Virtual Corporate Events - Effective communication & the key to audience engagement
During this challenging time while so many people are working from home and trying to adapt to new ways of working, the need for engaging virtual events becomes even greater.Whether you’re trying to provide online training, connect with clients, hold a business meeting with multiple participants or promote your company brand, products and services, you’ll need to engage with your audience. Research shows that the more an audience engages with you, the more they’ll learn or the more they’ll remember you above your competitors.The world of virtual events, its technology and challenges are probably new to you. There’s little time for trial and error as the pressures of trying to offer a ‘business as usual’ service mean you have little time to prepare. So, how can you improve your communication techniques in virtual event presentation whilst keeping your audience engaged? Here, we offer tips and advice for effective virtual event preparation.
Introduction
The best introductions prime the audience with a preview of what’s to come, set the scene and entice them to stay. Think about unique openers, perhaps even a pre-recorded music sequence – something to make the audience sit up and listen.
Short, concise and to the point presentations
Once you’ve piqued the interest of your audience, you need to keep them on board. Nothing can be more off putting than long winded speeches which tend to ramble off track and bring in a lot of irrelevant extra for padding. Audiences can only process so much new information, so keep it short, concise and to the point – 30 minutes is a good rule of thumb.
Interact with your audience
Audiences are generally far more engaged if they’re active. Stimulate their imagination by your use of language. Ask rhetorical questions, include results of surveys or inject a bit of humour, but always speak directly into the camera as viewers do tend to interact better if they can see facial gestures and reactions.
Mix up the media
Virtual events need to cater for the entertainment factor too. Keeping the same text on the same background for your speech is unlikely to keep the attention of your audience for long. Thing about your audio visual material, keep it lively with an array of text, images and video but keep it in context, avoiding lengthy texts and overlong videos.
Q&A sessions
People always have questions and are probably more willing to raise them and participate at a virtual event than a physical one. Do remember to leave time at the end of your presentation for a time of discussion, an opportunity for questions to be asked and sufficient time for them to be answered.
Further opportunities
The art of successful presenting is to continue the experience and give your audience extra information or invitations. Post the recordings and presentation slides to them, send them links to access materials, invite them to your next online experience. The aim is to keep their interest and have them wanting more…
Events by Knight Virtual Planning Service
Still finding the whole process of virtual event speaking daunting? Events by Knight have a dedicated virtual corporate event planning service geared towards providing the best experience for your clients. We cover the whole planning journey from design through to implementation, and incorporate elements to make your presentation stand out from the crowd.We’d love to design, schedule and help implement your virtual event.
Get in Touch
Need some help with your corporate vitual event? Not sure where to start? Get in touch with our dedicated team who will be able to chat things over with you.
Email: info@eventsbyknight.co.uk or call +44(0)20 130 4040
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