Virtual Conferences: Innovating the Conference Industry for the Future

OK, so maybe we’re all growing a little tired of staring at our computer screens all day. But would you rather be going into an office every day and potentially contracting the coronavirus? What about business travel? If your boss asked you to go on a business trip to a conference that involved airfare and eating out at restaurants, would you be completely comfortable with that right now? Chances are we are constantly weighing the risks and rewards of things these days to make decisions that three months ago were no big deal. Until there’s a vaccine or a cure, chances are we aren’t going to feel totally comfortable getting “back to normal” just yet. Sp what will business start to look like as people get back to normal activities from a distance?

Chances are most of your normal work activities have moved online. Your meetings are over Zoom instead of in person, and Slack has taken the place of going into a coworker’s office to work on a project together.

Conferences and summits are starting to move online, as well. There have always been virtual conferences at some level, but now they are starting to become more mainstream out of necessity. Now that we are getting comfortable with the idea of things like remote work and remote conferences, these ways of doing business are likely to stick around.

86% of participants in virtual conferences say they have the same or higher level of engagement as they would in a in-person conference. As we migrate more online, going to a virtual conference or training event will start to seem like more of a normal part of everyday business life.

There are a lot of advantages to virtual conferences, too. There’s less environmental impact as people don’t have to travel to get there. It also costs significantly less than going to an in-person conference. 

For organizers, virtual conferences cost a lot less to put on, which means they can spend more on attractions like keynote speakers.

Learn more about the benefits of virtual conferences from the infographic below. There’s really no reason they won’t stick around once we all get used to the idea.