ePly Event Planning Blog

If you’ve hosted or are planning to host a virtual event in 2020 (or beyond), let me ask you...did you charge or are you planning on charging for attendance? Many organizations are reluctant because virtual events lack several of the components in-person events offer (face-to-face networking being a primary one). 

But here’s the thing: While your virtual event might be different than your in-person event, that’s not to say it’s any less valuable. You’re likely still offering top-notch content, and possibly even continuing education opportunities. That’s worth something! 

But the question is...how much? How exactly do you price a virtual event, particularly when you’ve never hosted one before? 

Well, for every organization — and even every event — it’s different. But here are a few things to keep in mind as you’re trying to price yours:

The main goal for any event is getting people there in the first place — so you probably have a pretty solid plan for promoting it to your audience and generating registrations.

...but, that said, do you have a plan for communicating with your attendees? The people who’ve already signed up? You ABSOLUTELY should. Whether you’ll be face-to-face, all online, or some combination of the two, keeping attendees informed and engaged is imperative to event success.

That’s why you’ll want to put together an attendee communication plan that takes into account what you should tell them about before, during, and after the event. Here’s an idea of what kind of messaging you should focus on during each phase:

When transitioning your face-to-face meetings and events into the virtual sphere, you’ll quickly realize that you have to make some adjustments for an effective meeting. What works in a physical space may not translate well into a virtual space, but it can be hard to realize this beforehand. That’s why we’ve outlined nine tips to improve meeting engagement within Zoom! 

The concept of a conference is pretty straightforward: your attendees will attend multiple sessions on various topics, and typically come together at certain points of the day for keynote speakers and other large-group sessions. By setting a conference agenda, you’ll be able to help guide your attendees through the day(s) and help them decide which panels to attend. 

The most successful conferences, infuse more excitement into the conference agenda — without running attendees ragged. Here are five tips for how to strike that balance:

Answering attendee questions is an inevitable part of event planning. With all the tasks that must be kept track of, answering the same questions over, and over, and over again is not only time-consuming, it loses the registrant’s momentum and excitement that leads to more sales and larger attendance! By putting an event FAQ on your landing page or event registration page, you’re more likely to generate sales by answering their questions immediately. 

Here are some thoughts on writing your FAQ page in a way that’ll effectively keep attendees in-the-know: 

How to leverage event technology to elevate your next event

What is Event Technology?

Event technology is any kind of software that improves the event process for both event planners, and/or attendees. In the last 10 years, the industry has seen a number of innovative event technology platforms emerge to help event planners set up, promote, and execute an event, as well as leverage attendee data and feedback to improve the process for future events. On the other hand, event attendees have become accustomed to event technology serving as an enhancement to their overall experience. Streamlined registration and scheduling processes, as well as engaging on-site technology all play a hand in making an event that much more memorable and attractive in the minds of attendees. 

The following blog post was originally published on 1/9/19, but updated on 5/12/20 for added value. 

When leveraging your event email marketing strategy, there are five types of emails that should be sent to maximize your event’s potential and create a proper channel of communication. Think of each email as an opportunity to promote your event, even when attendees are already confirmed. This type of strategy will provide value for your audience, create trust with your organization, and keep your event top-of-mind.

Below, we’ll dive into the What, Why, Who, and When for each type of email, as well as give you some tips for success to make the most of each email opportunity. Make sure to read to the end for two bonus emails that can help take your event email marketing strategy to the next level! 

Though it may come as a surprise to many people, building an effective online event registration form can be quite complicated. Finding a balance between asking for information you need, without being overwhelming and risking losing a potential registrant, is not an easy task. Not to mention the fact that many form builders can be difficult to navigate, both for event planners and the attendees attempting to use it! That’s why we’ve given you this quick-reference list to help simplify the process.

In our experience, there are 7 items that you should ALWAYS include on an online event registration form. Use this as a guide any time you start to build one: