Become a Communications Rock Star with the Right Virtual Events Solution

With the rise of remote work, dispersed organizations and industry disruption — trends accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — virtual events have evolved from a nice-to-have to a need-to-have. As a result, HR, IR, marketing and communications professionals tasked with putting on high-profile, mission-critical events need to ensure they go off without a hitch. That means choosing a solution that is secure, reliable, scalable and easy to use for hosts and guests alike. Here’s what to look for when choosing among the solutions currently available on the market:

Security

Given that cybersecurity is a #1 concern these days, this is a dealbreaker. Your solution should have the enterprise-grade security you expect to meet global data governance standards and protect the privacy of your employees, shareholders and other stakeholders as well as your organization’s intellectual property.

Performance at scale

Many solutions fall flat when it comes to performance, as they simply aren’t equipped to handle audiences in the thousands with HD audio and high-quality video. As a result, your event could be marred by video freezes, out-of-sync audio, lag and disconnects. Look for a solution with a history of reliable delivery free of network bandwidth issues.

Simplicity

The best virtual event systems make them easy to plan, set up, host and attend. Your solution should integrate seamlessly with tools that you use every day, including CRM & marketing automation. Event guests should have secure access with a single click in their calendar or browser on any device without the need to download and learn yet another dedicated application. Event producers should have an easy-to-use control panel to manage presenters, participants and content smoothly and flawlessly. These capabilities keep the focus on the content, not on the technology.

Audience Engagement

Aligning a large organization around strategic priorities is no easy task, and doing it remotely is even more challenging. Best of breed virtual event solutions offer advanced video features such as dynamic layout capabilities that allow presenters to direct the audience to focus on specific presentation content and multiple simultaneous presenters to enliven your event. Your solution should also offer multiple ways to quickly and easily engage your audience such as polling, Q&A and chat. An engaged audience will stay focused during the presentation and retain the message long after the event has concluded.

Support Options

No two virtual events are the same. If your HR department is performing regular internal training or onboarding sessions (of any size), they might prefer an easy-to-use self-service option with 24/7 multimodal access to assistance via phone, email or chat for any questions they might have. By contrast, if you’re preparing a company-wide town hall or investor communication, but lack the time or skills to pull off a flawless event, you’d want to engage fully managed, white-glove services from experts, including setup and customization, advanced training, event moderation and more. And there’s an entire spectrum of situations that fall somewhere between these endpoints. Look for a variety of support options tailored to suit your budget and needs for any eventuality with no audience size limitations.

Accountability

In order to target your audience effectively and improve future performance, you need a way to gauge the success of your virtual events. Look for robust reporting and analytics capabilities in your solution to gain intelligence and demonstrate program value.

Versatility

You should have the ability to utilize your live virtual events in ways that maximize your ROI. Ask potential vendors how easy it is to repurpose recorded material for a simulated live event and post for on-demand viewing. Other capabilities to look for include AI-driven searchable text transcriptions with a ranking of key topics and the ability to fully customize every aspect of your branding — logo, color palette and other visual elements — within your events.

As an HR, IR, marketing or communications professional, you understand first-hand the urgent need to align large, complex and geographically dispersed organizations to face an increasing pace of disruptions. But organizing the perfect virtual event can be like running through an obstacle course of iffy security, laggy video and ho-hum presentations. If that’s the case, it’s time to choose a virtual event solution that provides a smooth path directly to your goal: virtual events that get everyone on the same page. GlobalMeet is the most reliable webcasting platform in the industry. We understand what it takes to deliver flawless virtual events to audiences of any size, and we welcome the opportunity to do the same for you.

To learn more about the ways in which GlobalMeet Webcast can help you cut through the maze of complexity surrounding virtual events, download our latest infographic, Choosing a Path Toward Virtual Event Success.