Try it free ➔
Categories
virtual events

The Social hour Virtual Events Platform is Now Frameable Events

We’re excited to announce we’ve just completed the rebranding of our virtual events site, Social hour, to Frameable Events.  While our events platform has always been part of the Frameable family, we are making this name change so this relationship is more transparent to users across our suite of digital collaboration tools, including our Frameable Spaces virtual office platform.

While the branding is changing, Frameable Events is still the same engaging events platform our clients have been raving about, thanks to our:

  • customizable layouts and branding that allow you to create an event that reflects your unique needs
  • intuitive UI, flexible profiles, and breakout tables that inspire real connections among event attendees and presenters
  • accessibility features included as part of every event package—not with limited availability or additional setup charges

When you host your event in one of our beautiful, interactive virtual spaces, your attendees, sponsors, and speakers will make the kind of connections they thought were only possible at in-person events. But don’t just take our word for it—see for yourself by booking a Frameable Events demo today.

Categories
virtual events

10 Virtual Event Accessibility Tactics To Maximize Your Event Reach

Man wearing headphones and dark glasses, participating in an online meeting on a desktop computer.

Many event planners mistakenly view accessibility as a nice-to-have, which is a disservice to your event community and greatly limits your event’s potential. 

You may not realize that more than 430 million people worldwide experience ‘disabling’ hearing loss, and 247 million experience moderate to severe visual impairment or blindness. Crafting an accessible event spans more than physical ability, too, to include considerations like internet and technology access and literacy, work/life commitments, and mental disability. 

We connected with two accessibility and user experience experts, Melissa Eggleston and Rachel Wendte, to explore what accessibility means in the virtual and hybrid event space and how event planners can prioritize accessibility at every step of their planning. 

What Is Accessibility For Virtual and Hybrid Events?

Virtual and hybrid event accessibility aims to remove barriers when your audience seeks to join and engage in your event. Accessibility impacts every step of the event process, from registering for the event to joining sessions and navigating the virtual event platform.

“Web accessibility is making your online offering as simple to use for as many people as possible. That means considering tools, your language, and your presentation so that everyone can be involved,” Rachel says. “For an online event, that may mean using a platform that enables closed captioning, or offering a transcript for attendees. It’s also ensuring that your event is hosted on a platform that’s friendly to multiple kinds of devices.”

Not only is it the morally right thing to prioritize event accessibility, but blatant disregard of accessibility could pose a legal threat to your team, Melissa warns. “Accessibility lawsuits continue to be on the rise. Although the courts to date have been split on whether a website is a public space of accommodation, the Department of Justice recently put out guidance on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.” 

What Are The Main Accessibility Considerations for Virtual Events?

To ensure that your event adheres to accessibility best practices, consider and address each of these key areas:

  1. Audio and Visual CAPTCHA: “For any CAPTCHA verification, make sure that the registration website offers an audio and visual version,” Rachel recommends. 
  2. Camel Case Hashtags: Melissa says you should “use hashtags that are more readable, using camel case. For example, use #DigitalMarketing instead of #digitalmarketing. The capital letters make it easier to read. Using a camel case hashtag also signals to your audience that you are paying attention to accessibility.” 
  3. Image Alt-Text: Every image used to promote your event through your website, email communications, or paid advertisements must include alt-text. “Make sure that you add alt-text to your primary event image with the name of the event in the photo,” Rachel says. “This helps people using screen readers verify that they are on the right page. [Include alt-text like] ‘People are gathered in a mixed group for the 1st Annual Discussion on Accessibility Trends, hosted by ABC Company.” 
  4. Live Captioning and Sign Interpreters: Some of your event attendees will be unable to access your event audio. Melissa advises that you enable live captioning for those without hearing or who can’t have sound on. As a best practice, you should also include sign interpreters alongside all event sessions. 
  5. Make Slides Available for Download: Give attendees the ability to download optimized and accessible slides ahead of each event session. Provide slides in a reduced-file size, so they take minimal time and space to download. Melissa says that “having slides available helps anyone who might be running into technical issues due to low bandwidth, internet connectivity problems, etc.” Giving attendees advanced slide access will also allow them to review the materials ahead of time in case they have difficulty processing everything during the live session. 
  6. Plain Text Versions of Invites: Many event organizers share flashy, heavily designed invites through email. Be sure to include a plain text version of your invite (and all event communications) so the message is accessible to everyone. 
  7. Pre-Field Questions: A submission form for questions ahead of each session enables anyone to submit questions at their convenience without speaking up during the session or accessing chat features.
  8. Share Replays or Recordings: Virtual event session replays or recordings are a core element of event accessibility. Rachel explains that “sometimes people sign up for things and then at the time have limited energy. Others need to listen to things more than once to get it. Having a replay or recording is a simple way to include your largest audience share.”
  9. User Test the Experience: Once your event materials are staged, test the experience using a screen reader. Can someone effectively engage with the entire event platform and agenda with a screen reader? 
  10. Write Out and Repeat All Questions:  “If you do a live Q&A, have the moderator write out the question in the chat, and phrase it out loud so that everyone can hear,” Rachel recommends. “So if I were taking a question from the audience, I’d listen and then read it back. For example, ‘Marcee just asked a question around captions. She said [what Marcee said]. Here is my answer.’ This ensures that everyone hears, reads, and understands what’s being asked.”

Accessibility Is An Ongoing Event Essential

Event accessibility—for virtual and live events alike—ensures that everyone in your ideal event community can fully engage with your event and gain the most value from that experience. Put simply, accessibility cannot be an afterthought for event planners.

“I promise you that there are people who would love to be part of your audience, and accessibility measures don’t just help those with disabilities. They help everyone,” Rachel adds. “Even if your audience appears to be one without limits, who’s to say that that will still be true tomorrow? People go through phases of need, and assuming that you’ve got it all covered and ‘don’t need accessibility’ does a disservice to your future (or current) customer.” 

Address the ten event accessibility considerations we explored above to keep accessibility top-of-mind throughout your event planning. To help you further, check out our full Q&A with Melissa and Rachel.

We built Frameable Events with key event accessibility concerns in mind, including in-app messaging, concurrent video streams for interpreters, and a web-based experience so anyone can join from a desktop, tablet, or mobile web browser. Learn more about the platform’s accessibility features and book a demo to see them in action.

Categories
virtual events

Two User Experience Experts Explain How To Design Accessible Virtual Events

Melissa Eggleston and Rachel Wendte

Do you know how to design an accessible virtual event experience? Despite the return of in-person gatherings in some areas, virtual experiences are still important for enabling as many members of your community to join and engage in your event. And after more than two years of hosting predominantly online events, companies have a solid roadmap to follow regarding virtual event accessibility.

To help you design an accessible virtual event, we connected with Melissa Eggleston and Rachel Wendte, two user experience and accessibility experts, to learn about virtual event accessibility considerations for event planners. 

Check out their advice in this post on how to design an accessible virtual event, and see their direct answers to our questions about designing accessible virtual experiences below.

What is web accessibility, and how does it come into play when you are hosting an event online?

Rachel: “Web accessibility is making your online offering as simple to use for as many people as possible. That means considering tools, your language, and your presentation so that everyone can be involved. For an online event, that may mean using a platform that enables closed captioning, or offering a transcript for attendees. It’s also ensuring that your event is hosted on a platform that’s friendly to multiple kinds of devices.”

Rachel: “On the one hand, a lot of businesses were forced to see the things they’d been missing for standard event prep. They learned new tools and adopted broader event protocols to welcome more folks. That’s a good thing! But as more events go back to in-person focus, some of these ‘just for the pandemic’ trends are falling away. People are more aware, but some companies were only offering virtual events because we were forced to be home. Now the thinking may be, ‘well my audience is back in the office, so I can be done with this.’ But SO many trends that adapted to people being homebound also applied to the millions of individuals who are already homebound for other reasons. Recognizing that this audience still exists, pandemic or not, is a great step for the companies who want to continue to embrace virtual events as part of their strategy.”

What are some of the easiest accessibility features to implement for online event platforms and their registration websites?

Melissa: “Live captioning is the obvious one for those without hearing or who can’t have sound on, but I would also encourage events with a single speaker and slides to make the slides available for download during the talk. The slides themselves need to be accessible, with alt-text for images for example. If the slides are in a PDF form, they should be saved as a reduced-file size PDF when possible so they aren’t a huge download in terms of file size. Having slides available also helps anyone who might be running into technical issues due to low bandwidth, internet connectivity problems, etc.”

Rachel: “Two simple things that are great for everyone. 1. Make sure that you add alt-text to your primary event image with the name of the event in the photo. This helps people using screen readers verify that they are on the right page. ‘People are gathered in a mixed group for the 1st Annual Discussion on Accessibility Trends, hosted by ABC Company.’ 2. For any CAPTCHA verification, make sure that the registration website offers an audio and visual version.”

Are there any web accessibility challenges event producers should keep in mind when promoting events through social media?

Melissa: “Please use hashtags that are more readable, using camel case! For example, use #DigitalMarketing instead of #digitalmarketing. The capital letters make it easier to read. Using a camel case hashtag also signals to your audience that you are paying attention to accessibility.”

Rachel: “If you have painstakingly put in the time to create a graphic that has a text overlay and you don’t populate the alt-text with what the image actually says, screen readers will skip right over it. Images with no alt-text are skipped because there’s nothing to read, so it won’t even register as being on the screen. For online ads, make sure the ad text says everything you need to and the image reinforces that. In addition, keep hashtags to the end of your posts (easier to read) and use #CamelCase when creating hashtags (capitalize the first letter of each word) so that there is a natural separation.”

If you have a limited budget, what is the most critical accessibility functionality an online event should put in place and why?

Rachel: “Every organization will have their priorities when it comes to events. For me, the easiest thing businesses can do when they create an online event is to have a replay or recording available. Sometimes people sign up for things and then at the time have limited energy. Others need to listen to things more than once to get it. Having a replay or recording is a simple way to include your largest audience share. You can offer ‘live only’ perks to encourage live attendance, but offering this as an option is a good way to be inclusive.”

How can events do a better job of making live-streamed Q&A sessions more accessible to their entire audience?

Rachel: “Have a submission form for questions ahead of time. That’s a place to start! If you do a live Q&A, have the moderator write out the question in the chat, and phrase it out loud so that everyone can hear. So if I were taking a question from the audience I’d listen and then repeat it back. For example, ‘Marcee just asked a question around captions. She said, [what the person said]. Here’s my answer.’ This ensures that everyone hears, reads, and understands what was being asked.”

Do you have any examples of virtual or hybrid events with exemplary accessibility in the design?

Melissa: “The free conference put on by Deque called Axe-Con does it great. And they should because they are accessibility consultants. This is a free virtual conference each year that you could attend to see best practices. For each speaker (this year they had Seth Godin, for example) Axe-Con had live captioning, an ASL translator, and accessible speaker slides available for download during the talk.”

Is there a common web accessibility misconception you see come up frequently? If so, how do we myth bust it?

Melissa: “The myth I see is that you can ignore accessibility without consequence. Putting aside the moral argument that it’s the right thing to do, accessibility lawsuits continue to be on the rise. Although the courts to date have been split on whether a website is a public space of accommodation, The Department of Justice recently put out guidance on compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to state and local governments (Title II) and businesses that are open to the public (Title III). The bad PR that may come from being inaccessible is significant. Avoid promoting your organization as inclusive until you’ve made efforts in the accessibility realm or you risk looking uncaring and inauthentic.”

Rachel: “The biggest myth I see come up with accessibility is the idea that you’ll get to it when it matters to your audience. I promise you that there are people who would love to be part of your audience, and accessibility measures don’t just help those with disabilities. They help everyone. Even if your audience appears to be one without limits, who’s to say that that will still be true tomorrow? People go through phases of need, and assuming that you’ve got it all covered and ‘don’t need accessibility’ does a disservice to your future (or current) customer.”

Host Accessible Virtual Events with Frameable

Don’t let accessibility be an afterthought when planning your next virtual or hybrid event. As Melissa and Rachel pointed out, accessibility should be a top-of-mind concern that will help your event reach and engage the greatest number of people.

As you explore virtual event platforms, be sure to ask about the key accessibility features included and ways that the platform was designed for accessibility. We built Frameable Events to support many accessibility best practices, such as in-app messaging, live captioning with multi-language translation, and concurrent video streams for sign language interpreters. Check out all of Frameable Events’ accessibility features and book a demo to see how we can help you build an accessible virtual event.

Categories
virtual events

6 Tips To Achieve Optimal Virtual and Hybrid Event Success

Woman engaging online

Despite the resurgence of in-person events, savvy event planners know that virtual and hybrid experiences are here to stay. Now comes the tricky part: how can you best blend event offerings to provide the most value to your community? 

Mike Allton, head of strategic partnerships at Agorapulse and virtual event strategist, has hosted more than a dozen virtual summits and webinars and 100+ live-streamed video conversations. Mike joined me ane the #ContentChat community of marketers and content creators to share his best practices for designing engaging virtual and hybrid event experiences. 

Let’s break down his top takeaways to help you drive the most success with events this year. 

6 Tips For Virtual and Hybrid Event Success in 2022

Event planners who can craft truly audience-focused, problem-solving, and joy-inspiring events will receive the greatest reward from their activities. Virtual event attendee expectations are higher than ever, but these tips can help you create meaningful events regardless of the format: 

Be Realistic About Your Team Resources

Any virtual or hybrid event requires considerable effort. Mike says that while virtual events are often less logistically challenging and more affordable than in-person or hybrid events, there are still plenty of challenges associated with hosting them. Assess your resources including your team’s bandwidth to handle an in-person or hybrid event. If you are new to these experiences, we recommend starting small with a simple virtual event before tackling a multi-day hybrid event. 

Survey Your Event Communities

Before making any decisions about your upcoming events, speak with your event community. First, you need to deeply understand their current needs and goals for any event type. Then, ask these questions through surveys or in 1:1 conversations:

  • How comfortable are you with in-person events? 
  • What are the “must-have” elements for you to attend an in-person event?
  • What challenges are you facing in your job? 
  • How do you prefer to network and engage with other event attendees?

You can only build a compelling event agenda with presentations that will truly help your audience with these details in hand. 

Establish Clear Event Goals

Based on the feedback from your event communities, establish your event goals. Once you know your goals, Mike says you can more easily determine the ideal event format and what you’ll need from your virtual event software platform. 

Make Networking and Engagement Effortless

As many of us know from first-hand experience, most virtual events fall flat on networking and engagement. Too often, virtual event experiences are viewed as glorified webinars, which misses the bigger opportunity. As Mike says, “it’s the Magical Moments during networking that make the events stand out for attendees.” To reinforce this priority, schedule networking time in your event agenda. Additionally, create space for attendees to network, including open rooms with conversation prompts to spark dialogue. And don’t forget the potential power of social media to engage your event attendees.

Mike starts his events with 30 minutes of speed networking so attendees can connect 1:1 for five minutes each, meaning each attendee meets six new people first thing. This sort of built-in networking activity can be helpful to break the ice in a virtual setting, especially for your more introverted attendees who wouldn’t otherwise introduce themselves to others.

Offer Different Event Types To Accomplish Specific Needs

For most teams, the best event strategy in 2022 is to offer a mix of virtual, hybrid, and in-person events to appeal to unique community needs. For example, Mike is planning a series of major virtual summits, smaller virtual meetups and webinars, and a hybrid event (likely) in Paris this Fall. 

Repurpose Event Content to Drive Ongoing Traffic

Recorded event sessions provide a gold mine of content potential. Repurpose all your event content to offer new ways for your community to engage with the material, including blog posts, infographics, podcasts, social video clips, and templates. 

Evolve Your Virtual Event Strategy in 2022

Most people are not ready to give up on virtual events, which presents an incredible opportunity for brands to build on their event successes from recent months. Continue to survey your event community to understand their needs, and explore new event offerings to find ways to delight your community further.

If you’re looking to learn more about creating successful event experiences in 2022, read through the full #ContentChat recap here and learn more about how Frameable Events can bring your next virtual or hybrid event experience to life. 

Make your next virtual event more engaging, by design

Book a demo
Categories
virtual fundraising

How to Surpass Your Virtual Fundraiser Goals Through Community Focused Incentives

White woman at her kitchen table, with her credit card in hand, participating in a virtual fundraising event on her laptop.

Virtual fundraisers have helped nonprofits and local groups alike raise much-needed funds and preserve their community throughout the pandemic. Even as the world begins to resume in-person gatherings, online fundraisers provide a lasting opportunity to reach more people and provide supporters a convenient way to help your organization achieve its goals.

To help you plan your next online fundraiser, read on to learn about the three best online fundraiser formats and our tips to raise the most money possible by prioritizing your community. 

3 Easy and Effective Online Fundraiser Ideas

Online fundraisers operate just as effectively as an in-person fundraiser, as long as you have the right virtual fundraiser platform.

Here are three traditional fundraising ideas that work well online, with tech considerations for each:

Silent Auctions

A silent auction enables your community to silently bid on a selection of goods or services. These online fundraisers require minimal team effort, considering that your supporters can browse booths and proactively submit bids on their own.

To host a successful virtual silent auction, create a room for every item or service so your guests can learn more about what’s up for bid, chat with the prize providers, and further connect with their community. Ideally, your event technology will support in-platform bidding, or you can use a shared document for your supporters to enter their bids. 

Live Auction

A live auction requires more coordination than a silent auction, but the energy and excitement could be essential to helping you beat your fundraising goals. At a live auction online fundraiser, all of your supporters will join one virtual room to bid on your prizes in real time.

Online live auctions require a virtual event platform that supports a main presenter stage to showcase the item up for bid, with concurrent video streams to show the auctioneer and current highest bidder. An online chat function and nonverbal reactions can support the bidding process. 

Paddles-Up Events

Your live or silent auctions can involve a paddles-up component. These fundraisers feature donor packages, in which any fundraiser attendee can pledge a donation within a specific range, potentially including benefits for each tier. Offer package tiers that enable anyone to pledge support of any amount, from $5 to $500 or more. 

Make annual giving more fun by tying the asks to specific items. For example, if you’re raising funds for an elementary school, ask for five $500 donors for a laminator and lamination supplies, two $400 donors for a Cricut electric cutting machine for crafts, and five $200 contributors for the cutting machine supplies. This makes the gift feel specific and meaningful, versus the equivalent of a virtual Visa gift card. 

How To Source Great Online Fundraiser Items

Understanding the best format for a virtual fundraiser is one hurdle. But, your team also needs to find items to auction off. 

When planning a virtual fundraiser, think further than physical items or gift certificates for auction prizes. Frequently, nonprofit organizations overlook the many talents and passions of their supporters when it comes to sourcing auction items. 

Partner with your member community to find ways to promote their services or support their passions while helping raise much-needed funds. For example, a social media consultant in your community might be happy to contribute a 1:1 coaching session as a raffle item. Or, a supporter with a viral Instagram account could offer to amplify the winning bidder’s content and mention them on their Instagram account. Other supporters might have in-demand hobbies that could make great auction items too—like dog walking, painting classes, garden plant starts, free yoga sessions, etc. Encouraging the donation of these highly personal goods and services can make your auction more enticing for your entire supporter community.

In addition to auctioning off big-ticket donated goods and services, involve your community in some aspect of your group’s day-to-day operations. If your nonprofit is raising funds for a new building, you could auction off the chance for someone to help direct the design elements of the building, like picking from a selection of images for the entry or choosing plants to have out front. A pet charity, as another example, could offer the chance for the winner’s beloved pet’s photo to appear in an edition of the member magazine or be part of the next charity calendar. 

Just be cautious if you auction the chance to name something of importance. You don’t want a Boaty McBoatFace situation. 

Exceed Your Fundraising Goals with Social hour

Our team has helped countless nonprofit organizations and community groups host successful virtual fundraisers that exceeded their goals. And we’re ready to help you, too.

Learn more about how our virtual fundraiser platform can help you run an amazingly fun and effective live virtual fundraising event today.

Categories
virtual events

How To Effectively Use Pre-Recorded Video Content To Enhance a Virtual Event

Indian man participating in a virtual event from home

As event organizers plan their virtual and hybrid events, it’s common—and important—to ask which content should be pre-recorded, and what should be live-streamed.

From an event planning perspective, it’s essential to have a combination of pre-recorded and live-streamed content to have more control over creating an ideal attendee experience. The tricky part is understanding how to effectively blend these content types—especially when it comes to breakout sessions—without your virtual event feeling like a glorified webinar.  

Read on for an overview of the best ways to use pre-recorded content at a virtual event to help your team strike just the right balance between the live event you want and the consistently exceptional experience your attendees deserve. 

Advantages of Pre-Recorded and Live-Streamed Virtual Events Video Content 

Whenever possible, we recommend that you survey your anticipated event attendees to understand their feelings toward live-streamed or pre-recorded content and what type of sessions they prefer for each delivery. For example, a customer panel or general event session may be ideal as a pre-recorded session, but an executive AMA or a how-to educational class will benefit from real-time audience interaction.

Where Pre-Recorded Event Video Excels

As you assess how to balance your virtual event agenda, consider these primary advantages of pre-recorded content over live-streamed sessions:

  • Accessibility. Event teams can add captions to pre-recorded videos, and overlay visuals or text elements that enhance the content’s clarity.
  • Greater speaker diversity. Your event has the potential to attract more speakers if sessions are pre recorded, because it reduces the potential for scheduling or time zone conflicts. Similarly, the lack of a required travel budget opens up your speaker pool to include industry experts from the nonprofit, academic, and pre-funding startup realms.
  • Show flow control. It’s stressful to manage an entirely live event. What if a session runs late? Or a fire alarm goes off in the middle of your opening keynote? Not to mention finding a last-minute replacement for a mainstage speaker that cancels the day before your show. Pre-recorded content gives event planners total control over their event’s timing, ensuring a perfectly executed show flow. 
  • Higher production value. Pre-recorded sessions allow speakers to practice and record their sessions as many times as they need, which means that pre-recorded sessions are often higher quality than a livestreamed equivalent. Additionally, the show producers can review all recorded content and ensure there is a consistent production quality for each, which leads to a more cohesive event experience. Plus, technical issues such as presenters with slow internet connections can be avoided with pre-recorded event sessions. 

When It’s Best to Go Live

While there are many advantages of pre-recorded virtual event content and breakout sessions, you cannot deny these benefits of live-streamed sessions:

  • Innate excitement. There is a natural excitement that comes from a live-streamed session, both for the speaker and the audience. In some cases, speakers will prefer live sessions because of this excitement. 
  • Real-time engagement. Audience participation and engagement is an ongoing challenge for virtual event planners. Live-streamed sessions generally are more likely to garner attendee engagement, giving these session types a slight edge over pre-recorded sessions (but we’ll explain how to overcome this challenge next). 
  • Recording potential. Live-streamed sessions can be recorded, too, which can provide your attendees with lasting value from your event as they watch session replays. Just keep in mind that most live-streamed session recordings will need some degree of post production editing before being ready to share. 
  • Spontaneity. People miss the “in-the-now” feel of an in-person event, and live-streamed sessions have the best potential to capture this feeling given the live audience. Live speakers can reference other sessions from the day, comment on shared conference experiences, and adapt their presentation to add excitement, spontaneity, and an undeniable sense of authenticity they simply can’t do in advance of your event. 

How To Make The Most Of Pre-Recorded Virtual Event Sessions

Event planners can consciously craft experiences that turn pre-recorded conference content into exciting, real-time engagement opportunities. Here are just a few ways that you can drive the most value from your pre-recorded virtual event sessions:

Coordinate Virtual Event Watch Parties with Session Speakers 

Pre-recorded virtual event sessions are ideal for enabling your event speaker(s) to engage with their audience in real time through your virtual event platform. While a session plays, the speaker watches the session with the audience, and sends messages through the event platform to highlight key points, answer questions, and solidify the real-time event experience. 

Create Video Teasers For Social Media Promotion and Email Marketing

As your team receives videos from your session speakers, create clips and stills from these videos that you can use on social media and in your email marketing. Create sizzle reels that highlight your event speakers, and tag them on your event social media pages to connect attendees with the speakers. 

Edit Videos for Accessibility

Ideally, your team should receive pre-recorded virtual event videos from session presenters a few weeks to a month before the event (if not sooner). This way, your team can address the accessibility best practices we shared above, including adding captions to videos, addressing any issues with lighting or contrast, and more.  

Share Videos For Immediate On-Demand Replay

A major advantage of pre-recorded video content is that it can readily be available for on-demand replay. This gives your attendees full control over when they enjoy a session, especially if they had to miss it due to a work or family commitment. 

Choose A Virtual Event Tech Platform That Enhances The Attendee Experience

By strategically blending pre-recorded and live sessions at your virtual event, your team can more confidently control the event timing, meet the range of your attendee needs, and support a thriving event community.

After building your event agenda, your team can lock in a virtual event platform that will enable the dynamic session styles that your attendees deserve. Book a demo with Frameable Events today to learn about our superior presentation spaces and modern features that will ensure that every event session is incredible. 

Bring your next virtual event to life with Frameable

Book a demo
Categories
virtual events

The 10 Best Virtual Events Software Platforms for a Successful Online Event

Virtual event held on stage with Social hour
Virtual event main stage session on the Social hour platform.

At Frameable, we aim to provide the best virtual events software platform for our clients’ online and hybrid events. That means we’ve spent a lot of time talking to our clients about the other platforms they’ve used, and what they’ve loved about them and where there is some room for improvement. 

Every platform—including ours—has to make decisions about the features and functionalities they provide, so the platform doesn’t end up like one of those bulky, impractical multitools you see on late night infomercials. With this in mind, we’ve compiled this overview of the leading virtual event platforms to help you in your quest to find the one that’s the right fit for you and your attendees. We’ve also included recent social media endorsements so you can see what people say they like about each platform – and who is using each.

10 Best Online Events Platforms

If you are looking for an online events platform in 2022, here’s your short list.

Accelevents

Accelevents describes itself as an all-in-one event management platform with features for event customization, ticketing and registration, group and 1:1 networking, monetization, and even a mobile app. The platform was created in 2015 and is commonly used for user conferences, trade shows, product launches, fundraisers, seminars and training, career fairs, and social events. Read through these Capterra reviews to learn more about the platform, and see how Accelevents’ features stack up next to Frameable Events’ here.  

Airmeet

Airmeet, launched in 2019, groups its product into two categories: social webinars and conferences. Social webinars are designed for town halls, cohort-based courses, workshops, and webinars with packages that can include event branding, advanced analytics, social lounging, closed captioning, and more. The conference plans are designed for hybrid and virtual summits, conferences, and multi-track events, with key features including exhibitor booths, reception, and event branding (depending on the package). The platform was recognized as a noteworthy virtual event software by Capterra, and you can learn how Airmeet differs from Frameable Events here.  

Frameable Events

This is us! We help people make real connections at virtual and hybrid events through our modern and intuitive features. We’re a perfect solution for virtual conferences, networking events, alumni reunions, happy hours, trade shows, and fundraisers (just to name a few). Check out all our unique features, including table topics and ice breakers, emoji feedback, user profiles, smart grouping for networking, closed-captioning, and audio translations. For a closer look, learn how we’ve partnered with hundreds of brands over the past two years to host stellar virtual and hybrid events. 

Hopin

Hopin was built in 2019 and supports virtual, hybrid, in-person, and internal events with products that help event teams create virtual venues, produce high-quality streams, and promote event landing pages. Despite ranking as one of Capterra’s “established players” in virtual event software, Hopin cut 12% of its team in February 2022 and it’s unclear how that may affect their offerings for new clients and their product priorities. See how Hopin compares to Frameable Events here. 

Hubilo

Hubilo is a virtual and hybrid event platform founded in 2015 and geared toward conferences, trade fairs, medical events, education events, award shows, job fairs, and employee and member engagement activities. The platform has features for 1:1 messaging, event feeds, polls, breakout rooms, and gamification elements like a leaderboard. See what users are saying and why Hubilo was named an emerging favorite for virtual event software by Capterra here. 

Socio 

Socio was founded in 2016 and acquired by Cisco in 2021. The all-in-one event platform offers products designed for event registration, check-in and badges, virtual event and community platform creation, live display, and an event app. Learn why Socio was named a top performer in virtual event software and see what its users say. 

Remo

Remo, sometimes called Remo Conference, aims to humanize the online event experience through its interactive virtual event platform for virtual networking, professional associations, and higher education. The company started in 2019 and today offers features including conversation mode, audience reactions, private table conversations, simultaneous screen shares, and an upvotable Q&A. Remo was named a noteworthy product on Capterra and we explain how Frameable Events compares to Remo on our site.  

Swapcard 

Swapcard is an event and community platform founded in 2013 and designed for virtual, hybrid, and in-person events, including a meeting and matchmaking solution (which is similar to Frameable Events’ smart grouping for networking). The platform is built to support conferences and exhibitions, as well as corporate events and congress-style gatherings. Users can access features like interactive scheduling, a program widget, branding, spaces for networking and messaging, and the ability to brand the experience. Read through the reviews on Capterra to find out more. 

Whova

Whova provides a virtual and hybrid event platform, plus an event app for in-person events. The brand, founded in 2013, also provides solutions for event management, online registration, and event marketing. Event planners can use Whova for livestreams and pre-recorded video with features including attendee tiers with content control, event moderation capabilities, and real-time analytics (depending on your package). See more details and reviews on Capterra.

Zoom

Built on Zoom’s video meeting platform, Zoom Events is a virtual event management solution geared toward user conferences, sales summits, multi-session internal events, new hire training, and team building activities. The product includes features for customizable ticketing and registration, event hubs, an event lobby for attendee networking, host-generated breakout rooms, and post-event analytics. Learn how Frameable Events compares to Zoom. 

Pick the Right Platform for Your Virtual Event 

As you can see, there is a lot of variation amongst the top virtual and hybrid event platforms. It’s important for your team to identify your primary goals and platform needs for a successful event. Then, you can review each of the options we discussed and ask these 13 questions to help you find the best platform for your virtual event.

We’d be thrilled to show you how Frameable Events stacks up against the competition—book a demo today to see how we can make your next event come to life. 

Bring your next virtual event to life with frameable

Book a demo
Categories
virtual events

10 Virtual Event Sponsor Opportunities That Are A Win-Win

Black woman looking fover her virtual event sponsorship agreement.

Virtual event engagement is a pressing challenge for nearly 35% of virtual event planners. Luckily, there is an easy and effective way to both boost your event engagement and help cover the costs of a virtual event—virtual event sponsors.

In 2021, event sponsorship was the number one source of virtual event revenues, but a shocking 22% of event planners were completely unable to generate revenue in a virtual setting. 

Event sponsors provide a vital way to help offset (or even cover!) your event costs. They can also be instrumental in creating a genuinely engaging and well-rounded virtual event experience for everyone involved.

To unlock the total value of your event sponsors, your team must understand how to develop an enticing virtual event sponsorship package to attract the best sponsors—let’s explore how. 

What Is The Value of Having Virtual Event Sponsors?

Virtual event organizers will elevate their attendee experience by partnering with event sponsors, but these engagements must be mutually beneficial to ensure long-lasting success.

By partnering with event sponsors, event organizers can more effectively meet their attendee needs. Complementary solutions providers and recognized brand thought leaders can lend a necessary third-party perspective to your event. These providers can also answer attendee questions and provide resources to meet needs that your team cannot support. 

However, you cannot expect virtual event sponsors to readily line up and donate their time and resources to support your event without some element of “what’s in it for me?” That’s why host organizations need to explain and deliver on the potential value that their event can provide to sponsors. At a minimum, virtual events can help boost a sponsor’s brand awareness, grant them access to qualified leads, drive social media engagement, and achieve several other marketing and business goals. 

10 Virtual Event Sponsorship Ideas

The best way to attract prospective event sponsors is to create a dedicated page on your event site that discusses sponsorship opportunities or sponsorship packages. Then, promote this virtual event sponsor page across your social media channels and through targeted email outreach.

The preliminary information you share should set the seed for 1:1 conversations with prospective event sponsors. In these conversations, you should discuss what the partner hopes to gain by sponsoring your event and explore potential custom agreements that will meet their goals and deliver on your attendee needs.

To help you get started, explore these virtual event sponsorship ideas either as standalone opportunities or group them in event sponsorship packages that will appeal to the range of your event sponsor goals:

  1. Attendee Email List: Virtual event hosts can offer sponsors access to the event attendee email list. Be sure to clearly communicate to your attendees that their information will be provided to partners if they check the box to opt-in to allow this permission.  
  2. Breakout Rooms and 1:1 Meetings: Virtual events bypass the physical limitations of in-person events. Provide dedicated digital space for your sponsors to connect with attendees, conduct demos, and discuss their product or solution. Be sure to explain to event attendees how they can access these rooms and what value they will gain by speaking with your sponsors. 
  3. Email Marketing: As you engage with your virtual event community through email, highlight your event sponsors. Include promotional messages, spotlight their event session or booth, or share their content that may be of value to your email subscribers.
  4. Event Branding: Promote your virtual event sponsors across your virtual event space. This is similar to the promotional banners, tablecloths, floor mats, and other in-person visual branding elements, just placed across every page and aspect of your event website and virtual event platform.
  5. Giveaways and Contests: Generate excitement with your event attendees by giving away event sponsor materials. These contests and giveaways can take place before, during, or after your event in exchange for your attendees submitting lead generation forms, engaging with event exhibitors or sponsors, or completing actions across the virtual event platform. 
  6. Polls: Host branded polls throughout your event as a way for your event sponsors to get direct input from your attendees. Partner with your sponsor to decide what questions you will ask and exclusively provide them with the poll results. Or, offer any sponsors the ability to access the poll results, but only if they opt for that sponsorship option. 
  7. Social Media Promotion: Promote your event sponsors across your event social media channels, with an increased number of posts that highlight your sponsors versus general exhibitors and partners. Consider creating promotional videos or other visual assets that will increase your audience’s likelihood of engaging with your sponsors’ social media content.
  8. Sponsored Sessions: Allow brands to sponsor your sessions or topic tracks with varying levels of exposure. At a minimum, promote an event sponsor alongside each of your event sessions by adding their logo and branding to that session. Depending on the arrangement, each event sponsor could directly engage in the session, such as introducing the speakers, moderating a conversation, or participating in a panel. At the highest sponsorship tier, you can offer for sponsors to create an entire conference session. Just be sure that the topic will be of interest and value to your attendees. 
  9. Swag Bags: In addition to giveaways and contests, swag bags are a great way to get company branding and products directly in the hands of your event attendees. Enable sponsors to provide materials for swag bags that will guarantee their brand exposure. 
  10. Virtual Sponsor Booth: Much like an exhibitor booth, offer your virtual event sponsors a space to engage with attendees and curate an experience within your virtual event platform.

Use a Modern Virtual Event Platform to Build Lasting Sponsor Relationships

Each of the 10 ideas we shared above can entice your prospective virtual event sponsors, but that’s only part of the event sponsorship equation. The virtual event platform you choose can significantly limit your ability to achieve your full event sponsorship potential.

Virtual event sponsors need dedicated space to engage with your attendees. A comprehensive virtual event software platform will allow you to fully customize the rooms and branding to maximize your sponsors’ value. Learn how Frameable Events can bring your dream event to life and help you cover your event costs through smart sponsor relationships.

Categories
virtual events

Virtual Company Kickoff Agenda Elements That Will Excite Your Team for 2022

Middle aged woman smiling as she participates in her company's virtual kickoff from her home office

To say that 2022 will be a busy year for most companies would be an understatement. The global workforce continues to grapple with the impacts of the pandemic, teams are hedging their bets on the best hybrid work arrangements, and The Great Resignation is forcing companies to rethink how they meet the needs of a distributed workforce. 

The start of the year—and this year especially—is a valuable time to realign your team and rally them behind your company’s goals, while also providing them much-needed reassurance. An annual company kickoff can effectively meet this goal, but what will kickoffs look like in the age of remote work, and can they capture the same energy as an in-person kickoff?

Don’t worry. You can still host a fulfilling online company kickoff that will reinvigorate your team and help address their anxieties about the future of work. So get started with planning your kickoff today by exploring these must-have kickoff agenda elements that work great in a virtual environment.

How to Build an Engaging Online Company Kickoff Agenda

Design your kickoff experience as an all-virtual event, regardless of if there is an in-person element. This approach will keep you focused on what matters—building a seamless, intuitive, and fun digital experience for your team. Then you can adapt the in-person components to blend with the online platform and virtual experience.  

Lean into the advantages of the digital kickoff environment. Features like pre-recorded videos, in-platform messaging, and small-group breakout rooms can all replicate many of the beloved elements of your traditional kickoff event. 

Keep in mind that your virtual attendees need a healthy mix of session types and lengths to stay engaged. Sustain excitement throughout your virtual kickoff by hosting these types of activities:

  • Awards & Recognition: Celebrate both team and individual successes. It is crucial to acknowledge accomplishments from the last year and spotlight team members for their contributions. These awards ceremonies should be fun, personal, and all about your team’s success. 
  • Company Executive AMAs: Spotlight company executives and leaders to share their goals for the year and explain their priorities. Allow your kickoff attendees to ask questions through your virtual event platform and collect questions ahead of time, too, to kickstart the Q&A. 
  • Customer or Client Sessions: Your company customers or clients can offer a valuable perspective to your team, including why they love working with you, what they look for when seeking solutions providers, and how you have helped advance their brand. These sessions are ideal for a virtual environment because they require no travel (just be sure to express gratitude for your customer’s time after the kickoff). 
  • Hands-on Virtual Training Sessions: Help your team work more efficiently by hosting virtual training sessions, either as an entire company or in small group breakouts. These training sessions can troubleshoot common tech challenges, explain how to use company tools and software, or develop skills like time management and conflict resolution. 
  • Improv: Develop your team’s skills in a fun way by facilitating quick improv sessions. These short activities should involve no more than 5-10 minutes of prep before your participants present in front of the whole group or a small breakout group. The activity should align with your company in some way, such as asking team members to create a promotion for a new product, roleplay a customer interaction, or envision their day-to-day experiences if they worked in a different department. 
  • Speed Networking: Kickoffs are essential for connecting team members that usually do not interact. Set up small group breakout rooms for five-minute speed networking. Pose a question for two team members to discuss, and then shuffle everyone to a new partner once the time is up. Use pop-up notifications in your event platform to facilitate the transition.
  • Team-building: A kickoff should strengthen your team’s trust in each other and align them with your brand values. Host a series of team-building activities or sessions that solely focus on helping your team get to know each other better, understand each teammate’s strengths, and reinforce your team culture.
  • Entertainment: After your team finishes your core kickoff content, it’s time to let them have even more fun. Coordinate an exciting activity or experience, such as a group cooking class, live musical performance, virtual escape room, or a happy hour with pre-sent cocktail mixers. Don’t treat this as a box to check in your planning—actively seek input from your team to understand what type of entertainment would be the ultimate way to finish your kickoff.   

3 Virtual Company Kickoff Best Practices

Your online company kickoff will delight your team if you host a mix of the sessions we explained.  

We have three final tips to ensure you truly hit the target on delivering a fulfilling virtual kickoff:

  • Poll your team ahead of time to understand what they hope to gain from the meeting. This will help you fine-tune your agenda and balance your executive team’s needs with your team’s hopes. 
  • Mail supplies to everyone ahead of time so that they have everything they need for the kickoff. These supplies can include workbooks and activity sheets, as well as company swag or other goodies.
  • Coordinate food to be delivered to everyone’s house, or mail gift cards for them to order from their favorite local spot. Plan some informal lunchtime activities or open networking rooms to keep the energy high.

Online Company Kickoff Platform Essentials

As seen by the variety of activity ideas that work great for an online company kickoff, companies need to pick a virtual kickoff platform that can facilitate a blend of networking spaces and presentation stages to maximize the kickoff success.


Frameable Events is a virtual event platform that hundreds of organizations have trusted, and we’re ready to help you host your best kickoff yet. Learn more about our customizable lounges and stages and intuitive features that are sure to delight your team.

Bring your next virtual event to life with Frameable

Book a demo
Categories
virtual events

How to Build an Effective and Inspiring Virtual Sales Kickoff (SKO) Agenda

Black man using a tablet to interact at a virtual sales kickoff meeting

An annual sales kickoff (SKO) is intended to bring together your sales organization, rally them behind your team’s new sales or revenue goals, and build excitement for the year to come. But can teams deliver a successful SKO experience in an online setting? Of course!

With the proper planning, an online SKO could enhance the favorite elements of your traditional SKO and empower your team to crush their goals like never before. To start, ask yourself these key SKO planning questions, and then you can begin to build an engaging SKO agenda. 

What Should a Virtual Sales Kickoff Agenda Include?

A diverse mix of speakers and activities is vital to keep your sales reps engaged and offer them the tailored support they need during the SKO. You should also offer a mix of short and long sessions that can appeal to different needs and attention spans. 

One of the unique benefits of a virtual SKO is that there are no space limitations in the traditional sense. You can create as many or as few sessions for your team with concurrent breakouts that address your entire sales team’s range of skill levels and other considerations.

As you build your SKO agenda, be sure to include these elements:

Keynote/Opening

Open your SKO with an engaging and inspirational keynote that sets the tone for the event. This is an opportunity for your company leadership to address the entire sales organization, or your team can bring in an outside keynote speaker. If your virtual kickoff platform allows, you can pre-record an introduction that involves high-value production elements. 

Annual Sales Goal Overview

One of the primary purposes of a sales kickoff is to define and expand upon your company’s annual sales goals, which then cascades to individual goals. Ensure that you set clear and achievable goals that reflect the conditions of our new reality. Traditional markers of success like the total number of in-person meetings should be replaced with more virtual and hybrid work-friendly KPIs.

Panel Discussions

Gather a mix of company executives, rockstar sellers, or customers to discuss a topic of importance in a roundtable fashion. These panels are a great opportunity for various departments at your company to host a session that showcases their overlap with sales. For example, you can host a panel discussion from your marketing department about how to support the brand through social media or ways to use existing marketing materials to support their sales efforts. 

Improv Sessions

Help your sales reps fine-tune their selling skills with improv sessions. These small-group activities pair salespeople to roleplay common scenarios or create a pitch based on an upcoming product release.

Lightning Talks

Provide quick, targeted lightning talks that reinforce one key topic or idea that your reps can immediately apply to their day-to-day work. These sessions provide a welcome mental break from the longer SKO breakout sessions and keynotes. 

Individual Goal Setting Opportunities

Provide a space for salespeople to meet with their manager or another sales leader to discuss the company’s annual sales goals, explore individual goals, and identify ways that the company can support them on their unique sales career journey.

Ask Me Anything (AMAs)

An ask-me-anything session is a perfect way to spotlight members of your team and let reps ask them about their role, how they view sales, and anything else that’s on their minds. AMAs can also be a great relationship-building opportunity that directly engages your SKO attendees.

Meal Breaks (With Activities)

Depending on how long your SKO will last, your team will need several breaks. They may also need food to keep them fueled through the day. Block time out from your event for any meals as needed. Make the experience special by delivering meals to your team through a catering service or delivery provider, or send your team gift cards to get food from their favorite local spot. During the meal breaks, consider hosting open networking rooms, “lunch and learn” sessions, or other activities that can engage your attendees and keep the energy high until sessions resume. 

Training

What skills do your salespeople want to improve? Offer a variety of training options that address the most common sales team challenges. A few weeks before your SKO, poll your sales team to understand what their professional development priorities are and how your team can help them perform at their best. 

Awards Recognition

Yes, an SKO naturally has a forward-looking focus. However, it is a disservice to your team if you present new sales goals without taking a moment to recognize the strides they have already made and celebrate your team. Host an awards ceremony that recognizes outstanding sales team members for a range of accomplishments, such as largest or most deals made, best team player, or most improved. This is an essential culture-building activity that should not be taken lightly. 

Leadership Visions 

In addition to your keynotes and executive AMAs, it could be valuable to highlight a few of your executive leadership members and allow them to share their vision for the company and how the sales team is vital to realize that vision. These discussions can be held in small breakouts, as a panel discussion with multiple execs, or as a quick lightning talk, depending on how much time you have. 

Networking Opportunities

As your salespeople join sessions at your SKO, they are likely coming across team members that they have never met before. This is especially true in a virtual kickoff where separate regions or offices may be joining together for the first time. Your SKO should include opportunities for your team to get to know each other as a way to build your team culture. Consider hosting “speed networking” sessions so your attendees can quickly meet each other, and introduce networking opportunities throughout all of your sessions where possible to maximize the number of connections your team makes. 

Entertainment

Much like during a traditional in-person SKO, your team will want some sort of high-energy, fun, or simply awe-inspiring activity or experience that is solely focused on entertaining them. This can be something as casual as a virtual happy hour with small-group breakout rooms or a more structured activity like a virtual escape room or instructor-led class. If your budget allows, you could even book live music entertainment. 

Completing the Virtual SKO Experience

With the common virtual SKO activities we explored above in mind, your team can begin to build a fulfilling SKO agenda that addresses the range of potential sales rep needs during the event.

The final planning element, of course, is to select a virtual event platform that can support the diverse settings you need to host a fulfilling SKO. You need a platform that enables small- and large-group breakouts, an easy-to-navigate interface so no one misses out on their most anticipated sessions, and, above all, attendees need a way to connect and engage throughout the SKO.

Make this year’s SKO one that your team will never forget by hosting it on Frameable Events. Learn more about how the virtual event platform puts your sales reps at the center of the experience and get ready to host your best kickoff yet. 

Bring your next virtual event to life with frameable

Book a demo
Make your next virtual event more engaging, by design
Book a demo