Making Virtual Experiences Unmissable in the Era of Zoom Fatigue

A year ago the virtual event was a new adventure. A sense of wonderment surrounded the reengineering of formally in-person occasions. We all were curious, and that curiosity generated large attendance numbers and high engagement metrics – when the event was done right.

In the new normal, however, where Zoom alone is seeing 300 million daily meeting participants, things have changed. Two emerging challenges are important considerations as we all look to continue to engage, surprise, inform and delight virtual audiences.

First, the performance bar has been raised … significantly. Expectations for smoothly-run, high-production value virtual meetings have grown exponentially as organizations figured out the technology required to host a virtual event. The nearly universal grace once given to slow network speeds, low-quality audio-visual and stuck-in-place cat filters has dissipated. A virtual meeting is something that is essential to do as well, if not better, than a live experience.

Second, virtual event fatigue is real. As many as four in 10 employees say a full week of virtual meetings leaves them feeling exhausted, according to a survey conducted by scheduling tool company Doodle. That said, the wonderment and curiosity of early 2020 is not completely gone; it continues to smolder. The goal is finding new ways to oxygenate those coals of curiosity – to get people fired up to see what more can be done to enhance the virtual experience. Designing the event to solve audience challenges with insightful and truly usable content is a no-brainer. That’s the type of high-value information we all can use, regardless of how it’s delivered.

We have challenged our teams at CO-OP Financial Services to rethink how to engage attendees, apply new ideas and then continue to test and iterate from event to event. Innovations like Door Dash delivery, in-event downloadable tools and live expert engagement in chat were all hits, increasing the scope of engagement by 300% in 2020. We are confident the inperson experience will return as there is nothing like the relationships we build face-to-face. We also know the virtual event – in some form or another – is here to stay. Too many silver linings and terrific outcomes have been realized to think otherwise.

As we all evolve our virtual event experience, we’ve discovered a series of best practices. We hope one or more of these will be helpful to your own virtual engagement strategy.

1. Spark anticipation. To get attendees excited about an upcoming event, consider delivering beforehand something thoughtful, personalized and unexpected that makes the digital experience a human one. This allows people to literally touch and feel what is to come and gives them a reason to indeed attend, rather than just register. A printed agenda that reinforces what they will learn and gain, along with supplementary content, will make them feel welcome and appreciated.

2. Tap an unexpected speaker and play to their strengths. Given the fact that presenters don’t have to travel, you may be surprised at who you can attract to be a part of your event. Access unexpected speakers who may have previously been out of your price range, like a local news personality, notable credit union member or thought leader whom you may have perceived to be out of reach. Even in the physical world, everyone has a unique presentation style. Over the past year, you may have learned which of your presenters is best live and which thrive in pre-recorded environments. Leverage those learnings to ensure your speakers come across as bright on camera as they are in real life.

3. Enable human interaction. A big draw of the in-person event is the interaction that happens between people. That can still occur in the virtual world. One of the best ways to create direct engagement between one another is to build in fun elements, such as collaborative gaming that’s aligned with the content, prize giveaways or gamified experiences. Providing a platform for “people to be people” reinforces the sense of togetherness so many have missed throughout the pandemic.

4. Personalize the journey. Virtual meeting attendees can feel lost in a sea of camera boxes. Acknowledging their individual attendance pre- and post-event can help them feel seen and that their attendance matters. Open the meeting by asking people to speak up or chat in with their challenges and what they hope to take away from the event. An interactive Q&A portal with experts monitoring and engaging in real-time brings even more value and connection for your audience.

5. Mine your data. Any prior virtual events you’ve done can be a treasure trove of information. Play around with different data points, such as day of the week or time of day your past virtual events have been hosted. See if you can uncover any correlation between different factors and attendance or engagement numbers. Leverage these learnings in the planning of future events.

6. Plan for a pivot. Every events professional will tell you that a Plan B (and a Plan C and D) are crucial to ensuring everything goes off without a hitch and that people are enjoying themselves. As you work with your event platform provider, make sure contingency plans are in place in the event of technical glitches. We are big fans of belts and suspenders!

7. Follow up! One of the biggest misconceptions about the virtual event is that it’s over the minute attendees click the “Leave Meeting” button. If you consider the end of your virtual meeting to be the beginning of a new relationship, there’s no shortage of things you can do to keep that relationship going. Spark memories of the fun, human things that occurred in the meeting. In addition, share visually compelling recaps of the content covered to make it equally useful for both attendees and those who didn’t attend … this time! Plan your follow up activities ahead of time so they don’t get overlooked afterwards.

Regardless of how fast (or slow) the pandemic recovery plays out, the virtual event isn’t going away. No doubt, the model will go through many iterative phases over the next several years. Gathering continuous feedback from our virtual event attendees, speakers and event team members always incrementally optimizes the experience. Whether we are socially distanced or faceto- face, our goal is to persistently ensure we are addressing credit unions’ most pressing needs.

Note: CO-OP will kick off the 2021 THINK virtual series on April 13 with a keynote by Steven Kotler, author of “The Art of the Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer.”

Samantha Paxson (left), Chief Experience Officer and Joe Franklin, Vice President, Experiential Marketing and Engagement CO-OP Financial Services Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.