As we hit the one-year mark of the pandemic, it’s a good time to see where we are, and what we expect moving through 2021 into 2022. Will we see a return to normalcy? What have we learned about how to successfully execute virtual events? Will we go back to in-person like we saw before the pandemic? Virtual events are endlessly complex, and no two are the same, but there are some universal lessons from the past year. Join us for this episode to hear three key takeaways we think apply to every event going forward.

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So here’s where we are, one year in. The hope that by this time we’d be back to in-person events has faded, even as the news about vaccines and a return to more normality keeps getting better. Because events take so much preplanning, most 2021 events have announced they will stay virtual this year, with hope for a return in 2022.

2022? My god, we’re living in the future. I have a robot cleaning my house, a TV that sticks to my wall, and a machine that makes me a really decent cappuccino with the push of a single button. But some of that future has become exhausting. I remember years ago taking hours using these really primitive IRC apps to try to set up a video call with my parents so they could see their grandkids. Now we’re on video every day with clients, co-workers, friends. And just like we used to get dressed up to fly on a plane but now it’s flip flops and tank tops if you’re lucky, our Teams and Zoom standards are eroding as well. I used to have what I called my Emergency Shirt next to my desk. If I had a meeting that required video I’d grab that nice shirt and put it on so I looked presentable. My last Teams call was a hoodie and some strong uncertainty about when my last shower was.

The client was dressed the same.

I’m not sure if it’s better or worse, but I do know I’d really love to take a shower, put on some nice clothes and go out to dinner looking like I cared what I look like.  I’m guessing some of you feel the same.

Let’s talk then about where we are and where we go from here. Because while much continues to change, you should consider — and plan for — a new normal in how you approach events. The world shifted on its axis in our event world, and we need to shift with it or be permanently out of sync with what our audience wants and expects.

I’m going to go over 3 things we think are most important right now

First, Live virtual events are hard. Like, really, really hard. You see it whether you turn on the Golden Globes and see an at-home winner give his acceptance speech with his mute button on, and on most events you may have attended that featured technical glitches, crappy sound, poor connections or all of the above.

We recently did an event for 500 people where I personally did an announcement between sessions, and although I triple checked my video feeds setup, I still managed to have one button wrong and caused an echo so bad no one could understand me. We’re all trying our best, but every live element adds one more point of failure. Since we are all remote, you’re coordinating speakers and sessions across different geographies, with people who have differing level of comfort and skill with technology, not to mention the issues with technology and connections themselves.

I’m more convinced than ever that pre-recorded sessions, often played during the event as if they are live – what is often called simulive – is the best solution for almost every live event situation. We produced an awards ceremony for Microsoft for the second year using 100% prerecorded segments, from the introduction, entertainment, awards announcements and executive thank yous. It even included a special performance from three Broadway stars, something the client produced separately but which integrated perfectly into the show. The awards show ran a very tight 42 minutes from beginning to end, and the feedback was tremendous. Not one person commented that they were disappointed it wasn’t live.  They loved how well-produced it was, and said it really respected the audience with great content and attention to their time pressures.

On the other end of the spectrum, while we were helping another client, they piped us into an event that another division was conducting. Their entire awards ceremony was live, with two announcers in a studio, and nominees on-screen over zoom from all over the country. It was a disaster, with people freezing, winners being announced only to have the wrong video of one of the losers come up full screen. In one moment, I watched four nominees on screen along with one black box for a fifth nominee that couldn’t log in. When the winner was announced one of the losers logged off in an obvious huff. My heart screamed out for the technical team coordinating the event. I’m sure they were doing everything in their power to make it work, but the complexity was just too enormous. It’s easy to look at that and think “I’d never do something like that,” but it’s not a big leap from there to leaving a mute button on when the CEO starts his talk.

As I’ve said before, the power of pre-recording sessions is the ability to significantly up your production game. For our Microsoft awards we interviewed sixty nominees, all remotely. We used a remote-capture application that allowed us to shoot crystal clear video by using the interviewee’s phone camera. It’s really slick…it doesn’t compress the video like Zoom or Teams, so you get the benefit of that sweet phone camera. With some creative direction we captured gorgeous videos, and edited them down so all we needed to do was press play.

But simulive comes with its own set of challenges. For one, your planning calendar changes significantly. Speakers especially need to understand that they are actually ‘presenting’ 3-4 weeks before the event date when their session is recorded. Most presenters are in the mindset of waiting until the last minute to finalize their slides. That wasn’t optimal during the days of live sessions, but it’s absolutely not possible for virtual.

This leads to my second point. Creating engagement and community. I can hear you saying that no one just wants to watch a video for hours. And you’re right. An event should create a sense of a shared experience. When you see a wow moment on stage, or laugh out loud, you naturally look to the person next to you to share that moment. And you may have questions you want to ask. The closest we have with virtual events is group chat, and we use it liberally. If it’s a technical discussion, we may moderate questions to be answered in the chat. Sometimes we’ll have a live Q&A session directly after the simulive session, with the presenter able to answer questions live while a slide is onscreen so we don’t have a jarring moment of seeing our presenter in a different environment. We did an event for a sales group of about 500 people and learned that they typically held fun and lively events with lots of participation from the audience. So we encouraged that in the chat, and the audience delivered. They posted hundred and hundreds of comments, reacting to fun moments, cheering announcements, sharing their experiences and on and on. It was a large discussion room and showed that people can follow the content while also participating in what others are saying. A good lesson as you think about your events.

But engagement is more than just a chat. Whether you’re doing a one-hour awards ceremony or a three-day conference you should focus on moments that make people want to talk about it afterward. That could be the broadway moment I mentioned, or networking sessions that create a break from the work of the day. We’ve had such great success with things like a bagel-making class, mixology, golf instruction, yoga and more. If you’ve got a competitive group, trivia games and game shows are phenomenally fun and can be done with studio-quality hosts.

And here’s my third point. We’re not going back to pre-pandemic approaches at the drop of a hat. Even as we look to planning and executing live events in 2022, there is a strong consensus that future events will follow the hybrid model. The adoption of virtual events has resulted in higher attendance as well as an increase in the number of events that a person attends.

In the past, organization budgets, workloads, project deadlines and personal obligations meant people couldn’t attend certain functions. Budgets, especially, will play a larger role going forward now that people are used to the access of an online event. In the in-person only model we used to assemble calculators and a list of benefits that potential registrants could take to their manager to explain the value of attending a conference. We also would hear from exhibitors and partners that budget constraints meant they had to limit their participation. With virtual — by getting rid of travel, hotel, shipping, exhibit services, food & beverage and other costs — more people can participate. Some of our clients are experiencing record registrants and the ability to extend invites to more team members. All of this results in expanded communication and reach. So, plan that moving forward, if you choose to simply flip the switch back to in-person only, you’re likely to see some drop off from higher virtual numbers, depending on the type of event. As with all business decisions, cost plays a role and it certainly will with event spending in the future.

So how do you balance the in-person and virtual worlds? Well, that’s a topic for another podcast. Thanks for listening.