Sep 18, 2020 | Microsoft Teams Live
The event industry is undergoing a digital transformation. Owing to the current situation thrust upon the world, it is imperative that we, as event organizers, ensure that audiences across the globe can access event experiences through technology.
The internet is brimming with virtual events. From webinars to tutorials to panel discussions to training sessions to publishing books, event organizers have transitioned physical events to online events. The transitions are, however, not so easy. It is challenging to duplicate experiences of a real live event online. Difficult, but not impossible.
A successful event has only one secret ingredient – a great team working on it like a well-oiled clock. It is not enough to host events online; one needs to plan and manage them to ensure that they reach maximum people.
As mentioned before, a great team ensures a successful event. And what a team needs are seamless collaboration and coordination to provide your audience with a unique virtual event experience.
Here are the top 5 reasons you should get your team on Speaker Engage, chalk out your virtual events, and leave your audience enthralled!
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Maintain the Crew
Speaker Engage can accommodate your entire team online, allowing you to work together seamlessly. You can add your team members and assign them roles, events, and access to event-related tasks. This way, your team members will be notified when assigned an event, and they can log on to Speaker Engage and get organizing.
Speaker Engage also has an in-built dashboard that provides a bird’s eye view of event activities. You can keep track of the number of speakers and sponsors contacted, the number of resources available, and even the number of emails sent across.
Collaborating and planning out events on Speaker Engage ensures that every member of your team is an integral part of this digital innovation and transformation.
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Manage the Data
No event planning is complete without space to store critical data. Be it resources to be used during the event, pre, and post-event marketing creatives, brochures, invites, presentations, and the list goes on. Speaker Engage is equipped with a Resource Tracker, capable of handling all your event-related resources. You can even categorize the resources according to your preferences.
Added to this, Speaker Engage has inbuilt functionality to set agendas for every event. You can include information like the speaker, their presentation topic, business purpose, date, time, and place of the talk (now that we’re all digital) and papers or presentations that the speaker may need to use during the lecture as a reference.
All the data you need to plan and execute a spectacular event can be collected, stored, and utilized on Speaker Engage.
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Seamless Communication
Anyone who has worked on Speaker Engage would know the flawless system set up to facilitate communication among the organizers, speakers, and sponsors.
The platform comes with various email templates, and the platform allows you to customize your email templates. Emails can be scheduled; speakers and sponsors can be notified separately or in the bulk of any new development. The best part – any information required by the organizer can be requested from the speaker or sponsor through the platform.
Additionally, event organizers can communicate with all stakeholders, from volunteers, vendors, and even those involved in transport and tech.
With seamless communication in place, organizers like you and I can look forward to executing a smooth and well-planned virtual event.
- Get Noticed
One of the best features within the platform is the Social Media Planner, helping organizers maximize their outreach. Organizers can create social media campaigns, add posts, upload images, descriptions, and assign review responsibilities to team members. The social media planner and calendar make it easier for organizers to scale their promotions.
Once the posts are approved and ready to go, the posts show up on a public sharing link, which can be embedded into any website. This public sharing link allows the public to access and share posts created by the team across social media platforms. It will enable them to track their promotions within Speaker Engage.
Having an in-built feature that scales promotion and amplifying the event across social media platforms is a definite advantage to those using Speaker Engage to manage their virtual events and become part of digital innovation!
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Event Directory
Speaker Engage also has an event directory. Although not an in-built feature, the event directory is part of the Speaker Engage benefits, which will help you elevate your virtual event.
The Speaker Engage directory is a fool-proof method to get noticed and peak your registrations. The event directory is a premium space to list all your events, sorted by industry, to ensure that your audience knows your virtual event is verified. This way, once listed, you can ensure that your event can acquire premium status, taking it to the next level.
Speaker Engage is a multi-faceted platform catering to the event organizers’ event organizers to make lives more comfortable and smoother. Planning and advertising your virtual events on Speaker Engage enables your team members to take control and accountability, creating a space for complete clarity and transparency in the planning phase. This allows for executing a virtual event where your audiences share experiences that ensure that they are satisfied and are eager for more events from your side.
If you need expert guidance or help in planning your event, reach out to us at support@speakerengage.com, and we can help you pull off the event of your dreams!
Sep 4, 2020 | Virtual Events
Virtual events became more popular even before the COVID-19 outbreak, as businesses looked for new ways to interact and collaborate. We saw a rise in virtual events forced by necessity, and these changes bode well for the event industry. It resulted in an increased demand for tools like Microsoft Teams. In fact, according to a stat of TomTalks, Microsoft Teams leads the way as the most common virtual meeting option with 145m daily active users.
As a solution for a vast audience, MS Teams Live event lets you structure and deliver significant broadcast-style events to reach employees, customers, and business partners. It allows you to schedule and produce events for an audience of up to 10,000 attendees. You can coordinate seamless and engaging virtual events from anywhere and at any time. MS Teams is designed to enhance the experience of both the presenter and the attendee. It is one of the best all-in-one platforms available today for video, file and screen sharing, instant chat, and more.
Now comes the big question – “Do you know how to get the best out of Teams and enhance your MS Teams event experience, both as an organizer and as an attendee?” Even after we go back to the old normal, Teams will be an unavoidable, crucial part of our daily routines. Before you start getting into the thick of things, here are a few basic steps you must know to conduct a seamless virtual event.
How to Schedule Your Teams Live Event
- Select Live Event from the drop-down in the Teams calendar, from within the Teams desktop application or the Web app, to begin creating the event.
- Add a title, location (optional), times, details (optional), and invite people as either producers or presenters.
- After choosing ‘Next,’ pick your live event permissions.
- Choose Teams or an external app/device for how to produce your live event.
- Choose options as your preferences from the checkboxes.
- Once you click the ‘schedule’ button, make sure to copy the invite link and share it via Teams channels or email.
How to Start Your Teams Live Event
- Join the event from your calendar.
- You’ll see two preview screens – while the left screen is to queue up the things to be broadcasted, the right screen is what viewers will see in real-time.
- Since the meeting is in the pre-live mode now, ensure that your audio and video solutions are selected and working correctly.
- The ‘Share’ button can be used to share your content.
- Once everything is queued up, select ‘Send live’. The event can neither be stopped nor restarted, and it can last up to 16 hours.
- You can see, on the next screen, that the event has changed from pre-live to live.
- Click on the content in the bottom pane to switch to another source. It will then appear in the queue window and can be shared with the live event by clicking ‘Send.’
- There are settings in the upper right-hand corner that will allow you to create notes, chat with other presenters, etc., without viewers watching.
- After choosing ‘End’ to end the event ultimately, you can access the recording, several reports, transcript, and much more.
How do I Attend a Teams Live Event?
- Open the live event link to join the event.
- You don’t have to have Teams application to attend the MS Teams live event. The event will open right away if you are using the Teams application. Otherwise, you can watch it on the web.
- Once the event starts, you can join as an authenticated user if you are using Teams. Otherwise, you can join anonymously utilizing the web app.
- You can manually reset the resolution/quality of the video by clicking on the gear on the bottom right.
- You can see the presented content, participate in the live Q&A, ask questions at any time, and pause and replay the event as you are watching, even anonymously.
- If available, you can still watch the recording once the live event is over.
Summing Up
There you have it! You have the most fabulous tips for mastering your Microsoft Teams events. Check out this blog for a deeper dive into tips to master Microsoft Teams Live.
Speaker Engage has been helping event planners make the whole experience of event management as smooth as possible. We help event planners curate a seamless event by removing the chaos from event planning and execution with the help of our fully integrated, cloud-based platform.
As a Microsoft Partner, we stay on top of the event management sector and are proud of having helped several companies and event planners with our solution. If you are researching, planning, or considering conducting a virtual event and looking for virtual event platforms, let us know. We have 2 of the most excellent tools, MS Teams and Speaker Engage, that will guide you through the process.
Aug 13, 2020 | Virtual Events
Finally, you’ve decided to conduct a webinar on your favorite topic. Now what? How do you make your webinar a successful one? How do you get the word out there? Have you prepared your webinar promotion strategy?
Well, you can’t just sit and hope people find your webinar organically. You need to promote your webinar if you want it to meet and exceed your webinar goals and make it a successful one.
Here are some interesting facts from Go-to-Meeting’s Big Book of Webinar Stats that might surprise you:
- 57% of webinar registrations come from email.
- More than half of the signups happen during the week of the event.
- Promoting the event at least four weeks beforehand results in 12% more registrations on average.
- 63% of people submit their registration on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday.
Fortunately, there are several ways to promote a webinar and drive more people. This article will help you plan and promote your webinars in the most effective ways. Read on!
How to Promote and Attract Your Audience?
Everyone is busy, so your target audience should be given enough time to know your webinar and schedule it. Therefore, the news about your webinar should reach everywhere before the event.
Build a timeline
You must start planning your strategy at least seven weeks before the launch date of your webinar. And your promotional programs should begin within 5-6 weeks before. It would help if you took the time for copy creation, design, and development requirements while building the strategy.
Now, let us consider a few critical marketing assets and tactics you must consider while marketing your webinar:
- Hello Bar
A hello bar is proven to be a very successful aspect of increasing lead generation. This simple yet effective bar usually enters across the top of your screen (sometimes from the bottom too) and spans the entire width of your browser. You can add the information in one or two sentences and add a CTA that takes the user to the landing page.
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Website pop-up window
A pop-up CTA captures the user’s interest while also creating a sense of newness and urgency to the webinar offer. The pop-up will make them stop for a few seconds and let them quickly read your proposal. You’re giving them another chance to convert, and it is proven to increase lead generation. It is also considered one of the best ways to promote webinars or virtual events.
- CTA, CTA everywhere
Add CTAs everywhere that would take the user to a well-written and organized landing page that encourages them more to register. Post the CTAs anywhere you can reasonably put it – home page, blogs, other web pages, emails, etc.
- Teaser video and Promotional video
Embed a small promotional video that includes all information about the webinar on your registration page and home page, and then share it through social media accounts and email. You can ask your presenters too to contribute.
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Promotional emails
Emails are one of the most effective ways of promoting webinars. If you use it wisely, a great outcome is inevitable. You can send 3 or 4 sets of emails. While the first one can be a heads-up email that you send out 3-4 weeks before the event, the following sets of emails can be mailed 1-2 weeks before the event, with the complete information and promotional video. And, since most signups happen until it’s closer to the webinar date, it is better to promote the webinar via email until the day of the event. Keep sending that mail!
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Webinar promotion on social media
Social media is a powerful promotional space. Create attractive posts and creatives and share them on all the social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and ask the webinar guests and presenters to share them. It will also help you increase the organization’s networks.
- Email Signature
Besides sending the emails, you can add the webinar landing page link as your email signature. It is one of the best ways to spread the webinar news to people outside your regular database.
- Ad campaign
How do you attract new faces? You should consider some targeted digital advertising. You can run your advertisements on all social media platforms. However, LinkedIn will help you in particular since you will be able to target people whose jobs and industries fall under your webinar category using these ads.
- Write Blog(s)
It would help if you wrote promotional blog articles that explicitly promote your webinar. These blogs should include the reasons why people should attend your webinar. You should publish it with an attractive CTA attached to it and then promote it on social media.
Summary
Follow these easy webinar promotion tactics, create a comprehensive webinar promotion plan, and maximize your chances of reaching as many people as possible. You are already on your path to success. Also, make sure you always keep your audience in mind while planning your webinar and its promotion. If you need help planning the webinar of your dreams, check out Speaker Engage or shoot us an email at support@speakerengage.com, and we’ll help you execute well-received events!
Aug 13, 2020 | Virtual Events
It is hard enough to be hosting and planning a virtual event. Having a sold-out virtual event, with all your attendees participating, is also a challenging task.
Although there are roads, you could take to ensure you have complete attendance. There are umpteen platforms and channels available to event organizers such as ourselves to promote and engage our audiences. In this article, we shall be looking at a comprehensive list of actionable tasks that will guarantee attendance at your virtual event.
- Choose your topic wisely
The first stage of planning should involve intensive research into the type of content consumed. Should it a conversation or a training session?
After this exercise, you would have zeroed in on your target audience and a topic that your research points will be well received. With the content and target audience, you would know the format of virtual events most preferred. This way, you can host a panel discussion, a review or a thought leader training session, and get maximum attendance.
2. Time Zone compatibility
Once you have the topic of your virtual event, you must pick a date and time. This step is crucial in garnering attendance, as it must at a time where your target audience from across the globe will not have trouble attending.
3. Create relevant content for audiences
Never underestimate the power of a good content marketing strategy. Now that we have a virtual event, we must focus all energy on attendance. People register, but participation is not guaranteed.
Create content to educate your audience about the chosen topic. Share information, but place cliff hangers. The content you create, be it blogs, posts, articles, podcasts or YouTube videos must not give away everything. Ensure your creators circle back to the virtual event and encourage attendance through them.
4. Engage through content
Now that we have a content library. It is up to marketers to plan and place them across platforms and channels to ensure that all verticals of your target audience can access it.
Create an engagement calendar where you ensure engagement with your audience periodically. Be it daily, once, or twice a week, your audience needs to be aware so that they can comment, share, or like. Creating a space for your audience to interact will create engagement opportunities.
5. Create audience engagement
Engagement is one thing, but acknowledging the participation empowers the audience. Once the audience registers to your event, shares your event, gets others to register, you can present them with badges or titles.
This acknowledgment encourages people to take part in activities that promise an incentive. This way, you can turn your audience into event marketers.
6. Speaker turn Brand Ambassadors
While recruiting or choosing speakers for your event, ensure that they are subject matter experts. This way, the reach of the virtual event extends to all those following your speakers. Make your speakers the brand ambassadors for the virtual event. Encourage them to participate and engage through their platforms to guarantee more participation. The speakers could share your activity and have a dedicated content bucket assigned to be used on their platform, leading their audience to register for the virtual event.
7. Enlist your Event
The internet is brimming with online events, making it cumbersome for the audience to find the right virtual event to attend or engage. To avoid the clutter and present actual value-added events to the audience, list your events in platforms with a good following. List yourself on the Speaker Engage event directory, and you will stand out as a verified virtual event.
8. Early bird registration perks.
Give away freebies or value-ads to those who register and attend early.
Through your social media marketing or e-mail marketing campaigns, push out giveaways for all those who register for your event in the first week. Promise them collaterals or incentives once they have logged into the virtual early as well. This way, you encourage people to sign up soon and have maximum attendance right at the beginning of your virtual event.
These are just a few steps you can follow to ensure maximum participation. Here is an e-book that has all actionable steps you can take to ensure your event follows all the best practices out there.
One way to ensure your team has an easy time organizing, planning, and communicating through the events, sign up to Speaker Engage and save your time. Speaker Engage is now available for a free trial for 30 days!
Here is an e-book that has all actionable steps you can take to ensure your event follows all the best practices out there.
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Aug 6, 2020 | Microsoft Teams Live
You might have already considered switching to virtual events for the foreseeable future if you’re in the event industry. Ever since the pandemic hit, virtual events are a new reality, whether you like it or not. While there are many platforms and tools/softwares that claim to help organize seamless virtual events, only a few are worth their claims. Two such are Microsoft Teams Live and Speaker Engage.
Microsoft Teams Live is an extension of Teams Meeting and takes live video streaming to a new level. Users can broadcast video and meeting content to large online audiences using Teams Live events for a spectacular experience.
While that is the case with MS Teams Live, Speaker Engage helps you with the event management. This fully-integrated, cloud-based platform makes the complete experience of event management as easy as possible. It makes managing and executing events easier through centralized content management and automated workflow as you can curate your speaker, sponsor, and community information.
Now, you must be thinking, “Wow, if I can get the maximum benefit from these two, my virtual events would be topnotch!”
Well, this is your chance. You can rock your virtual events with Microsoft Teams Live and Speaker Engage. You can have them for FREE!!!
We are conducting a giveaway contest where you can win free Microsoft Teams Live Assistance Services, Speaker Engage subscription plan worth $2000, Airpod Pros worth $250, Amazon gift cards, and many such prizes. All you need to do is, participate in the contest, complete the simple tasks, and win as many points as possible. We guarantee that you will be more excited as we dive deep into the details!
Prize Details
First Prize:
The first prize winner will get free Microsoft Teams Live Assistance Services, and Speaker Engage subscription plan (worth $2000). The winner can host a flawless virtual event seamlessly with ZERO chaos.
Second Prize:
We are giving away a one-time full event set up on Microsoft Teams and white-glove service for Speaker Engage that will make sure your upcoming event is a successful operation.
Third Prize:
The third prize is a pair of AirPods Pro that enhances all of your virtual meetings and events!
Random lucky draw:
Don’t fret if you haven’t won a prize. You still have the chance to win our random lucky draw prize. We’ll randomly select one winner from all participants for an Amazon Gift Card worth USD 25!
How to Win?
Honestly speaking, winning is the simplest part of the contest. You just have to complete some EXTREMELY SIMPLE steps to win the MS Teams Live Assistance Services and Speaker Engage subscription plan. Here is how you can win:
- Join the contest
- Complete the tasks to increase your score
- Win!
The more entries or actions you perform, the higher your chance of winning our prizes!
Last Date
You have time till 29 August, 11:59 PM (PDT) to participate in the contest. Make sure you have completed the tasks and scored the maximum points by the time!
How to Increase Your Chances of Winning?
The contest offers the same amount of points to everyone for each task. Once you enter the contest by providing your email address, you will be provided with a list of (pretty simple) tasks that you can easily accomplish. Each task is associated with certain points. Complete all of them and collect points.
Since everyone is provided with the same set of tasks, it is likely that all those who complete these tasks will score the same points. In that case, how do you increase your winning rate?
Well, most of these tasks are repeatable. You can accomplish those tasks as many times as you can and score the most points in order to win the contest! Additionally, you can take extra measures like sharing the contest on your social media channels, tagging your friends and peers, repeat tasks on a daily basis, and much more. The more you do, the more you win!
Simple, right? Now, what are you waiting for? Click the link to enter the challenge, follow the steps and guidelines to complete tasks and increase your score, and win. Your virtual event career is about to take a successful turn!
