Event planners know three things:

If it can go wrong, it will
Not everyone loves sushi
Virtual events are here to stay

While the country and world have begun to slowly open back up after this rather lengthy pandemic, the truth is, now that attendees have been introduced to virtual events, many have become big fans of them. Not everyone wants to get on an airplane and fly to a different city to attend a conference. Many people like the convenience and affordability of attending corporate events from the comfort of their living room.

While event planners are finally getting the hang of hosting these virtual events, there are a couple of points many planners still miss:

Point 1: You may assume doing virtual events will be cheaper than in-person events because you don’t need to rent the venue, caterer, book hotel rooms, etc. But in reality, if you want to do virtual events RIGHT, costs can be comparable to in-person events because of the tech aspects. To be blunt, your event will only be as successful as the technology that supports it. Skimp on this part and you’re setting your event up for failure.

Point 2: Unless your organization wants interaction between speakers and attendees, it’s almost always a better idea to prerecord everything…Yep, from beginning to end!

Table of Contents

Why it’s a Better Idea to PreRecord

Better Time Management

When a speaker is looking into a camera lens instead of out at an audience, it’s easy for them to lose track of time and go over their allotted time. In-person events allow for a bit more wiggle room when it comes to staying on schedule. But with virtual events, time management is critical in order to have the event go off without a hitch. By prerecording, YOU are in full control of the time.

Everything is Seamless

With all of your speakers in remote locations, it can get a bit tricky for your moderators to be able to move one speaker in and another one out seamlessly. When you’ve prerecorded and edited your virtual event, speakers are brought on and off seamlessly.

Flawless Presentations

Not every speaker you hire will be a flawless presenter, that’s simply human nature. People get nervous and make mistakes. Prerecording your event allows your speakers to record their presentation as many times as it takes so they can get it just right.

More Engaging

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans over the age of 15 watch close to three hours of television each day. We’re all used to flawless performances, green screens and special effects. While you may assume in-person events are more engaging, the truth is, today’s attendees EXPECT to be entertained and wowed. That’s not so easy to do with in-person events.

But when you prerecord your event, a professional production company can add in some magic in post-production. Once all of your speakers and segments have been recorded, they can add in special transitions in between segments, graphic elements, music, applause, etc. The end product winds up being completely polished, flawless and something that truly engages all of your attendees.

So as you can see, prerecording your virtual event makes a lot of sense. It puts you in full control and lets you manage speakers and create an event that has a bit of movie magic behind it!

How Much of Your Event Should You Prerecord?

The truth is, the more of your event you prerecord, the less can go wrong on that day. Having said this, we only suggest prerecording those segments that do not require interaction between your speakers and your attendees. So for instance, your keynote speaker’s job is to get your attendees excited. They don’t typically have a Q&A segment after their presentation. This would be a good segment to prerecord so you can make it as WOW as possible.

And, on a final note, your audience does NOT need to know your event isn’t live. You can have moderators still in the event monitoring the chat, answering questions, etc. to give it a live feel.

Virtual events are definitely here to stay and event planners would be wise to prerecord as much of their event as possible so they can be in control and give their attendees a WOW experience.

Could you use some help with your next virtual event? Get in touch with us by clicking here!