Universities and other educational institutions host various virtual events. Each of these events consists of its own challenges, and tackling them wisely is vital for the event organizers. The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has opened the doorway to several forms of virtual events.
Where the organizers gave access to the live sessions and on-demand content for the audience. However, there are numerous challenges that one encounters while hosting a virtual event.
In this article, let’s understand the major challenges that universities and educational institutions face when hosting virtual events. Let’s also know how virtual event management platforms help in dealing with these challenges with their innovative solutions.
Challenge 1- Inability to Manage Large and Diverse Audiences
Universities and colleges usually host large-scale events that are attended by students, faculty members, researchers, alumni, industry partners, and international guests simultaneously. Each of them has different expectations, technical knowledge, and engagement preferences. This makes audience management significantly more complicated.
When organizers solely depend on basic video conferencing tools, they often struggle to segment participants or personalize communication effectively. They might not serve the large audience, and this eventually results in an utter failure of the whole virtual event.
Challenge 2- Lack of Concrete Content Strategy
While hosting a virtual event, the absence of a good content strategy can become one of the biggest and most challenging aspects. With a short attention span and daily distractions, it becomes important to ensure that the strategy remains aligned with the people who are attending the event. If there is no proper event categorization, then it might confuse the audience.
Focus on making the audience stay engaged by planning shorter and well-segmented sessions and sharing knowledge that is simple to understand. Never let the attendees’ interest go astray or distract them. Thoroughly analyze the deliverable content and have a close look while planning the content strategy.
Challenge 3- Absence of Technical Expertise
Many event organizers are worried that their limited knowledge in technical aspects will prevent them, the event attendees, and the speakers from even participating in or enjoying the event virtually. If the event organizer is planning a virtual event for the first time, then there are high chances that they might face more issues. There are several technicalities that are involved in setting up a virtual event.
From the audience or the event organizers experiencing an interrupted internet connection to software limitations, there are too many technical aspects that need to be addressed with careful attention. Often, the audience faces a tough time understanding the platform and self-navigating through the entire event. Even the organizers might face difficulty understanding the software and customizing the experience that stays aligned with the interests of the audience.
Challenge 4- Missing Technological Support
Missing technological support can lead to everything going down the drain. It is good to have a proper backup plan ready with active assistance. Choosing a proper event management platform that easily handles virtual events and provides expert support to the event organizers and to the audience is the best way to tackle this issue. If there is an easily available support system that is efficient, relevant, and quick, then the execution of the whole event happens smoothly.
Challenge 5- Virtual Events Are Prone to Cybersecurity Concerns
In physical events, security is mainly related to people’s safety and hosting events without any hassle. This can be achieved by keeping a close watch on everyone as the event takes place. However, when it comes to hosting virtual events, it is a bit different. Although attendees might not face any kind of major threat physically, there is a bigger issue to deal with, and that is cybersecurity.
The presence of years of researched valuable content and information in abundance on virtual platforms might lead to unavoidable cyber threats.. The event organizers get access to massive personal data of the audience, and the onus is on them to secure it. Using a robust security system that enables end-to-end safety and security options will save it from falling prey to intruders.
Challenge 6- Virtual Events Lack Two-Way Communication
With active breakout sessions, tea and coffee breaks, scheduled meetings, and Q&A sessions, attendees get engaged in an in-person event in a variety of ways. When the same event is held virtually, these opportunities are lost. People feel more connected when there is proper two-way communication. This increases their trust and results in better networking.
Organizers of virtual events should come up with various ways to connect people so that they can openly communicate, preventing dull situations. Conducting live Q&A sessions and polls, asking for feedback, and providing interactions in virtual breakout rooms, social communities, and feedback and opinion sections will help better analyze the behavior of the audience.
Challenge 7- Possibility of Poor Engagement in Virtual Events
In comparison to an in-person event, grabbing the interest of attendees and keeping them engaged is a daunting task for event planners. Due to an event’s online presence and remote setup, the audience gets distracted easily. Managing a global audience all at once is challenging. The event organizers must follow a detailed attendee engagement plan from event registration to post-event feedback.
Challenge 8- Reduced Attendee Turnout
Making people interested in a virtual event and getting them to register for it is the first step to securing a digital footprint. In comparison to physical events, attendance in the virtual events requires a great effort. Several aspects must be taken into consideration, such as how to reach the targeted audience online. How to boost registrations? How to attract an audience to attend the virtual event? And many more.
Apart from the above-mentioned challenges, there are many more that can be easily taken care of by using virtual event management software that is exclusively designed for universities and educational institutions.
What is a Virtual Event Management Platform for Universities and Educational Institutions?
A virtual event management platform for universities and educational institutions is a one-of-a-kind software. It is mainly designed to help hosts plan and organize virtual events irrespective of the audience size. These innovative digital tools provide unique and effective features that are tailored to the demands of universities.
How a Virtual Event Management Platform Manages the Challenges Faced by Virtual Events?
A virtual event management platform in an educational environment provides solutions that scale up and support both academic and non–academic forms of virtual events. It easily integrates with campus systems and offers advanced functionalities. These platforms provide features that not only meet the challenges faced by virtual events but also offer the best solutions in terms of user-friendliness and experience, logistics, branding, data management, privacy, content delivery, communication, and many more.
Flexible Event Registration and Ticketing
The software provides registration forms that are simple to fill, view, share, and download. It accommodates various attendee types and offers options to add customized questions. It also supports bulk registrations and eases the workload challenge faced by the administrative staff. It offers multiple ticketing options, such as paid, free, discounts, and many more.
Efficiency in Attendee Engagement
One of the greatest barriers in virtual events is attendee engagement. Many don’t prefer hour-long lectures. Using a virtual event management platform helps to plan activities in the event that actively involve the participants and encourage them to take part in fruitful conversations. Rather than just streaming content in one direction, the software enables two-way communication. It also ensures that the interests of attendees are not lost.
Easy Integrations with Other Digital Tools
One of the other main factors of hosting virtual events is the platform on which it is conducted. There are several platforms available in the current market that offer different features. Based on the range and interest of the audience, content delivery, and features, a virtual platform should be selected that best fits the event requirements.
There are quite a few event management platforms that also get quickly integrated with other digital tools, offering better usability, stability, functionality, and ease for hosting virtual events.
Better Marketing and Promotion
A successful virtual event mainly relies on a good marketing strategy, an actionable approach that grabs attendees’ attention. The event organizers shouldn’t assume that the audience will come naturally.
Event organizers use tools like email campaigns, send reminders in a personalized tone, and share automated announcements and updates to keep participants informed. They also build interest before, during, and after the event to maintain engagement and increase overall participation. These can lead to reduced no-shows from the attendees and a high level of engagement.
The event management platform provides several options to advertise the virtual event so that it creates buzz among the audience. Making sure to create dedicated landing pages, writing blogs and sending newsletters that talk about the event, and providing special subscriptions are the ways it can be promoted.
Safe and Secure Payment Options
Virtual events are prone to a lot of cyber-risks. Using event management software that offers safe, secure, and compliant payment gateways will win the trust of the audience and actively tackle the challenges faced due to cyber threats. The software also provides options to handle complex and customizable payments, refunds, discounts, and many more.
The virtual event handling software also gives features that allow it to generate invoices, send receipts, get data on payments made, and merge with university accounting systems. It also supports offline payments and various payment modes.
Reporting and Analytics
Gathering details from the event and creating reports is not just challenging but also a daunting task. Virtual event hosting software provides a dedicated dashboard that clearly gives details of attendance tracking, check-in rates, and engagement metrics related to participation in sessions, surveys, and polls.
What are the Advantages of Using Virtual Event Management Software for Universities and Educational Institutions?
The virtual event management software doesn’t just tackle the challenges; it also offers several benefits that organizers can reap by incorporating it in managing the university events. Some of them include:
Enhanced Student Participation
There are several interactive features, such as polls, Q&A, and networking tools, that ensure maximum participation from the students, resulting in stronger connections during events.
Cost-Effectiveness
Several universities run on tight budgets, but using event management software is the most affordable option. This way, the universities can focus on other important things and use the financial resources on student experiences.
Builds Positive Outlook
With custom branding, sleek website pages related to virtual events, automated check-ins, and many more brand-building functions, the university presents a polished experience and better professional image.
Seamless Operations
From effective communication to scheduling and organizing, event platforms effectively decreases administrative overload and reduces errors. This is useful to free up resources for other priorities and saves time for staff as well as student organizers.
The Takeaway
Universities and educational institutions host several events every year. Without using the right kind of tools, virtual events can become quite hectic. This results in letting down the attendees’ enthusiasm to attend the event and drains the staff with fewer resources. Adopting a specialized platform like Dryfta, an all-in-one event management solution designed especially for universities, makes things easier.
Dryfta is a unique platform that reduces manual work, boosts overall attendee engagement, and handles registration and ticketing effectively. It also offers better options for networking and matchmaking with data-driven insights for planning and reporting. All in all, it helps to deliver a memorable and flawless event. Schedule a free demo to learn more.