Are Attendees and Individuals Redefining the "Virtual Event" As We Know It?

I've been preparing to moderate a panel on virtual technology for the Green Meeting Industry Council's annual conference at the end of this month, so I've been thinking a lot about virtual events. Watching a couple of conferences online over the last couple of weeks (MeetDifferent and Legal Tech NY) got me thinking about a very basic question: What is a virtual event?

At first glance, the answer is obvious. There are any number of virtual event providers we can look to. Companies like Unisfair and ON24 give us the platforms that house the events we've come to know as virtual events. They give us modern day chat rooms and online exhibit halls in an attempt to replicate the experience of a live conference or tradeshow.

But as more and more individuals begin building their own online communities through blogs, Twitter, and other tools, we're also seeing the creation of informal virtual events. Attendees are tweeting, blogging, and engaging each other and non-attendees in a new way. They're meeting fellow attendees before the conference, spreading the word and talking amongst themselves during the conference, and continuing to share information long after the conference ends. Things they only had time to Twitter during the conference become blog posts. Those blog posts are shared and commented on and act as catalysts for new posts.

This raises challenges for organizers (from what I've seen, people are far more willing to tweet or blog discontent than to voice it in the conference room), but it also opens up a lot of opportunities.

And don't think it's not coming your way. I work in an industry known for its late adopters, but we have an ever-growing group of exceptionally savvy lawyers leading the charge. The recent Legal Tech conference I mentioned above was all over Twitter and has inspired countless blog posts and videos. It's not the norm yet, but I did meet up with a fellow Twitterer at a recent in-house family law conference we did (he sent out a tweet that he was at the conference so I tweeted back that he should stop by my office if he had a moment). It's coming.

What do you think? Are these informal, events-focused online communities that are cropping up around live events becoming "virtual events" in their own right?

Comments

[Jeff Hurt]

As a virtual attendee to two recent confernece--one an online three day conference and the other a face to face conference--I found the experience invaluable. Our staff education budgets were cut to $0 this year so attending a conference virtually was a way for me to still receive content, interact with those tweeting and in some cases, I was able to follow two or three workshops at once online. That's multi-tasking for you and I walked away with the top three-five main points from each workshop. I also meet people attending the conference through Twitter that I would probably never have interacted with face to face and now have continuted that learning online with them. They even started asking me if I had questions for the presenters in the face to face conference, so I felt included. I plan on attending more conferences virtually and making sure that I provide virtual opportunites in the events/conference I organize as well. I see it as here to stay and something that will be integrated with or without our involvement as meeting planners.

[Alli Gerkman]

That's great testimony, Jeff. I haven't loved interaction built into the formal platforms for the virtual events I have attended, but I, too, enjoyed the ability to watch the programs via webcast and to interact with attendees and other interested people outside the platform (usually on Twitter, like you mentioned).

I love the story about the opportunity to get your questions answered through face-to-face attendees.

[Csalomonlee]

Alli - this is a good point that you raise. I think there will be room for different types of experiences and interactions - both online and offline. The question is what works best for the audience and how can organizers help promote this. By doing this, everyone will benefit with better interactions, experiences and content.

[Alli Gerkman]

@Csalomonlee: Very true. Luckily, we have more options than ever within our reach.