You Ask, I Answer: Tips for Getting The Most From Virtual Events?

In today's episode, Erica asks, What are your tips for getting the most out of virtual events as an attendee? Uh, this is a great question given the changed world that we live in and the fact that we're going to be going to virtual events for at least another year. Uh so if we're going to invest uh the money, the time, etc., we need to get the most out of them. So uh virtual events are typically going to be a combination of you know a few different things. There's of course the the talking head sessions, uh there may be some live sessions, uh there may be some networking and other activities and and stuff that go with that.

Um, and of course there's the the usual stuff like the vendor halls and things. So uh the first thing that you want to do with any kind of uh online event is uh look at all those different activities and make note of which things um you will have access to after the event and which things you won't. So what are those uh transient uh intangible things that are going to fade away as soon as the event is over? Sometimes that may be like a um chat rooms, uh they've I've seen some events like uh have have speed dating and other networking things, uh breakout rooms, etc. What are those things that once the events over, you they you simply won't be able to get access to?

Uh chances are it's gonna be a lot of live stuff. So live chats, uh QA's, ask me anything. Those are all stuff that you want to prioritize. You want to put that at the top of your list. What stuff um will there simply not be a chance to get back to later?

The sessions, the you know, the uh all the recordings and stuff, there's a good chance that you're gonna be able to access those for up to a month after the event, if not longer. So it's probably a pretty safe bet that uh you can make note of the ones you want to attend, um, and then obviously uh get them, get the recordings whenever you want. To have um a discussion with uh attendees about a session, you may obviously need to attend those sessions, particularly if the event is structured in such a way where um there's a session and then there's like 20 minutes of live uh QA with the the session presenter. Uh that's a fairly common thing, so you may want to sit through those sessions. With a virtual event, you gotta book the time.

You gotta pretend that you're at the actual event. You know, one of the things that's great about real events is it takes you out of you know the space that you're in every day and puts you in a situation where you are more receptive to learning because you're not at the office. Well, right now we're at the office, right? You you never leave the office. Um, and so for these events, you have to act as though you are not available.

So setting all your stuff on do not disturb, not taking calls, not booking meetings, um, and it's hard. That's really hard. I you know I know how difficult that can be for a lot of people where they don't feel like they can escape the office. You gotta try even, I mean, you could even go to the the maybe uh illogical extreme of like booking a hotel room um you know locally uh and just you know, spending the day there where you're not at the office just to put yourself in a different mindset. Second thing with any event, uh live or virtual, in person or not, uh, is to come up with your burning question.

What is the question that you need an answer to? Uh no matter what the event is that you you know, that's what you want out of the event. You're gonna ask as many people that question as possible. You uh whatever your burning question is, hey, does anybody know how to you know increase the the memory window of a T5 transformer? Does anybody know uh how to get uh related keywords from your SEO tool?

Does anybody know how to get LinkedIn analytics? Whatever your burning question is, um, make sure that you have it, you're clear on it, and you've already Googled it and stuff so that you've got the easy answers. Now you can get the more sophisticated answers. Um that will help you make the most of any event. Frankly, it helps you make the most of any interaction, period.

Because if you are talking to somebody with purpose, um, there's less chance of wasting your time, there's less chance of wasting their time. Um, and uh you get provable value when you get back to the office, when you get back to your normal work life. Third, with virtual events, um, how many people can you ask your burning question to and where? And this is where virtual events actually have a bit of a leg up on real world events. When you go to a real world event and you sit down at you know the the table at the meal times, and you're surrounded by you know eight to ten other people all eating hotel chicken or standing in the buffet line, um you'd you have an experience there which is good, you know, you can certainly listen to what other people have to say, but it can be tricky because you know, some people are louder than others, some people don't feel comfortable talking in front of others.

Um some people are just talk over other people all the time. Um you don't have that problem virtually, right? So it you know, your event's Facebook group or Slack group or wherever your event is having its its networking, um, that's a great place to be able to ask your burning question to a lot of people, a lot more people, more people than you could sit down with at a table and be able to sensibly hear their answers. And so bring that burning question and and haul it around to every single person and say, Hey, um, has anybody figured out how to access LinkedIn analytics from from an API or a web scraper or whatever the the the burning question is that you have doing so will get you more answers and probably better answers. I know I've had the experience of asking somebody a question and uh you know you're sitting at the table with them at a meal time and and it's awkward, they feel like they have to say something, even if they have absolutely no idea what you're talking about and they have no credible uh information to offer on the topic.

Um I've sat down with people who feel like they just have to have something to say no matter what. You don't get that again in virtual environments, right? You don't get that as much. Um you will get you know the the standard uh you know mansplaining here and there, but um for the most part, people who have actually something to say on the topic uh in a virtual environment will will contribute. And people who don't won't feel a social obligation, like you're they're sitting next to you and they're like, uh, hi.

Um you don't get that in uh in the virtual environment. So that's uh uh the third thing is to make sure, or fourth thing, um make sure that you're asking your burning question to as many people in the places um that the event is set aside during the event. Because again, that's gonna be one of those things that's transient. Once the event is over, it's gonna be harder to ask people those questions. The same is true with the the various speakers and things.

Uh, even if the speaker is not in the the live things, right? Um, you know, they a lot of these sessions are pre-recorded at many events. You can absolutely, you know, with greater context, you know, tweet at them or hit them up on on on wherever it is that they're they are and say, hey, I just watched your session at Content Marketing World. And they're like, oh yeah, that's right. That's this this week, isn't it?

Um I have a question for you. Can I ask you a question, right? It's it is contextually more relevant to s cold outreach to a speaker um at the event that they're speaking at, uh than it would be, say, other times of the year. Not that I don't think there would be that many people who'd be jerks and say like no you you're not allowed to talk to me uh if I'm not at the event. Um but certainly from a context perspective it makes it to say, oh that's right, I just I just did that workshop on on AI from content markers.

Yeah, what's your question? Uh and we can have a conversation about uh the workshop that you did 'cause even if I as a speaker didn't attend any other sessions, I can at least hopefully remember what I said in my own session um and answer questions for it. So that would be again one of those things that from a context perspective, use that time during the event to ask uh questions relevant to the event to people who are who are presenting there. Uh again it's a good opportunity to do that. So those would be my main suggestions.

Uh prioritize the transient, uh set up the environment, figure out your burning question and then ask those questions that question is to as many people as possible and get as much information as you can on your burning question. Uh if you're about to head into an event like you know content marketing world or marketing props or whatever and you don't have your burning question, take the 30 minutes to really boil that down, right? To Google some stuff and to to get to a point where you're like, oh yeah, this is a question I've not been able to find an answer to. It will pay dividends for weeks, months, years to come. Um I've had burning questions that have given me a couple of years t of th of things to research and work on.

So uh great question. If you've got follow-up questions, leave them in the comments box below. Subscribe to the YouTube channel on the newsletter. I'll talk to you soon. Take care.

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