Top 5 Virtual Events Ideas to Inspire Your Upcoming Events

At this point of writing, I am very sure that most people have experienced a virtual event, whether by attending or by organizing. As we progress further in the world of virtual events, one might come to wonder what else one can do to attract, retain and increase attendees’ participation. Here’s top 5 virtual events ideas to inspire your upcoming events.

1. Out Of The World Design

When it comes to impressing your guests in a virtual event, design is king. Let your imagination runs wild in creating the most creative and engaging designs for your virtual events from 3D staging to interactive stage and content designs, there are endless possibilities when it comes to virtual events.

2. 360⁰ Tour

Want to experience navigating around a virtual event as if you are there in person? Power-up your virtual event with the 360 tour! Highly recommended for virtual exhibitions, virtual conference and virtual property launch; the 360 tour feature allows you to move around and engage with brands, products and services more effectively, virtually!

3. Hybrid Activities

Get creative and dynamic with hybrid activities by combining both online and on-ground interactions! Organised a Hybrid Treasure Hunt in your next Hybrid Team Building Event to make it more engaging and with a twist in digital technology. In-corporate customisable gaming apps with actual on-ground fun!

4. Use Gamification to Keep Your Audience Interested

Get creative with gamification! Perfect for virtual ice breaking session, gamification such as playing challenging racing games, virtual drawings etc. will draw audience’s attention and helps to increase and retain audience participation! Use gamification to track your virtual event’s effectiveness in real-time!

5. Watch Anytime & Anywhere And All Over Again!

Living in a different time zone? Can’t make it on time for the virtual event? Don’t worry! Just hit REPLAY if you missed a session.

Conclusion

The sky is limitless when it comes to virtual events. With the advancement of technology, you can bring your next virtual event to even greater heights by engaging with different yet fun virtual contents. 

If you ran out of ideas in organising your virtual event, then speak to our dedicated Virtual Event Specialists to get all the help that you need. 

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

8 Tips To Make Your Virtual or Hybrid Annual Dinner More Interesting

Today, events have transitioned to the digital world. We have no doubt that events will eventually fall back on in-person events after the pandemic, but the experience just won’t be the same. After seeing the power and outreach of online events, it will be impossible not to leverage this new approach and integrate it into any event strategy. 

However, in-person events differ in the case that your audiences are 100% committed to attending, as they will want to spend time surrounded by like-minded professionals. This is the real value of physical events, in that it is a fully immersive experience. With online experiences, you will need to take extra care of your virtual attendees and showcase the value of the online experiences you’re providing through your event.

By thinking of virtual events as value-added, engagement-driven experiences, you can create an impactful event that extends well-beyond a computer screen.

One of the best examples of utilizing virtual or hybrid events is during a company annual dinner. Traditionally an in-person event with fellow colleagues mingling together, full of glitz and glam, most company annual dinners (especially in MCO-hit Malaysia) are not able to be held in light of the social distancing regulations set. 

Still, utilizing the power of technology, we’re here to show you how you can take your annual dinner virtual (or hybrid) and still make it interesting for your audience. 

1. Set your format

Your annual dinner event will be determined by the format that you have set. Event planning comes down to the fundamentals. Clearly identifying your format; on whether you’re planning a virtual event or a hybrid event, should be the first order of business. 

Both virtual and hybrid events have their own planning and challenges to work out, and you should ensure that the format that is chosen will be able to work together and integrate with your marketing strategy. Ultimately, you should aim to be able to reach out and engage your audiences, whether in-person or virtual. 

2. Setting a theme

Annual dinners are just more fun with a theme, but sometimes, it is just not possible to offer the same physical experience on an online platform. However, instead of seeing this as a flaw, it can definitely be transformed into a value-added proposition for your virtual attendees. 

When planning the event, keep your virtual audience in mind and set aside some time and resources to craft a unique online experience for them. An example would be to have a virtual-only Best Dressed competition, which would definitely be a great way to keep your virtual audiences engaged throughout the event. In the case of hybrid events, you just have to ensure that both virtual and in-person audiences have as close an experience to each other as possible. 

3. Event programme

Planning an annual dinner event can easily get overwhelming, especially if you don’t have a proper event schedule in place. This can be jarring, especially when you also have to juggle between in-person event planning and those of the virtual platforms. It helps to have an event planning checklist and schedule so that you can keep your event running on time and without many hitches. 

When it comes to virtual or hybrid event, planners can become overwhelmed by the variety of platforms, technologies and tools available at their disposal. Remember, the point of any event is to deliver value to your attendees. Only after establishing a clear understanding of your attendee priorities should you then find the most appropriate tech solution to integrate both audiences. 

4. Food catering

While in-person and from-home elements of the event are distinct in many ways, allowing both audiences to experience something together can elevate the experience for everyone. During an annual dinner event, food is a must. 

This is where hybrid events can shine, as you can also plan or arrange for identical meals in-person attendees were enjoying to be delivered to those at home, if the budget allows. Not only does this help those virtual participants feel like they are a part of the event, they will definitely be talking about it for a long time to come. In fact, it is this sort of thinking outside of the box that makes virtual attendees feel cared for and part of the event. 

5. Entertainment

Entertainment plays a large part in any annual dinner, and keeping your audiences engaged. Whether it’s through virtual or hybrid events, having an entertainment factor is a great way to retain participants and keep their attention. Whether you’re getting a DJ, a band, or even a stand-up comedian to the stage, you’ll definitely be keeping your audience entertained and engaged throughout. 

6. Gamification

Facilitating interactions between the virtual and in-person audiences is the true challenge of hybrid events. During an annual dinner event, where interaction between colleagues is ever important, it is important to blend audience engagement throughout the event as much as possible and to keep them all equally involved.

The introduction of gamification elements may be a good addition, especially to provide higher levels of engagement between your attendees. This can be done via special apps or systems which awards your attendees for completing tasks as a team, or individually.

It could also be as easy as putting screens across the hall or space to allow remote attendees to have an “on-ground” experience, or pitting colleagues from different departments to work together with those attending in-person to play games across an app. The important thing is to make sure that all your attendees, both virtual and in-person are experiencing the same event, and equally engaged.

7. Add in some surprises

Annual dinners usually bring the flair, but sometimes, event organizers often add in the element of surprise to give attendees an additional thrill. After all, everyone likes surprises. This can be done in a multitude of ways, from sending your virtual attendees special gifts like e-vouchers or even curated door gifts specially from the event. We also mentioned delivering food to their doorstep, which is something that will not only be surprising, but also appreciated. 

In the end, the purpose is to let even your virtual attendees feel that their participation in the event is appreciated, and to make them feel valued for being a part of your company. 

8. Teamwork

Organizing a virtual or hybrid event is not easy, but teamwork makes the dream work. Having a team of people to help with everything; ensuring that the event is running smoothly, the performances and the flow is very important to ensure that your annual dinner is able to be engaging and smooth-sailing. 

Conclusion

While the idea of hosting a virtual or hybrid annual dinner event might be overwhelming to your company, the key is to ensure that you have your planning down to a tee in order to make your annual dinner a fun, engaging and successful one. 

At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning. Yes, that also includes annual dinners as well. Whether it’s the platform we use, or the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees, our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size.

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

6 Creative Ideas To Implement for Virtual Workshops

When the pandemic became a reality in 2020, event organizers all around the world scrambled to bring their events and workshops online. But without the physical experiences and real in-person communication, there was only one big question in everyone’s minds: Was it possible to make virtual events as effective or interesting as an offline one? 

The short answer is yes, it’s entirely possible. 

The idea for a virtual workshop or event was to be able to build relationships, provide real value, and help attendees achieve their most important goals. Workshop events allow businesses to target a variety of specific audiences in order to gain or maintain their patronage quickly and effectively. 

Today, we’re looking at some of the best creative ideas you can apply to your virtual workshop, and maybe help you to find new ways to market your event, find inspiration for activities to conduct, and explore techniques for improving event engagement at an interactive session.

1. Break The Ice with Virtual Icebreakers

The start of an event, virtual or in person can sometimes be slow and awkward at times. Add to that that virtual events are often attended by people from various countries, meaning cultures play a role too. Virtual events also generally provide less opportunities for team bonding, leading to people becoming less engaged and motivated over time.

This is where the virtual icebreaker comes into play. Having a good icebreaker session at the start of your meeting will help you set the mood and release the tension. Virtual icebreakers can help you to bring your team together and break down the communication barriers between attendees. 

Virtual icebreakers can also improve communication among attendees, as well as build up rapport. You can also use the virtual icebreaker session to make your attendees feel involved from the beginning, resulting in bonding, and getting to know each other better. 

2. Engage with Virtual Breakout Rooms

Breakout sessions have always been an important way to keep event attendees enthusiastic and engaged, something that is more important and crucial when it comes to a virtual environment. Virtual event breakout rooms are one of the ways you can bring your attendees together for meaningful conversations, thought leadership, and professional networking. 

The small, structured groupings lead to more natural conversation on focused topics compared to that of the overall workshop event. These sessions allow you to deliver more complex programs to attendees and create unique experiences, as people can partake in hands-on activities or follow smaller keynotes.

Building a virtual breakout room into your session and providing attendees with more tailored engagement experiences will help bring your virtual event to life. Using the right platform for your virtual breakout rooms will make your event even more efficient, enjoyable, and personable for all your attendees. 

3. Do More with Virtual Sketches

Virtual sketching is a compelling, engaging, and must-have value-add for virtual meetings and events. Basically, virtual sketching is a powerful, effective and actionable way to share ideas, communicate a message, mobilize a team, inspire your audience and drive real results.

As the power of visualization can often transcend linguistic barriers, there are fewer chances for your audiences to misunderstand images compared to the spoken word which can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications.

Any visual form of communication helps to tap into the essence of visual learning, leading to a more effective comprehension of ideas, retention of ideas and idea efficiency. This activity is also good for your virtual workshop, as it helps to engage your audience, while providing them with value. Plus, it’s also very shareable on social media overall, which helps to also boost your virtual event for future participants.

4. Heat It Up with Virtual “Temperature Checks”

Virtual workshops longer than an hour or two can have your audience lose interest easily. This is where these virtual “temperature checks” come into play. Basically, these are a way for your speaker or presenters to check up on your audience and understand how they’re feeling at the moment. Seeking feedback or input from your audience throughout your presentation or session can help to foster inclusivity and boost audience engagement and retention. 

This can be done through a simple “How’s everyone feeling now?”, to something more elaborate like making sure that there are dashes of humor or storytelling elements in the dialogue and delivery. It’s good to also include short breaks to help keep attendees’ focus, including intermission activities like stretching, mini-games and quizzes allow audiences to clear their minds and re-charge for the next segment. Again, whenever suitable, lighten the mood with banter.

Further, when you encourage people to speak up during the presentation, it will make it easier for them to speak up later during the Q&A session. If you’re hoping for a higher audience participation rate, these virtual “temperature checks” may just be the thing to help them be more comfortable speaking up. 

5. Spice Up Your Virtual Presentations

The novelty of virtual events and virtual workshops have worn off somewhere late in 2020. The term “Zoom-fatigue” had already been coined, and more than a few people started to find themselves getting more careful with the virtual events they accepted. So, how can you keep participants engaged in virtual events, especially when these types of events are starting to feel repetitive?

One of the simplest ways to make a virtual event more engaging is to add interactive elements to the event. Content will always remain one of the most important tools to engage your audience. The way it’s crafted and delivered virtually differs from what you’d see with in-person experiences. 

Understanding your audience and giving them what they want is the best way to engage them. Ask yourself questions to determine what your audience needs. You will need to identify the pain points of your attendees and try to make sure your content and its delivery answer their needs.

The more relevant your content is to your audience, the more value it provides and increases their engagement with your event. Since the content will be more relevant for your audience, they are more likely to show up to your virtual event, which decreases your no-show rate.

6. Understand More with Chats, Polling and Voting Sessions

Audience engagement and what it takes to fully engage your event attendees in a virtual setting had to be redefined when virtual events arrived. Keeping attendees actively engaged throughout the entire experience is instrumental in the overall success of your event, so event engagement became an important metric to track. 

During your virtual event, live polling is a powerful tool for you to utilize. This is because it gives your audiences a voice and a way to participate in a two-way conversation to drive engagement. You can also give your attendees the chance to vote on topics they are interested in, or to see what questions they want to have answered can help to guide the flow of your event, and allow them to tailor it to their tastes.

You can also choose to take questions from your audience and initiate a discussion live during the event.  This gives them space to give feedback on what they are thinking about the big keynote speakers, or the stories that have cropped up during the event. 

This is a great way to engage your audience; by giving them the power to actively participate throughout the event and initiate discussions live. Further, the data collected from this engagement can help you understand what it is your audience is looking for, and this information can be used to more effectively plan and optimize future events. 

Conclusion

There are plenty of creative ideas to use which help to command attention, encourage contributions from everybody, foster team bonding, and help you run a collaborative virtual workshop into something interesting and memorable. 

With the help of event management technology and a little creativity, you can create virtual events that are more than attendees watching a screen. Audience engagement is absolutely key to virtual events. It’s safe to say that engagement is vital in virtual conferences to improve your ROI and help attendees to retain everything they learned. 

At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning, from the platform we use down to the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees. Our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size.

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

We’re very sure that there are plenty of brands or companies who have never had the opportunity to explore the world of virtual events before. There might even be some who are wondering how to make that change. 

Once considered a niche market, virtual events have become an integral part of daily life in the time of COVID-19, and it looks like these events are here to stay. It’s likely that you’ve had to re-imagine your event schedule for the year. But while the landscape for in-person events is still unsure, you don’t necessarily need to put your event plans on hold.

There are some brands and companies that have recently pushed past traditional virtual event boundaries to broaden their reach, thanks to the available technology and tools. With the right ideas and a few virtual event best practices, you can tap into new markets and keep events going even as circumstances change. 

Today, we’re looking at 8 virtual event best practices and how it can help you run a successful virtual event. 

1. Know your target audience

Before planning your virtual event, you must understand the significance of knowing the target audience well. Creating a target audience helps you understand who you are reaching out to and strategize accordingly. 

A buyer persona is a projection of real-life data on an ideal person. If you’ve run previous virtual events before, it will be especially useful for gathering the demographic information of your audiences as they typically attract larger audiences from various positions all around the world. 

Building a persona may suggest that your target audience tend to interact over smartphones or social media. You may then want to approach them more on these sites where they would prefer to be. A persona defines your target audience clearly to be able to understand their pain point and market accordingly.

2. Choose the right virtual platform

In this new world of virtual connectivity, you’ve probably become familiar with the likes of various forms of virtual event platforms. But each of these platforms will offer different ways of presenting or interacting with your audience. 

Before you begin, you must have a clear picture of the goals you aim to achieve through a certain event. Whether it’s a virtual conference, virtual career fair, virtual trade show, or any other event, you ought to first define clear objectives in order for your team to organize and configure their respective event.

Ultimately, the format for your event should link back to your objectives and what you’re aiming to achieve. Your selected platform should also work well for your attendees overall. 

3. Establish a timeline

Picking the right date and time for your event is important, regardless of size or platform. Before sending out your invites to your audiences, do a little research. Make sure there are no competing events or holidays that would interfere with attendance.

You should also take time zones into your planning as well. If your event is going global, try your best to pick a time that works for as many of your audiences and followers as possible. If that doesn’t seem possible, make sure content is accessible after live presentations for those who couldn’t make it. It may also be worthwhile to plan multiple networking sessions and different virtual events for different time zones.

For most virtual events, it takes about 8-10 weeks for an event to be set up and running. However, it is highly recommended to plan your event in advance so that you can build it up to perfection and have enough time to market it to your audience as well. 

4. Control the quality of your content

Essentially, virtual events are very different to in-person events and the content you create should reflect this. To grab your audience’s attention, make sure the content you’re delivering is useful to them. You will need to know what your audiences want from your virtual event, and what will make them want to tune in to your event.

To do this, you will need to start planning your online event and make sure it’ll be worthwhile for your audience. With virtual events you need to concentrate much more on maintaining engagement from your audience. You need to ensure your content and event structure keeps them engaged.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean you need to completely restructure your planned content, you should certainly be looking to review what changes need to be made in order to provide the best possible experience for your audiences.

Ultimately, content plays an essential role. Whatever the form your content takes, you have to ensure that your content will be the voice of your brand during a virtual event.

5. Make your event accessible

While virtual events have no geographical restrictions, time differences can still be an issue. You need to choose the time according to your audience’s preferences. If you plan your event to be global, choosing the right time will require a lot of research and analytics. 

This is where on-demand content becomes a crucial virtual event puzzle piece that is designed to fit the online experience. You should embrace this “anytime, anywhere” mentality that can allow virtual events to be more effective, and allow your audience to easily embrace the unique opportunity of the online experience. 

If there’s one thing the shift to on-demand content has improved, it’s accessibility. Make sure clear language, large fonts, and high colour contrast is used at all touch points—including presentations. Provide captions and visuals where possible for audio, and provide descriptions where possible for visuals. 

Overall, on-demand content gives you significantly more control over the quality of content delivery. Ensure that you have high-quality, on-demand content released as soon as the session is over. 

6. Utilize virtual features to the fullest

Virtual events have the ability and the potential to reach out and engage with your audiences on a scale that physical events cannot compare to. As such, having a good user interface has a great impact on your attendees. It is significant to ensure that your environment replicates the entire live experience of an in-person event, or comes close at least.

Your audiences are more likely to engage with brands and organizations when it’s a two-way conversation, especially on virtual platforms. Therefore, it’s crucial to allow for audience involvement in the form of online Q&A, polls, or even quizzes. 

Make sure your virtual event platform includes networking capabilities, such as one on one chats, discussion forums, breakout rooms, and more. This will drastically boost your audience engagement rates and ensure that your audiences are involved throughout the virtual event. 

Data is so crucial in your future events. With most virtual event platforms, you’ll be able to collect useful information such as knowing which sessions had the most questions from attendees and who the most engaged attendees were at your virtual event. This already allows you to get to know who your audience really is and think of content or campaigns that will meet their needs and motivate them towards a specific goal.

By collecting valuable feedback from your audiences, you’ll have the means to make your event even better than before. 

7. Ensure your tech works

If physical events have hitches, virtual events have glitches. Sometimes, tech issues happen and there’s nothing you can do about it. But try and minimise these by being prepared, choosing the right technology and having a trusted partner on hand to help.

So, It’s always good to test your chosen technology and platform, and then test it again. Ensure your Internet connection is working. You don’t want to have an entire waiting room of your attendees waiting for your Internet connection to restart. Having backups of visuals and presentations just in case is also a very good practice to follow. The sooner you identify problems, the sooner you can identify solutions.

It is also good to remember that not all of your guests are tech savvy. Anticipate the troubles people may have by preparing easy to follow guides or FAQs. If you have the resources to provide support, even better. Make sure it’s easy to find where and how to ask for help.

8. Measure your success

One of the best benefits of having a virtual event comes from the data and the insights that you can glean. 

With virtual events, you know the participation numbers, plus how they engaged and when they dropped out of the session. You’ll get to evaluate your attendees’ data during the event, so you can gain information on your attendees’ interests through matchmaking data and session participation.

Because of this, you gain a lot of trackable metrics that will help you learn more about your event and improve it in the future. A virtual event is essential for providing these sorts of metrics and insights, something that you simply cannot properly measure offline.

Whatever your results are, ensure to bear them in mind when you’re planning your next event to continually improve and evolve your event schedule. Cross-reference your success measures with the feedback attendees give you to draw conclusions on how future events could be improved

Further, if you have sponsors, they will also be able to receive essential info on booth traffic and attendee engagement, helping them prove a positive return on investment.

Conclusion

While the idea of hosting a virtual event might be overwhelming to many businesses, a majority of organizers have been able to come out stronger by hosting successful virtual events. Ensure that the key elements and some essential planning are made available in order to make your virtual event fun, informative, engaging and successful.

With fixed objectives in mind and the right virtual events provider, achieving exceptional results is one of the most realistic aims for your business this year.

At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning, from the platform we use down to the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees. Our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size.

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

The rise of virtual and hybrid events have been long forthcoming. However, there is still a challenge to create an experience that fully engages online attendees so they see it as a worthwhile use of their time. Keeping an audience captivated and engaged for the duration of a virtual event is not easy. 

Even with a stellar lineup of speakers and content, virtual event planners have to make sure that online attendees feel welcomed, appreciated, and engaged throughout the virtual event. So, the question is: how do you keep attendees engaged during virtual events? 

Today, we’re looking at a few ways for you to keep your attendees engaged during your virtual events. By improving your virtual event audience engagement, you will be able to take your virtual event to the next level and beyond. 

1. Virtual Networking

Events are all about the exciting networking opportunities with the people in the room. But while it may seem challenging, virtual events can also make the most of networking as well. 

In fact, there are some ways to utilize the virtual tools available at your disposal to create virtual networking sessions. The trick is to always make sure that you give the audience the tools to interact with other people. This can be through chat, one-on-one meetings, or live conversations. 

For example, you can set up breakout rooms for attendees to interview the speakers or panellists. This will give the audience a lot of value from the networking sessions, while improving on virtual event’s engagement levels. 

2. Live Keynotes

Every conference should ideally have a keynote session, as it can help to set the tone by weaving together engaging and inspirational storytelling, helpful insights, and predictions for the future. Not only can these presentations solidify your event’s core theme and messaging, but keynote sessions help to build up a sense of excitement and increase engagement among attendees. 

Bringing a keynote speech into the live virtual space is a great way to amplify your speaker’s message and reach a broader audience, and get your attendees talking and sharing about it on the social media space. 

3. Live Polling

Breaking the ice with an online audience can be tough. During your virtual event, live polling is a powerful tool for you to utilize. This is because it gives your audiences a voice and a way to participate in a two-way conversation to drive engagement. 

Giving your attendees the chance to vote on topics they are interested in, or to see what questions they want to have answered can help to guide the flow of your event, and allow them to tailor it to their tastes. This is a great way to engage your audience; by giving them the power to actively participate throughout the event.

Further, the data collected from this engagement can help you understand what it is your audience is looking for, and this information can be used to more effectively plan and optimize future events. The key to successful live polling is use the data collected to make sure your audience feels presented and that they are contributing with their valuable input.

4. Live Q&As

Whether you’re looking to take feedback for your business growth, or just to find out what your audience thinks about your event, taking questions from a target audience and initiating a discussion live during a virtual event can be extremely helpful. This gives them space to give feedback on what they are thinking about the big keynote speakers, or the stories that have cropped up during the event. 

Ultimately, that boost of interaction with your audience in real-time is invaluable. You can learn a lot from your audience by the questions they ask. The purpose of a highly engaging Q&A session is to expand the online presence and reach and repurpose the content. This strategy aims to connect audiences with those who generate the content to educate and, mainly, create interactions. 

5. On-Demand Content

When your event is fully virtual, the content becomes vital in keeping your attendees engaged. However, with the rise of recorded sessions, you should also consider offering on-demand content to your attendees and allow them to mix and match their sessions at their own convenience. 

Having on-demand content gives more leeway for your attendees to watch or rewatch a session they missed later on. It’s important to give your attendees a place where they can easily search for content related to the event and consume it at their convenience. Doing this can also extend engagement before, during, and after the event. 

Conclusion

Running a virtual event will always have the challenge of keeping your attendees’ attention. With the help of event management technology and a little creativity, you can create virtual events that are more than attendees watching a screen. Audience engagement is absolutely key to virtual events. It’s safe to say that engagement is vital in virtual conferences to improve your ROI and help attendees to retain everything they learned. 

At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning, from the platform we use down to the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees. Our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size.

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

The Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year is one of the world’s top five most celebrated festivals. One-sixth of the world’s population participates in Chinese New Year festivities, which is mind-blowing if you think about it. Malaysians, especially, thrive during this festive season; with epic decorations, food and merry-making all rolled into this period.

However, with the current trend of COVID-19 cases, it may seem like Malaysians will not be able to celebrate this year’s Chinese New Year in person. So, we figured that it’s high time for all of us to get a little pick-me-up during the festive season and keep our spirits high. In fact, we’re going to share some ways to make the 2021 Chinese New Year one that is worth celebrating, VIRTUALLY!

No matter your situation, celebrating a festival as merry as Chinese New Year will help to improve your mood, as well as your mental and physical health. 

So, take a seat and listen up as we tell you the best ways to celebrate the festive season safely this year. 

1. Using video conferencing platforms

The MCO has put a damper on everyone’s plan to go back for the Chinese New Year holidays, and the best way for you to celebrate your Chinese New Year is apart. 

However, technology has evolved to the point where you can now bring the party no matter where you are. There are plenty of video conferencing platforms for you to connect together as a family. Yes, that means that you probably can have your Chinese New Year reunion dinner through the Internet. If companies around the world can organize huge meetings, there is no reason why you cannot do the same with your whole family for your reunion dinner. 

Whatever your video conferencing platform of choice is, it’s time to embrace the new normal of celebrations. 

2. Play interactive games

When cousins gather and meet up during the Chinese New Year, there are plenty of fun and games to play. Whether it’s a friendly game of cards or an intense match of mahjong, these are some of the most important bonding times for family who have not seen each other for the year (probably)

Image from: South China Morning Post

But, now that everyone is stuck at home, why not take the opportunity to come up with some interactive virtual games? After all, Chinese New Year festivities aren’t complete without some form of interaction with your family. With a virtual platform, you can create some interactive games like pop quizzes or guess the drawings that help you interact with your family, and bring everyone closer together through laughter. There is nothing better than a little bit of family-friendly rivalry to get the Chinese New Year going. 

3. Food Delivery Services

A big part of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations is the food. One of the Chinese New Year’s main purposes is to start the new year on a good note, and there is no better way to do that than to be with your whole family and feasting on the best. This is why the Chinese New Year reunion dinner is the most crucial time for you to be home. 

But what can you do when the pandemic is preventing you from going out and eating with your family? Well, you adapt and bring the dinner home. Well, here’s the beauty of it. With plenty of food delivery services to choose from, you’ll be able to make an order and get a hot meal delivered right to their home. This gives everyone the chance to partake in a meal and celebrate together even though they’re apart. It’s the new normal of Chinese New Year dinners!

4. Grab a virtual family photo

Large family group photos often flood social media during Chinese New Year. When else will you get everyone back for a gigantic family photo? But the 1-meter rule probably makes it harder for big families to fit into one photo, not to mention that families are not encouraged to gather in person to help flatten the curve. 

Image from: New Straits Times

A pandemic doesn’t have to stop that tradition. Organize a virtual hangout session with all your family members. You can pre-plan the color, or choose to wear the same family surname T-shirt to make things more interesting. 

As an addition for the year, you can probably also design a corner as your virtual “hangout” spot with family and friends. As this has been the year of Zoom and video calls, it’s always good for you to jump on a video call to celebrate with family and friends even though you’re apart. Safe and responsible are the buzzwords this year!

5. Giving virtual angpaos

Red packets, or angpaos are a significant highlight of the Chinese New Year. Angpaos is one of the most anticipated parts of Chinese New Year, especially for children and teenagers. Angpaos are often welcomed with huge smiles after children extending their well-wishes to their elders.

Image from: Mothership

Plus, you get to enjoy environmental benefits without the disposal of large amounts of waste paper! It’s a win-win for everyone, including Mother Earth. 

Conclusion

It is imperative for you to celebrate your blessings during this time. Be grateful that you still get the chance to celebrate Chinese New Year, even though it may be different to what you’re used to in the past. Technology has advanced to a point which enables us to celebrate and bask in the festive season while staying safe, so you should be able to share in this festive cheer with your family and friends. 

All in all, be glad that you’re able to celebrate Chinese New Year even though we’re in the midst of a pandemic. 

Now that you know what you can do to celebrate festivities online, it’s time to look into celebrating online festivities at your workplace too. At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning, from the platform we use down to the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees. Our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size.

Embrace the new norm of virtual events. 

Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

As we’ve seen in Part 1 of this series, virtual conference is more challenging than having just face-to-face encounters separately. To pull off a successful virtual conference, event planners need to have the working knowledge of both physical and virtual conference, as well as cater to the challenges that each event style presents. 

Today, we’re continuing with looking at a few more tips and tricks to own your next virtual conference. This article should help make your journey into the world of virtual conference a much easier one. Check out Part 1 of this article to get more tips and tricks. 

1. Focus on content and engagement

Content is king, and this is true especially for virtual conference. You will need to keep your audiences online engaged and constantly at attention throughout the event, and the best way to do so is to have engaging activities for them to take part in. 

Polls, voting, submitting questions are things that everyone can get involved in using the right tools on the platform. This will help create topics for content for your virtual audiences to engage with. The moderator or emcee can be a facilitator for this, as they are able to engage the audience with questions and information. 

If you want to increase the quality of your content, you can also do it through a questionnaire. This questionnaire can help prepare your prospective attendees for your future event. It can serve as a subtle form of event marketing as it shows respondents that you value their opinion and primes them to look forward to what you are planning.

You should ensure optimal interaction that is planned and managed well to include all participants and for an appropriate amount of time. Take into consideration that many online viewers will be watching alone and so cannot discuss directly with anyone. Still, virtual attendees can still be asked to think and respond via the comments or social media hashtags. 

Do note that the online response may not be as immediate so it’s good to allow some time to accommodate their responses as well. 

2. Choose the right timing

Virtual conference present an excellent opportunity to capture new and engaged audiences as it gives you the chance to reach people from all over the world. 

However, this also means that you will have to be more careful in choosing a date and time for your event. If a virtual conference is broadcasted live to a global audience, you know you have to contend with different time zones. You will have to find a balance between the time of the event locally, as well as to make sure international audiences are able to attend if they should choose to. Planning your virtual conference to accommodate each person’s time of day can be a struggle, but with careful planning and coordination, it can be done.

Another thing to take note about time is that when you are providing a live stream, you should always try to keep to the scheduled timing. This is because some of your audiences may log on specifically to catch certain presentations, speakers or snippets of information at a particular time, and it wouldn’t be good to let your previous speaker’s presentation overrun as this might cause confusion. 

3. Select the right venue

Just like any event, the venue plays one of the most important roles in a virtual event. As the organizer, you will need to make sure that there are sufficient options to accommodate your online audiences. 

Image from: Faber Audiovisuals

For the virtual conference space, you will have to counter issues that frequently plague online events, like attendees struggling to connect to the video or audio, slow feedback on forums or live chats and a lack of networking facilities. If you’re doing live streaming sessions, you should also consider having a good studio that is able to accommodate all your shooting needs, as you don’t want any issues to crop up halfway through your live feed. 

4. Have a great connection

One of the biggest peeves of a virtual conference is bad internet connection, which results in bad video, audio or both. As an organizer, you should always make sure that whoever is hosting your technology, whether hardware or software, should try their utmost best to make sure that they provide the highest quality video or audio for those attending at home. 

Bad feed quality can drastically decrease satisfaction and lead to a poor attendee experience. Also, having choppy video feeds and feeds cutting in and out on a presenter distract the user from the content, which is not something you’d want your attendees to experience at your event. 

To counter this, you need to make sure that the virtual component is fail-safe and that you have a professional IT team on standby to support any tech issues that may crop up during the event. 

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that events are changing towards a world in which virtual conference is key. With virtual conference is becoming increasingly popular and more accessible as the technology advances, we hope that the above tips are useful and able to help you plan your own virtual conference successfully. 

If you’re doing it right, a successful virtual conference can help to broaden your audience and provide more exposure to your event, as well as offer an international perspective and provide a richer experience for everyone involved.

Having an event management company that understands the know-hows of turning your next virtual conference or event into a success is important. At Milestone Production, we’re well-versed with plenty of experience in virtual event planning, from the platform we use down to the different ways to improve interaction between virtual attendees. Our solid team will ensure that all your virtual event needs are met, with customisable solutions for events of any size. 

Embrace the new norm of collaborative virtual events. Go virtual. Go global.

Speak to us at +603 7932 1001 

Email us at hannah@milestone-production.com

With the COVID-19 pandemic situation continuing to pose challenges to event organizers around the country, there have been plenty of new solutions cropping up. Digital solutions and implementations have been favored, with Facebook Live events and Zoom conferences among some of the more popular options. These solutions have slowly gained traction as an increasingly important and successful method of hosting events during this time. 

Virtual conference, as the name suggests, is essentially event which involve online participants enjoying both content and interactivity in real time, even from different locations.

Image from: MeetingHand

Virtual conference may seem easier to organize, but in actuality, they are more challenging than physical events. To pull off a successful virtual conference, event planners need to have the working knowledge of both physical and virtual events, and with it, a myriad of challenges that will not be as easily resolved. 

Today, we’ll be looking at some tips and tricks to organize and conduct a virtual conference. If this is your first time planning a virtual event, don’t worry. This article should help make your journey into the world of virtual conference a much easier one. 

Before you continue, check out our comprehensive look at hybrid events here.

1. Choose the right platform

First and foremost, choosing the right virtual platform in which to host your virtual conference should be one of the key factors you should look at. 

A good virtual conference platform should be able to combine the physical event planning software that is crucial for you to stay organized, as well as the virtual event options to accommodate your online audiences. This includes options like uploading videos, live chat and lead generation features for sponsors and vendors. 

A high-quality virtual conference platform is able to cover all of these options, while giving you great audience engagement as well. Some of the features you should be looking out for include live chat, lead generation, social media connection, the ability to upload pre-recorded videos, live video and feed recording, among others.

Virtual conference platforms are also able to capture important data and the insights that you can glean to make your next event so much more successful. Some of the data you’ll be glad to have include the participation numbers, engagement and drop out rates. By evaluating your attendees’ data during the event, you can gain more insights and information on your attendees, and improve your future content. 

2. Identify your audiences

Virtual conference allows you to increase your reach and capture more attendees. Virtual conference present an excellent opportunity to capture new and engaged audiences as it gives you the chance to reach the kinds of people that ordinarily wouldn’t have been interested in the event, simply because they had no intention of attending in person. 

This is usually for two reasons, firstly because they’re unsure what benefits there are to attending the event in person, and secondly, geographical restrictions don’t allow them to travel. An added advantage is that virtual attendees can even join in from anywhere in the world!

Image from: The Future of Customer Engagement

3. Planning your virtual event

A fully virtual conference is not just a straightforward rehash of physical events with digital elements. This is why preparation and planning are so important. 

Firstly, the most important things like slides, video and other background information need to be prepared, loaded onto your platform of choice and tested in advance. You should be aware of any deadlines and any complexities which will be required so that you will have more time to prepare the materials rather than have a last minute rush. You should also find out if there are any flexibility for changes or additions to your prepared content. 

Another thing that you should prepare for a virtual conference is the technical preparations for your participants. Things like access links for your participants, live chat systems, rooms for discussion (if there are any), and Q&A sessions are things that should be tested in advance before the actual event. The last thing you would want to have happening during the event is participants not being able to join because of a wrong link, or discussion rooms not being prepared for networking sessions. 

Testing is also an important part of the planning process. No matter how many times you have planned your online event or virtual conferences, you should always test and retest your systems to make sure that the virtual experience you are providing is a good one.

Image from: Parker Design

Testing will usually help you sort out any issues with the software or platform you are using and identify any problems you may have with providing content or ensuring that the live chat works, for example. This is also true for camera placement and positioning. You don’t want to have a camera facing a blind spot for the whole duration of your event!

Like any event, you should have an event flow, so that everyone is on the same page on what is happening and when. This will be a good guiding point for your planning team, as well as your speakers and participants. It’s always good to be prepared as much as possible before the event. 

4. Have a great moderator / emcee 

Any good event should have an equally good mix of speakers, as well as a fantastic host or emcee to keep everyone’s spirits up. We cannot say much about having good speakers at your event, as this is wholly dependent on whether you or your client is able to engage relevant speakers befitting the event. However, we can say that research and knowledge into your event subject matter is key to engaging the right speakers for your event. 

As an event organizer, you should know that having someone to motivate your audience to stay alert, engaged, and excited about the content is very important. As a facilitator of the event, the virtual emcee or moderator is a key link between the content and the online audiences. They will be able to keep each session participant focused and keep each attendee more engaged with the content overall. 

Furthermore, they are able to manage the flow of the event as well, by contributing feedback, questions and comments from the online participants to the speakers. Not only will this further build a rapport between both speakers and audiences, it will also provide more engagement for the event. 

More details to be continued in Part 2

If you are starting to wonder how your next virtual conference can benefit from these tips and trick, pop us a a line at :-

hannah@milestone-production.com  

+603 7932 1001

Time waits for no man. If you are still sceptical about Virtual Events, fear no more. It is the ideal opportunity for you to begin organizing your 2020 business strategies! Out of the few patterns that would be well known in the coming year, virtual events are as of now are becoming the latest trend in 2020.

Virtual events are events hosted digitally on an online platform that is enhanced by creative technology. They connect organisers (in this case brands and corporates) with participants in virtual space which not only makes them progressively open for everyone but provides a one-of-a-kind immersive event experience. They additionally bring down the expense of arranging an occasion while upgrading the range and boosting the return on investment (ROI) adequately with digital solutions.

On the off chance that you haven’t sorted out a virtual event before, then you have landed on this page correctly! Here is a list of innovative, extraordinary and events that can be conducted online but you never knew of! With our team of experts leading anything is possible!

1. Awards Recognition / Annual Dinner

Amongst the many events that can be conducted, this definitely can be shocking but guess what, nothing is impossible with us! With our unique channelling of interactive images and graphics, this would end up being the most renowned award function or annual dinner. Be as creative as you want to be and be as grand as it can be, all at the expenses of integrating creative technologies such as hologram and augmented reality.

And if you ever wonder if you will be eating virtual food, the answer is NO! Like any awards or dinner function, guests will get to pre-select what kind of food they want to enjoy and have them delivered to their address! We can also

ship out your event door gifts right o them to complete the entire virtual event experience!

2. Fashion Show

Yes. You read that right! Fashion Show, Ramp Walks, Modelling is highly possible and is one of the most unique virtual event. The fashion show is shot live in a green screen studio and stream live to a high-security online platform. Unlike your usual onground fashion show, the online counterpart offers many features that is exquisite to an online platform which include state-of the art holographic effect on the clothes itself. You can even choose the type and size of the model (closest to yours) and put on the designer’s virtual clothes on them to get an idea on how it looks on you!  Connect with the designer and their team directly if they would like to proceed with a purchase. Missed the fashion show? Fortunately going virtual would means the event will be timeless and you get to re-watch it as many times as you wanted to!

3. Exhibition & Trade Show

Your company can have your tailor fit, impressive, presentation corner exhibiting with the companies mixed media components including:

–  E-brochures, posters, videos

–  Branding booths with custom template

–  Enable to upload logo, banner, leaflet

–  Company details

Attendees will be able to click the respective exhibition booth and they will be directed to and equipped with all the relevant information that they need to know. Our exclusive Virtual Lobby Branding feature is truly one in a million! We give our event attendees the maximum valuable experience like an augmented reality showroom. There will also be a live chat tool available to aid our attendees to connect directly with us. Live Chat format comes in 3 formats: You can either type, make an audio Call or also Video Call. Additionally, daily appointment slots can be made with exhibitors.

4. Conferences /AGM / Symposium

As we know an AGM, Symposium or Seminar usually can take up to 1000 pax. Due to the general wellbeing concern that is impossible now. It’s a higher priority than at any other time to have the option to hold online gathering and video conference instead.

A Virtual Conference is consistently workforce amicable and simple to join in, offers the network feel of an on location gathering, and spotlights on educating and learning points that are drawing in to all.

Virtual Conferences will never have a dull moment with with gamification ; where organisers can conduct series of fun interactive activities to keep audiences glued to their seats at home. To increase the interaction with the visitors, lucky draw sessions can be conducted in the auditorium as well. Attendees get the chance to participate in live polling and Q&A session when attending to the live streaming event.

Want to rake it up a notch higher? Then add on virtual reality and holographic features in your online presentation to make it even more interesting! And if you would like to showcase a product during the conference, your audiences can even be engaged through a 360 Virtual Gallery.

RSVP can be made via our designated registration platform. Registrants report will be updated on a daily basis as well. We also accept payments via credit and debit cards with PCI compliant secure payment processor. Protected accesses will be available only for your event’s registered attendees, where each registered attendee will receive a passcode after the verification process.

5. Product Launching

Many brands have been quickly adjusting by presenting their new items and assortments online. Intended to catch consideration, these advanced activities change with some joining a progressively interactive strategy as well.

You can also utilize your virtual launch as answers for enlighten your guests and customers about your new item through highlights like 3D Exhibitions with 360 Virtual Reality presentations, launch videos, panel discussions, and interact with partners via discussion spaces with our platform! By tracking attendee data, we will be able to track attendees of our event with a by tracking the duration of each viewer, how long did they spend on the event and their participation level.

6. Virtual Performances

What is a Virtual Performance? In fact, a virtual performance is any presentation/address/introduction where the presenter is absent at your area. This could be a concert, talent show, online performing arts, or any occasion that is regularly done face to face. During this Covid-19, many international artists live streamed their concert online and everyone was able to view their concerts from the comfort of their homes watching their favourite artist or band performing.

Similar to the fashion show, it will be live streamed directly. The best part about this Virtual Performance is that, there surely will be more exposure to the public. Aside from that, attendees will get to purchase tickets and merchandise online on the platform instead of contacting the concert organiser like always. We give our attendees the privilege and easy accessibility.

Best of all Virtual Performances are highly integrated with Hologram and Augmented Reality technology, providing a one of a kind experiences to fans from all around the world!

Pushing ahead with Digital Platforms is our fundamental core interest. Go virtual, Go Global with Milestone Production as we are walking into Digital Transformation with a new perspective. From setting up the online event to integrating creative technologies, sending e-invites, emails, Whatsapps and reminders, managing RSVPs to tracking real-time payments. To put it plainly, we organize EVERYTHING for you as Virtual Event Organizers!

An experiential event, m.i.c.e and virtual event curator providing an all in one package that is needed for your Virtual Events! Wait no more. Contact us today and grow your brand today effectively!

Our Contact Details as follows:

Tel : +603 7932 1001
Mobile : +6012 282 1502
Email : evon@milestone-production.com
Visit our Website : www.milestone-production.com

Written by: Priangka Elizabeth