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5 Real-Life Examples of How to Engage Virtual Event Attendees

woman in wheelchair at desk with two computer screens: one displaying 9 people on video and the other displaying charts

While virtual events can be a great way to connect with your audience, it can be difficult to create a truly engaging experience. In this blog post, we’ll explore five common methods to engage virtual event attendees and discuss examples from real virtual events, showing you what actually works. With these tips, you’ll be able to create an engaging experience for your virtual event attendees that is sure to be remembered.

Enable Accessibility Features

The goal of virtual and hybrid event accessibility is to create an inclusive experience for all participants. This involves removing potential obstacles that may hinder someone’s ability to join, participate, and engage in the event. To engage virtual event attendees, you must first ensure that the experience is open to all attendees. While planning your event, make sure you go over the main accessibility considerations to keep accessibility top-of-mind through the planning process. 


The Center for Cultural Power emphasized the importance of accessibility when planning Climate Woke, a four-hour event featuring stories from movement leaders in Appalachia, strategy sessions on ecological justice, and various live performances. The World Health Organization estimates that 20% of the global population suffers from hearing loss. It is essential that this group of individuals is able to receive the support they need within virtual events to stay engaged. However, captioning is not only useful to the deaf and hard of hearing. In fact, a recent study by the BBC found that 80% of people who used closed captions between the ages of 18 and 25 do not have any hearing loss. The Center for Cultural Power used both live captioning and ASL interpretation functionalities throughout the event to accommodate the needs of their audience.

Allow Freedom of Movement

Allowing guests to explore the event space, interact with other attendees, and access different areas of the event will keep attendees engaged by ensuring the event is dynamic, and you can cater experiences to each specific attendee.

Hilarity for Charity (HFC),  a nonprofit organization founded by Lauren Miller Rogen and Seth Rogen, has ensured guest engagement by allowing participants to attend workshops of their choice during their annual CareCon event. CareCon is a free, virtual event designed to educate participants on Alzheimer’s and honor and connect caregivers. After an opening presentation, guests had the opportunity to join one of three different celebrity panels, offering insights into multiple topics. All sessions were recorded so guests could revisit the panels for information or watch the ones they could not attend live. Later, attendees could choose from 13 different workshops with topics ranging from Laughter Yoga to Writing Through Grief and Loss. 

By offering various topics and sessions to choose from, guests could customize the experience to suit their interests. This flexibility allowed attendees to explore the event space, interact with other attendees, and access different areas, making for a dynamic and engaging event. HFC has set a great example for other nonprofits to follow to create engaging events.

Encourage Networking

Networking is an important aspect of any virtual event, as it allows attendees to connect with like-minded people, learn from each other, and form relationships. Networking is a key factor influencing whether people attend an event, with an overwhelming 76% of people citing networking opportunities as one of the main reasons they consider. By encouraging social interaction, attendees will also establish a stronger connection with the event. Virtual networking can have many advantages over its in-person counterpart including accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and increased flexibility. 

NASA ensured networking was encouraged during the 2022 Human Research Program Investigators’ Workshop, which they held virtually. During the event, NASA dedicated a portion of time to an expert speed-matching session, allowing attendees to network and exchange contact information as experts facilitated conversations at each table. 

Virtual networking is critical for any virtual event and can help attendees establish meaningful connections. By providing dedicated networking time and virtual networking lounges, NASA ensured that attendees could connect with one another and expand their professional networks.

Offer Incentives

Incentives can give prospective attendees the push they need to join your virtual event. Incentives can be anything from prizes, raffles, gift cards, or exclusive virtual event content.

Incentives will help to build excitement and encourage people to join your virtual event. Ensure the incentives you offer are relevant and valuable to your attendees, and you’ll have more success in getting people to join in.

Stamps.com hosted a virtual holiday party, allowing guests to come and go as they pleased. Hosts drew a virtual raffle winner every half hour to keep guests engaged. This incentive kept attendance consistent throughout the event and ensured the party engaged guests throughout the event.

Host Live Q&A sessions

Live Q&A sessions are a great way to engage virtual event attendees by providing an interactive experience. Setting time aside for a live Q&A can provide a more personal touch to virtual events, allowing attendees to connect with the speaker or panel on a deeper level. In fact, 92% of webinar attendees want a live Q&A following the session. 

To encourage productive and engaging Q&As, it is important to create a set of ground rules for both attendees and hosts. Attendee rules should include guidelines on submitting questions, selecting questions, and when the speaker will answer them.

The host and moderator should discuss how long each answer should be, and how to manage disruptive members. Moderating the Q&A session can help ensure all questions are answered and the discussion stays on track.

Beyond Status, a short film showcase produced by The Center for Cultural Power, hosted a live Q&A session following the virtual film festival. The Q&A session was an excellent opportunity for audience members to gain a greater insight into the personal stories behind the films and engage in meaningful dialogue with the filmmakers. It also allowed the filmmakers to expand upon their personal stories and share their perspectives on the issues they addressed in their films. This experience allowed the audience to connect with the filmmakers and to gain a deeper understanding of the stories behind the films.

Design your most engaging virtual event yet

Whether you’re hosting a virtual conference, webinar, happy hour, or something in-between, these strategies will help you create an event that encourages engagement and connection. By utilizing these techniques, you can build a truly engaging virtual event that your attendees will enjoy and remember for years. 

We’ve created Frameable Events with an emphasis on engagement, complete with an intuitive and attractive user experience. Learn more about Frameable Events and get started with us today to host your next event.

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Why Event Attendee Surveys Are Vital to Your Success (And What To Ask)

Your conference attendees shouldn’t feel helpless when they seek assistance or raise concerns. This may sound extreme, but it is an all-too-common experience for many conference-goers—and something I recently faced at a hybrid industry event.

Like 32 million other Americans, I have food allergies. I can usually find some safe food at events (especially large, multi-day conferences). But I always pack snacks just in case. On day one of a recent event, however, I couldn’t find any food labels or clearly allergy-friendly options, and I was unsuccessful in finding someone who could help me identify my options. Good thing I brought snacks! Day two, same problem, and I noticed numerous other attendees complaining amongst themselves. By day three, we knew we were on our own, our snack piles were dwindling, and many of us started venting our hanger-fueled frustration on social media.  

This example is just one of the many ways that a disappointing conference experience can spiral if event planners are unaware of their attendees’ needs. But there is an easy way that the event organizers could have anticipated or corrected this issue—attendee surveys! 
Although many event challenges can be unpredictable, any attendee issues can be addressed if you effectively survey them and create healthy feedback loops to correct issues in real time. Here’s how.

Why Virtual Event Attendee Surveys Are Vital To Your Success

Building a successful online event requires you to have an unwavering focus on your attendees—what they want to learn, who they want to hear from, and how they want to engage in the event experience.

As an event planner, your budget and timing will drive many decisions. It’s understandable that you cannot factor in every possible event hiccup during your planning. However, pre-event attendee surveys can help you cover your bases and address areas you may have previously overlooked (like dietary needs or accessibility considerations). 

Once your event starts, your team will be busy and urgent needs will arise—and you don’t want your team’s time to be taken entirely by attendees who are seeking help. Field surveys during your event through your event app or in the virtual event platform interface to quickly identify immediate areas of concern and fix them before they spread. You should assign two or three team members during the event whose sole responsibility is to address concerns raised in the surveys.
Post-conference surveys are the most common—and they are critical for improving your next event strategy—but the damage is already done to attendees who felt you inadequately addressed their needs during the event. Yes, you need to use post-event surveys to improve your next event. But fielding surveys before and during your event is most helpful for addressing your real-time attendee needs and keeping an urgent issue from becoming a crisis.

Sample Event Attendee Survey Questions To Help You Improve Their Experience

To help you get valuable attendee insights to strengthen your event experience, consider asking the below questions in your pre-, during, and post-event attendee surveys.

Pre-Event Attendee Survey Questions

Before the event, ask your registrants questions that will help you finalize your conference agenda and address your attendees’ needs. Automatically send a pre-event survey as soon as an attendee registers for your event, and remind your attendees to fill out the surveys through your ongoing email and social media communications. Pre-event survey questions can include:

  • What is your preferred session length at an event like ours?
  • Were you disappointed in a recent event experience? If so, what is the biggest challenge you faced that detracted from that event experience? 
  • Who would you want to hear from at the event (you can name specific people or tell us general titles or industries)?
  • What are your food or dietary restrictions? (include a fill-in field)
  • Do you have any food or dietary preferences?
  • What kind of networking events or activities do you prefer?
  • Is there anything we can do to make your time at the event remarkable?

During the Event Attendee Survey Questions

During the event, surveys give you real-time feedback on your sessions and the overall event experience. The key is to assign at least two event staff members to monitor these submissions and route concerns to the appropriate team members as soon as possible. Sample questions to ask attendees during a virtual or hybrid event include:

  • How would you rate the food and beverage options provided at the conference?
  • Are you comfortable with the temperature throughout the event space?
  • Have you faced any challenges in navigating the event experience?
  • What can we do to make your event experience even better?
  • How would you rate the quality of service provided by our event staff?

Post-Event Attendee Survey Questions

After the event, surveys are a vital way to understand if your event was successful—did your event meet its goals and fulfill your attendees’ hopes? If your event was unsuccessful, then you will have a harder time getting attendees at your future events. Consider asking these types of questions in your post-event attendee surveys:

  • On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your overall conference experience?
  • What are the three things you think we did best during the event?
  • How could we have improved your experience?
  • Would you recommend our event to a colleague? Why or why not?
  • Would you be interested in attending a future event with us?

Designing an Attendee-Obsessed Experience

Virtual and hybrid events are far more common than before, and your prospective attendees deserve an intuitive and engaging experience.

Use event attendee surveys at each stage of your event to up-level your attendee needs and identify potential issues before they escalate and destroy your attendee experience. It is impossible to host a perfect conference, but attendee surveys empower you to be truly attendee focused.
Once you understand what your attendees need from your event experience, you’ll need a virtual or hybrid event platform that can enable the dynamic spaces that allow them to mix, mingle, and engage with the event experience. We’ve built Frameable to help people make real connections at your event through a beautiful and easy-to-navigate interface. Learn more about Frameable Events and get started with us today to host your next event.

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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

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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

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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

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

6 Proven Ways To Spark Virtual Event Engagement

Black woman engaging with others while attending a virtual event

As marketers have matured with their virtual events strategies, many of the initial challenges they faced have become significantly easier to solve. 

Most event planners know that it’s essential to set clear goals to guide their planning and support those goals with effective virtual trade show agenda elements. The best event planners collaborate with their exhibitors and sponsors to additionally ensure the planned schedule of virtual activities meets their needs. 

But there is still one major challenge that even the most experienced virtual event planners struggle with: attendee engagement. 

Cracking the code to engage your virtual audience is a significant opportunity for marketers and event planners. This post discusses current best practices for virtual event attendee engagement, drawing from recent successful virtual or hybrid trade shows and industry membership association experiments.

How to Engage Your Virtual Conference and Trade Show Attendees

Every successful virtual event includes a conference hub that facilitates interaction between all attendees and enables them to access key event details. Create a page for your event site and event app that outlines how attendees can engage with each other and speakers throughout your event. 

These opportunities should include live chat and messaging capabilities in your event platform, social media communities tailored to your event community, dedicated rooms for attendees to network 1:1 or in small groups, and interactive exhibition halls where attendees can meet with vendors. 

Expand on these essentials to deliver a truly engaging virtual event experience for your attendees by following these best practices to garner engagement:

1. Promote attendee engagement opportunities throughout—and leading up to—your event. 

As simple as it may sound, an essential step to garner engagement at your event is to prime attendees for these opportunities in all pre-event communications and during the event. 

Spotlight your event engagement details in a series of pre-event attendee emails. In these emails, further explain how attendees can actively participate during the event. In addition, we recommend you share at least one email exclusively dedicated to answering questions about the engagement opportunities available at your event. 

During your event, ask session speakers to encourage attendees to submit questions in the virtual event platform messaging interface (as appropriate). Conference speakers should also guide attendees to their next experience after that session, including the open networking spaces that attendees can join to keep the conversation going. 

2. Offer gift cards. 

Incentivize attendees to register for your event, join sessions, meet with exhibitors, or engage in sessions by offering a gift card. For example, we’ve seen several conferences incentivize registration by offering as little as a $5-$10 gift card to major retailers (frequently Starbucks) or randomly selecting a few attendees to receive $100-$500 gift cards.

However, you do not want to set an expectation that every attendee interaction will reap a reward. Instead, you want to provide an incentive to encourage attendees to engage, with the potential for a surprise. 

If your event technology allows, track how many times individual attendees join sessions or exchange messages within the platform to enter attendees into your raffle. Your team could also randomly give gift cards to attendees who actively talk about your event on social media, which could, in turn, encourage more attendees to post for a chance to win. 

3. Host partner and exhibitor raffles. 

Alongside (or in place of) gift card giveaways, partner with event sponsors and exhibitors to give away swag, product demos, or other items from those event partners. This builds a more authentic and immersive experience for your attendees compared to providing random giveaways.

An example of this was CXEnergy2021 Virtual Conference’s Tech Showcase, where attendees received prizes for joining and engaging during presentations. In addition, after every demonstration and Q&A, vendors held brand raffles, such as a one-year subscription for their software. These giveaways will likely boost lead generation and brand awareness efforts for your event partners, too, which will elevate their event experience.  

4. Coordinate a scavenger hunt or BINGO board.

Encourage attendees to explore every part of your event platform and use each feature to its fullest by hosting a scavenger hunt or BINGO board of actions to complete. Ask attendees to snap photos or take screenshots during sessions, visit specific event pages, or complete activities that you can track.

Reward attendees with gift cards or partner raffle items, or create exclusive prize packages—such as registration for next year’s event—that build additional excitement for the game.

5. Enable attendees to pre-submit questions.

Set the expectation with attendees that they can ask questions both before and during event sessions. Enable attendees to pre-submit questions to help speakers finalize their session content and help Q&A moderators prioritize questions.

At the end of each session, address a selection of the pre-fielded questions, and encourage attendees to submit more questions via the chat app. This way, your moderators can organize new questions while the speakers address the pre-submitted ones. Not enough time to get to all the questions? No problem! Give the speaker the list of all the submitted questions, and encourage them to create their own content to address those elements.

6. Strike up conversations on social media. 

Use an easy-to-remember hashtag to help your social media moderators actively find and engage with attendee Tweets and other social media posts. Ask attendees to share their favorite breakout session takeaways, and be ready to answer their event questions. Amplify their Tweets to encourage them to keep posting throughout the event. 

Post polls and quizzes to directly encourage engagement, and use event videos, GIFs, or visuals to stir up excitement for the experience. 

Choose a Virtual Event Platform That Enables Attendee Engagement

By thoughtfully creating opportunities for attendees to engage with your virtual event content and activities, you transform them from a passive audience to active participants in your event. 

But even the best-planned engagement opportunities can fall flat if your event platform is not up to par. You need a virtual or hybrid event platform that enables built-in messaging capabilities within sessions, as well as a way for attendees to find and connect with each other. 

With Frameable Events, you can deliver the engaging virtual trade show experience that your attendees deserve. The platform includes audience polling capabilities, robust chat features, and essential metrics that help you keep attendees engaged and uncover ways to improve their experience. Learn more and get started today.

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How to Plan Hybrid Events That Engage Your Attendees and Make Them Come Back for More

Back view of a man presenting on stage at a hybrid event with two monitors

A global pandemic doesn’t have many upsides for event planners and marketers. What we do have is a year of lessons learned. When every type of event imaginable was suddenly shifted online, we learned some truths about the “old” way of hosting events. The result is a changed expectation from event-goers as venues reopen their doors for online and in-person events. 

While 2020’s online event transitions were not always smooth, with many far from perfect, what we learned was that having the opportunity to attend virtually made many events accessible in ways that in-person-only events could never be. Ultimately, we have learned that there is no going back. The future of events is the hybrid event — a seamless blend of in-person and virtual experiences to create greater value for both groups. 

You might think that planning a hybrid event simply means planning your event as usual and then bolting on the online component. Alas, the best way is the complete opposite. There are many considerations you need to make when planning.   

What we learned from moving events online

To understand how to build the best hybrid event strategy, we need to look at some of the challenges. The pandemic arrived, and lockdowns went into effect around the world. Events of every type were suddenly either postponed indefinitely or moved online. And it wasn’t just event organizers for large-scale events suddenly having to learn a new approach. 

For companies and business groups, after companies had sent everyone home, the operations team scrambled to work through digital transformation projects they’d expected to have significantly more time to execute against. It was now critical to figure out how to handle company meetings and conferences on top of day-to-day collaboration. Investment in business collaboration tools boomed, but it also exposed their limitations and feature gaps. Workers began suffering video conference burnout. Corporate event planners knew they needed a new strategy to keep their audience engaged in the face of “Zoom fatigue.”

Performers, events staff, and venues all faced unique challenges. Bars, clubs, and concert halls closed. Streamed performances began to pop up across platforms — from solo artists broadcasting via Facebook Live to DJs streaming live sets via Twitch (traditionally seen as a video game streaming service).

At first, all these experiences were jarring as they represented the huge hole that cancellations and closures had left in our lives (and social calendars). Over time, as we all adapted, some silver linings emerged. It was fun to dance in our living rooms. Events we may not have been able to attend physically were easy to tune in to. Workers and family members alike were relieved of expensive travel to attend meetings or celebrations. 

Will it blend? Bringing together your online and in-person event experiences.

We’ve looked deeply now at the challenges and lessons learned from the pandemic. The big takeaway is that while it was hard at first, new technologies have emerged to bridge the gaps. People have adapted to having the choice to attend virtually, and the future of event planning must include this element. 

But, successful hybrid event planning means far more than just creating an in-person event and bolting on a virtual component. You must be “virtual-first” in your planning and then build your in-person experience around that. There are several questions you must consider as you are planning that will guide your approach. 

For meetings, seminars, panels, and the like, think about interactions between the audience and the presenter(s). This is a common pain point, especially for the speakers themselves.

Some questions you must consider are:

  1. How will attendees of each type interact with the presenter(s)?
  2. Will audience members of each type be able to interact with each other?
  3. How will virtual attendees be represented in the physical event space?

More intimate events like weddings and receptions pose additional challenges to ensure that virtual attendees aren’t stuck as observers in the proverbial corner. This requires rethinking not only what technology we use but how we use it. 

Let’s take a high-level walk-through of the hybrid event planning process.

Step 1: Plan your hybrid event’s online approach

First, you need to understand the event’s objectives and fully commit to it as a hybrid experience. This means unifying the online and in-person experiences to create equally great value for both types of participants. Let’s plan an example event: an industry trade show. First, we need to identify all the elements that we wish to include in our event:

  1. Keynote speech
  2. Individual speaker presentations with Q&A
  3. Panel discussions with interactive audience
  4. Trade show floor
  5. Prepared lunch
  6. Networking social hour

To properly build out this hybrid event, we must start by looking at the virtual elements for each piece. How will our virtual attendees experience each one?

Keynote Speech

The keynote speech doesn’t include a Q&A, so the audience passively observes, although they may be sharing points that resonate on social media. We want to make sure we deliver an engaging experience for our virtual audience to build the same level of energy and excitement the physical audience experiences. 

Individual Speaker Presentations with Q&A

For these presentations, we must make sure that our virtual audience can interact with the speaker for questions, see all presented materials, and of course, see and hear the speaker. We also want our virtual audience not to feel like they are watching from the sidelines — what are some clever ways to increase engagement and interactivity?

Panel Discussions

Like the speaker presentations, we must fully engage the virtual audience and then identify how to integrate the physical attendee experience. Virtual attendees need equal levels of interaction and representation to the panel — how might the overall format of the panel be shifted to accommodate this?

Trade Show Floor

The true highlight of any trade show is the showroom floor. Here vendors have booths full of swag and potential access to important names. Plus, attendees have the chance to meet and interact with each other. Virtual attendees want to have this immersive experience and ability to network — how will we place them inside the showroom floor?

Prepared Luncheon

A catered luncheon with 2-3 meal options. A casual opportunity to talk, network, and make new connections/friendships. What does a virtual luncheon look like? How might virtual and physical attendees connect? How do you keep it from being a sad desk lunch for those not there in person?

Networking Social Hour

A more free-movement opportunity for networking than the luncheon, this is a happy hour style social event. Similar questions as the luncheon apply here. How will virtual attendees “roam the room” and have helpful chance encounters and conversations?

2. Build out your hybrid event

Now that you’ve considered all the event’s online elements and asked all the pertinent questions, it’s time to build out the rest of your event experience. Let’s look again at each portion of our trade show event and think about what features and technologies will create a valuable and interactive experience for your attendees. You will need to determine your Virtual Event Platform. Prepare to build out a custom app that does far more than just provide a map and schedule — it will need to build in connection, communication, and interactive functions (or choose a VEP that has a mobile-friendly interface). 

  • Individual speaker presentations with Q&A: Broadcast via livestream to virtual attendees with camera views of both speaker and in-person audience. Dedicated moderators work with both audiences to gather questions. Virtual attendees can ask questions/provide comments via audio or submission to a moderator. Additional interactivity comes in the form of audience polls and games via the app. 
  • Keynote Speech: Broadcast via live stream to virtual attendees. The trade show app gives both virtual and in-person attendees a commentary feed projected alongside the stage. 
  • Panel Discussions: Questions are collected through the trade show app ahead of time from all attendees. Moderators feed these questions to the panel, which is live-streamed. Live comment feed is broadcast (similar to the keynote). 
  • Trade Show Floor: Mail swag bags to all virtual attendees. Create a 3D rendering of the trade show floor to allow virtual attendees to see displays and setups. Create virtual sponsored booths for remote attendees to visit and interact with. Use a remote platform that makes swapping contact info easy and fun.
  • Prepared Luncheon: Select your lunch menu based on what is easy to ship prepared to attendees’ homes or that can be delivered through a nationwide delivery app partner. Make sure your menus are the same for both. Use a platform that provides accessible breakout rooms or tables for attendees to chat and connect. 
  • Networking Social Hour: Create lounges and fun spaces for virtual networking. Allow virtual and in-person attendees to connect through a networking “wall” and trade info using the app. Set up game or discussion tables that physical and virtual attendees can join.

3. Market and promote your hybrid event

You’ve built out your event and determined what features and functions you need. Now you need to sell tickets and get word to your audience. You need to engage both virtual and in-person attendees with a value statement — meaning you need to demonstrate equal value no matter how they attend. This includes emphasizing what makes each special and exciting, whether it be the immersive experience or flexibility and accessibility.

When marketing to both groups, keep the focus on integration and interactivity. Highlight how both groups can benefit from networking and connecting with each other. Provide online networking platforms pre-event to get attendees connected and build hype and excitement. And think about how the addition of interactive platforms enhances both experiences. 

The future of events is hybrid

Event coordinators and conference planners are faced with a new event planning landscape, and their event strategy must adapt. Participants have new expectations, and meeting them means investing in a new way of thinking and new technologies to support it. Remember, there is no going back — hybrid events are here to stay. But with the right tools and strategies, you’ll be able to plan and host interactive and engaging events that wow your attendees, no matter how they attend. 

Learn more about how Frameable Events can help you create a more engaging hybrid event, or schedule a demo.

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