Community-building with Virtual Events
Key differences between offline and virtual event management
I’d like to share key insights that I’ve gained by organising 100+ offline events and running (and co-founding) a company that ran 250+ events.
Attention Spans
They’re short. Offline people just hang around. When they get bored, they’ll go to the buffet or grab a coffee, making themselves available for others. These serendipitous interactions make events. At virtual events, the event shared the same screen with YouTube, Instagram, Wikipedia, TikTok etc. Also, the screen shares the same space with your cat, desk toys, kitchen waiting to be cleaned etc.
Be weary of this and structure your agenda accordingly. A 45 minutes talk is normal offline, 20 minutes can be lengthy online.
Goals
Offline, there are many reasons for going to and staying at an event: the conference is in Barcelona, there is free wine, the employers pays for it, I haven’t seen Steve in a while and would love to catch up.
Online, it’s much more limited: either you want to talk to people there or you want to go to specific talks.
Make sure to state the value proposition of each agenda item very clearly. And then keep your promise.
Choice
Options are your friend. Let people choose what they want to do. At offline events, people will hang around the corridor or at the buffet and network there, if they’re not interested in the talk. Make sure to provide alternatives to people who aren’t too keen on specific things.
Don’t worry about scarcity. People will complain about not being able to attend everything, because things are happening in parallel. But that’s a good thing! They’ll come back for more. Treat every agenda item as a teaser; as a stimulant to have more interactions in the background or after.
Keep teasing!