Are you at a loss about how to make your virtual event interactive? The last thing you want is for your event to be boring. In this post, I will share with you how to give your attendees a great experience and they will come back for more.
Make your Virtual Event Interactive with a Poll
I arranged a virtual reunion two months ago and I used several polls to get started. It was amazing! It provided so much engagement between all who attended. There are various platforms you can use. Please do check out my blog post here where I discuss some platforms to use to manage your business online. If you are using Zoom, you can set up the questions when you schedule the meeting. You can also do this during the meeting. There are several question types. At the end of the poll, you can share the results and discuss these with the audience. Excellent.
Using a Check-in Session
At the beginning of the virtual event, you can ask everyone to introduce themselves. They can also share a unique thing about themselves which no one knows. This segment gives the attendees an opportunity to warm up and prepared to engage. Questions you can ask is “How are you feeling right now” or “What do you hope to achieve from today’s event”. In my experience, it is prudent to put a time limit on this. People do get carried away when they are talking about themselves.
Introduce Social Sentiments to make your virtual event interactive
Also, encourage the participants to use their reaction buttons during the meeting. They can give a thumbs up when they agree with a point and clap to show their appreciation for a segment. Encourage your participants to “raise their hand” using the feature on Zoom. This feature is great for asking questions or making a comment. The more conversations are taking place, the more interactive the event will be. Using the Chat Feature
Some organisers turn this off. I get it at times as it can be a distraction. This is a great feature to encourage dialogue. Encourage the participants to add their comments to the chat. Refer to them during the sessions as they happen if they relate to the topic. This is where it is prudent to have support fielding the comments so that the main speaker is not distracted. At some events, they address the comments at the end. It loses the spirit of the comment if it is not addressed at the moment or not at all.
Using Gamification in your virtual event
Gamification refers to the integration of gaming elements. This crafts an effective and engaging learning experience.
Gamification practice uses the following key elements to craft a gamification strategy:
1. Challenges (mapping to learning objectives).
2. Levels (learning path).
3. Instant feedback (to aid progress).
4. Scores or Points (to impart a sense of accomplishment and gratification).
5. Badges (for significant achievements).
6. Leaderboards (for analytics).
7. Competition (to assess where the learner stands against his/her peers).
8. Collaboration (when many teams play).
Gamification is an efficient learning strategy that can improve the learning experience.
- It promotes friendly competition.
- It can impart a sense of achievement in learners.
- Engages learners to achieve the desired behavioral change.
- Will motivate learners to advance through the event and take action. This influences their behavior.
You can convert the entire learning path into a game. This can feature scores, badges, and leaderboards.
You can also introduce a gamified quiz into the event to make the session interactive
For more information on Gamification in virtual events, check out this interesting article.
Encourage Social Media Sharing
However, this will depend on the kind of event. If the content of the event is sensitive, this will not work. If not, then create a hashtag for your event and encourage the tweeting of key takeaways from the event. Put the hashtag on your event branding. Give the participants an incentive to use the hashtag. You will need to manage this so people can concentrate on the event, not on social media.
Finally, do have dedicated support to manage your virtual event. There are so many bits and pieces to manage, it is impossible to manage this on your own. Have you tried something else to make your virtual event interactive? My readers and I would love to hear about your experience. Please let me know in the comments below. Please also contact me if you have any questions.
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