With lockdown enforced across the world, virtual conferences have been gaining popularity, and online events are gaining prominence in the industry. Virtual conferences have a lot of benefits for attendees — including the ability to attend the conference at the comfort of your home and access to multiple sessions at the same time.
Virtual conferences could be a revolution for the industry at the time of the lockdown crisis; however, the widespread adoption is still relatively new. This is because virtual conferencing can create several challenges for attendees.
Here are a few ways that can help you get the most out of virtual conferences and online events:
Create A Mindset To Learn
Virtual conferences are no different than in-person events. And therefore, to get the most out of it, attendees need to have a mindset and willingness to learn from the sessions. Attendees should treat virtual conferences like in-person events, and clear their schedule for the day to get the best possible experience. Your takeaway from the conference will depend on how much you are willing to put in, engage with the content, and use the chatbox to interact at the end of presentations. You should use the information that was sent out in advance to take notes, highlight, and formulate questions to make sure that you are getting the most out of it.
Focus Is The Key
Although virtual conferences do not require us to move out of our comfort zones, it comes with the big challenge of finding ways to focus and dealing with distractions around us. To get the most out of your investment from an online event, attendees must prioritise their work, schedule them accordingly and should take out time exclusively to attend the sessions. Attendees should also turn off their phones, close emails, and cut all distractions that could hamper their focus on the conference.
Keep Your Devices & Networks Ready
Attendees need to be well aware and familiar with the platform being used for the conference and ensure that it works properly on their computer. Make sure to run all updates on your computer in advance and log in early to check your connection, camera, and microphone that you will be using during the sessions. In a conventional in-person environment, communicating with speakers or other attendees isn’t as challenging as during virtual conferences. For getting the most out of virtual conferences and online events, you have to ensure that your devices and networks are as prepared as you, in order to, not have technical hiccups during sessions or chats.
Involve Your Peers
Virtual conferences allow attendees to bring in there colleagues and peers to join in the sessions and create a group learning. Having your peers and colleagues involved in your conference experience can boost motivation, and can help in understanding complex concepts better by discussing it with your fellow attendees. Alongside it also increases your attention span, and provides opportunities for attendees to share critical takeaways as a group at the end of the conference, which will, in turn, help in revising the concepts and reinforce learning.
Record Sessions For Replays
Lastly, one of the significant benefits of virtual conferences is the ability to record and replay them. If the attendees aren’t able to attend a live session or wish to re-access any session post the conferences, virtual conferences provide them with the opportunity to record these sessions. Such an ability also gives an enormous opportunity for attendees from a learning perspective — one can avail the maximum amount of knowledge even after the session is over. Additionally, in virtual conferences and online events, attendees can view and download speaker presentations and can also rate a speaker, bookmark them, and take notes simultaneously.
