One of the biggest opportunities to engage with your audience comes immediately after the event. Attendees are still thinking about the content, the connections they’ve made, and the experience overall. Post event surveys and redirects play a crucial role in these early post-event stages.

Post Event Surveys and Redirects

These surveys allow you to capture critical insights whilst the event is still fresh in your attendees’ minds. By asking for feedback on what worked and what could improve, you’re not only gathering valuable data but also showing attendees that their opinions matter to you.

Redirects are an effortless way to guide your audience towards their next steps after the event. Whether it’s visiting a landing page with exclusive resources, signing up for upcoming sessions, or engaging in post event discussions, redirects ensure attendees remain connected to your brand.

Redefining Accessibility and Engagement

Virtual corporate events and hybrid corporate events are not just convenient; they represent a paradigm shift in how businesses connect with their audiences. They offer unique advantages:

• Cost Efficiency: Virtual events eliminate expenses associated with travel, accommodation, and venue rental. Hybrid events allow a tailored allocation of resources, focusing in-person investments where they matter most while leveraging virtual technology for broad outreach.
• Global Reach: A hallmark of hybrid corporate events is their ability to create a “global bridge” between their teams all over the world. By using advanced platforms such as GlobalMeet, companies can link physical gatherings with remote participants who can interact seamlessly through chat, polling, surveys, and live Q&A sessions.
• Scalability: Virtual and hybrid formats can scale to accommodate audiences of any size, from small internal meetings to global conferences, ensuring maximum reach without compromising quality.

Strengthening Internal Corporate Communications

Effective corporate communication strategies are pivotal for employee engagement, alignment with organizational goals, and cultural cohesion. Virtual town halls and hybrid formats revolutionize internal communications by:

• Enhancing Inclusivity: Virtual town halls ensure that every employee, regardless of location, receives the same information simultaneously.
• Encouraging Real-Time Interaction: Features like live Q&A sessions and interactive polling provide immediate feedback and foster dialogue, making employees feel valued and heard.
• Streamlining Information Dissemination: Virtual AGMs (annual general meetings) and other corporate gatherings allow organizations to share updates directly, ensuring clarity and consistency across all levels.

Crisis Communications: Navigating Challenges with Virtual Events

A well-crafted crisis communications strategy is essential for mitigating reputational risks and ensuring business continuity. Integrating virtual events into this strategy amplifies organizational agility and responsiveness during crises.

Virtual platforms enable businesses to:

• Respond Swiftly: In a crisis, speed is paramount. Virtual events allow organizations to address stakeholders directly, providing updates and guidance in real time.
• Maintain Transparency: Sharing live video updates with stakeholders humanizes the message and establishes trust, critical during tumultuous times.

In a recent webinar GlobalMeet President Michele Dobnikar discussed the importance of communications as part of a good crisis management strategy, and how it can make or break business continuity in a crisis. She gave the example of a recent wildfire crisis, where proactive testing of a company’s business continuity plan allowed uninterrupted operations while ensuring employee safety. 

Leveraging virtual events in such situations allows for immediate communication, ensuring that teams remain informed and stakeholders reassured.

The term “fake paper” captures a sentiment many attendees feel during digital events. Virtual handshakes lack warmth; screens replace the spontaneity of real-world encounters. In this context, digital events can feel intangible, even insignificant. Much like fake paper — an empty simulation of the real thing — they run the risk of being overlooked or undervalued.

This sense of superficiality stems from the lack of depth and authenticity. Attendees often crave more than mere visual or auditory cues; they miss the tactile, emotional aspects of traditional events. The weight of a name tag, the excitement of mingling over coffee, the dynamic exchanges in hallway chats, and the shared energy of applause create memories and connections that stay with attendees long after the event ends. Without these layers of experience, digital events risk becoming disposable, a blur of screens rather than meaningful moments.

To bridge this gap, planners must look beyond the confines of technology as a transactional medium and strive to make digital and hybrid events feel personal, emotionally resonant, and undeniably real. This requires thoughtful integration of tools and strategies that prioritize meaningful interactions, as well as a commitment to creating shared experiences.

In a world where nearly every business is striving to expand its global footprint, providing live translations during virtual events is no longer an option but a necessity. According to a survey, 77% of businesses report that they are increasing the level of live translation and captioning services offered for virtual and hybrid events. The need for live translation is being driven by the growing number of international attendees at these events, along with the demand for accurate, timely communication that transcends language barriers.

Miscommunication due to language differences can lead to confusion and a lack of engagement, which may ultimately affect a businesses reputation and bottom line. Therefore, ensuring that event participants can understand presentations, discussions, and Q&A sessions — no matter what language they speak — is key to fostering participation. This is particularly important in conferences where real-time interaction is crucial for networking, idea exchange, and decision-making.

One of the most compelling advantages of virtual and hybrid events is their ability to make experiences more accessible to diverse audiences. By breaking down physical and geographical barriers, these formats enable participation for those who might otherwise be excluded.

Assistive Technologies: Implementing tools such as closed captioning, sign language interpretation, and screen reader compatibility ensures that your events cater to individuals with disabilities. Real-time translations can also bridge language barriers, opening your event to global audiences.

Customizable Participation: Virtual platforms can provide adaptable viewing and interaction options, accommodating various time zones, preferences, and needs. Offering downloadable materials, recorded sessions, and live Q&A opportunities further enriches the attendee experience. Tailor content for different demographics to make your event widely appealing.

By prioritizing accessibility, you’ll not only expand your audience but also foster inclusivity and goodwill. An accessible event is a clear statement that your brand values everyone’s participation.

One of the most significant advantages of live streaming is its dual-purpose functionality. Not only can you broadcast your event in real-time, but the same content can be recorded and made available for on-demand viewing.

This flexibility means your event can have a life far beyond the moment it ends. For those who couldn’t join live due to time zone constraints or scheduling conflicts, the ability to watch a replay ensures they still engage with your content. Moreover, on-demand access can serve as a resource for internal training, onboarding, or customer education long after the event concludes.

For instance, businesses have successfully turned webinar recordings into evergreen content libraries, allowing new leads to consume valuable insights at their convenience. By offering this added layer of accessibility, you cater to a wider audience and demonstrate your commitment to inclusivity.

At its core, video streaming and web conferencing serves as the foundation for virtual conference software. It enables real-time audio-visual communication, bridging the gap between attendees scattered across the globe. While video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams laid the groundwork for these events, specialized virtual conference software takes this concept to the next level.

Modern solutions aren’t limited to just video and voice; they integrate tools like screen sharing, digital whiteboards, and advanced presentation modes to enhance participation. They’re designed to facilitate not just conversations but immersive experiences — perfect for large-scale conferences, workshops, expos, and more.

A virtual event is hosted entirely online, allowing attendees to participate from anywhere with an internet connection. These events have gained immense popularity for their accessibility and cost-effectiveness. From webinars and virtual expos to fully immersive conferences, virtual event solutions are ideal for reaching a global audience without geographical limitations.

Sustainable event management refers to the integration of environmental, social, and economic principles into all planning, execution, and post-event processes. The objective is to minimize the negative impacts of events on the environment, whilst promoting positive contributions to society and the economy.

The drive for sustainability in event management has intensified in recent years, with government mandates such as President Biden’s 2021 executive order playing a critical role. The executive order outlined ambitious targets, including a 65% reduction in federal greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Private businesses and event organizers are increasingly looking for ways to contribute to these goals, especially since in person events — often resource-intensive — are major contributors to carbon emissions.

The event industry is a significant area of concern when it comes to sustainability. On average, a single event attendee generates approximately 1.5 tons of carbon emissions, making the sector a crucial target for carbon reduction efforts. From travel and accommodations, to energy use at venues, events have a large environmental footprint. Reducing this footprint is not only an environmental imperative, but can also be a cost-saving and branding advantage for event organizers.

One of the easiest ways to engage your virtual audience is by surveying and polling them periodically during the event. Polls and surveys provide real-time feedback, helping participants feel more involved in the session. These engagement tools not only capture valuable audience insights, but also break up the monotony of long presentations, encouraging attendees to stay actively engaged.

Polls and surveys can be used at the beginning of the event to gauge attendees’ knowledge or expectations, and throughout the event to measure understanding and engagement. Toward the end of the event, they can also serve to gather feedback on the event’s content, the speaker’s delivery, and overall experience.

For example, consider using polls to ask questions like:

• “What topics are you most excited to explore today?”
• “Which aspect of today’s presentation did you find most valuable?”
• “What additional resources would you like to receive after the event?”

By making these surveys anonymous, attendees may feel more comfortable providing honest answers. Moreover, analyzing these results can give you valuable insights that can then be used to improve future events.