In today’s world of distractions and impetuous media, when hosting an online event, it is more crucial than ever to engage your audience right away and make them feel valued.

Engagement entails a number of things, but by giving your audience a voice and the opportunity to speak up, you’ll make them feel most engaged and valued. An audible audience is great for many reasons, and for that reason, we’re going to explain how online events can give attendees a voice.

Why lack of engagement makes an event fail

More often than not, virtual event attendees feel more like submissive viewers who are being spoken to but not addressed or acknowledged by the host, which, in turn, results in a higher attrition rate. You need to engage your audience and make them feel like they can speak by using forums and making the most of virtual event technologies.

You want your attendees to be participants and not just passive viewers – for all you know: you could be talking to a brick wall. Even if your attendees stay for the full duration of your event, you can’t guarantee that they have actually sat at their screen and taken in any of the information you have disclosed. However, you can better gauge the success of your event and the impact it has had on the audience if your audience becomes engaged, whether it be through chat box comments or speaking directly through a speaker.

Use Interactive Technology

Having a voice doesn’t mean just speaking out loud: there are several other ways you can give your attendees a voice during your online events, hence why interactive tools exist.

It is imperative that these technologies are properly integrated into the content distribution and that the event’s live outcomes are shown in the stream so that the audience can see their comments and hear their voices. If an attendee types a question and it isn’t addressed or shown on screen, they’ll feel less engaged.

Some interactive technologies that you could integrate into your live event are surveys, polls, quizzes, screen sharing and more. You can also create a flipbook, and combine multiple interactive elements within one online document.  These tools give attendees a voice and starting the event with any of them could allow the participants to gain more confidence and actually speak out.

Gamification encourages attendees to speak

Implementing gamification into virtual events has been found to increase engagement by 44% Everyone loves games since they’re always fun and allow us to be somewhat competitive with one another. Gamification will not only encourage your audience to speak, but it will also act as a little icebreaker to grow their confidence to speak their voice.

For the simple fact that it gives them something to do, gamification gives attendees a voice. If they have nothing to do other than sit and listen, they will feel less engaged and less likely to speak their voice.

Q&As give participants a voice

Giving your audience the chance to ask questions is a guaranteed approach to increase audience participation. A Q&A offers attendees the opportunity to participate in live speaking sessions by either speaking out or using the chat box.

 

With immense knowledge about different walks of life and a curiosity for deep research, Ismail Khalid is a versatile writer who is passionate to write for lifestyle blogs. His writings carry a huge amount of different social aspects that may help to improve your lifestyle.