4 Tips To Maximize The Benefits of Online Events

For many executives, online events can be quite intimidating as there are a lot of moving parts that they might not be familiar with. Especially if they’ve only ever attended in-person events.

However, entrepreneurs, businesses, and solution providers are exploring new avenues of networking and online conferences/summits can become the ultimate networking platform for many executives given the current circumstances regarding COVID-19.

If you’re a first-timer, it’s can be hard trying to figure out ways to maximize the benefits of attending online events. To help you out, we’ve highlighted a few tips that you can put into action and help make your online event experience a success.

So, are you ready to maximize to benefits of online events?

Tip #1: Managing and Scheduling Your Time

One of the biggest problems with attending conferences is finding ways to manage your time. While you might think that having a completely online event allows you to be a bit lax when it comes to punctuality, think again.

Timing (and being on time) is still important and since all presentations or keynotes will be digital, you can expect it to start and end on time. This is why, when you have access to the event’s schedule, you should manage and decide which speaker or showcase that you want to attend to beforehand.

Do a quick research on the speakers and determine which ones are more likely to give you insights. Set up a reminder in your calendar for their presentations and the meetings that you want to attend, but don’t forget to leave room for any other seminars that you might be interested in joining.

The flexibility of an online event also means that you don’t need to rush to an event hall and miss out on any keynotes from being late. Even if you’re currently working from home, all you have to do is just prepare your laptop and log in at the right time. So, there are no excuses to be late!

Tip #2: Actively Participating and Constantly Engaging

We know face-to-face networking is the most sought-after experience for physical conferences but when you’re in a presentation or keynote, all forms of communication are on-hold and the experience tends to be one-sided. This makes it hard for you to discuss with others until the presentation is over and the floor is opened to the audience.

With online conferences, some of the most engaging and informative discussions can occur during the online presentation as attendees can actively participate by talking directly to the speaker or with each other.

Since you’re participating in the discussion in real-time, the presenters themselves and the moderators can see and react instantaneously to your comments and thoughts on the presentation without disruption. This gives you plenty of opportunities to gain insights directly from the speakers themselves.

Tip #3: Constantly Networking With Everyone

Online conferences/summits have a much wider geographical reach which allows attendees from all over the world to join the event. With that, you now have a deeper pool of people that you can network and develop business opportunities with.

Many deals and profitable business relationships start over (online) drinks at a conference event and you shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to meet with like-minded entrepreneurs, investors, event speakers, and event organizers to pitch yourself as a potential business partner.

Be active and participate in roundtable discussions, or our Campfire, and discuss with your peers and the speakers on the keynote presentation. By doing so, you’ll gain access to insights and industry knowledge that you normally wouldn’t get in a typical in-person conference.

Talk and engage with other attendees in the chat during a presentation. Exchange emails and social media links when you have your online 1-to-1 sessions. Follow up with each valuable connection that you’ve made during the events and fully optimize your online networking experience.

Tip #4: Taking Advantage of The (Digital) Convenience

Since larger conferences tend to have multiple sessions overlapping or running at the same time, you often have to choose which sessions you want to attend. This is why you need to take advantage of the unique conveniences that online events offer by having the ability to attend multiple sessions at once.

And the process is as simple as having multiple windows open for the session that you want to attend, and just switching between them when you want to move between the different keynote presentations.

Of course, a big convenience that online events offer is to remove the logistical issues that you often associate with physical events such as traveling, accommodation, and just having enough time for 1-to-1 meetings.

While it’s by no means able to completely replace physical events, you have greater conveniences as you have more access to different sessions and more time to network with the right people.

Final Thoughts

Gathering like-minded people in one location is one of the most powerful aspects of conferences and while online events might not be able to completely replicate the same face-to-face connections, you can still maximize the benefits of online events by following our actionable tips above.