Live events are on the horizon again, but virtual events aren't going anywhere. Over the past year, people have seen the benefits of virtual events, and not all of those benefits boil down to health and safety. Virtual events are convenient and cost-effective, and they give attendees a way to participate without extensive travel. With the right event planning platform, a virtual event can rival even the best live events. 

With virtual events, success or failure depends on the planning. Just because you're using a virtual space doesn't mean that you can't plan an event to remember. Almost any event activity can be adapted for a virtual space, so don't limit yourself to a boring event. Ready to start planning? Then here are five ideas that can help you get started. 

1. Invite Special Guests to Your Event 

Special guests are usually the most interesting way to draw an audience. Make sure your guests are connected or relevant to the purpose of the event. Without that guest/audience alignment, you risk spending a lot of money booking speakers who won't draw enough attendees for the event to make sense. make any event exciting. 

Have you ever been excited to hear someone famous speak, only to realize they are a terrible public speaker? Do the research to make sure your guests will deliver a great experience to your audience. I've seen world-famous speakers attract huge crowds, only to completely lose the audience within minutes. Sometimes ultra-famous guests will rely so heavily on their celebrity status that they underperform in their delivery.  

2. Include Q&A Sessions 

One of the biggest risks of a virtual event is audience detachment. Q&A is a terrific way to keep your virtual attendees connected. It gives them a chance for direct interaction with the speaker, and is a great way to mimic the live event experience.

3. Enable Attendee Networking

Live events provide natural opportunities for attendees to literally bump into each other and meet new people. Give your virtual attendees a chance to meet new people with networking features like chat.

Did you just see an attendee ask an interesting question? Ping them directly and introduce yourself! This type of 1:1 ad hoc networking can make virtual events super powerful.

4. Add Breakout Sessions 

Modern virtual event platforms include breakout session technology for real-time video conferencing among attendees. Subdivide your audience into assigned groups based on title, geography, language, or topic. Give them the tools to collaborate, screen share, and join in the conversation.

For social events, virtual rooms let guests connect to each other on a deeper level. Just like with live events, some people will need to pull themselves away from the main crowd for a while. As the event host, you can provide structured opportunities to do just that. 

5. Customize your event with your own branding

Use modern event planning platforms to customize the registration page and live streaming page with your own colors, images, logos, fonts, and layout. Completely customize the experience down to the last pixel and make the event experience consistent with all the other ways your audience engages with your brand. These days, there is absolutely no reason to surrender this branding opportunity.

Parcy's Event Planning Platform 

No matter what you do to make your virtual event more exciting, you'll need the right event planning platform to take advantage of your options. Parcy is that platform. With Parcy, you can host virtual and hybrid events. Our platform makes everything simple. You can use it for every step of the event process, from planning to recapping. 

Ready to see how you can plan your event with Parcy? Start by scheduling your demo now. We'll show you how our event planning platform works and how you can make the most of it.