There’s an industry secret, not every event manager is aware of right now: digital practices are critical to running events in 2022 even as we return to in-person experiences. Knowing this means you’ve got an incredible opportunity to increase the success of your events.
While many businesses found it a challenge to quickly pivot to virtual events when COVID-19 descended—the adoption of digital tools and online experiences has changed audiences’ perceptions of what’s possible.
In 2022, whether your attendees are seated in a conference room or relaxing on their couch, they are now accustomed to using technology for its convenience, personalization, and engagement.
Pre-pandemic event practices no longer measure up to customer expectations. Events risk falling short of engagement and conversion goals as a result. Recent research conducted by Forrester shows that many companies are preparing for a hybrid future: 72% of those surveyed for the study agreed that future events would include more robust digital components.
As you plan in-person activities in 2022, it’s time to make the leap to embrace digital touchpoints.
How to use Jomablue to create digital strategies for live events
Adopting Jomablue’s integrated event platform makes it easy to take the best of what works from virtual events to deliver the ideal in-person experience. So, what do smart digital touchpoints look like for in-person events?
1. Live Chat: Encourage people to share opinions and discuss ideas during presentations. The popularity of online chat tools in virtual events has proven that attendees love the feeling of connecting with session content and contributing to a discussion. You can give in-person attendees the same experience, with a live chat option that people can engage with via mobile devices during or after a session.
2. Session Q&A: Moderate questions from your in-person audience via online tools that provide a central place for session Q&A. Making it easy to submit questions via event pages during sessions is a great way to ensure everyone has a chance to ask burning questions as they arise—and removes any worries about having to raise their hand at the end of a session. Jomablue’s Q&A feature lets moderators choose which questions to make public, and simplifies the work for hosts running the live Q&A. Our platform also allows attendees to vote to support a question from someone else that they’d also like to have answered.
3. Photo pages: Did it really happen if there isn’t a photo to prove it? Help your selfie-savvy attendees immortalize their presence at your event with an online photo gallery on your event website. It’s fun and builds a sense of community within your event experience. Jomablue Photo Gallery lets people upload and decorate their own pics, which also allows you to carry through branding concepts or support for sponsors via customizable image borders and stickers.
4. Networking: Extend networking opportunities beyond your physical location, and beyond event day. Just because an attendee shows up to see your keynote address doesn’t mean they’ll stick around for drinks or brainstorming workshops—people have busy lives, kids to tuck in. Yet the desire to network or contribute may still be strong. Add online networking into your program to engage people before, during, and after an in-person experience. Jomablue makes connection recommendations based on matching profiling criteria and data from tracking attendees’ in-person interactions during your event.
5. Exhibitor lead capture: Give your sponsors more opportunities to showcase their value to your attendees, and reduce friction in the lead capture process. More digital touchpoints not only mean more places to share branded content, but it can also streamline the lead generation and marketing process. For instance, by using Jomablue’s platform, sponsors can have tailored web pages with special offers or competition entry forms that attendees can easily fill in online—in case they don’t want to visit an expo booth or run out of time on the day.
6. Online content: You want to keep the connection with your attendees alive long after event day, right? Extend the length of your event, and deepen your engagement with audiences, by hosting material online post-event. This is standard practice for virtual events and is hugely popular with attendees. For example, you could make session videos, session slides, and sponsor listings available online for attendees to revisit, or to capture those who missed the live event due to external factors beyond their control.
Digital interactions are integral to modern life and are often more inclusive. That’s a big reason why the shift to virtual events during the height of the pandemic was able to occur successfully. With in-person events returning in 2022, don’t lose sight of the valuable lessons learned—embrace digital touchpoints in any event with Jomablue’s powerful event platform.
Our platform lets you centralize event execution, deliver and track both live and online interactions, and measure (and report on) engagement in the context of an entire event experience. Streamlined cross-format event delivery also reduces the cost and complexity of creating hybrid experiences.
