6 Min. Reading

The world of Virtual Events has grown significantly over the past year, and it is not going away any time soon, not even now that the pandemic is starting to recede due to scientist and medical personnel having more knowledge of the virus and to the vaccination efforts. During the last year, companies in all vertical sectors discovered the advantages of virtual events to bring together distant communities, individuals from all over the world, and building brand awareness in general. 

One of the biggest advantages virtual events have over in-person events is their greater power for data collection. While in-person events give great feedback to attendees (in the form of life experiences and networking), virtual events are extremely generous on the host and sponsors’ side. During in-person events data collection is possible due to RFIDS which are badges that attendees scan as they enter each session or room. Other forms of data collection, such as surveys, are also possible, but they require extra efforts. On the other side, data collection is an innate part of virtual events. Some virtual-event platforms will offer simple data; for example, the number of participants in an event and their email addresses, but those with the right technology will be able to offer a greater variety of data.  Having more kinds of data available will help you get a better picture of how successful your efforts were. Not having it is like sending a message in a bottle: the letter is out there, but there is no way to know what happened with it.   

An automated data capture platform will ensure you constantly have the data you need to understand –and improve– your event’s performance and prove the ROI to your sponsors available. But truth be told, it benefits every person involved in the virtual event.

It benefits the hosts as the data set collected during the event will attract potential sponsors and speakers interested in getting feedback over their presentations. Ultimately, the data will empower them to understand the event’s performance (during and after the event), make timely changes, and hit their KPIs. 

On the sponsors’ side, the data differential will help them decide which virtual-event-supplier to use, in which events to engage and which to decline. During the event, sponsors will understand their booth dynamics and, in the case of suppliers such as eBrightConnect, send real-time push messages to entice visitors and reach KPIs goals.

The sponsors’ metrics will let them know how many visitors downloaded the documents available at their booths, allow them to chat with attendees, know how many users attended their webinars, and measure the audience’s interest in their contents and dynamics. 

Additionally, for boths hosts and sponsors, the collected information can be used to feed their CRM and refine their audience segmentation to nurture other marketing efforts (such as drip campaigns, for example).

Audience segmentation is a perpetual and dynamic process that sometimes leaves open questions. Crossing virtual-events-data to your regular data sources (such as emails open rates or social media analytics) may be the way to find the answer to unsolved questions or to refine your database.

Last but not least, sponsors and hosts will benefit from high-quality leads, whose information is collected through BANT forms, and they will also be able to communicate in real-time through the chat capabilities.

Real-time data can have several benefits for attendees. First, it would enable gamification strategies to enrich the event experience, enhance engagement, healthy competition, and recognition possibilities during the event. Second, real-time data allows hosts to optimize the experience and offer more of what is to their interests, whether it is for the next days or future events. 

eBrightConnect’s platform offers data on several KPIs that will give you insights into your audience’s interests. Here are some examples: 

• % of invitees that registered for the event
• Attendance distribution by location (country or region) 
• Quantity of pre-registered attendees to each session 
• % of community members that attend a minimum session number in a given time
• The average duration of session attendance
• Number of questions made in a session
• % of attendees that participate in session polls 
• Visitors by sponsor booth
• Bant forms completed at the sponsor booths
• % of attendees that complete the session survey
• Speakers with the highest success rate

What potential benefits of virtual events data can you see for other aspects of your business strategy? 

Business Trends – YOUR VIRTUAL EVENTS NEED REAL-TIME DATA AND THAT IS NON NEGOTIABLE
By: Ana Maria Enciso, May 2021
Edited by: Isabela Rosa