How to Convince Your Company That a Virtual Event Is the Right Move: Benefits of Virtual & Hybrid Events

Virtual and hybrid events have taken off in recent years. Many big events have gone virtual, making it clear just how well the concept can work. Could it be effective for your company? It’s a tough sell if management isn’t yet convinced that it’s the right move. Being clear about the potential benefits of virtual events and hybrid events can help you state your case.

1. Expand Your Audience Base

No matter how effective your company’s current marketing plan is, it’s still highly likely that you could be reaching a wider audience. This can be the case even with multiple live events on your annual schedule. There’s one very simple reason for this, and it’s not necessarily because your marketing campaigns aren’t effective. It’s more about how live events can be self-limiting because there are always people who would attend the event if they could. But they’re unable to due to practical concerns like time constraints or travel costs.

Opting for a virtual or hybrid event instead makes this a non-issue. If people can attend the event online, they can do so from virtually anywhere in the world. And even if they don’t have time for traveling or attending a multi-day live event, they probably do have time to login to an online event and watch a few sessions on-demand or see some virtual exhibits.

In short: Your audience potential is considerably expanded because it’s easier and less costly for people to attend the event. That means you’ll not only have more attendees, but you’ll also have more individual companies attending and exhibiting. Smaller companies that can’t afford to send people to in-person events may have the budget to buy virtual tickets. That’s a win for everyone—hosts, sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees.

2. Create a Year-Round Revenue Stream, or Gain New Customers

If your company isn’t already doing so, it’s beneficial to start treating events as year-round revenue streams. The potential value of an event doesn’t start just before the event and stop just after. If your event content has value, people will want to access it after the event is over. They may be willing to pay for it, which allows you to create a new revenue stream and add to the ROI of your company’s virtual events.

Another option is to offer free content in exchange for contact information. You can then shift new subscribers into your sales funnel, and, in the future, those people may become customers.

3. Enhance Your Industry Reputation and Brand Awareness

Live events generate lots of short-term buzz, but all that hype dissipates quickly once the event is over. Hybrid and virtual events give you a much better shot at turning that short-term hype into long-term brand awareness. With that comes the opportunity to enhance your company’s reputation as an expert in the industry.

Virtual conferences and events have the potential to generate long-term interest because online content is easy to reuse. For instance, if your virtual event includes a keynote speaker, roundtable, panel discussion, or education sessions, recordings of that content can be repurposed in multiple ways. It continues to provide valuable information for clients and customers long after the event is over. As you continue holding events and building up your content library, your company website benefits from increased traffic. At the same time, your company develops a reputation as a source of quality education and information. It doesn’t necessarily happen overnight, but as you continue producing quality content, you’ll secure your position as an industry thought-leader.

4. Use Enhanced Analytics to Get to Know Your Customers Better

One of the most significant advantages of virtual and hybrid events is the sheer wealth of data they generate. When virtual attendees visit an event website, every action they take generates data that you can record and analyze. It’s vastly easier to track an attendee’s movements online than it is to track how people move around a live event venue. At live events, it typically requires the people attending to opt-in in some way, and that’s not always easy to accomplish.

Online, the ability to track what attendees do is baked right into the events platform. You can understand:

  • What sessions they watch and for how long
  • What event features they interact with
  • And more

Each attendee’s behavior is tied to their individual registration identity. This means you can sort individuals into all kinds of demographic groups. Want to know which demographics were most interested in your keynote speaker? No problem. Which attendee groups spent the most time interacting with your company’s product demos? No problem. For online events, data analytics are a piece of cake.

Can’t Give Up the Benefits of a Live Event? Go Hybrid.

Clearly, virtual events have many benefits, but in-person events do too! Most people still prefer to network face-to-face rather than virtually network. It’s generally considered easier to keep attendees engaged at a live event, as compared to a virtual one. And big industry trade shows and expos will always be massively popular physical events because people love to see the amazing booths that the biggest brands have devised for that year.

If your company is reluctant to give up the benefits of a live event, holding a hybrid event instead could be the perfect alternative. A hybrid event gives you all the advantages of a live show, and since event content is also available online, people who can’t get to the physical venue can still take part.

Learn more about whether a hybrid event is right for you here.

The Benefits of Virtual and Hybrid Events Are Clear

If your company currently holds one or more physical events every year, there are some clear benefits to adding virtual or hybrid events to the schedule. Whether that’s instead of or in addition to live events, there’s plenty of potential there. Virtual conferences and events can boost your event attendance rates and give you not only a bigger audience, but a more globally diverse one too. Plus, enhanced data analytics also offer the chance to understand your audience better than ever before.

Need more ammo to convince the higher-ups that going virtual or hybrid is the right choice? Reach out to our team today!

Jack Connolly

Executive Creative Director

As an experiential creative director, Jack prefers to draw outside the lines. He tells stories with original content and impactful design to ignite meaningful conversation.

 

Jack brings 20 years of event industry knowledge to ProGlobalEvents. He specializes in building live & virtual platforms for audiences to connect, engage and immerse themselves in the power of a shared experience. His skills range from ideation and concept development to defining an attendee journey through storytelling and design.

Jack understands the creative process is not linear, but a collaborative process between agency and client. He manages teams of designers and technology developers to pioneer impactful brand experiences. His diverse skillset and leadership ensure for award-winning results and memorable impressions.

 

In 2019, BizBash named Jack one of the top event designers in North America. SXSW awarded his work the “People’s Choice in Innovation” in 2021.

Jerome Nadel

Chief Marketing Officer

Jerome Nadel is Internationally experienced design-led marketing executive (CMO and GM) with a track record of improved market position, revenue growth, and M&A. He is an advance degreed psychologist and user experience product/service design expert, board member and advisor.

 

Prior to joining ProGlobalEvents |ProExhibits |XtendLive, he has had a variety of chief marketing officer and chief user experience officer roles at companies including Rambus, BrainChip, Human Factors International, SLP InfoWare, Gemplus, and Sagem. He started his career in the IBM Human Factors Labs.

 

He is also an avid cyclist with National and multiple California State Champion titles.

Ivan Fujihara

Chief Financial Officer

Ivan brings 25+ years in senior level management experience from a variety of technology industries.  His background includes accounting management, analytics and audit management for technology companies.  He has worked with companies such as THX, Ltd, Recruitology , Double Click, Creative Labs and more.  Ivan has also served on the board of Lincoln Families, a non-profit that supports East Bay children with the objective of disrupting the cycle of trauma and poverty.

Matt Rulis

Vice President of Sales

Matt is a marketing professional and has been managing marketing strategies, campaigns and environments for a diverse client base for over 15 years. From a service perspective, Matt and his team of Account Executives focus on fostering relationships to uphold a greater than 99% customer satisfaction rating year-over-year. Additionally, with extensive experience on the client-side of the industry, he understands that alignment between expectation and budget is paramount to a successful project. As a result, ProGlobalEvents' clients can expect a competitive advantage paired with top quality products and services. Matt is an avid fly-fisherman, enjoys most outdoor activities and is a true college football fanatic.

Tom Foley

VP of Operations

Heading the fabrication side of ProGlobalEvents is exhibit and event industry veteran, Tom Foley. For over 35 years he has been responsible for building amazing exhibits and environments for clients. Tom started out in the production area and has broad experience in project and operations management. He currently oversees production, warehouse, graphics and project management departments. Tom studied machine tool technology and welding before entering the industry. As a true "builder" he also enjoys restoring and modifying classic American cars.

Dick Wheeler

President

Dick serves as President of ProGlobalEvents and President of ProExhibits and is a board member of CEMA (Corporate Event Marketing Association). At ProExhibits he has been nationally recognized as an innovator and driving force in the fast-growing trade show exhibit and event industry. Under his leadership in 1997, the firm received INC magazine’s INC 500 award as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. His informative articles on developments and innovations in the trade show exhibit and event industry have appeared in national trade publications. Dick has a B.S. degree from Wittemore School of Business & Economics at the University of New Hampshire and has completed the Entrepreneurial Executive Leadership Program sponsored by MIT, YEO and INC. He is actively involved in Vistage, an interactive group of over 20,000 CEO’s and presidents worldwide and is a member of CEMA and EDPA.

Jody Tatro

Chief Executive Officer

In addition to being CEO of ProGlobalEvents, Jody is also the CEO of ProExhibits. With Jody at the helm, the company has been recognized repeatedly as one of the Top 50 Women Owned Businesses in Silicon Valley. She has set the outstanding client service standards for which the firm’s account management team is noted. Jody is a recipient of the YWCA’s Tribute to Women Award, the Junior League Community Volunteer Award and is listed in Who’s Who of Women in Business. Following her graduation from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Jody held various sales positions in several technology companies.