Hosting a successful live event is all about the small details. Your customers crave fun, interactive, creative and authentic experiences, and with Fogzee you can do just that. There are, however, basic guidelines to follow when it comes to hosting and presenting your live event.
We’ve put together the following 4 key tips for a successful online event that you, as the organizer and host of the event, should always keep in mind. These principles can also apply to anyone presenting in your event, including other team members and your brand ambassadors/ influencers. These tips offer simple ways to make sure your event goes smoothly and according to the goals you’ve set for it.
1. Know roughly how long each section in your event’s agenda is going to take
We’ve discussed the importance of preparing for your event and laying out an outline of your event’s agenda. To that end, it is important to also know how long each section of your agenda is going to take you more or less.
Events are time-framed and your audience expects to be attending for the amount of time you set. In order to reach your goals and best cover your agenda, you should estimate how long each section of your event’s agenda is going to take and make sure you’re more or less good on time.
If you don’t do that, you might go overtime and miss important items you wanted to cover which might ultimately affect the desired results of your event. Having said that, you don’t need to plan each section of your agenda to the minute. Things happen in live events and some chats and questions might digress and take more time.
However, planning roughly how long each section is going to take can help you keep track of where you are and know when to move forward to the next section in order to ensure you cover all the items that are important to your event’s success.
2. Leave time gaps for live questions
A direct extension of the first tip is leaving time for live questions. When you plan your agenda, and roughly how long each section is going to take, you should always include time for live questions. Your audience will most likely have questions they will write in the chat, and you have to address them. Obviously not all questions will always be answered, however it is important to make sure to answer a good amount of questions so that your audience feels included and heard. Questions are also a good sales driver as a lot of the times they are about the product or service you’re selling.
Ensuring you leave time for live questions, and letting your audience know you or your influencer (or any other presenter) will be answering questions at the end or the middle of the event is a must-do for an engaging event.
3. Acknowledge your audience
This one is really important (yes I say it a lot, but I really mean it this time). During your live event, you need to make sure to greet your attendees. After all, your audience and customers are the reason you’re hosting this live event, right? Greet your audience by name, and by what they write in the chat, and make sure to keep doing it throughout the event.
Acknowledging what the audience write and say in the chat, and mentioning their names gives them an inclusive feeling that is extremely important to connecting with them on a personal level, and making sure they stay engaged with you and your other hosts. If you are hosting an event with an influencer, make sure they do the same.
It is not enough to answer questions, you have to actively acknowledge your customers and what they’re saying about the event and you, to make them feel special.
4. Keep it loose when you start
As the cliché saying goes – people do business with people. If you follow our previous tips, you might be feeling like you’ve got stuff a bit too planned out to make the event feel natural and authentic. Indeed, that might be the case in the first couple of events since you may be lacking presentation and hosting experience. So in those first events, keep in mind to let loose a bit even if it means some stuff you planned will get missed.
Your audience can feel a lack of authenticity immediately, and that is no-good for your event’s success and your future events’ attendance rates. So, especially for your first events, keep in mind to keep things flowing even if it means not following your plan to the dot. As you progress and host more events things will come naturally.
With time and practice, you will notice that planning actually empowers you to be more spontaneous and authentic because it keeps all guesswork out of the door, and allows you to focus on being the awesome you your audience wants to meet.
