The virtual award ceremony has become an excellent way to celebrate the wins and recognize the contributions around us. With several restrictions on traveling in 2020, people were forced to adopt the concept of virtual venues. But today during 2021, the scenario is quite different.
Today individuals are looking for excellent 3D virtual event software to elevate the level of their award shows. so, let us take you through some best practices to host a virtual award show;
Define your goals
Before you plan a virtual award ceremony, make sure to jot down the objectives of hosting the event. Once you are clear with your event and business goals, it becomes easier to take your event in the right direction. Besides this, try to understand your target audience and their expectations and viewpoints. After recognizing this, it becomes easier to include features and tools based on attendee demands and industry trends.
Choose your virtual award show platform wisely
Since you have decided to host the online award show, it is vital to include novel features for creating unique experiences. The primary step includes selecting an ideal virtual award ceremony platform that has engaging and interactive tools. To deliver an impactful impression, look for a 3D platform to transform your virtual experiences.
Engagement is a significant criterion at any online event. Make sure that your platform can seamlessly organize live polls, surveys, and Q&As to keep your attendees involved. It should also help you with the insights of the attendee navigation that helps you measure the success of your virtual event. Also, it should be backed by a 24/7 customer support feature that can provide immediate assistance to the attendees or can troubleshoot any unforeseen errors faced during the event.
Since you are taking your award show online for the first time, remember to take a complete demo of the platform you’ve chosen. It will help you understand if the features and tools align with your business needs.
Create an attractive 3D stage
Designing a stunning 3D stage enriched with immersive visuals, imagery, and videos can recreate the experiences of a physical award show. You can add 3D teleportation, dynamic banners, GIFs, and animated light at the lobby to leave a lasting impression on the audience.
Audience engagement features
Audience engagement is a significant factor that can determine the success of your event. The ability to keep your attendees hooked with exciting and interesting features can take them in awe. Hence, it is advisable to look for an all-in-one virtual event technology that enables the participants to learn, experience, and engage seamlessly.
Here are a few virtual award ceremony engagement ideas;
- Social wall: This wall curates the feed from different social media channels, pages, and profiles that are related to the event. It displays the posts with event-specific hashtags that attendees upload on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
- On-event Announcements: It is an excellent way to keep the audience updated about the live and forthcoming sessions. You can use pop-up features or push notifications to notify the attendees about the same. These announcements can be in the form of text or videos.
- AI-based Recommendations: Many platforms leverage AI matchmaking tools to let attendees connect with like-minded people. The platforms take inputs from all the attendees regarding their interest areas to let the mutual ones connect.
- Photobooths: Audiences can use these branded photobooths to capture multiple photos with their families, kids, and pets. It is a great way to make the event even more memorable.
- Gamification: Everyone loves to play games. Games like tic-tac-toe, crosswords, word games, scavenger hunts, etc help add a fun element to your award show. It will also enhance the dwell time of the audience on the platform.
Make your virtual award ceremony super exciting
The motive is to make your attendees feel special. You can ask your platform service provider to get a little creative while executing the event.
Consider adding a thematic background, exciting sound effects, hoot & clap sound to deliver life-like event experiences.
Another aspect that you should consider is to keep it concise, crisp, and to the point. Prepare engaging content and get renowned speakers on board to deliver the same. Also, while planning the session, reasonably plan its duration. Include breaks and try to avoid lengthy sessions.
Consider adding a live chat feature and Q&A sessions to let attendees interact with exhibitors and speakers in real-time.
Make way for sponsors
Getting attractive sponsors is an excellent way to increase the ROI of the event. To lure more sponsors, you need to make them feel profited. You can display their brand, color, content, and products on the digital screens of your platform. It is an effective way to let more people know about their brands and convert them into qualified leads. Sponsors can also add virtual award ceremony template to customize their branding and increase their visibility.
Promote and Live-stream your virtual award show
It is essential to promote your virtual award show to reach a global audience and boost the brand value. You can make the most of social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube to spread awareness about your event.
Besides this, you can also practice multi-channel live streaming to gather more audience to your event. Use event-specific hashtags to enhance the outreach of your online award ceremony.
Take a follow-up
Do not miss out on taking a follow-up or valuable feedback of the attendees post the award show. You can send simple survey forms to the registered emails of the attendees. You can include questions like “What did you like the most?”, How would you rate your event experience?”, Or “Would you like to suggest something?”
It will help you understand if you were able to meet the expectations of your audience. Feedback from the attendees will also let you know the opportunity areas that you can improve for the upcoming events.
Get detailed analytics
All-in-one virtual event platforms help the organizers with complete data and insights of attendee navigation. It will help you measure the success of your event. Comprehensive data includes the number of messages sent between the exhibitor and attendee, the most attended session, the number of times the live chat feature was used, the count of registrations, and many more.
Final Word
With so many virtual event technologies available in the market, choose your venue partner wisely. The platform should be competent enough to host a remarkable and bizarre virtual gala. If you are about to host a virtual award ceremony for the first time, then do your research and have a strategic approach.
