Engaging attendees at a face-to-face conference is hard enough, let alone in a virtual environment where distractions, and opportunities to multitask, abound.  

When was the last time you gave an online session all of your focus? Resisting the temptation to get through a busy workload – while also tuning into a webinar – is difficult.  

In fact, according to a recent LinkedIn survey, a whopping 92% of people admit to multi-tasking while on a video call.

So when you’re organising a virtual event, what can you do to keep people engaged? Here are our top tips:  

One of the big positives to emerge from a virtual event is the level of data it can make available to us as marketers. With the right tools and metrics in place, it’s possible for an event host to capture a great deal of information from a virtual or hybrid event, and in particular, its attendees: where they signed in from, how long they stayed, which sessions they attended, whether they interacted with any content or asked any questions, and much, much more.  

The way we engage with and sell to buyers has changed. The disconnectedness many are feeling due to Covid-19 is leading organisations to put real, human needs at the centre of their sales and marketing activities – offering immersive experiences where buyers are accompanied by a seller rather than funnelled to one.  

This strategy, known as Account Based Marketing, or ABM is gaining traction, due to four key factors: 

The last 18 months or so have completely changed the game for event planners and marketers around the world. With travel off the cards for some time, most businesses have had to very quickly embrace new, virtual event models - with 93% of event organisers to invest in virtual events for the foreseeable future. 

A lot can change in just 12 months. Remote working is now a norm for most Australian workplaces, as are video calls. During the pandemic, Microsoft Teams grew by 894% and it now has over 115 million users.

Here at Splendid, we’ve always operated virtually. Online meetings have been a core part of our business from the outset. While we’re always happy to meet our clients face-to-face, we do the vast majority of our communication and collaboration remotely. As such, over the years, we’ve learnt a lot about how to get the most from virtual sessions.  

Recently, Tim decided to share his top tips and insights with the rest of us in a virtual session with the oh-so-enticing title: ‘The great big meeting about meetings’. Ironically, not every aspect of the meeting went to plan! Here’s a quick re-cap of some of Tim’s key points (and some unanticipated hilarity):

Around a month ago, Tayla Agostinis started at Splendid in a project operations role. Everything about Tayla’s joining and ‘on-boarding’ process was fairly standard, with one exception… her direct boss lives in Tokyo, and they’ve never actually met face-to-face! Here, Tayla shares her thoughts about this process, what it’s been like, and why she’s so excited to be part of the Splendid team.  

We live in a fast-paced and information-rich world. To find the answer to a question or learn more about a particular topic, we simply need to pick up a device and enter a few basic questions.

However, an abundance of information isn’t always a good thing. Firstly, there’s the task of sorting the wheat from the chaff – of determining which information is actually factual and can be relied upon. And secondly, there’s the ever-increasing issue of information overload – of not being able to make decisions, or being slow to do so, because of the sheer volume of information we have at hand.

As a technology firm, your partner program plays a crucial role in helping you market and sell your products and services. In fact, up to 90% of tech sales are now made through partner networks.

As a technology business, you rely heavily on your partner network to sell your products and services to end customers. In reality, however, there are only a limited number of potential partners in Australia, and competition for their loyalty is fierce.  

At the end of last year, Gartner published its top marketing predictions for the year ahead – and beyond. One of these predictions is that B2B marketing will become more hybrid in nature, with more diversity of channels, and a greater mix of face-to-face and virtual elements.