What You Need To Do Before Attending An Online Event

Today, the world is in unprecedented times with the pandemic COVID-19 that leaves individuals to stay safe at home in an effort to flatten the curve. Still, businesses continue to run, and many are being innovative by encouraging remote working and work-from-home initiatives.

Attaining new insights and collaborations activities are still on-going, and many decision-makers are looking at online events as the new normal for establishing business connections during this scenario.

You can maximize the benefits that online conferences offer by having a checklist to make the experience smoother. You may refer below; an essential checklist that could help you to prepare before attending an online event.

Networking with a digital business card

Attending an event online shares a lot of similarities with attending face-to-face networking functions, and making business connections is one of the aspects that should not be missed.

With the recent pandemic outburst, businesses and organizations are quickly transitioning into digital processes.

This includes using digital business cards. And while it has been around for some time, it would be fitting to utilize them during an online event. Leverage on the benefits of attending an online event by creating a business card digitally and incorporate your details to ultimately establish better rapport for networking with potential partners.

There are tons of apps that you can use, such as Haystack or Switchit, that lets you create a professional-looking digital business card in an easy and simple manner.

Ensure a strong internet connection

As most companies embrace online meetings to achieve a common goal, having a strong internet connection is important for effective communication throughout the meeting. Surely, a home Wifi may work flawlessly for daily internet activities like checking emails and web searching, but for heavy usage such as multiple video streaming, it might underperform.

This is why the first thing you need to do before attending an online event is to identify the speed of your Wifi signal.

Ensure your connection have less to zero interruptions especially during peak hours of internet usage. This could be done by testing the internet speed with free tools in which a minimum bandwidth of 3 Megabits (Mbps) is required to stream online events. However, it is advisable to have a bandwidth of 25 Mbps for ultra HD streaming to fully experience what online events have to offer.

Prep up on the agenda beforehand

Productivity at home demands a stricter discipline considering that you are more vulnerable to distractions. Particularly having to juggle between internal meetings, on-desk tasks, and at the same time attending an online event, all of it can be quite challenging.

That being said, with online events, the event agenda offers you the ability to plan your time and achieve maximum efficiency by staying on task throughout your day. In order to remain focused in the face of distractions, analyze the agenda thoroughly prior to the event date to help in scheduling specific times for completing various tasks.

This could also help in prioritizing your preferred topics and speakers, where you are able to have a quick research and prepare a set of questions to get clarifications or discuss with speakers and other attendees.

Read up and understand the FAQs

Research and read the Frequently Ask Questions (FAQs) in advance for a thorough understanding of how the online event would work at every session. Alternatively, it is best to ask the host directly if you have any concerns.

The FAQ holds all the information that you need to know, such as the do’s and don’ts during the session and where the presentation materials would be available. Since it is held online, you also have the advantage to leverage the session by recording it and re-watching it again for future reference and revisions.

In sum, attending an online event can be as powerful as a face-to-face event with the right preparation. Use the points listed above as a road-map for your event strategy to attain the most benefits, opportunities, networks, and potential partners for your business pursuits.