The days of human limitation to organizing and attending only physical conferences are over. Now there are so many technologies that support virtual conferences. And some even go as far as providing a seamless virtual conference experience. You can literally jump into any virtual conference within the snap of a finger presently, and inventions are not slowing down at churning out more bespoke virtual conference Tech to revolutionize the event industry in the coming years. To solidify these points, a study undertaken by The Platform for Business Events Industry shows that 79% of event planners are adopting virtual events. 

As an event planner, you do not want to be left behind, and you want to stay updated on evolving virtual conference tools. So, what is a virtual conference? 

What is a Virtual Conference? 

A Virtual Conference is an event held in places/platforms other than physical. According to Mightynetwork they are events held online rather than in the real world. In all cases, a virtual conference is held over the Internet, with participants or attendees joining remotely with technological devices, such as Smartphones, Personal computers, Tablets, Monitors, etc. Though these are the hardware aspects of technologies, there are software and applications that bring virtual conferences to life. 

Several event platforms make virtual conferences more interactive, with features such as live text chat (Chatbox) and the ability to create breakout sessions. Learn how to make a virtual event more interactive for your participants in the easiest ways. 

Benefits of hosting a virtual conference 

Now that we know what a virtual conference is, let us talk about the benefits that virtual conferences serve to you as an Event Planner/Organizer in the United States and to your participants. 

1. It helps you bring together like-minded people together in a place/platform to develop a skill or share views over a set of ideas.  
2. Hosting an online conference helps the event planner reduce the expenses that would go into renting an event venue and other logistics involved in organizing a physical conference. 
3. The participants benefit when they do not have to spend money to book a flight, make hotel reservations, and have to worry about parking at event venues when they attend your event. 

With a virtual event, alongside points 3 and 4 above, both the organizer and attendees enjoy physical and financial comfort. Though, there might be some minor expenses when you have to pay to use some hosting platforms and internet data/access. Additionally, there may be a registration fee for webinars, but the cost is still minimal compared to in-person events.

1. Then Conferences come with the benefit of easy breakout sessions. That would almost be extremely difficult to get in a physical conference except where your venue has adjoining halls that permit such.  
2. ThinkBusinessEvents says one of the benefits of hosting a virtual conference is the flexibility and convenience that it offers. Virtual conference tends to be shorter and provide easy access to join and leave at one’s convenience without disturbing or distracting other attendees. In addition, participants can access recorded sessions if provided by the event organizer. 
3. Virtual conferences are now well structured and can be held across days of the week, allowing attendees more time to pursue other activities than it would have been if they had to attend a traditional conference that holds a whole day with so many breaks in between. 

Types of Virtual Conference 

• Video Conference:  

A video conference is a type of virtual conference that takes place on the Internet where participants can see one another’s faces and the ability to speak and hear others. The requirements for a video conference are a webcam on a computer or a smartphone device with an in-built front camera and a speaker where you can speak to and hear the other person. Those, however, do not qualify you to join a video conference. You will need internet access and a platform, such as Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, ezTalks, and Microsoft Teams, to mention just a few. These platforms enable you to create a video meeting where you can send out link invites to people to join your video conference.  

• Teleconferencing:  

This is the second type of online conference mostly used on cellular networks or landlines. This virtual conference type only allows audio conversation or meeting, and participants cannot see one another nor identify them unless introduced before the conference starts. The connectivity avenue for Teleconferencing is usually through phone lines. That is, for an individual to participate, they will need to have a SIM Card and prolly airtime. 

Why host a virtual conference? 

One of the most important ‘why’ to host a virtual conference is the avenue it creates to reach more participants, especially when they spread across countries of the earth. Online conference creates a wider awareness and outreach that in-person conferences cannot reach. A useful case study is Cvent, which hosted an in-person event titled Cvent CONNECT in 2019, and the number of attendees recorded was 4500+, compared to when the same event was held virtually, which recorded 40,000+ attendees. When you desire to quickly create brand awareness, reach more leads, and provide easy networking opportunities, then host a virtual conference. 

What are the goals of hosting a virtual conference? 

As an event organizer, you must create goals for any virtual conference you plan. To help you develop strategic goals, we have broken the path to set your virtual event goals into two; Goals for your business and Goals for your attendees. 

Goals for your business 

For your business, the goals can be: 

1. Brand Awareness 
2. Generation of Lead 
3. Revenue generation 
4. Improved visibility 
5. Growth of membership or followers 

Goals for potential attendees 

You must create clear goals for your potential attendees too, which include: 

1. Networking 
2. To Educate 
3. To convince or persuade 
4. To entertain 

Conclusion 

Conferences may come with a registration fee, some are free but they are not often cheap. There are instances you must pay the platform you use to host your virtual conference to gain access to more tools and features, and the cost of flyers, preparing presentation slides and a lot more will incur expenses, coupled with the cost of bringing a professional speaker to your event. Despite those essentials, virtual events have many benefits as stated above, and it is our recommendation that you add virtual conferences to your event planning strategy.