The Benefits Of Virtual Events: They’re Here To Stay

Zoom fatigue is a phenomenon that is prevalent in business schedules due to virtual meeting marathons. Many companies are fighting back by offering best practices such as 25-minute or 50-minute meetings and no-meeting days, such as Citi’s Zoom-free Fridays. However, it is equally important to emphasize the benefits of conducting meetings and events virtually in addition to these unquestionably relevant topics.

The following benefits of the vexsolutions.io virtual setup should be kept in mind when event planners and companies are faced with the decision to deliver a meeting or event in a face-to-face or virtual format.

1. The growth of the attendee population

Virtual events have shown higher registration and attendance rates than face-to-face counterparts, contrary to popular belief. In general, virtual events are more convenient and efficient for attendees, who do not need to travel ad-hoc and can explore the event from the comfort of their homes. In the event of word-of-mouth marketing, attendance is more likely to increase: as early birds register and share the news on their social networks, their connections are more likely to attend.

2. Increased value and flexibility for attendees

In virtual events, attendees can browse content at their own pace and focus on topics of their choice much faster. Attendees are not forced to choose between two parallel sessions in case of parallel sessions: they can watch one live and watch the other on demand. Furthermore, virtual venues allow for post-event visits: depending on the license agreement, events can remain online for up to 12 months after the event has ended, providing more opportunities for learning.

3. Analytical advances

Attendance and attendee experience data can be collected more effectively by virtual venues than by physical ones. Analytics on real-time event attendance, heatmaps of visited areas, and content consumption KPIs provide insight that is difficult to grasp in a face-to-face event, where registration data might be the only option for gathering data.

4. Elimination of geographical restrictions

A virtual event can change its geographical scope: Rather than taking a show on the road to reach target attendees, a single event can now cover several states, countries and event time zones.

5. Reduced costs for attendees

Virtual events are not just more accessible but also more affordable to attend: no travel costs and more time saved are two huge selling points for attendees wishing to ask their manager for approval to attend a conference. Moreover, some congresses have reduced their fees and, in some cases, even made their events free. By being able to send more employees to events, companies will be able to offer them more growth and development opportunities without significantly cutting into their budgets.

6. Lower event costs, higher ROI

Sponsors can also enjoy significant savings: no travel costs for guests, sponsors, speakers or logistic team, and no venue costs. In the planning phase, virtual events, if supported by the appropriate subject matter experts, can also be more cost-effective due to their faster turnaround time and time savings for the planning team.