What is the missing puzzle piece?

Imagine this, for Christmas, you got a 1000 piece puzzle. A beautiful landscape picture with sweeping hills, intricate flowers, and tranquil plants juxtaposed with a wild and powerful waterfall, you spend weeks of your time carefully assembling all the pieces. Weeks searching for the right sections to fit in all the right places. Finally, you slot puzzle piece number 999 carefully into place, then you realize, you are missing that final piece.

Now, imagine that puzzle is your virtual/hybrid event. After weeks of hard work, stressing over every small detail; you finally deliver a superb virtual event, but only those who attended experienced it. The missing piece of so many live and virtual events is the post–production; the recording and the sharing. Events have a wonderful way of being present tense.  Those who are lucky enough to attend in person will always get the biggest benefit from them. However, it seems like an own goal not to share that event afterward.

In a world where time is becoming ever more valuable, many can’t prioritise attending events in person; but not being able to attend that event shouldn’t be a barrier.

What if films were only released in the cinema and then evaporated into thin air, never to be viewed again – no Netflix, no DVD, no BoxOffice – nada?! There would be no hope of me remembering 50% of films for a start, we couldn’t share recommendations over a coffee, or reminisce about those classics and notice that details you never spotted on the first 5 watches!

The Events industry, like the TV and Film industries; should be on-demand. They should be accessible in multiple mediums and they should cater to all access needs.

The global crisis and subsequent technological advancements have gone some way to breaking down barriers to access and the demand for content has skyrocketed. Whether it’s ebooks, podcasts, or youtube videos; all have reported an influx of subscribers.

So let’s continue the momentum, engage your audiences in more ways and learn from the experiences of the last 12 months.

So what can you do?

There are a plethora of different ways you could share your event.

First, we advise deciding how much you are happy to share. There should still be value in the live event; that exclusive experience of being there (or logged in) when the event is happening does heighten the engagement due to real-time interactivity, conversations and networking. Especially if you are monetizing your event, there has to be careful consideration as to how you share the content afterward; should it be limited? are you charging for on-demand access?

Then we should look at what medium to use to share that content. Pictures are easy, sharing doesn’t necessarily mean the whole content, you can give your audience a taste, with an inspiring photo and use it as a marketing tool for future events. Video is the most popular approach, giving you the ability to add subtitles and additional features, animations or graphics. Similar to pictures, video can be a really powerful, visually stimulating medium to showcase the ‘best bits’ and entice sign up for future events or another call to action.

Of course, you may also opt to distribute a full event recording as part of the event subscription privileges. Especially for those events with multiple simultaneous sessions, allow your ticket holders the opportunity not to choose and miss out!

Finally, we have podcasts – one of the fastest-growing mediums. With many of us aiming to minimize screen time in our intensely digitalised lifestyle, podcasts have seen a huge spike in popularity. If you opt to convert your event footage to a  podcast series, you don’t have to worry about losing branding opportunities, we regularly add audio sponsor adverts alongside musical jingles to make sure podcasts hit all the right goals, alongside delivering premium audio production.

 

Life beyond the virtual curtain (when the boss comes up with the headings…)

Forgive the cheesy header! but whether it’s a training workshop, conference, award show or party; there is a great deal of value in sharing your experience beyond the final curtain call.

Stop assuming that the event stops when the day’s agenda finishes. Play on the momentum, think about those who couldn’t attend and be accessible with all the ways you share your event. There are definitely lots of other puzzle pieces to remember, but this one is crucial to the bigger picture. When the event is over and you take a step back to look at the bigger picture, the beauty of your wonderfully crafted masterpiece, will be impaired without that powerful piece that keeps it shining for years to come.

 

For more information on how we might be able to help you with your event, send us an email at [email protected]