This is not what I meant when I said, “Cancel all events!”

Time to learn how you can switch to a successful online conference or meeting.

Over the years, I have given a few presentations to corporate marketing or event managers, students and business owners. One of the first slides says in big and bold: “Cancel all events!”

It appears people forgot the underlying message.  “Cancel all events, if they don’t have a clear ROI objective.”

Nowadays, due to the crisis,  a ton of events get cancelled or postponed, which is entirely understandable. But have you ever looked into an alternative?

I know, we all get bombarded with information about the different webcast, videoconference and remote meeting solutions. I agree, great tools, we use a lot of them but you can do so much more if you start using them in a creative way.

Most of us are already happy when we have some kind of answer to this crisis. So we limit ourselves and go back to the safe but boring haven we left so many years ago: a top-down presentation with slide sharing.

Think back about the live event, meeting or conference you were supposed to have. Was it just one room with a full day of nothing but PowerPoint? Or did you have breakout rooms, brainstorm sessions, hackathons, poster presentations, an exhibition floor with sponsors?

Well, you can do this online too.

You might want to rethink your agenda, change the flow of things and alter timings.

But remember the reason why you entered the events world in the first place.

I bet it was because of the spirit of creativity, the “outside the box”-mentality and the sometimes boldness that goes with it. Now is the time to go back to those roots. Dare to change things.

If you have any questions about how you can switch to a successful online conference or meeting, just let us know. We will be more than happy to consult you. Depending on your objectives and formats, we will help you design the perfect online event, including audience engagement, cocreation and reporting.

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