and social media campaigns. Invite them to collaborate for your content, make sure they participate in your social media quizzes. Also make sure to add a landing page to your website for easy registration for the attendees

• During the event - Ensure a simplified application process 

Your attendees or job seekers would barely be interested in filling heavy forms. To make sure that they stick to the event, provide them with short forms and quick links

• Incorporate interesting webinars

While career fairs are traditionally expected to be jam packed with interview sessions and conferences, including interesting subject specific webinars is never a bad idea. Long hours of professional discussions and interviews may create monotony or a fatigue for the attendees.

Host a webinar and open gates for two way communication where attendees can participate with live chats and Q&A. Various video streaming integrations like zoom, vimeo, youtube etc., with your virtual events platform, will also make these sessions available long after the event ends

• Technical and staff support

With a virtual event, chances of any technical glitches in between the event are always unanticipated. It is better to be prepared to call for assistance from your technical staff and client service manager. Your attendees and job seekers would also expect instant technical support.

Make sure to take a dry run before the actual event. Know the anticipated places where you would require technical and staff support for your event

• Get Social!

Pre-event marketing to get audience traction is an amazing idea. But your real-time marketing begins just when the event starts. Make the most of social media marketing to create a buzz around your event.

Tweet about the live event and let others also participate. Run contests on social media. You can also incentivize attendees to share about the event via social check-ins to strengthen employer branding and boost visibility on social media platforms 

• Gamify your event 

Adding a tinge of gamification to your virtual career fair will make your event super exciting. Building intrigue and excitement around your event will help you maintain attendee retention and focus by ultimately attracting high job seeker traffic. You can do this by running contests such as leaderboard and offering sponsored prizes for the attendees.

Conclusion

A virtual career fair is a fantastic way to open the door for organizations to a range of job seekers. A successful virtual career fair not only helps the hosting organization promote their employer brand but also creates a pipeline of talent for present jobs and future vacancies. Moreover other benefits include partner collaboration, conducting research and amazing technical support.

Now that you know (mostly) everything about virtual career fairs, are ready to get started and create your own? Request a demo here.