Because of cost and venue capacity restrictions, a well-produced event can only have so many in-person attendees. Live streaming corporate events has many benefits not only during, but after your event as well. It helps include and inform those who couldn’t attend and provides content for future marketing campaigns. Here are some reasons why you should be live streaming your next big event.
1. Engage a Wider Audience
Live streaming corporate events helps to spread your message far and wide and enables the engagement of attendees who are unable to attend the event in person. This is a bonus because as you share your message it also allows people who can’t attend to see, interact with and share content from your event. An additional benefit might be if you made a killer event opening video, more people get to enjoy the product of all your hard work!
Some companies have been skeptical of live streaming corporate events in the past because of the fear that people would choose to sit and watch from home instead attending. In contrast, it has actually helped people decide to attend the next year for other reasons than just listening to keynote speakers and actually getting to engage and network in person.
2. Increases Future Attendance
Live streaming corporate events is the best way to show those who don’t attend in person, just how awesome your event is and what they’re missing out on. According to Digitell, “15% – 30% of virtual attendees will come to your physical event the following year, making Live Streaming the most cost effective marketing tool to drive physical attendance.” Many virtual attendees know very little about your company or the event itself. The live stream acts as an introduction to what it’s all about, so they get excited, and inspired to attend the conference the following year. If this is an annual company event or conference already planned in advance, you can even give out special codes to virtual attendees to receive a discounted ticket for next year.
3. Connect with Your Audience
Live streaming offers a unique opportunity to directly encounter your intended audience and have them see everything in real time. Rather than just listening, they have the chance to follow the event on social media while interacting with you. Audience participation can be a significant part of many events for things like panel discussions or focus groups. When a speaker is presenting their topic, questions may be invited at the end. With live streaming, chat boxes can be set up where the virtual attendees can enter their questions and they can be answered during, or at the end of the stream.
4. Archive Your Event
Live streaming corporate events is an important tool for maximizing the value of your organization’s digital strategy. Live streaming also means recording your event, which means it can be archived and used in the future for many different purposes. Use moments that happened on stage to drive people back to the event through all forms of post-event communications such as: social media posts, follow-up emails, or blog posts on your website. Footage from your stream can also be creatively repurposed as part of an awesome event highlight reel for future video marketing campaigns.
5. Offers Convenience
In order to join events in person, attendees are required to put everything else in their lives aside. Work, family, and many other things are equally important and will often decide whether someone attends or not. By offering live streaming, you cater to those with the busy lives who can’t make it to your event physically. It also provides an alternative option for those that end up cancelling last minute where they can watch the live stream instead of requesting their money back.
Live streaming corporate events can amplify the impact of your marketing efforts during and after the event is complete through these 5 value add features. Has your company used live stream for any of your events? What benefits did you see that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comments below!
