We are four months into quarantine, and one of the many things that has changed in our new virtual lives is that events can no longer happen in person. Here at cred, we’ve been closely involved as the events industry has figured out the shift to virtual.

What’s been surprising? The unanticipated benefits of virtual events.

This post is not meant to imply that virtual events are better than live events. We still believe there's unique value to gathering in person. That said, as we've pivoted to virtual we've been surprised and excited by all of the unexpected benefits of both placing our speakers at virtual events and organizing virtual events. 

When live events do return, we do not see virtual going away. Virtual events are here to stay and the experience will only continue to improve as virtual event technology is enhanced and event planners, speakers, and attendees become more virtually savvy.

This post will focus on the benefits we’ve seen from a speaking perspective. A future post will dive into the unanticipated benefits from the perspective of event organizers.

The benefits of virtual events for speakers.

cred works with 80+ speakers. We learn about their goals for getting out speaking and, from there, secure opportunities for them to speak to the right audiences with the right messages to build thought leadership. 

The shift to virtual has certainly been a challenge, especially as we are all navigating new tools and platforms. While there have been bumps in the road, here are some of the unanticipated benefits we are seeing:

• Ability to speak more. One clear benefit of speaking virtually is that you do not need to travel to the event, whether it is flying to another city or getting across town to the venue. There is less of a time commitment, which means more flexibility to get out speaking more. This is coupled with an explosion of online events, webinars & podcasts providing ample opportunity to speak more than you did when events were live. 

• Knowing who is “in the room.” Many of the better virtual event platforms emerging allow the speaker to see who is “in the room,” usually listing attendee name, title, and company for a specific session. This is different from a live event where you see a room full of faces with no context in real-time or would otherwise need to sponsor the event to access attendee lists. 

• Engagement with the audience. A big fear we hear from our speakers about virtual events is that there will be less engagement from the audience. Though that was unfortunately the case early on as organizers were trialling best practices, lately we have seen an increase in opportunities for speakers to engage with the audience throughout a talk with live comments, questions, and surveys. Collision @ Home built their own platform that even allowed the audience to engage via emojis throughout a talk. 

• Networking. The ability to walk around a conference and run into current contacts in your network, as well as meet new people to expand your network, cannot be replicated and has great value. However, there are very creative things being done to create that experience virtually. From setting up 1:1 meetings in advance and live “speed networking,” to creating Slack channels to connect during and even after the event as those channels stay active—Hawke Media’s Quarantine Conference did a great job with this back in April.

• Longevity. With live events, only a small percentage of talks are recorded and posted online after the event. In contrast, almost all talks at virtual events, podcasts, webinars are posted publicly to live on the web. This enhances the power of your talk, the ability to continue to promote it and increase the number of viewers, as well as help upsell you as a speaker to the next event.

• Support on stage. Live events have a green room where you and your team can prep, but once you hit the stage, you are flying solo. These new virtual platforms often have a “backstage” where someone on your team can join you throughout the talk to give you tips in real-time, take note of who is “in the room,” engage via chat in real-time, take questions, etc. 

Now that you understand the benefits of virtual speaking, how can you get the most out of your time speaking on the virtual stage? 

• Format & topic matter more now than ever. In our experience, solo presentations longer than 15 minutes will lose a virtual audience without a lot of engagement throughout. We suggest a fireside chat or panel, or a much shorter presentation with a guided Q&A. In terms of topic, all events differ, but in general, we’ve seen that timely and future-thinking topics tend to do well. As always, the more specific examples and storytelling you can incorporate into your talk, the better.

• Understand the platform. Right now every event is using a different software platform and it is important as a speaker that you understand which platform the event will be using. Most of these platforms have tutorials, and a good event organizer will walk you through their platform to ensure you are set up for success—from helping you manage your slides, view audience q&a, engage with attendees, etc.

• Do a tech check. Make sure your WiFi and connectivity are strong from wherever you plan to record and that your computer/phone mic is working properly. If possible, have a backup WiFi network or hotspot available should your primary WiFi go out.

• Make an even greater effort to engage with your audience. Even though you can’t see them, it is more important than ever to interact with a virtual audience. Ask questions and have them put their answers in the comments. Do a poll in the middle of your talk. Get creative! Be personable & approachable, maybe insert personality & humor into your presentation. 

• Set the right “stage”. Your background and setup are very important. Invest in a better camera, ensure your background isn’t too busy, check the lighting. Want to use a virtual background? cred’s recommendation is to skip it. It can be distracting.