The Lulu team has directed several virtual events in recent months: Galas, VIP events, conferences… With their expertise, and by applying a considerable amount of market monitoring and study analysis, they have identified a number of particularities that are unique to virtual events. This article presents the opportunities to be seized and the pitfalls to be avoided, but also sheds light on the changing priorities of event guests, which have been manifest since the inception of virtual event consumption.

Opportunities

Virtual events are distinct from in-person events. Though it may seem reasonable to simply copy/paste an in-person event and then adapt it as a virtual event, this is a method that should be most definitively proscribed. Virtual provides unique advantages that cannot be derived from in-person. It is therefore essential to benefit from these advantages!

1. THE TRANSFORMATION OF HUMAN CONTACT: FROM FORMAL TO INFORMAL

At the start of the pandemic, when telecommuting was only just staring to become the new norm, opening a window into people’s intimacy may have seemed intrusive and uncomfortable. It was all new at the time. Nevertheless, several months later, we have understood that the removal of formal barriers, such as having a view of an executive’s living room or a client’s children, can confer certain advantages. This opens the door to the possibility of approaching people on a more personal level, and is applicable in equal measure to both telecommuting and virtual events. As such, there is a very real opportunity to more easily touch people through their daily lives, and to breathe more authentic life into one’s message by approaching people more humanely.

2. THE WORLD AT OUR FINGERTIPS

he “virtual” world is your oyster. Digital platforms have global reach. Though this may seem obvious, this fact should never be neglected when planning a virtual event. The international nature of virtual events can help give rise to all sorts of original and unprecedented experiences, which would otherwise not have been possible.

With the entire world now within everyone’s reach, the potential for increased income is a factor that should not be ignored. Why remain limited to the usual target network when virtual platforms enable omnipresence? It is essential to begin thinking on a global scale, with a playing field that is now defined solely by the size of the planet.

3. THE ELIMINATION OF PHYSICAL BARRIERS MAKES NETWORKING MORE ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE

Picture this: you have just arrived at a corporate soirée of the type that had been common prior to the pandemic. The hall is filled, but you don’t know anyone in attendance. You scan the room and see several groupings of professionals, wineglasses in hand, all engaged in active discussion. Who do you approach? How should you address them? How can you pierce their conversation bubble? How do you engage in meaningful interaction? These answers are not equally self-evident for everyone.

In a virtual environment, the hindrances of physical barriers are eliminated. Approaching people becomes easier through organised networking than it ever could be with organic networking. There is no longer any need to break into the bubbles of others. The virtual realm confers an advantage: for the majority of participants, this new reality is far less intimidating than the feeling of being a fifth wheel at an in-person get-together. This presents an opportunity to network in a much more effective manner, free from the usual physical encumbrances, enabling new contacts that would have otherwise been far more complicated to establish.