Live-streaming solution: Enough for your virtual event?

Virtual events are a new hope for the industry in these uncertain times. Event planners are ready to try any tool to give a successful virtual makeover to their physical events. While this idea may sound appealing, but it has some limitations. They can’t go for ‘any’ tool out there and expect wonders. For instance, there are so many live streaming tools out there that promise all sorts of virtual interaction under the sky.

But the main question is- Do event planners really need a live-streaming solution for their virtual events? Does it solve the purpose in the long run (given the indefinite gap period that physical events are going through)? Does it offer ways to manage, market, and monetize the virtual events? Does it bring virtual events at par with physical event experience? These are some questions that we’ll address in this article. Here are some broad parameters to evaluate the relevance of live-streaming tools for virtual events-

Sessions-

• Most of the live-streaming solutions don’t have a concept of multiple-sessions going on parallelly within an event. This is so because they are not particularly designed with event needs in mind.
• In a physical event, so many different sessions happen with different agendas, all in a single event. With a generic live-streaming solution, you’ll not have this privilege of organizing and managing different sessions going together. Although Live streaming solution allows you to create breakout rooms where the participants meet in smaller groups, it doesn’t ensure smooth management.
• For a virtual event, you need a solution that creates various sessions in advance. These sessions may be chronologically arranged or may happen at the same time. Like physical events, attendees will join the sessions they’re interested in.

Event-specific setup-

• Live streaming tools don’t offer a custom setup needed for virtual events.
• From the reception to the networking lounge, the virtual event seeks to bring different aspects of an in-person event in a virtual ecosystem. Live-streaming tools aren’t of much help in this regard.
• They don’t have pre-defined labels specific to events. There are no such event-centric onboarding features to add and manage speakers, sponsors, or exhibitor profiles in a segmented manner.

Monetization- 

• Live-streaming solutions don’t offer a methodology to ensure revenue flow, something which was possible in physical events.
• Your virtual event can’t keep the show going without essential monetization channels. 

Event analytics-

• You can’t ensure evidence-based event planning without a data-driven approach. Event analytics helps you get the much-needed insights for enhancing event experience.
• The live streaming tool provides you options to integrate with various analytics tools but that doesn’t serve the real purpose. Also, excessive software integration should be avoided as it makes your planning less centralized. That’s why it’s advisable to use a virtual event suite instead of integrating various different solutions.
• From generating leads to attracting attendees, you can’t market or monetize your event without event analytics.

Engagement- 

• Physical events have been very specific about event engagement. Event planners keep trying something new, whether strategically or in terms of technology, to engage the attendees.
• Event-goers are used to such a high level of engagement, which becomes hard to replicate in streaming solutions.

What to do?

It would not be fair to expect an event-specific model from the live-streaming solutions. Instead, you should look for niche solutions that cater to the needs related to buyer-seller meets, tradeshows, conferences, seminars, summits, meetups, etc. Full-fledged virtual event software can be of help in these ways-

• It provides you with an event-specific setup that ensures matchmaking.
• It helps in data-driven event planning with holistic event analytics.
• It brings new channels of monetization with ticketing, space booking, sponsor signup, etc.

You can’t consider the virtual events as short term alternatives to retain event stakeholders. We don’t how long it will take for things to get normal. Thus, you must be at your A-game with the virtual event. It’s better to look at the bigger picture where you can manage, market, and monetize your event with a virtual event solution. A live streaming solution won’t be enough to fulfill that endeavor. If you are looking forward to a virtual event solution, you can book a free demo on FLOOR with our event experts-