In the past two years, Online conferences have become a necessary and effective means of keeping business people connected!
Though we lost a lot during the pandemic, we also gained a lot of knowledge about what conference participants want in an event.
While online conferences don’t offer the same social connection as being in the same room as hundreds or thousands of other people, they do provide plenty of benefits.
Discover how connecting online conferences with remote team building can help increase event engagement and help you sell tickets to not only your upcoming event — but to future online conferences, too.
3 Reasons to Connect Online Conferences with Remote Team Building
Team-building events can help you offer better engagement, increase the value of your conference, and help participants retain more information.
Better Engagement
Let’s be completely honest. We have all sat in a ballroom or meeting room and listened to a presentation, and fought not to let our eyelids close. We sit up straight, fidget, and do whatever we can to stay in the moment.
But in an online conference there is nothing to stop us from getting up, cleaning some dishes, or even taking a quick nap.
If you offer engaging and interactive activities during the online conference, rather than tuning out or getting called away by offline distractions, participants will stay engaged and interact with presenters and other guests.
Higher Event Value
Anyone can throw together a day full of presentations. But how well do these presentations actually stick with your participants?
Online conference participants may feel an event offers more value if it’s obvious that event coordinators made an effort to incorporate more interaction into their program.
Information Retention
Again, online learning just isn’t always as engaging as in-person learning. If you want participants to retain more information, make the presentations more engaging.
One way to achieve this? By scheduling interactive events.
When we’re engaged with the material, we’re more likely to retain any information we absorb during the process.
Tips for Connecting Online Conferences With Remote Team Building
Ready to start creating an online conference that will be the talk of your industry for months to come? Our tips for connecting online conferences with remote team building will help you plan the best possible events for your big day.
Advertise Event Interaction
Conferences are often used as networking events. When you host a conference in an online setting, you automatically lose a little of the interaction you’d experience with an in-person event.
Though online conferences offer benefits in-person events can’t offer (no need to travel or worry about getting sick), many do seem lackluster compared to face-to-face interactions.
Since remote team-building events can lead to better engagement and more connections (without awkward ice breakers or other common remote exercises), these events could potentially help you sell tickets to your event.
You also want to ensure that participants have an idea of what to expect from an event.
Since many online conferences only involve speakers or presenters, many participants expect they’ll be able to remain muted or off-camera for the duration of the event. If you want people to actually participate, you’ll want them to be prepared to do so.
Use Breakout Rooms
Zoom and other conferencing apps offer a breakout room feature. While this feature had some bugs at first, it’s now a simple, effective and convenient way to connect smaller groups of participants.
Utilizing the breakout room feature can help participants make connections in smaller groups (and will undoubtedly lead to more quality connections and networking opportunities).
Since remote team-building activities are all about bonding and getting to know other participants, you’ll want to ensure everyone gets the opportunity to make connections in groups smaller than dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others.
A few types of team-building events that work well in breakout rooms are escape rooms and trivia games.
Poll Participants on Their Goals
You probably have some idea as to your ideal participant’s why for purchasing a ticket to your online conference. But what are their individual goals?
You might assume that networking or learning their craft are common goals.
But what do they want out of these networking experiences? And how can you make an online event more personable for networking?
Maybe your conference is scheduled to help a large group of people learn a skill together. But what are the learning styles of the participants? You could always group participants together by learning style or learning goals.
The bottom line is this: you’ll need to have an idea of why people are attending such an event before you can choose the remote team-building topics.
Choose Your Events Wisely
There are hundreds of team-building events offered these days. So which ones should you choose for the big day of your conference?
Once you’ve polled your participants to get a better understanding of their goals, consider your conference goals.
Obviously, you want to create an event that participants will continue to talk about — long after the event is over.
Team-building events for online conferences should be engaging, exciting, and informative. They also need to connect participants in a way that isn’t forced or awkward.
That’s a tall order for an online event.
Once you understand your online conference’s goals and your participants’ goals, you can choose events that are informative (Virtual Gameshow Extravaganza), challenging (Legends of the Hidden Temple), or bonding (It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere).
Ask Them What They Learned
Most people don’t stop to think about what they’ve learned or what they’ve gained from an event (especially an online event).
They know what they should get from an online conference (networking, information, etc.), but they may not really stop to think about what they’ve learned or how they’ve benefited — unless you ask them.
Toward the end of the event, ask participants about their most valuable takeaways.
Hire a Professional
If you’ve never crafted online team-building events, you may not realize what an undertaking these types of events can be!
Hire a professional! A company that has led hundreds of both online and in-person team-building events will be able to facilitate these events for your online conference and make your day run much more smoothly – and save you hours of work!
It can even take the success of your team-building practices from a shot-in-the-dark to a hole-in-one.
