.svg)
Organizing a virtual event often feels like juggling a hundred balls. And all these balls are like crying babies. It is Murphy’s world and in his famous words - everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But when you’re an event organizer, you’ve learned to juggle faster and delete Murphy from your ever-present mobile phone.There are some common problems organizers face with virtual events. So if you are planning to host one, it’s better to be prepared. Let’s look at nine such problems you may face but can easily avoid.
Pre-event
1. Understanding the ins and outs of the platform
Time is precious in event planning. And you'll have less time to focus on critical components of your event if you spend too much time figuring out your virtual event platform. As it is the main infrastructure for your event, getting it right is crucial to turn your creative event ideas into reality. Knowing different branding customization options or how group video calls work will empower you to host a well-thought-out event. The customer success (CS) team of the event platform knows it like the back of their hand. So taking their help to know the platform thoroughly can help you plan an event stress-free.
2. Event team onboarding to the platform
Your events run smoothly when all your team members can execute their parts efficiently. Setting up different event areas - reception, agenda, sponsor & exhibitor area, breakout rooms, gamification features - involves a detailed look at many granular features of the platform. This means your entire team needs onboarding to the event platform. You certainly don’t want your Partnerships Manager pinging you at 2 a.m. because they can’t figure out how to upload all the sponsor branding onto the platform. A dedicated CS team can take care of this so you have one less thing to worry about. They can even share some pro virtual event planning tips with you.
3. Onboarding speakers and sponsors to the platform
You’d want your speakers to host interactive sessions, audiences love, and your sponsors to get the maximum ROI from your event. But both these stakeholders may need a little push and time from you to know how to make the best use of the platform. It’s hard to spare time to onboard multiple speakers and sponsors individually and answer all their questions. You may also not have ready answers to many questions. But with a customer success representative by your side, you can rest assured that your speakers and sponsors’ queries will get resolved quickly.
4. Dry runs
You can never be too prepared for events. Dry runs are essential to execute a flawless event. But if not done effectively, they can cause anxiety rather than relieving your stress.Firstly, your event platform should have the capability to do dry runs. Secondly, you should have your customer success team with you to help figure out solutions on the spot to any last-minute issues you may face.
During event
5. Troubleshooting technical issues
About 60% of event professionals rate themselves as less than comfortable with virtual event tech. Let’s be honest. Even while running your event on the best virtual event platform, there is a possibility of a rare technical glitch. It can happen due to multiple reasons - someone in your team mistakenly clicked a wrong button, a speaker is unable to broadcast their slides, or loss of Wi-Fi signal. Here’s an event planning tip. On the event day, have an on-call customer success team for you to work with to troubleshoot any such issues.
6. Assisting speakers and partners
Even after you familiarize all your event stakeholders with your virtual event platform, they may face hiccups on the event day. A speaker’s presentation stops working, an exhibitor is stuck while updating their branding, or a sponsor wants to run a contest at the last minute.Timely assistance in such scenarios is of utmost importance to keep your event running. This is when the CS ninjas come to your rescue.
7. Answering audience questions
On event day, you or your team shouldn’t have to worry about any tech or platform-related questions your audience may have. By choosing an intuitive virtual event platform, you can greatly reduce such questions in the first place. But even little problems can have a significant impact on the audience experience and engagement levels. So having CS personnel by your side who can address your audience’s questions is a great blessing.
Post-event
8. Finding relevant data and gathering insights
Powerful virtual event platforms give you access to comprehensive event analytics. For example, with Hubilo you get access to event metrics across key attributes such as event engagement, networking efficiency, exhibitor ROI, and more. Having access to rich data is one thing but finding actionable insights is a whole different story. When it’s your first time accessing a ton of data, it can get a bit overwhelming. A customer success team can ensure you get the maximum benefit of the event analytics. They’ll help you find relevant data, derive useful insights, and generate use-case-specific reports, to send to exhibitors or sponsors, for example.
9. Making content available on demand
A ton of good content gets recorded at virtual events. And your marketing team can reap benefits from it for months to come. Making it available on demand is your gateway to lead generation, high-quality website traffic, and expanding the life of your event. Figuring out how to stitch together video streams from different streaming software and production setups can be challenging. Especially when you’ve speakers and hosts joining in from different locations. A CS team that has worked with multiple events and understands the nitty-gritty of the platform can guide you to make this possible quickly.Having a dedicated customer success team that’s available on-demand throughout the event planning, execution, and even post-event is confidence-inducing. It empowers you to be bold and creative with your event vision. Choose your virtual event platform carefully while you plan an event and ensure that it comes with a dedicated customer success team. Hubilo’s white-glove support ensures a turnaround time of under a minute with a live person. Want to host stress-free virtual events? Get on Hubilo today.
Kirti is a self-taught content strategist and editor. She is a computer science engineer by education who bid adieu to code because she fell in love with words. After 6 years of working in the digital media space creating editorial and branded content, she took to B2B content marketing. And she has been geeking out on it for 3 years now. She loves hiking in the mountains, reading psychology, and making a good cup of coffee.
