Hosting an online event may appear to be less exciting or engaging than hosting an in-person event, but only at first glance. Improved inclusivity, higher reach, reduced costs, and unparalleled networking opportunities are all among the numerous benefits of hosting online events. As online events statistics reveal, 45.9% of people attend ten or more online events whereas only 12.6% participate in in-person events. Not only is this because people can tune in online events from all geographic locations, but also because it is simply too hard to resist all the perks and cool benefits that online events offer. In this article we’ll cover the following: wider reach, monetization opportunities, flexibility of time and location, recordings, community building, and countless benefits for the environment!
Online events can have a global reach and can bring together the most diverse groups of people with a quick and simple click. In-person events, on the other hand, are limited to the geographic circumference of a business or an event site, restraining your ability to reach wider and farther audiences. Moreover, online events can host a larger number of people than any physical location possibly could, so you can have the largest and most diverse event audience simply by using the right online events platform, and using it right! Nordic VR Forum, for example, which is a conference for innovators, thought leaders, and storytellers, increased their participation by 150% and had attendees from over 22 countries for the first time by using myOnvent.
We’ve worked hard to create a platform that can allow businesses to operate on a global scale and reach wider audiences, and, as our trajectory proves, we’ve done so successfully. This level of success had never been accomplished previously when the event was organized as an in-person conference, and the online component gave the event a both unprecedented and unexpected course of stark development and growth, on not only a local but also global scale. Internationalism was at the very core of the establishment of myOnvent, which is why the myOnvent interface is offered in 10 languages (including all of the UN languages), enabling people to join our events regardless of not only geographic but also linguistic and cultural boundaries.
Not only do online events enable clients to reach bigger and more diverse audiences, but they also allow them to generate even more financial profit than in-person events would. For instance:
Mini Case Study: One of our clients hosted a series of in-person courses on finance-related topics, which required substantial and continuous traveling all around Norway. No matter how high the revenues were, the costs were so high that they eventually led to a break-even business. Instead of losing hope and giving up, the client decided to change the format of the course from that of an in-person series of events to an online one. The client trusted myOnvent to host the online event. The three-day-long course ended up generating over USD 400K in profits after the whole annual license cost was accounted for, proving once again the immense advantage of online events over physical ones!
On average, in-person events require $1,294 of spending per participant, whereas with online events, many of the expenditures associated with in-person events are simply avoided. It is no longer necessary to pay for expensive flights, venue reservations, banquets, accommodations, and even for the annoying and time-consuming parking matters. Everything is made simpler and more convenient, both for the organizer and the online event attendees!
There are numerous ways to monetize your event, ranging from charging a modest sum for tickets, promoting and selling your products and services right from the registration stage or exhibition booths, to adding short ads that promote your sponsors, and so many more! You can even have sponsor mentions while you’re organizing polls, quizzes, or Q&A sessions, which will be a great way not only to monetize your event but also to express your gratitude to your sponsors. myOnvent has gone one step further by adding the option to include exhibitor booth designs that can put particular emphasis on the contribution of your sponsors and help you generate profits all throughout the event, from beginning to end! Sometimes all it takes is just a smart and intuitive design.
Bonus tip: Online events also enable you to track metrics more effortlessly and effectively with readily available event statistics, providing you with invaluable support for your marketing evaluation and planning efforts!
One of the greatest benefits of online events is the flexibility that they offer. Your participants can attend as little or as much of the online event as they would like or would be able to, yet still get all the valuable information when watching the recording of the event. Were they busy with something else or simply forgot to tune in on time? Not the end of the world: your recordings will be saved safely and securely on our myOnvent platform and be accessible to your authorized users days or years after the event is over. As you upload videos to our myOnvent archive (available as video-on-demand), over time you can build a rich library full of useful and informative video content. Think Netflix, but instead of binge-watching series, you’re watching your videos! :))
The ability to record the sessions is useful not only for those who were unable to attend the event, but also for the ones who simply want to rewatch the session or revisit some specific sections of the recording which they found particularly relevant. The recordings are available to access from anywhere in the world, at any time, making both you and your event participants happy and satisfied: clients get useful, informative content at their own convenience, while your event attendance continues to grow at its own convenience… How cool is that!
What’s more, you can use the recordings for monetization or general marketing purposes. For example, you can add ads to your recordings, promoting your sponsors. Or, you can use the recordings as a form of a giveaway, which will be a great way to provide value to your customers and advance your marketing objectives. It will also be a fantastic way to save money, energy and time, as you won’t have to produce new content from scratch, because all the useful information will already be available in the recording: now all you’ll need to do is find the right format and platform to share the recording in, and get ready to welcome new customers and increased loyalty from the existing ones!
Because of the option to revisit recordings post events, online events never end. But, what’s even more fascinating, the relationships and connections built around online events don’t end either! In fact, when one of our clients, the ITU (UN Agency), built a community with myOnvent, it surpassed, within only two months, their membership base built with LinkedIn within five years… Less time and efforts spent, more and better results achieved!
The post-event networking and community-building too is so much easier on myOnvent in comparison to physical events. myOnvent enables the event participants to learn more about each other through social media links, our attendee database, our state-of-the-art smart matching features and many more, making networking virtually as easy as ABC. With these contacts, over time you can build a contact network like LinkedIn directly on myOnvent, gathering all your events, resources, content and community members on one all-inclusive, accessible, and convenient platform.
“A platform where Netflix meets LinkedIn,” we often lovingly (and proudly) joke about myOnvent.
The benefits of hosting online events expand beyond the personal, professional, and monetary scope. On average, every in-person event produces CO2 emissions equivalent to 1222 barrels of oil and 5,670kg of waste (of which an estimated 60% ends in landfills). Online events not only help avoid this detrimental amount of waste, but they also save 17.76kg of CO2 per attendee on average. That means that, since 2019, we estimate that the myOnvent platform has saved approximately 2500 tons/CO2, which is almost 300,000 times what the average car emits per day. We’ll say nothing else and will simply leave you with these numbers.
As soon as you realize the extent and the scope of the positive impact that hosting online events can have on the environment, you are more than welcome to host your next event on our myOnvent platform and contribute to our initiative for a cleaner and healthier planet.
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