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What is a Virtual Event: How to Produce a Flawless Livestream

INTRODUCTION


Unbounded by distance and travel constraints, companies across all industries are seizing the enormous opportunity to engage with larger audiences than ever before by using virtual events.


That said, many company leaders aren’t fully aware of what a virtual event is and of how to reap their full benefits by producing them properly.

A team of virtual event producers running a flawless livestream

What Is a Virtual Event and How Are Virtual Events Different from Webinars?

Virtual events go by a number of names, including:


  • Virtual Summits
  • Virtual Seminars
  • Virtual Conferences
  • Virtual Trainings
  • Online Events
  • Virtual Trade Shows
  • Virtual Town Halls
  • Online Award Ceremonies


Importantly, virtual events differ from webinars and webcasts. The key distinctions between these different types of online events are duration and complexity.


Webinar and webcasts last between 30 minutes to two hours and generally include one to three speakers. Virtual events, meanwhile, run anywhere from a half day to multiple days and usually include at least a dozen presenters.


Furthermore, virtual events deliver many more content sections, including:


  • Presentations
  • Panels
  • Networking sessions
  • Breakout rooms
  • Product launches
  • Demos
  • Workshops


Virtual events also include more production elements, such as:


  • Introductions
  • Presenter Transitions
  • Slide Decks
  • Videos
  • Screen Shares
  • Chats
  • Messages
  • Q&A Sessions
  • Polls
  • Surveys
  • Downloadable Files
  • Production Breaks
  • Speaker Handoffs
  • Content Changes
  • Break Pages
  • Engagement Tools


On the production side of virtual events, the longer duration and greater complexity requires deeper technical skills, more detailed planning, and more thorough preparation to ensure a smooth and engaging event. And— in a calendar year filled with webinars, breakfast seminars, trade show booths, and podcasts—virtual events are often one of a marketing department’s premier events, if not the premier event. Thus, with so much riding on a virtual event, high-quality event production really matters.

What Is Virtual Event Production?

A virtual event has four major constituencies:


  1. Marketers: Marketers take on the task of identifying and effectively inviting the right people to the virtual event.

  2. Subject Matter Experts: These professionals create and present the content to the audience.

  3. Attendees: These participants may consist of internal team members, partners, prospects, clients, government officials, or the general public.

  4. Production: This team provides the technology and know-how to plan and execute the virtual event.


Of these four groups, it is the virtual event production team that bears responsibility for how an event runs. It falls on their shoulders to ensure that:


  • Marketers have a seamless registration portal to capture and track all meaningful registration activity.

  • Subject matter experts have a reliable and professional presentation station and are comfortable and prepared to present.

  • Attendees can easily join, receive prompt technical support, and enjoy an engaging, glitch-free event.


To accomplish all of this, the virtual event production team must thoroughly prepare a number of technical and creative elements—and then deliver them live and in concert, before an audience. Rally Point Webinar’s virtual event production team has broken these elements down into six key areas.

The 6 Key Areas of Virtual Event Production #1-3

#1

Virtual Event Planning

#2

Virtual Event Registration

#3

Presenter Station Setup

#1: Virtual Event Planning


Marketers typically schedule a virtual event at least 4-14 months before it takes place. That depends on whether the event is a yearly occurrence or an impromptu, mid-year idea. Regardless, the virtual event team usually begins its involvement at least two months before the marketing of an event begins. This is because the virtual event production team will take the critical step of selecting the most appropriate online event and registration platform for the marketing team to direct registrants to.


Virtual event planning also extends to event design, content management, and speaker readiness. A high-quality virtual event planning and production team will work with you and your talent to fine-tune the event timeline, optimize the content for an online medium using the right mix of engagement tools, schedule and run all of the necessary production meetings, and keep track of all the virtual event material to include within the virtual event platform.


Oftentimes, the virtual event production team will also provide the event host, moderator, or emcee. When providing this role, the planning also includes gathering bios and speaker details, scripting and wordsmithing all of the transitions, and creating a rapport with the speakers to breathe additional energy and dynamism into the event.

#2: Virtual Event Registration


Nearly every virtual event platform includes a registration portal to sign up for the event. However, many registration portals have a limited ability to customize their look and feel and tailor the email communications. Unbundling the virtual event platform from the registration platform oftentimes provides a higher level of customization and branding. (At Rally Point Webinars, we provide a proprietary, virtual event registration platform which clients can design to their specifications and use to push data into their CRM or marketing platform via a custom integration.)


Key elements to look for within a registration portal include the ability to:


  • Single Sign-On (SSO): Track registrants once they register, without requiring them to log in again.

  • Tracking: Use Google Analytics, social media pixels, source code, etc., to determine which tactic or link drives each registrant, and to determine the effectiveness of your landing page.

  • Social Media Forms: Capture leads directly on social media by using their native forms.

  • Embed Code: Place the registration form directly onto the company website, to make the most of all the analytics the website already has.

  • Form Handlers and Integrations: Push the registration directly into a CRM, while also pairing the data with a campaign ID, in real time.

  • Branding: Showcase your company’s logo, colors, fonts, images, and overall look and feel so that it matches company branding guidelines.

  • Private Label: Hide the name of the platform so that your company’s brand shines through, not the vendor.
PLAN MY EVENT

#3: Presenter Station Setup


Presenters not only have to demonstrate their expertise during a virtual event, but they also have to look and sound professional while doing so. Accomplishing this is no small feat when lighting, acoustics, microphones, webcams, Internet connectivity, computer hardware, user error, etc. can all conspire to sabotage a presenter's livestream. The audio and video can stream poorly, cut in-and-out, or drop off entirely.


An expert virtual event production team will provide the planning, technical expertise, and real-time support to prevent these issues, while also creating the ideal presentation station for each speaker to operate from.


Some of the key elements for having a first-rate presenter station include:


  • Selecting the right equipment and properly setting it up
  • Optimizing the computer for a live event
  • Ensuring there is sufficient Internet speed and connectivity
  • Arranging the real or virtual background
  • Identifying possible at-home or at-office issues that threaten the success of the event (such as upcoming construction)

The 6 Key Areas of Virtual Event Production #3-6

#4

Orientation & Rehearsal

#5

Production & Support

#6

Data & Recordings

#4: Orientation and Rehearsals


Virtual event platforms will have different layouts, features, and moving parts. Each content session will likely have a number of different transition points, such as intros, outros, polls, videos, speaker handoffs, Q&A sessions, etc. Only by reviewing all of this ahead of time with the virtual event production team can speakers perform their best during their livestream.

#5: Production and Support


All of this thorough preparation matters little without the live virtual event itself running well. The virtual event production team should take accountability for this.


Key roles within the production team can include a producer, a co-producer, event support agents, and a post-production specialist. This means your speakers will only need to focus on presenting, and the marketing team can relax as the show goes on.


The rest falls to the production team. They will moderator the event, operate the virtual event platform, address any spontaneous tech issues, ready the speakers, care for the attendees, implement any backup procedures, and see to it that the event runs flawlessly as designed.

PLAN MY EVENT

#6: Data and Recordings


Every virtual event generates data and lots of content. A basic platform will report who arrived and for how long. A first-class platform will provide:


  • Accurate & Detailed Attendee Data: Pair the registration name and the attendee name to be one and the same; will show how each attendee voted on each poll; and will display each attendee's chats, separating the answered comments and questions from the unanswered ones.

  • Unified Reporting: Deliver the registration and attendee data in a single report.

  • On-Demand Hosting: Host the on-demand recording and track who watched the recording and when.

  • On-Demand Registrations: Allow live webinar registrants to access the on-demand recording while prompting new users to register.

  • Link Constancy: Use the same registration page for the live event to gate the on-demand recording. This way, all of the registration links that were posted and shared continue to generate results.

  • Data Access: Provides real-time reporting on all data via downloadable reports.

  • Integrations: Have the option to push all of the registration, attendee, and on-demand data into any CRM.


For the virtual event content, the rudimentary approach is to use the native recording functionality of the virtual event platform. The more polished approach takes more effort, and will:


  • Backup Recordings: Have backup recording feeds from which to select and supplement the best audio and video.

  • Audio Editing: Edit the audio to exclude any cross talk, shorten long pauses, cut elements irrelevant to the on-demand listener, etc.

  • Video Editing: Arrange the visual elements of the recording in a way that maximizes the on-demand viewing experience.

  • Branding: Add company branding including intros/outros, colors, backgrounds, graphics, and logos.

  • Clips: Provide clips of the features and highlights of the virtual event for marketing and other purposes.


A tremendous amount of work goes into preparing and executing a virtual event. It therefore makes sense to enjoy all of the benefits of virtual events by utilizing a first-class virtual event platform and involving an expert production team.

What Are the Risks of Poor Virtual Event Production?

Without proper organization and execution, a virtual event can showcase your business in a negative light. Imagine: Dozens or hundreds of your clients and prospects have gathered. They have blocked off a day or two on their calendars. All eyes are on your company. And, instead of learning from your business’ experts and hearing case studies of its successes, the audience:


  • Suffers through poor audio
  • Sees presenters in—literally—an unflattering light
  • Misses speakers entirely because Internet or computer issues cause them to no-show
  • Struggles to follow along through disorganized content sessions
  • Hears dead air while the moderator and speakers sort out what’s next
  • Experience poor engagement from a lack of virtual content optimization
  • Bear through long wait times to reach knowledgeable tech support
  • Don’t have their chats and questions promptly replied to


Virtual events truly are a high-wire act. All of the detailed planning and coordination has to come together in concert, in real time.

What Are Examples of Successful Virtual Events?

While there are many risks with virtual events, they can also produce many rewards. The following are just a few examples of successful virtual events.


#1: Government and Not-for-Profit Virtual Event Hosted Across Multiple Countries


Rally Point Webinars produced a joint government and not-for-profit virtual event. This two-day event delivered the latest agricultural advances to the California farming community and beyond.


Event preparation included working with speakers as far as Morocco and as prominent as the Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. It also included properly tracking the attendance and engagement of each attendee in order to issue professional education credits.


The event also included personal touches to lift up the event. In talking with one crop expert during a tech check, Rally Point Webinars learned he recorded a jazz quartet album. To his delight, he heard his music streamed to the audience during several of the event’s production breaks.

#2: Virtual User Forum with Breakout Sessions


Rally Point Webinars produced a virtual user group for a leader in global commerce technology. This event connected top salespeople, customer success leaders, and user interface designers with the actual end-users of the SaaS shipping software.


Providing engaging, experienced moderators to co-pilot each breakout session ensured the event generated lots of conversations and feedback—instead of awkward dead air.

#3: Virtual Seminars for Practice Areas of Large U.S. Accounting Firm


Rally Point Webinars produced multiple annual virtual seminars for a large US accounting firm where services are segmented into various practice specialties, each with separate virtual events.


Both the speakers and the attendees had exceptionally tight calendars, with heavy billable-hour demands. Therefore, keeping the prep time streamlined while delivering error-free virtual seminars mattered greatly.


On average, each virtual seminar involved five sessions with a total mix of twelve internal and external speakers. Attendees earned professional credits for their participation while also enjoying a custom music playlist raffles, and panel interactions.


The nationwide reach of these once regional events, and the quality of their online production, generated as much as a fourfold increase in attendance.

Rally Point Webinars Knows Virtual Events

With 15+ years of helping companies deliver their best virtual events, we'll be with you every step of they way.

Map out your virtual event

Craft a timeline of milestones and deliverables

Prepare your presenter stations

Rehearse each content session

Host and moderate the live event

Receive data and recordings

This article covered many aspects of a virtual event. However, truly understanding “what is a virtual event” means running them day-in and day-out. All of the intricacies and details can make or break a livestream. 


Rally Point Webinars brings over 15 years of passionate experience to the table. We hold ourselves to a higher standard knowing the very public stakes of each virtual event production. Our clients appreciate that we meet those standards—taking extra care at every stage of planning and execution. 


We’d love to discuss your next virtual event.

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