Virtual conferences, summits, benefits and even galas have become ever more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. With virtual events you can still train members, raise money, or entertain and have a lot of fun doing it. What you need is a way to make the online experience so exciting and memorable that guests will leave the event they attended from their home-office singing the event theme song all the way to the kitchen.

Picture this. It starts with a digital, branded save-the-date and invitation designed in keeping with the event theme. On the day of the event, a branded program of the day’s activities and sponsors arrives via email. Click on the event link and your custom, branded conference sizzle video begins. It’s hot, with music and animation that gets the blood pumping with excitement about the conference. Your pre-recorded welcome speaker appears, but nobody knows he’s at home, or in an empty hotel event space. The speaker is in front of your branded backdrop or in an event space designed to be a branded environment with props and visual aids to help guide attendees. And when the next speaker is introduced, graphic transitions introduce the new session and designed identifiers appear in the lower third of the screen to describe who is speaking. Every speaker’s slide presentation is branded and designed to complement the conference theme. The event ends with a comprehensive and motivating recap video that makes the experience complete.

It takes some extra planning, but a designer can help to think a little out of the box as you redirect your event from what would have been an in-person experience to a full-scale digital one that attendees view remotely. And oh, by the way, grab some popcorn, because this is going to be good!

 --Monica is President of Seaberry Design