Virtual Education Fairs - the next big trend for Universities and Students

The rise of Virtual Education Fairs

The higher education sector has found sweeping ways of functioning post detrimental halt due to the pandemic. From cutting-edge online teaching methods to interactive webinars, the rise of ed tech has also seen proliferating demand for virtual education fairs.

Students who have been aspiring to pursue international education have begun to seek a plethora of opportunities through virtual education fairs.

Universities and educational institutions have also managed to get global traction due to their rising demand. Virtual Education Fairs also retain audiences through real-time Q&A sessions, video career counselling and one-on-one sessions with university representatives. This entire ecosystem of the knowledge exchange has become beneficial for organizations to generate branding and sponsorship opportunities

With this blog we’ll take you through the reason why virtual education fairs are the next big thing and what are their key components 

Why should you host a Virtual Education Fair?

• Fast-tracked application process

Hosting a virtual fair on a virtual platform can ease a lot of mundane tasks. Digital functioning of manual tasks through smart applicant tracking tools helps universities avoid going through heaps of applications. Exhibitors can also enable smart search filters based on their selected criteria and get in touch with students they wish to enroll for the programs and so can the students to checkout the university of their choice.

• Higher attendance 

Imagine you hosting an education expo physically in the San Diego city of California, United States. If a student from another country, say for example India or someone from another state of the U.S,  wishes to attend that fair, how practically possible would it be? The expenses of attending the fair will cost them a fortune plus the expenses as organizer you face is going to be another big list altogether - logistics, venue rental, food and catering and a lot more. With virtual education fairs, you get global traction from attendees joining from any part of the globe easily. This is one of the most attractive features for both active and passive attendees alike.

• Easy and quick information exchange

A virtual platform will eliminate the heavy exchange of marketing collaterals and informative brochures by allowing the exhibitors to make e-brochures available at their respective booths. Students will also be able to access information from the reception wall and event wall which can be used amazingly by the universities to post their content.

• University and partner branding

Each university has its own culture and trademark. Providing universities and partners with custom booths is a great replacement for branding at physical stalls. They also provide them with tabs to update information, add website details, add video links, share high-resolution images, documents and even chat options. 

• Easy to utilize career counselling space

In a virtual career fair, your attendees don’t even have to wait for one session to end and another to start. They can just hop to sessions of their choices. At the same time if they want to skip webinars and head directly to counselling sessions they can do that too. With the networking lounges, you can set up video chats for career counselling with the students with dedicated counselors. This is the most optimum way to ensure maximum interaction and save time

Key components to that determine the value of your Virtual Education Fairs

The “WOW” factors for Universities 

The right virtual event platform not only benefits students with impeccable opportunities but also helps organizers, university administrators and partners with branding and lead generation. Virtual education fairs offer powerful custom features such as exhibitors booths with stream-able videos and downloadable content. Another perk of these booths is that they provide excellent flexibility where you can run them for weeks and months as desired.

Measuring ROI 

Behind hosting a successful event, the ulterior motive most definitely is the ROI. Here’s is how you can determine your virtual education fair ROI

Lead generation

Every person that registers for your virtual education fairs becomes a potential lead. With the help of virtual event platform, you can have data of attendees streamlined and accumulated at one place

• Your objective should always  be providing the number of potential leads to sales & marketing team to take a follow up
• You can set different goals for different segments of your attendees
• Reach out to various potential leads with different streamlined strategies to convert them into clients

Lead qualification 

The next step is to measure the quality of leads generated. You can also compare it with the cost acquired to organize the event to understand the ROI of your virtual education fair -

• Try and understand the profiles and designations of your leads
• Understand the kind of business they can provide
• For example a management student applying for post graduation program, may merely be interested in getting better education prospects while a university representative or an education expert can surely be thought of as a potential lead
• Filtering your lead funnel will not only help you categorize your data but will also help you reach wholly to the leads that can give you business

Tracking the engagement

Virtual education fairs can bring you ROI in more ways than you imagine. Along with leads, it does provide specific data that can strengthen your future communications with respect to marketing and sales. The data includes

• Social media traction - engagement, likes, followers and shares pre and post event
• The number of people that take up your survey
• The number of people who participated in Q&A sessions
• Website clicks and downloads
• Traction on product and service pages
• E-book downloads
• Feedback forms

As you analyse engagement data, try to figure out if the captured data supports your business objectives.

Final Note

Virtual education fairs have surely come as a boon for students across the globe in these challenging times. The changing education modules and emergence of ed tech is definitely going to emerge even further. But if you think that students are the only ones to be benefited through education fairs, then you might consider giving it a second thought. With the above mentioned points there is ample space for organisations, universities and exhibitors to make the most of virtual education fair.

Check it for yourself, Request a demo!