By: Adam Borst

Digital Events and Why They are Important!

In the world today, virtual meetings and events are a major key to businesses and other organizations. Prior to the pandemic, the world rarely saw any virtual events. Yes, people played video games and talked over the phone, but meetings for work and school being held virtually are relatively new. During the pandemic, virtual meetings, virtual schooling and even virtual concerts exploded in popularity. In 2020, the world switched a majority of schools onto Zoom. The 2022 iHeartRadio Country Festival is going on currently as a hybrid event. More people than ever are working from home. With the pandemic nearly over, the virtual world will only continue to grow. According to forbes.com, the global virtual events market size has the potential to reach $502.76 billion, so this is only the beginning of this huge, new market. It is expected to grow at a rate of 33%.

Top 5 Reasons Virtual Events are Superior

The need to meet-up and to conversate will always be there, so having an easy way to do that without the travel and hassles of everyday life, makes virtual meetings superior. Being virtual, the meetings and events are entirely more inclusive. In terms of work meetings, some businesses post-pandemic allow for their employees to work from home, and that is not possible without virtual meetings.
Why spend the money, if you have the possibility not to? Event organizers will always look to reduce costs of their events, and holding them virtually almost completely eliminates those costs. Also, with a virtual meeting, you can set it up within minutes, in-person meetings take weeks, sometimes even months to set up.
With the pandemic coming to an end, the ability to meet up in-person is now possible again. But, with what was mentioned earlier, many people enjoy the virtual format. As many people most likely still enjoy the real-life interactions, so we can make the best of both worlds with a hybrid event. This situation creates something we have not seen yet, and new possibilities for interactive work, meetings, etc.
The process of acquiring a guest speaker is not always an easy one. Between scheduling, traveling, and costs the process can become quite a frustrating one. With virtual meetings, it solves all three of those problems to some extent. The guest speaker does not have to travel nor make extensive time in their schedule anymore. The price should be decreased a bit due to those two situations. It also will attract more well-known speakers because they only need to sit down at their computers.
This is key for many people such as students who attend school. The whole lesson is recorded and uploaded for easy reference. Incase of an absence or whatever other reason, it allows for people who could not make an event, to watch it at their own leisure.

The ability to connect to people around the world, at anytime, is now an option.

Common Misconceptions

A common misconception is that if one offers virtual attendance as an option, it will take-back from in-person attendance. That is not true, it just allows for people to attend during their other activities. From health disabilities, to kids, to travel arrangements, attending an event can be very, very challenging. Most people that can attend in-person still will continue to do that.

Event Flexibility

Aside from allowing for a hybrid format, the event itself is flexible. From time and date, to what you are advertising or doing. It allows for anyone in the world to attend at any time. Like mentioned prior, this increases the chances of guests and higher attendance rates. In chance of an outdoor event, weather plays a huge role into events, and if it gets rained-out after two years of planning, that would not be fun. Being virtual allows for make-up dates, or the option to go fully virtual.

Virtual Versus In-Person

In-person events can take years to plan out and to be successful. With in-person events the chances of losing out on potential viewership is massive due to everyday situations, for example, a person that cannot find a babysitter for the night. In-person events allow for less interaction between panel and audience, all the while other outside factors can ruin events, like rain. Virtual events do not take nearly as long to set-up or plan. Being virtual also allows for more interaction, with the ability to create polls for voting, to screen-sharing.