How to Host a Virtual Expo Successfully?

virtual exhibition

Virtual expos and events are growing as a vital part of every business. Event organizers are now hunting for creative ways to add a new spark to online events. Virtual exhibitions are an excellent way to offer engaging and interesting content to your global attendees. Online expos include endless opportunities to help people learn, interact, and make new connections.

Let us take you through some successful virtual exhibition practices that can help you deliver unique and bizarre event experiences;

  1. Determine your expo goals

It is necessary to identify the event objectives before you plan your event. Therefore, be very firm with your event goals that resonate with your business needs. Ask a few event-related questions;

  • Are you hosting the event to boost your brand value?
  • Do you want to enhance your reach to a large spectrum of global audiences?
  • Are you looking to notify global delegates regarding your product’s new features and services?

The right cause helps in better and strategic planning.

2. Start with a strategic approach

Once you are clear with your event objectives, move ahead with the right planning. Determine the following aspects for your virtual expo in this step;

  • Will the event be free or chargeable?
  • What will be the KPIs of your event?
  • How will you track the attendee navigation?
  • Which engaging features will you include in your event?
  • How many exhibitor booths will you keep?
  • What networking opportunities will you provide to the attendees and exhibitors?
  • Will the virtual exhibition be live, on-demand, or both?

After analyzing these relevant questions, you’ll be aware of the direction that you should take to plan a successful event.

3. Understand your target audience

Attendees are the heart of any virtual event. Therefore, it is essential to identify your potential attendees and learn their aspirations, hopes, and expectations. The more you understand them, the better content you can curate.

4. Schedule carefully

Online expos expect a large group of people attending from different parts of the world. So, it is vital to remember the different time zones. Look for a perfect date that does not fall on any national holiday, weekend, or other auspicious occasions. Take your time and wisely pick the date and time of your online event.

5. Choose the right Virtual Expo Platform

A virtual event platform plays a significant role in elevating the level of your events and offering memorable and unique experiences. There’s a huge competition in the market, so carefully pick your virtual venue partner that leverages the right technology and features. Always ask your platform service provider for a demo of the entire platform. It will help you learn about the features, tools, and functionalities they provide.

Make sure that the platform is equipped with 24/7 backend support that holds the ability to troubleshoot any technical error. Try to choose an enterprise solution with a customizable interface, brilliant stand designs, engaging tools, immense networking opportunities, and games to make your virtual exhibition highly exceptional.

Another notable highlight that you should focus on is the security feature. With events happening online, it is important to employ a 100% safe and trustworthy platform. Also, to measure the success of your expo, your platform should be capable enough to help you with comprehensive data of attendee navigation, most used features, messages sent between the exhibitor and attendee, or the time spent on the virtual booth.

6. Create an attractive 3D virtual stage

To offer immersive virtual experiences, look for a powerful feature-rich platform. Include eye-catching graphics, stunning 3D designs, lively imagery, and videos to take your attendees in awe. You can think of adding dynamic banners, customizable booths, GIFs, 3D teleportation, and animated light to help replicate the experiences of a physical venue.

7. Plan a super engaging virtual expo

Consider adding more interactive elements to your expo to make it more realistic and fascinating. Get skilled emcees or experts on board who know the art of delivering the content in the right way. It is an effective way to keep the attendees hooked and involved throughout the event.

Conduct frequent live polls, surveys, and Q&A sessions to ensure that the audience is actively participating. On-event announcements are another way to keep them notified about the upcoming sessions. You can utilize pop-up features, push-up, or video notification functionality to display the next session.

You can also use exciting features like a social wall, branded photo booths, a signature wall, and an AI matchmaking tool to keep the attendees engaged. They can apply the AI matchmaking tool to connect with like-minded people who share the same interests and concerns. Also, they can take multiple photos using branded photo booths and post them on social media channels. A social wall displays the information collected from different social media platforms that have used the event-specific hashtags.

8. Include eminent stand designs

Create remarkable stand designs to attract and amaze the virtual attendees. Decide right during the planning stage if your event design will be 2D or 3D. Choose it depending on your event budget, attendee segment, and timeframe.

9. Create customizable exhibitor booths

Build visually intense, attractive, and customizable exhibitor booths to entice more attendees. It is also important to ensure that platform navigation is simple and convenient for all the attendees. The efficient floor design will enable the attendees to simply click at the branded logo touchpoints or stands to enter the exhibitor’s booth. It also allows attendees to choose the virtual booth they wish to visit and spend maximum time. Customizable booths let the exhibitors choose how they desire to publicize their brand logo, products, offerings, content, or services to obtain more prospect leads.

10. Provide networking opportunities

It is important to include virtual networking tables, a live chat feature, a B2B meetings scheduler, and a business card feature to let attendees and exhibitors make new connections.

Virtual networking tables include live chat, audio, and video features to facilitate group and 1:1 discussions. People can also use a B2B meetings scheduler to decide on a mutual time for connecting once the event is over.

11. Take a follow-up

Taking the feedback of the audience is very vital to learn the opportunity areas of your online exhibition. It helps you perform significant enhancements to conduct even better online expos and exhibitions. So, you can either keep a feedback option on the platform or send simple feedback surveys on the registered emails of the attendees to learn about their experiences.

12. Meaningful Analytics

Make sure that the virtual event platform you choose is capable of providing detailed insights of attendee navigation, most attendees’ sessions, exhibitor booths, the hotspots of your event, and many more. This accurate data helps you measure the success of your virtual expo. We hope, the above-mentioned steps will help you plan even better and successful virtual exhibitions and expos.

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