Mid-March, I launched a six-month event series for the Splash Community. The next day, we postponed the events with no clear, new date in mind. With a global pandemic upon us, we were asked to shelter-in-place, and thus, we set out on a mission to pivot online.
If you’re in events, this is a familiar story.
From one day to the next, the year looked different. My whole calendar was around events, both personally and professionally. These questions kept me up at night: How will I adapt as quickly as possible? How will our events and businesses adapt to meet the needs of our community? How will society adapt without IRL events?
Gathering is hardwired in our cultural DNA. Since the dawn of human civilization, we have gathered around fires to swap stories, make music, and perform rituals. Gathering informed us of dangers, boosted morale, and built bonds that enabled our survival. Nothing has stopped our gathering before, and it seems, nothing will stop us now. We have found incredibly inventive ways to continue to gather online, and this is just the beginning.
Event creators know how to adapt. It’s part of our job description to take risks, try new things, fail, test, improve, fail again, and repeat. But how do we truly stay adaptive, resilient, and sane in such challenging times?
Trying new things can be scary. We might risk “wasting” time, money, or esteem if things go wrong. But to succeed, we have to experiment.
Every community member I talk to wants to know how to create more engaging virtual events. Event marketers are finding that what worked in person doesn’t necessarily work online. For example, the typical “one to many” format with a speaker and a short Q&A at the end doesn’t necessarily cut it anymore. They are trying new formats, like bringing in a facilitator to moderate a group discussion and using technologies like Icebreaker to enable attendee networking or Confetti to organize virtual team-building experiences.
We’ve been experimenting too. We’ve incorporated beatboxers, harpists, tai chi, and chair yoga. Every time we experiment, we learn. As a result, our events became more engaging. Have fun and be courageous. Taking risks comes with great rewards.
Pro Tip
The most refreshing and engaging events reveal the humanness of the event leadership. How can you bring more of yourself into your events? If you love a music artist, try playing your favorite tune at the beginning of a meeting to welcome people when they arrive. If you’re a karaoke fan, introduce a YouTube video of a classic sing-along with lyrics to spice up an otherwise dull moment (mute everyone!). If jigsaw puzzles are your thing, have people do a virtual jigsaw during a transition. If different scents make you feel good, send your guests a delightful array of essential oils to awaken their senses alongside your content. The more senses, interactivity, surprise, and personality, the more memorable your event will be.
One of the biggest blocks that prevents people from trying new things is the fear of failure. Fear is amplified because there is a common misconception that failure is always “bad.” Failure is actually an opportunity for learning. If you fail correctly, you will unquestionably improve future performance.
How do you actually do that? Unpack your mistakes through debriefing, a structured learning process designed to continually evolve while plans are implemented. The term originated in the military as a way to learn quickly in rapidly changing situations and address mistakes in the field.
Debriefing is not just a casual conversation about what worked and what didn’t. It’s about why things happened the way they happened and explores the possible implications on the future. If you go in to understand root causes of failures and successes, you learn what to repeat and change. Debriefing about mistakes can be uncomfortable, but it minimizes the pain of the same mistakes happening again, and maximizes the opportunity to continually improve.
If you’ve been transitioning your event programs online for the first time, you’ve likely made mistakes. We all have. Wifi has been lost, speakers didn’t click, content didn’t gel … the list goes on. With every failure, we took the time to ask ourselves why it felt like a failure, and pledged to course correct.
Again, let me emphasize: These are challenging times that we did not predict. None of us have ever been in this situation before. We are bound to make mistakes, and it is our choice to make the most of them.
With every event, you have an opportunity to gather feedback. By making an effort to collect data before, during, and after your events, you will ensure progress.
Pre-event, set up time with a group of colleagues or peers to get structured feedback. You can use a “hot seat” format, which goes like this:
• Ask a specific question or share a challenge you’re facing, providing context
and being specific (5 minutes)
• The group asks you clarifying questions (3 minutes)
• The group gives you ideas, suggestions, and resources (7 minutes)
During your events, get feedback from the audience. If there’s a panel, invite attendees to use the chat box. If you have people answer a question in the beginning, they are more likely to write in the chat box throughout the event. At the end of your event, distribute an online survey. Drop a URL in the chat in the last five minutes, play music while people are filling out the form, and save a fun surprise for the end like a giveaway to encourage people to stay and finish. Distributing the feedback form during the event increases response rate dramatically.
Post-event, use your event marketing platform to show your RSVPs, attendees, audience breakdown, and diverse data sets to help you measure event ROI and track the impact of your events on your business.
The more data you gather, the better. Interpret that data and keep going.
It is isolating to host a virtual event for thousands of people only to close your computer screen and be alone in your home. In a time of physical distancing, it can be easy to forget there are people by your side.
You’ve spent your career building a community — whether that’s at work, in your friend group, with your family, or through your events. Now is the time to call on the people you know and reach out to new people. It requires bravery to ask for support, but you might be pleasantly surprised with how much people actually want to help.
Throughout the pandemic, I have seen our event community become increasingly generous and supportive of each other. Historically, our industry can be quite competitive. We have to stay ahead of the curve, stand out, and differentiate. The game has changed. People are showing up for each other — sharing decision-making matrices, suggesting unique vendors, and coaching each other on planning for the return of IRL events.
Event marketers around the world are no longer just unified by our profession, but by our adversity as well. We are all figuring this out together.
When we started building the Splash Community, I said that event marketers are the superstars of the future. Now I’d like to update the original statement and say that event marketers are the superheroes of today. As event creators, we have found a way for people to gather, even when gathering has been physically impossible.
In a time of fear and isolation, event creators have brought hope, joy, and belonging. Events have never been more important for morale, inspiration, learning, and connectivity. You are needed. Your work is important.
So even if your events aren’t perfect or driving the results you want yet, and even if your company doesn’t fully get the value of your events right now, remind yourself: For hundreds of thousands of years, human beings have gathered. Gathering is inherent to who we are and what we do. We have adapted our gatherings and we have adapted through our gatherings.
Virtually nothing can stop us.
