Babel’s virtual event: beyond the webinar

For businesses, events are a crucial means of engaging with customers and prospects – and the media. In the UK, the events industry is worth around £42.3 billion, with around 1.3 million business events held across more than 10,000 venues, hosting over 85 million attendees, every year. This year however, has been far from typical.

In light of the recent pandemic, the message is clear: where possible, don’t cancel your event, move it online. In our ‘new normal’, experiences that once took place in person have increasingly become virtual – and industry events are no exception. Replacing ‘physical’ location-based events with virtual alternatives is allowing companies to go ahead with global conferences, trade shows, product launches, recruitment fairs, and even music festivals. Moving these events online means companies can continue to benefit from the opportunities (whether networking, educational, or revenue-driving) that traditional in-person events afforded them.

But setting up and running virtual events can bring its own challenges. And for many companies, this may be their first time running an online event, making the process all the more intimidating. So how can you make an online event successful? And how can you move beyond simply hosting a webinar, and create more meaningful engagement with your target audience and the media?

On Wednesday 17^th June, at 2pm BST/9am ET, Babel is hosting an hour-long panel discussion on how to harness virtual events to engage customers, prospects, and the media. Speakers from some of the world’s largest virtual events and media brands will share their thoughts on how companies can successfully harness virtual events to boost market awareness, engage with key influencers, and promote their expertise.

We’ll be joined by Zoe Kleinman, Technology Reporter for the BBC; Martyn Landi, Technology Correspondent for PA Media (formally Press Association); and Derek Weeks, VP of Sonatype and Co-Founder of the All Day DevOps, one of the world’s largest virtual events, which last year attracted over 36,000 technology professionals.

Through the panel discussion and audience questions, we hope to generate insight on how brands can pivot quickly and execute successful virtual events. We will then be talking about the advantages of holding a virtual event, such as reduced environmental impact, greater accessibility and flexibility, and cost savings. We will also be covering the drawbacks, including the lack of ‘mingling’, and potential distractions. Panellists will be sharing advice on how to prepare your speakers, what the biggest mistakes are when it comes to promoting an event to the media, and the importance of events being ‘live’ instead of pre-recorded.

We would love you to join, so if you want to know how to master a virtual event that could engage tens of thousands of participants, please head here to register, or contact virtualevent@babelpr.com. Hope to see you there!

Jen Kelham, Senior Campaign Manager