On November 4, the Cybersecurity Marketing Society held its fireside chat with Liz King, the founder and CEO of Liz King Events and TechsyTalk Global, an educational platform that provides event tech recommendations for people in the industry. King is an event strategist, consultant, and speaker who works with thought leaders who want to use events to reach their audience.
Cybersecurity Marketing Society’s Maria Velasquez and Aileen Casmano spoke with King on how best to plan virtual events as many experience video fatigue.
Keeping Virtual Events Fun
During the beginning of quarantine, nearly every company was planning virtual events, and everyone was signing up for these events. However, as King mentioned, “The truth is people weren’t doing it well because there wasn’t a lot of time to think or plan, or it was people’s first time doing it.” As a result, not many are likely to return to another virtual event if they weren’t satisfied.
In addition, without these physical events, sponsors now have to turn to virtual booths to reach people. However, they’re ineffective, amounting to graphics on a screen with a logo. King believes that trade shows will not last into the future because they already weren’t working, and they were only implemented because they were tied to old revenue models, not because of their value. She noted, “Nobody wants to stand behind a table and stalk people, and nobody wants to walk through a trade show floor and be stalked by people.”
Now that we’ve spent months staying inside, people are tired of being online. How much content can people possibly consume when they’re at home working? It takes a lot to get people’s attention and attract their interest.
Being Creative
King encouraged people planning events to deeply think about the event platform, planning, and marketing to understand how they can stand out. Event planners have to be creative and think about anything they can do to pique interest and action. The prevalence of so many virtual events makes it difficult to break through the clutter. “Anything you can do to make those personal connections” will be valuable.
To spice up a typical video conference, some companies have provided entertainment breaks with magicians, meditation sessions, and more during the content. In one instance, the event emailed participants recipes in advance because a cooking class was a part of the agenda.
In addition, your audience most likely doesn’t want to be overwhelmed with content: “People don’t have the kind of mental time to tune in for hours and hours.” For a past event, King said they planned two weeks of content for two hours each day. This way, viewers aren’t spending the bulk of their day watching a webinar.
The Value of Virtual Events
Large physical events have demanded hundreds or even thousands of dollars from attendees, but most virtual events are free.
When participants visited conferences, they usually prioritized focusing on the speakers and networking with others, especially because the hefty price tag was attached to the event. But with so many virtual events available, no one prioritizes them nearly the same as in-person events.
King emphasized that the “switch in our brains has to happen for us to value the speaker.” People don’t want to pay an exorbitant amount of money if the speaker isn’t there in person. As a result, “pricing is going to change a lot until you get to the point where you can monetize virtual events in the same way and people will normalize the experience enough.”
But for now, virtual event prices will be lower, and speakers will be paid less. To be able to make that online event is worth the same price as the in-person event, many are going the membership route to justify the money. Participants gain access to the virtual conference at the same price as the in-person event but also gain a membership where they have access to year-round content and other perks. King said, “It’s a way of keeping the price the same but still adding value.”
Moving into the future, these monetization strategies will continue to shift, and people’s comfort levels and what they value in an event will have to change.
Attracting Expert Speakers
When searching for speakers to talk at your event, you need to have a clear value proposition. Kind stressed to “make sure there is a win for them.” Do the research to understand what might stand out to them, especially if you have a small budget.
Twitter is one of the best platforms to reach speakers because that’s often where relevant conversation occurs. Find a relevant tweet related to the content of your event, and use that to craft your message to show exactly why they would be great to speak.
How to Plan Your Own Event
Now anyone can create their own event. King recommends to start small when you’re working on your own brand. You don’t need hundreds of thousands of fans like big companies do, but you do need a small number of dedicated fans: quality over quantity.
In addition, when embarking on the process, “start with a few people and let them build it with you.” This makes them more invested in what you’re doing.
You’ll also have to think about the true value you want to offer rather than what your viewers are buying. If your community creates value by spreading the word or being an ambassador for your brand, initially that is more crucial than generating purchases.
Warm relationships will also help spur growth. Identify your ideal target audience and a handful of people who fit your criteria. The people who start conversations and give great feedback will be instrumental in driving others to your community. Because “if you start a group and it’s dead, people will lose attention fast.” Those warm leads will model the desired behavior.
If you want to learn more about creating an exciting virtual event, watch the fireside chat recap here. Follow Cybersecurity Marketing Society on Twitter or LinkedIn to keep up to date with any future events.
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