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Author: Adam Riggs

Adam is Frameable's Chief Executive Officer, and an experienced executive and investor in e-commerce, finance, and media companies.

Prior to Frameable, Adam was a Presidential Innovation Fellow at the Treasury Dept. and a subject matter expert at the State Dept. on a variety of open data and knowledge management challenges.

Adam was the first President and CFO of Shutterstock from 2005 to 2010, and in the last 20 years has built, invested in, and advised companies achieving the full range of outcomes, from successful exits to disappointing bankruptcies, learning a great deal from each of them. Beyond work, he’s a proud father and husband, and a bona fide jazz nut…

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productivity remote work

How to Transition from Slack to Microsoft Teams Without Losing Your Culture

Person looking at Microsoft Teams app

Recently, our organization made a shift from using Slack to Microsoft Teams. The transition was not without its challenges, but we learned a lot along the way and are excited to share our experience with others. Many organizations are going through a similar transition as Teams has continued to grow, expanding from 44 million users in November 2019 to over 270 million users by 2022, far outpacing Slack’s 18 million active users.

In this blog post, we’ll outline key differences between Slack and Microsoft Teams from an end-user perspective, provide tips for planning and executing a successful transition, and offer advice on how to get the most out of Teams once you’ve already made the switch. Whether you’re considering a move to Teams or are already in the process, we hope this post will help make your transition as smooth and successful as possible.

Slack vs Microsoft Teams

Slack and Microsoft Teams both primarily function as business messaging apps but there are a few key differences between the two. Below is a chart outlining some of the key differences our team has noticed between the two platforms.

Slack Microsoft Teams
Guest Access Slack offered a more streamlined guest access experience, allowing single-channel guests to easily join one channel for free. We have found guest access to be more limiting in Microsoft Teams. Users need to be granted a licensed account and login to access channels.
Messaging Capabilities Our team misses custom emoji reactions and the drag-and-drop file attachment capabilities within Slack. Teams has opened our eyes to the world of animated GIFs as they are easily accessible to add from within chat. We also enjoy the chat threads that are created directly from video calls, allowing us to easily communicate with specific team members.
Integrations While Slack offered many third-party integrations, you still must leave the platform in order to collaborate. Our team relied on the Google Drive integration to share file access and see document activity but users still had to click and open a browser tab to actually enter the document. Teams has advanced integrations with all Office 365 apps, allowing company member users to easily navigate to shared files from directly within the Teams app. Check out our recently launched Frameable Spaces app for Microsoft Teams as well! This is how our team improves the existing in-call experience with advanced features such as multiple screen shares and a live dashboard of ongoing meetings and office activity.
Video Calls While Slack has video calling capabilities through third-party integrations, we did not use this feature. Teams allows us to easily make video or audio calls to multiple people directly from a group chat.

Planning and executing a successful transition

While we were all accustomed to using Slack and comfortable with its features, we recognized that Teams offered a more integrated and comprehensive solution for our growing workforce. Specifically, we were looking to integrate the Frameable Spaces platform directly into our messaging tool. 

We started by identifying a core team of individuals to lead the transition and serve as a resource for others during the process. This team was responsible for researching Teams’ features and capabilities, creating accounts on the new platform, setting up our teams, and answering questions from staff members.

For a successful transition we recommend:

  1. Map how you plan to migrate from Slack to Teams
    • Create a document outlining the steps and timeline for the transition. This should include converting what were previously Slack “channels” to “teams” within Microsoft, and ensuring the threads have the same privacy settings. Share this high-level view with employees and be sure to explain the reasons behind the transition.
  2. Migrate pinned files
    • If it is important for your organization to preserve historical records, you may want to look into exporting content from Slack. Depending on your Slack service plan, you will have the opportunity to export channels and direct messages. Our team built in a buffer period where employees were able to access both softwares during the transition to alleviate any concerns about losing historical records.
  3. Provide training and resources for employees
    • Be sure to offer training sessions and resources for employees to get familiar with Teams and the features it offers. To help employees get familiar with Teams, offer a mix of group training sessions, one-on-one coaching, and self-paced resources such as video tutorials or online guides. Encouraging employees to seek support as needed can also help facilitate a smoother transition. Be open to feedback and make adjustments as needed to ensure the transition is a success and your team is able to take full advantage of Teams’ capabilities.

While there were some initial challenges and adjustments to make, we are now enjoying the benefits of Teams’ integrated tools and more streamlined communication. Planning and executing a successful transition from Slack to Teams required effort and commitment, but it was well worth it in the end.

Tips for getting the most out of Teams

  • Use the Teams section and create channels for various functions, projects, and interests. Don’t forget to include some channels that help your remote and hybrid teams get to know each other.
  • If you find a group or a project is getting lost in group chat threads, create a dedicated channel so ideas, documents, and comments stay in one place.
  • Adjust your notifications so they work for you! Make sure you turn notifications on for important channels and adjust how and when you receive meeting reminders.
  • Explore apps and integrations to enhance your experience.
  • Customize or re-order the apps on the left-most panel so the tabs you use most are always readily available.

Improve remote work within your Microsoft Teams instance

If you are considering the switch to Microsoft Teams or are in the process, improve your experience with Frameable Spaces! Nurture your company culture from anywhere with the insights and visibility you need to understand how your team gets things done with the birds-eye view of activity. Book a demo to learn more!

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remote work

How to Create a Digital Skills Roadmap for Virtual Work Success

Black woman working remotely on her laptop taking part in a video meeting

This article originally appeared on Fast Company.

As the future of work shifts toward remote and hybrid arrangements, employees should be equipped with the digital skills required to succeed in the virtual workplace. Businesses adopted a slew of new software tools in the immediate switch to remote work. But it seems to me that little thought was given to whether the workforce had the right skills in place to make the most of these tools.

Despite the recent focus on an alleged Gen Z digital skills gap, the reality is that three in four global workers feel they lack the necessary resources to learn the digital skills they need to be successful. 

To build a more resilient workforce, organizations should reassess their company’s digital skills gap and software commitments and create a culture of ongoing learning. Here’s how:

THE FIVE MOST IMPORTANT SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK

Understanding which skills are most important for succeeding in hybrid and remote work requires you to deeply reflect on your employee experience and assess what abilities are crucial for navigating entirely digital environments.

Salesforce’s 2022 Global Digital Skills Index identified the digital skills that are most important for the future of work. These include:

  1. Collaboration technology
  2. Digital administrative
  3. Encryption and cybersecurity
  4. E-commerce and digital trade
  5. Project management technology

Leaders should use this list as a starting point for identifying their digital skills gap—does your team know how to use all of your workplace tools to their full potential? Are there clear guidelines for how to share and store documents? Are they aware of cyber security best practices to protect accounts and sensitive information? 

SEVEN STEPS TO CREATE A DIGITAL SKILLS ROADMAP

Keeping the digital skills from above in mind, your team can start to identify areas within each category that they need to develop. Then, follow these seven steps to document your digital skills gap and create a roadmap to address those needs:

1. Revisit your goals: Before making any changes, you should understand how digital skills influence your business goals, and how each team supports achieving those goals. Identify the skills that are critical to your company’s ongoing success and note any skill gaps.

2. Survey your employees: Survey your team to understand the challenges they face and their concerns about their readiness for the future of work. Provide opportunities for them to elaborate on their concerns and identify what skills they need the company’s support to develop. Supplement your surveys with one-on-one conversations between managers and direct reports, ensuring that each employee knows they can share their honest feedback. Specific questions to ask include:

  • Do you have the necessary tools and resources to succeed in your role?
  • How do you prefer to learn new skills or ideas? What type of resources do you welcome?
  • What skills or concepts do you want to learn more about so you can feel more confident in your work?
  • Are the goals and metrics for your success appropriate to reflect the work you do and the value you provide to the team?

3. Develop digital personas: Although every employee will have unique needs, it can help to group them into categories to streamline your initial upskilling initiative. Gartner has identified five technology user types that you can use or modify to reflect your team’s current digital personas. Use your employee survey responses to fine-tune the categories and develop distinct strategies to engage each group. Effective personas should assess each group’s overall workplace experience, willingness to adopt new technologies, and preferences for how they conduct work. 

4. Audit your tech stack: As your team fields its employee surveys, you can concurrently audit employee digital experience across departments and roles. For example, how many tools do they use daily? How integrated are these experiences? What applications do they use the most and least? It’s essential to understand how each tool fits within the workflow and what purpose it serves so that you can find ways to consolidate tools where possible.

5. Invest in upskilling: With a clear understanding of your immediate employee needs and the tools critical to your business success, you can now identify the skills most needed to build a resilient workforce. Next, group each skill by category—such as creative design, digital marketing, sales, or artificial intelligence—and explore a mix of formal and informal training opportunities, such as investing in online classes for your team, providing job-shadowing opportunities, or hosting weekly “lunch and learn” sessions.

6. Create support networks: Team silos can widen your skills gaps and make it harder to identify ways to improve your employee experience. Develop support networks that encourage collaboration across teams, such as creating mentor programs or ongoing networking opportunities for employees to discuss their work, challenges they’re facing, and ways that everyone can better align. Providing a shared virtual office platform everyone uses, for example, can help build a culture of collaboration.

7. Build self-service resource hubs: You can solve many of your team’s digital training needs by creating how-to documents and guides that explain how to use your business tools and ways to overcome common challenges. Create guides for each of your business tools, starting with those tools that are most critical to your business success. Invite feedback on your resources and encourage employees to request new materials or edits as they encounter challenges in their work. 

BUILD A RESILIENT TEAM WHERE EVERYONE CAN THRIVE

Every leader is responsible for setting up their workers for success in this new world of digital work. Every employee’s needs should be accounted for to ensure the effective execution of your company’s strategy.

Rethink your employee experience for a remote and hybrid world, and audit your workplace tools to ensure they still meet their intended purpose. By revisiting your company goals, speaking to employees to understand their unique needs, and creating ongoing learning opportunities, your company can create a competitive advantage for itself by emerging as a leader in the future of work.

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remote work

Frameable Announces Partner Program

Frameable announces Partner Program

Today, Frameable is announcing the launch of our Partner Program, which will enable the Microsoft partner ecosystem to sell our revolutionary Microsoft-integrated products to their existing and future customers. Our integrations provide clients with a multitude of new and innovative features that enhance their existing Microsoft Teams environment. Improve upon current Teams workflows by unlocking access to a greater level of visibility across your organization.

The program supports partners who want to incorporate Frameable’s innovative solutions. Our team is ready to enable and support partners and help them grow their businesses with a complementary recurring revenue stream.

By joining our program, partners will be able to unlock benefits such as:

  • Presales / co-selling support to acquire new customers
  • Consulting services to design customer solutions
  • Marketing support to build sales funnel 
  • Participate in rapidly growing product sales

At Frameable, we believe in building strong and lasting relationships with our partners. That’s why we make it easy and flexible to work with us. Frameable requires the purchase of Spaces through a channel partner, creating a mutually beneficial relationship that complements the customer’s existing Microsoft Teams license commitment. 

Our integration provides partners with a more comprehensive platform for collaboration and communication. Take advantage of the Frameable Partner Program and sign up today to create an unparalleled digital work experience for your customers.

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Categories
remote work

Frameable Announces New Integration with Microsoft Teams

We’re excited to announce the release of our Microsoft Teams integration for our virtual office product, Spaces. Our new integration is available to any team that uses Microsoft Teams for remote and in-office collaboration.

With more than six times the number of people working from home today compared to 2019, according to WFH Research, a data-collection project, distributed work is not going anywhere. Microsoft Teams is utilized by more than one million companies and has seen explosive growth as users increased from 145 million in 2021 to 270 million in 2022. This integration highlights our commitment to provide our customers with the best and most comprehensive remote work experiences. We are excited to continue to expand and improve our offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.

With this integration, organizations can access Spaces within their existing Microsoft Teams environment. Spaces greatly improves your existing Microsoft Teams infrastructure, adding everything you need to interact more naturally with your colleagues. With this integration:

  • Meetings and statuses sync from Outlook in real-time, providing a birds-eye view of office activity.
  • Rely on persistent project spaces, offices, and war rooms to meet and collaborate, store documents, files, and links.
  • View ongoing Teams calls and increase visibility across the entire organization or department.
  • Review actionable engagement metrics including aggregate and individual meeting time, talk time, and average meeting size.

In the future, Frameable has plans to make the Spaces application available for download in the Microsoft Teams App Store. Learn more about how our integration can enhance your Microsoft Teams video calls and book a demo to get started today!

Enhance your Microsoft Teams video calls

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remote work

Cutting Through the Metaverse Hype to Find the Real Future of Work

white desk with hands all around it holding various work tools including notebooks and laptops

Over the past few months, I’ve watched the business press come full circle on the Metaverse. First, there was the hype about how virtual reality and augmented reality were the future of everything. Now, it’s a ballad of disappointment about how lackluster Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the Metaverse is turning out to be so far.

It’s important to note, however, these articles aren’t saying that workers don’t want to work remotely and don’t need a virtual environment — just that Meta’s version of the Metaverse isn’t the virtual workspace anyone’s looking for. So let’s take a look at the most shared and commented-on articles to gain insight into what people actually want in a virtual workspace.

The Metaverse in 2040 (Pew Research)

As with the rest of Pew’s research portfolio, this research provides a balanced view of the Metaverse and its pros and cons. The 624 technology experts they interviewed expect to see ‘extended’ reality become part of our daily lives by 2040. But they also foresee augmented-reality and mixed-reality tools gaining traction, vs. the more-fully-immersive virtual reality worlds currently synonymous for many with the Metaverse.

This article also has some pretty on-the-nose criticisms, including this one, which delves into the motivations behind some of our biggest ad-tech companies being the pioneers of the Metaverse:

“The term metaverse was coined to describe a corporate, dystopian hellscape where a completely financialized world is stripped of any culture and value. Advocates of the metaverse are currently trying to bring that vision into reality in the hopes of creating new digital surfaces that can be covered in new advertising and made as addictive as possible. As the physical world encounters saturation of existing advertising surfaces and data collection, augmented reality is the new frontier of surveillance capitalism. If it does come to fruition, it will be as terrible as social media is today.”
— Justin Reich, associate professor of digital media at MIT and director of the Teaching Systems Lab.

Reich has a good point, even if you aren’t a social media naysayer. We’ve seen the unintended negative consequences of how platforms like Facebook have monetized their users’ data for the benefit of advertisers. Imagine what could happen if those companies who couldn’t handle your personal data already had access to your workplace’s intellectual property and private information.

Meta Quest Pro: A $1,500 Virtual-Reality Headset for Working in the Metaverse (WSJ)

While Google Cardboard is an affordable way of accessing the Metaverse’s VR worlds, no one wants to strap cardboard against their face for hours of meetings. It’s designed for occasional use for a leisure activity—not for wearing all day in a work environment.

While Facebook already had a $400 headset in the market, it wasn’t meant for prolonged use at the office. So they introduced a $1,500 virtual reality headset that’s more comfortable, has improved controls, and can track your eye and facial movements and sync them with your Metaverse avatar. Presumably, the buyers of this state-of-the-art headset are, as the WSJ surmises, architects, engineers, and designers, plus tech early adopters.

Unfortunately, the article notes, the new headset’s charge only lasts for 1-2 hours, depending on what you’re doing while wearing it. It then needs to recharge for two hours before you’re ready for your next meeting. I guess that could work for those who have chosen the 4-hour workday. But for busy professionals who can have days of back-to-back meetings and collaboration sessions, it’s problematic on many levels.

As the author quips in closing, “I just think we’re going to need something a little cooler than avatars gathered around three-dimensional Excel sheets for this whole metaverse thing to take off.”

The Metaverse Doesn’t have a Leg to Stand on (Literally)

While there were dozens—if not hundreds—of articles making fun of the floating bottomless avatars populating the Metaverse, these two stood out for their approach to covering the announcement from the Meta team that legs were in the works for their floating avatars.

Presumably, the developers who are surprised by the general public’s lack of enthusiasm for this news may also be unaware that MMORPGs like the World of Warcraft have had 3-D avatars with legs for almost two decades. And to be fair—we’re not controlling those avatars with our body movements. But the fact is—no one cares if it’s going to be hard to do. The current offering just doesn’t meet modern consumers’ expectations.

Legs are finally coming to Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, Vox

“The fact that now Zuckerberg is prioritizing legs in the metaverse shows how much public perception of the metaverse matters, and that the toughest challenge to Meta succeeding may be solving the technology’s seemingly simple (although technically complex) visual problems. Meta needs to show that it’s in touch with reality, even as it builds an alternate universe.”

(Vox)

Legs are coming to the Metaverse and everyone is…underwhelmed, Mashable

This Mashable article rounds up Tweeted reactions to the addition of legs to the Metaverse, including these:

“Unsurprisingly, people are underwhelmed by the update, just as they seem to be about the metaverse. The same can be said for Meta’s employees, apparently.”

(Mashable)

So What Do People Want From a Virtual Office?

One recurring theme across these pieces, and other metaverse coverage, is people want a reason to log in to these virtual spaces to work. Not a mandate from the C-suite that they have to use these tools. They want these spaces to have unique persistent tools, resources, and frameworks that help them work better together.  Novelty is not enough!

While remote work has freed many people from the office, it hasn’t changed their desire or need to collaborate and have face-to-face time with their colleagues and managers—even if it is virtual. It’s our job to do our best work, and that means working together in many cases.  As one of the companies committed to making these virtual worlds of work inclusive and accessible to all, we know that in the end, the work is only as good as the people who can and do put their shoulders into it. VR headsets should not be required.

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remote work

Frameable Launches ‘Spaces’ Virtual Office Platform, Commits to Accessibility and Sustainability Initiatives

Frameable Spaces logo

Frameable launched our virtual office platform Spaces to the public yesterday at the conference Engaged @Work: Employee Experience & Talent Acquisition in New York City. As part of the launch, we have committed to an enhanced focus on accessibility and environmental sustainability throughout our product offerings.

It was exciting to share our platform with the conference attendees and hear first-hand the struggles they’ve had in creating a virtual work environment that meets the same standards as the physical workplaces they spent so much time honing to meet their employees’ unique needs. 

These conversations reinforced the decision we made to ensure WCAG 2.1 AA compliance throughout our software products, creating an inclusive user-experience for both administrators and guests. In addition to this accessibility commitment, we have also pledged to offset our annual carbon emissions on behalf of users.

We understand decision makers’ current apprehensions about committing to remote or hybrid work for the long term. Our ways of working have evolved, but the tools we are using have primarily stayed the same. At Frameable, we provide teams with a new way to effectively work remotely, while ensuring your virtual office is professional, reflects your culture, and is on-brand. Our focus on beautiful and intuitive graphic design and interaction design creates an experience that is easy to understand for the people using our platforms and easy to set up for the workspace manager.

Communication in the workplace is essential, but overreliance on legacy tools like email, text chat, and video meeting software can actually hinder productivity due to a constant state of filtering, interruptions, and stimulation. The average user sends and receives hundreds of business emails per day, killing focus and productivity. By uniquely supporting both impactful scheduled and unscheduled collaborations as well as individual ‘deep’ work, Spaces helps employees produce their highest-quality work by making it easy to ask for and receive help.

Learn more about how Frameable Spaces is an ideal remote and hybrid work platform and try it free for 14 days to see for yourself!

Transform your virtual office with Frameable Spaces.

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remote work

Why Hybrid Work Is STILL The Best Way To Keep Your Employees Happy (2022 Data)

Woman in kitchen looking at computer.

The U.S. Labor Day holiday, or the first Monday in September, has long been seen as the imaginary line in the sand for when employers would require employees to return to the office—and brands like Apple, Prudential Financial, and BMO Financial all plan a return to office-based work this month.

But if you’re contemplating an entirely in-person work environment, you clearly haven’t been paying attention to what your employees want.

Data from recent months reinforces that employees demand workplace flexibility, and employers that mandate a full return to the office could destroy their workforce morale, likely causing a wave of departures in search of remote- and hybrid-friendly cultures.

Let’s look at data from the past few months to understand what employees want in terms of workplace flexibility and where employers may be misguided in their future of work strategies. 

The Current State of Remote and Hybrid Work — Summer 2022

The majority of U.S. employers currently offer remote or hybrid work settings, in part given rising COVID infections from new variants. Here is the most recent data available:

  • The majority of U.S. workers have hybrid work flexibility, with 35% being able to work from home full-time, and 23% working from home part-time—that reflects 92 million people (McKinsey). 
  • When employers offer some degree of remote work, 87% of employees work remotely at least one day a week, meaning just 13% reject the flexibility. The majority (58%) work from home at least three days a week (McKinsey). This data is supported by the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes (SWAA). 

When looking to the future, 31.7% of U.S. employees want to work from home five days per week, and 16% want full-time office work. However, 27% of employers plan to not offer workplace flexibility post-COVID, and 22% plan to offer just one or two days per week to work from home (SWAA). 

This disconnect will continue to fuel the ‘Great Resignation’ and newly discussed trend of ‘quiet quitting,’ in which workers meet bare-minimum productivity levels. A Gallup poll found that at least 50% of U.S. workers are quiet quitters, which is caused by employers failing to provide clear job expectations and learning and growth opportunities for their team, as well as failing to prove they care about their employees.  

How To Future-Proof Your Workplace Culture

As shown by recent work-from-home data, most employees want at least a 50/50 split between time spent working from home and working from an office. Employers that fail to meet their employee needs will face waves of turbulence, including decreased employee satisfaction and productivity, and increased turnover.

So what is the best way to plan for the future of work? Ask your employees. 

It is vital to actively poll your team and understand what level of flexibility they need from their work arrangement. Managers play a key role in facilitating these conversations and reducing their team’s disengagement and burnout. 

Forcing everyone to return to the office is a radical shift from the freedom that employees have now come to accept, but you can find a middle ground that makes everyone happy—but it will also require you to redefine how you measure success. 

Building Connections in Remote Work

When looking at the commonly cited benefits of in-person work, employees value face-to-face collaboration and socializing the most. Both of these concerns can be addressed in a remote-work world—but a combination of Slack channels and Zoom rooms will hardly help your employees thrive.

We’ve built Frameable Spaces to give your hybrid and remote teams the same collaborative work experience the most productive in-office teams enjoy, enabling them to meet and collaborate in a natural and fully integrated way. Learn more about how Frameable Spaces is an ideal remote and hybrid work platform and book a demo today.

Transform your virtual office with Frameable Spaces.

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virtual events

Why Attendee Surveys Are Vital For Virtual or Hybrid Event Success

Black man attending a virtual event

Virtual and hybrid event experiences have come a long way since the start of the pandemic, and we are about to hit a new stride in the evolution of online events.

Event planners can access more advanced event technology than ever before, enabling more engaging virtual and hybrid events. These new platforms create the necessary space for everyone to mix, mingle, and reap the greatest reward from the event experience. And many platforms also provide data that can help event planners continuously update their strategy event after event. 

But your in-platform event data can only tell you so much about what did or did not work with your last virtual or hybrid experience. To effectively improve your event strategy with each iteration, you need to actively gather feedback on the full range of attendee experiences before, during, and after your event.

Luckily, the secret to gaining this insight is pretty straightforward: ask your attendees directly. Let me help you get started.

How to Gauge The Virtual Event Attendee Experience

Post-event metrics like attendees per session, the average number of sessions per attendee, and the average number of conference connections are crucial to review. However, these metrics only provide a glimpse at how to improve your next event.

Put your attendees front-and-center during your event planning by actively surveying and connecting with attendees one-on-one throughout your event lifecycle:

  • Before your event, gauge how long your virtual or hybrid event experience should last, preferred topics, and ideal ways to engage throughout the experience
  • During your event, use quick one- or two-question surveys that capture your attendee feelings at key points during the conference or immediately after sessions
  • After your event, measure the satisfaction of each event component and session, and see how many attendees would return to an event from your team

Sample Event Attendee Survey Questions

You can learn more about how to use virtual event attendee surveys to improve your online or hybrid event experience—including sample event survey questions for before, during, and after your event—in my recent article on MarketingProfs. 

Tell me, what are your favorite virtual event attendee survey questions? Tweet me @AARiggs.

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virtual events

All Successful Virtual And Hybrid Events Have These Five Things in Common

White man participating in an online event

Over the past 20 months, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended many of our in-person events and celebration plans, we all found new ways to keep celebrating all of life’s special moments virtually. 

We cheered on graduates as they walked the virtual stage, raised our glasses to our favorite newlyweds as they said their “I Do’s,” and even took our careers to the next level at virtual conferences, hybrid industry events, and online trade shows.

At Frameable Events, as we partnered with people across the globe on a range of events, at a time when human connection was more necessary than ever. We gained a deep understanding of what attendees expect at a hybrid or virtual event. It may surprise you, but we’ve found it all boils down to just five elements that are essential for your event success, regardless of what type of gathering you’re hosting. 

Five Must-Have Elements for Any Type of Virtual or Hybrid Event

Event planners can transition almost any traditional event component online. In some cases, the online environment may even enhance the experience for everyone involved. 

However, many event planners are still stuck on the idea of replicating their in-person event exactly as it was—just now in an online setting. This results in one-time talks streamed from the keynote stage, leaving attendees lost in a sea of webcam streams without a way to connect meaningfully with those around them.

When planning your next event, I challenge you to focus on enabling attendee engagement throughout the entire experience as your most important element. Engagement is the single most crucial factor that determines your event’s success. 

So how can event planners guarantee engagement at their next virtual or hybrid event? We’ve found these four elements are essential to your success, and they all help drive attendee engagement, too:

  • Limit the number of participants in each session or room
  • Ensure an equitable talk-to-listen ratio to help avoid listening fatigue
  • Give attendees opportunities to take breaks
  • Track metrics and analytics that help you assess engagement disconnects at your event

Enabling Virtual or Hybrid Event Engagement

In my recent article on Trade Show News Network, you can learn more about how each of the five elements we introduced above can affect engagement at your next event. I also share my advice on how to ensure a cohesive hybrid event experience (hint: you want to focus on virtual first).

What questions do you have about virtual event engagement? Tweet me @AARiggs.

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virtual events

4 Ways To Invite Alumni To Your Virtual College Class Reunion

Young woman participating in a virtual college class reunion marketing committee meeting, waving hello

Have you been planning your virtual college class reunion? It can be easy for your reunion planning committee to get wrapped up in all the details—from setting goals for your event, creating an exciting schedule filled with activities and fun networking opportunities, and finding a platform to meet these needs.

But if you spend all your time planning those above areas, your event can still fall short if you neglect one key area: promotion.

It’s hard to forget that your reunion is just around the corner when you’re part of the planning committee. But your alumni need ample notice in a few different places to maximize their likelihood of attending and ensure they have a fulfilling reunion experience.

 Let’s explore the best practices for promoting your upcoming virtual college class reunion. 

Create A Virtual Class Reunion Hub

Before you start promoting your online college class reunion, create a central location for your alumni to access key information about the event. Then, regularly update this hub as new details emerge and the reunion gets closer. 

If multiple communications hubs pop up as you plan and promote your event, your alumni will likely become confused about where to receive the most up-to-date information. Instead, maintain one core page—be it a dedicated website, an event page on an existing alumni site, private social media group, etc.—that links out to all the alumni resources for the reunion.

Your virtual class reunion hub should, at a minimum, include these details:

  • Date, time, and location of the reunion
  • How to register or RSVP for the reunion, including any fees
  • A detailed schedule of events
  • Networking opportunities
  • Contact information for more details
  • Asks/considerations for guests
  • Answers to frequently asked questions, like the ideal attire
  • Technology troubleshooting guides

4 Ways To Promote Your Virtual College Class Reunion

It’s not enough to send a single invite to your alumni and expect your registrations to skyrocket. Your reunion planning committee needs to send multiple invitations and reminders through various channels to maximize your RSVP count. 

Partner with your alumni association to source contact details for your alumni. Use this initial list to start your outreach, but you will need to expand this list and your outreach strategy to get in front of more alumni.

Consider a combination of these four primary ways to reach your potential college class reunion attendees:

Digital or Physical Invitations

Share a digital or physical invitation to start promoting your virtual reunion. A direct invitation is a perfect way to announce the event, and these invitations should guide your alumni to your class reunion hub.

Ideally, start inviting alumni up to a year before your event. This leaves ample time for your invitations to navigate the mail system and eventually reach your invitee. However, digital invitations are a much more direct (and potentially trackable) way to invite your alumni.

Consider a combination of both print and digital invitations if your time and budget allow.

Email Newsletter

Create an email newsletter to keep your alumni up to date on the latest plans for your college reunion. Start light with the number of your messages, ideally sending just one update every one or two months when you are a year out from the event. Then, as the reunion gets closer, you can send weekly or more frequent emails as needed.

Use the email newsletter to drum up excitement for the reunion, encourage donations to the university, and ultimately drive more attendance.

A few ideas for what to include in a virtual college reunion email newsletter include:

  • Fun photos from your graduating year, presented in a fun trivia style, such as, “can you guess what this is?”
  • Spotlight notable alumni who will attend the reunion, ideally with a quote about why they are excited to attend
  • Promote speakers or sessions at your reunion
  • Discuss the networking opportunities available to your alumni at the reunion

Social Media

Social media channels will widen your net of invitees. There are a few ways to maximize the effectiveness of your social media promotion:

  • Reunion event page. Invite your former classmates to an event page on Facebook or LinkedIn. Ensure that a member of your communications and marketing committee monitors these event pages for questions or comments from your prospective attendees.
  • Hashtag. Create a hashtag to accompany your reunion posts. This will help your alumni sort through information about the event and connect with others who are attending.
  • Direct messages. Social media’s “social” aspect is vital for getting people excited about your online reunion experience. Have each member of your planning committee directly message any of their friends and former classmates, and encourage those friends to invite their friends. 
  • Paid posts. Promote your virtual college reunion with sponsored posts that will directly target members of your alumni network. Most social media channels offer cost-effective promotion that can greatly boost the reach of your event’s promotions. 

Phone a Friend

This strategy will be necessary if your alumni network is not particularly active on social media channels. However, it will require a more significant time investment. Directly call alumni that you have not been able to reach by other means, and quickly let them know about the reunion and where they can get more information.

It’s important to respect your alumni’s time when calling. Leave a clear and concise voicemail if you cannot reach them live, and only call them up to three times leading up to your event, ideally one time a month.

Delight Your Alumni Network For Reunions to Come

As your team continues promoting your reunion, tap into your alumni network to refine and improve your reunion experience. Share short surveys and polls to gauge what your alumni hope to gain from the experience, and use this information to put the finishing touches on your planning. 

By directly engaging your alumni ahead of your event, they’re more likely to be excited about your event—and possibly return for your next reunion.

But promotion is just one part of hosting a successful online college reunion. Learn more about how to plan a virtual college reunion event that your alumni will love, and see how MIT used Frameable Events to support its alumni reunion here. Once you’re ready to get started, see how Frameable can help you make it an event to remember.

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