The Advantages of Hosting Online Events

Online events, also known as virtual events, are events that take place in the online space. These events occur at a specific date & time and are held on a platform that allows attendees to be part of the virtual event in a similar way that they would be part of an in-person event.

Online events have been thrust into the limelight recently due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. Many countries throughout the world that were affected by Covid-19 banned in-person events.

 The widespread bans of in-person events were a huge disruption to those hosting and those attending in-person events. Still, it has also created an opportunity to introduce people who would not have considered hosting or attending online events in the past to at least give online events a try.

The 3 biggest advantages of hosting online events:

Increase Your Reach & Scale

An online event allows you to reach a much wider audience compared to an in-person event. An in-person event usually attracts attendees who are in the geographical area close to the event venue. An online event only requires a device with an internet connection to attend the event, so it opens up the possibility to have attendees from all over the world, which increases your reach dramatically. The size of your venue also limits the number of attendees for an in-person event. An online event allows you to scale by potentially having tens of thousands of attendees because there is no physical bricks & mortar venue to restrict the numbers.

Save Money

The costs of hosting an in-person event can be considerable. Charges such as venue hire, staff costs, setting up costs as well as take down costs, meals, accommodation & travel costs mean that there is a substantial financial outlay to host an in-person event.

Online events remove many in-person event costs since you are not having a gathering of people in one physical location. In general, the only costs associated with online events are the online events platform, paying for the speakers(excluding their travel & accommodation costs) & costs to promote the event. Depending on the type of event, you could save up to 75% if you opt to host an online event over an in-person event.

Analytics & Reporting

In-person events often rely on surveys & mobile event apps to receive feedback & measure engagement for their event. The big challenge for in-person event hosts is that it’s very difficult to get attendees to complete surveys or provide feedback regarding the event.

Online events have a major advantage over in-person events because the online event platform can gather & report on real-time data as the event is taking place. Post-event analysis of this data can be extremely beneficial because it can show what aspects of your event were enjoyed most by the attendees & what elements need to be improved or removed in future events.

Conclusion

In today’s modern world, technology must be used to help reach business goals. Using a good virtual events platform to host your online events could give you the edge you need over your competitors.