The virtual venue is the new trend among various industries and event organizers. The reason is, hosting an event in a virtual environment encourages global participation. An awards ceremony is a prominent way to honor and reward people or teams who have made outstanding contributions to your companies, business, or industry. It’s also an occasion to network and develop relationships along with having fun at the virtual event.
Therefore, we have come up with eight efficient ways that can help you organize virtual award ceremonies even better and successfully;
Build a Game Plan
Any event – be it physical, virtual, or hybrid begins with strategic planning. Plan your virtual award ceremony in a way that will deliver life-like event experiences to the attendees. How do you wish to achieve your essential business goals? Begin by listing the objectives you want to accomplish and decide how this virtual award ceremony will help you attain your desired results. Do you wish to promote brand awareness, develop relationships, or direct sales opportunities along with appreciating the hard work of your awardees?
Timing can set various things right. Think wisely and choose a date and time that would not collide with other significant events. To replicate the on-site event experiences, which features do you wish to include in your virtual award ceremony? Also, what will be the key factors that you’ll use to track the success of your virtual event? Besides, pre-plan the format of the virtual award ceremony – will it be live, on-demand, or pre-recorded?
These are some factors that have to be considered before hosting a virtual award ceremony. It will create a roadmap and let you plan virtual award ceremonies even better and successfully.
Choose the Best Virtual Award Ceremony Platform
There are numerous virtual event platforms, so do thorough research. Identify your business needs and then verify if the virtual venue you pick is compatible enough to match your requirements. Consider selecting an all-in-one virtual event platform that is backed by tech and customer support, includes innovative features, and knows how to deliver a remarkable experience to the attendees.
Keep Exciting Category Titles for the Awards
Raising the excitement among the attendees at any virtual event is the fundamental motive. Therefore, consider keeping exciting category titles at virtual award ceremonies to ensure that attendees stay involved and curious about who the awardee shall be and what can be the upcoming category of awards.
Keep Your Audience Engaged
Since the events are happening virtually, the chances of attendees getting diverted are more when compared to on-site events. Therefore, put yourself in the shoes of the attendees to understand their expectations from the virtual event. Right from creating an impactful impression at the beginning till the event is over, try to make your audience feel special.
Keeping stunning graphics, animated light at the lobby, or creating a 3D environment are some excellent features to replicate the venue of a physical event. The ability of a virtual event platform to incorporate quizzes, surveys, live polls, games, and Q&A is very important. It allows attendees to connect and interact with each other seamlessly.
Create a Room for Sponsors
Attractive sponsors at virtual award shows act as inflation. To offer a valuable aspect for your sponsors, give more exposure to their logos, like presentation templates or on-background visuals used at the virtual award ceremony. You can also include a separate space on your social wall to display both theirs and your content. This way, the sponsors will feel benefitted and will readily sponsor for your next events as well.
Promote and Market your Virtual Award Ceremony
Promoting your virtual event to the right audience is very important to increase the ROI of the event. Use creative and SEO optimized content, leverage social media channels, make paid advertisements, send out important emails to bring better sponsorships and maximum attendance. Compose press releases and write relevant blogs, and get in touch with local press or industry trade news terminals to promote your virtual award ceremony.
Create an exciting landing page that will have the time, date, and registration link of your virtual event. This will spread the word regarding your virtual award ceremony to avoid missing out on any new joiner.
Also, if you have invited some noteworthy speakers, ask them to be the influencers of the event. Perhaps they can post about the virtual award ceremony on their social media handles.
Leverage Social Media and Live stream Your Event
We all know that today social media is an effective channel to reach maximum people and spread awareness about an upcoming event. You can also use these social media platforms to post updates, pictures, and videos to spread the word regarding your event. Live-streaming your virtual award ceremony is very crucial for creating excitement and promoting your brand. You can choose one of these successful platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, to live-stream your virtual event.
Deliver an Exceptional Awardee Experience
Eventually, the virtual award ceremony aims to recreate the experience of on-site events. To take this in the right direction, make your attendees feel extraordinary. Be creative in the way you value their accomplishments. Ask your design and video units to use artistic elements to produce a fantastic event experience. Think of a way that will determine the awardees’ prerecorded recognition speeches to signify who they are. Invite directors or peers to summarize their accomplishments.
A virtual award ceremony is not merely about presenting awards; it is way beyond that. How engaged was the audience? Did everyone like the event? Were you able to replicate the experiences of the physical events?
These are some other pointers that you should consider to assess the success of your virtual award ceremony.
Hope the above mentioned-points add value to your planning for your next virtual event. Looking for an end-to-end virtual event solution to take your virtual award ceremony to a next level?
Get in touch with Dreamcast or request a demo today!