The Importance of Video in your Live or Virtual Event

The last two years have seen a huge shift in the way we meet and interact, both professionally and personally. The increase of virtual meetings, while working from home during lockdowns, has meant we’ve been glued to our screens even more than usual. 

Virtual and hybrid events have helped to keep us together, and creative video content has played a key role throughout the industry, helping to shape the way we communicate and engage.

This trend looks to continue, even as in-person live events are becoming more common. So, how can you utilize video within your business programs? Actually, in a myriad of ways. We’d even say your event (whether live or virtual) needs it. Here’s why…

Why Every Successful Event Needs Video

Video is crucial to an event’s success because it creates an emotional connection with the audience. It has the ability to spark excitement, drive engagement and capture the essence of an experience. And when each event’s goal is to inspire action or change within it’s participants, video is capable of creating many opportunities to do so.

How video can play a big role in getting attendees excited for live events

Live events are back on the agenda and building excitement before attendees arrive on-site is essential to keeping engagement levels up throughout the whole event journey. 

As well as utilizing video in the initial communication campaign, pieces of creative video content can be used in the weeks leading up to the event, to raise excitement levels to a crescendo. This could be in the form of short animated teasers on topics covered, interviews with speakers, or highlight reels from previous events. These will all add to the event experience for attendees, and keep them excited as the live event nears.

How Event Videography Enhances the Attendee Journey

Pre-event

Pre-event videos generally fall into two categories: content created in advance to be shown at the event and, as mentioned above, content used to promote the event beforehand to build excitement.

Using video content to help promote and market your event will inevitably lead to greater awareness, and ultimately, more engagement. Think about the attendee’s journey. The inclusion of video can really propel a ‘wow’ factor from the very first communication about the event. For example, using video to launch a new incentive trip or annual conference sets the precedent to the attendees and shows what they can expect.

Event Comms: Delivering Maximum Impact for Your Employee Incentive Program

On-site

On-site filming is where the magic of an event is captured. Smiling attendees, workshops, main stage and plenary shots are all captured to create a highlights film. This allows the success of the event to live on for quite some time.

Video elements produced for the event, such as projections, augmented reality, virtual reality and interactive screens bring your on-site messaging to life. This vastly increases engagement and creates memorable experiences for attendees.

Post-event

Footage captured on-site can then be transformed into multiple deliverables with various call-to-actions. The most common is a highlights film which shows the best bits of the event. It should be under two minutes with an engaging backing track and company branding. This often becomes a highly shareable bit of media.

The highlight reel and other video footage make for excellent marketing material. It can be repurposed to promote the event and brand via social media, as well as on the company website. If the event is annual, this footage can also be utilized to promote the next year’s event.

Event video footage can also benefit anyone unable to attend or those looking to reference the content for educational purposes. Additionally, it can be repurposed into internal training or educational pieces.

Video and Virtual Meetings Engagement

With the absence of in-person interaction, content is key to virtual meetings. And with video’s power to excite, engage and emotionally connect, it’s a must for any digital experience.

Including multiple segments within your virtual meeting enables a captivating experience. Consider incorporating produced video into your virtual meeting segments. For example, you can break up the content with an intro video featuring one or more of the speakers. This will also give the audience more insight into who will be presenting.

If you’d like to learn more about how video can help drive your business goals, connect with our experts.

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