With so many options to choose from to produce, host, and stream your virtual event, selecting the right one can seem intimidating. Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up 10 questions to ask yourself to help guide your decision-making:
- How much brand visibility would you prefer to have? If it’s high, you may want to ask how customizable the platform is.
- How much technical support do you need to build your event page?
- How much technical support and overall prep do you need to help your presenters?
- Will your audience prefer a desktop or mobile-based experience?
- What are your privacy and security concerns?
- Are there add-on tools you need to be integrated into the platform? If so, what are they? Do they integrate with your shortlist of platforms?
- Do you want your event to be exclusive to registrants or open to the public?
- Do you want the recording available on-demand after the event? If so, for how long?
- Will you need data about the event after the fact? If so, what types of data?
- How do you want the audience to participate and engage in the event? What kind of event page features do you need to help your audience to engage with your content, presenters, and each other? Chat, surveys, downloads, presenter bios, links to products and/or partner and sponsors?
Remember: To maximize the value of your event and deliver a winning audience experience, your virtual event should be much more polished and put together than an everyday Zoom meeting. So, carefully consider these questions to plan how you want your audience to experience the event.
Additionally, here are some other factors to keep in mind:
- People are the ultimate wild card. Despite your answers to the above questions, do not underestimate the power of people and service. If in your research process, you feel like you are really being listened to and the vendor cares about your goals, give that serious weight. That’s a good indicator that if things go haywire 30 minutes before your event and your CEO sits down in front of their webcam, you’re likely to get that highly professional level of service to calmly handle the program and get things on track.
- There’s isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. A platform that might work well for one event may not have the tools and features needed for another. If you’re looking for a longer-term relationship with a vendor, keep that in mind, and choose a platform that will grow with your events.
- For virtual events, you’re looking for the right event platform, as well as the production tool to stream your event. Ask each vendor if they have products, features, and integrations you need. If you’re part of a larger organization, finding one vendor with a portfolio of offerings may be your best bet. For example, Brandlive’s product portfolio covers all event types, from company-wide meetings to product launches. In addition, the portfolio includes a cloud-based production tool to stream those virtual experiences.
- If you request a unique service and a vendor says, “Yeah, sure, we can do that,” ask for proof. Virtual events became the Wild West in 2020, and there is a wide range of solutions in the market.
- Once you have your team’s answers to these questions, whittle down your choices and request demos from your top contenders. You should have all the information you need to be confident in your selection!
About Brandlive
Since 2010, Brandlive, headquartered in Portland, Ore., has been the leader in the end-to-end hosting, production, and support of the world’s largest and most memorable virtual events. Fortune 100 companies choose Brandlive to create branded, customizable events with the help of Brandlive’s dedicated support teams.
The user-friendly Brandlive product suite – Events, Showrooms, Greenroom, and Studios and Productions – enables anyone to host, produce, and stream their most important communication moments in 30+ languages, for audiences over 1M, with features including advanced registration and best-in-class audience analytics.
And the Allhands platform helps you host all company meetings your teams will love.
Find out why so many of the top 100 global companies work with and trust us on brandlive.com. Follow us @brandlive on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Contact us at [email protected]
