Virtual Events: The Screen May Seem Small, But The Stage Has Never Been Bigger
October 1, 2020
“Meeting on Zoom with 50-100 people for 5 hours – how hard can it be? Breakouts? No problem! Throw in a video – easy peasy!”
That was the prevailing attitude in April and May: No one was immune to this delightful mirage of the virtual world. Fast forward 5 months, and the reality of virtual meetings is unmistakable – the stress and pressure are amplified beyond all intuition.
As a full service, experienced meeting and events team, we just executed our 15th virtual conference to date; we have embraced that 2-dimensional events take more time, attention, practice (and Tums!) than live events.
Why is this? There are so many reasons – but the simple answer is that presenters, speakers, CEOs, and executives are suddenly only 2-feet from each attendee at all times. Their every movement, hesitation, or hiccup unfolds in up-close HD and becomes quite obvious. Presenters must be prepped and polished like never before. The show must run with split-second precision because even a second of downtime on screen allows attendees to ask, “Hey, what is happening?”
Mitigating this requires more rehearsals, more technical reviews, more laser focused attention during the show, and technical redundancy.
When you take everything into consideration, it is no surprise that these events are more costly than anyone would have imagined. Our overarching lesson: this is time and money well spent.
Nothing is worse than a poorly choreographed and sloppily executed virtual event. You only get ONE shot and the stakes are high! Corinthian Events has embraced virtual events and enjoyed the learning curve. Bottom line is, we love executing amazing experiences no matter the format.
Let us know what your virtual challenges are – we’d love to solve them (but please know, they cost more than $2,500)…
For more information about Virtual Events and how we can bring your event to life,
please contact us or visit our Virtual Events Hub.