Event Production Matters Now More Than Ever
The time has come to rise above clunky virtual events and poorly run webinars. Bad virtual experiences can damage a brand and dismantle a professional image quicker than you can hit the pause button.
Yet companies are still attempting to take their message online without investing in the expertise of creative, technical and production support. As a result, audiences end up losing trust and confidence in the brand. A poorly executed event is no ones plan, but it happens when we don’t know what we don’t know.
Trust in Your Brand
How important is trust in your brand? According to Edelman’s 2021 Trust Barometer, 61 percent of Americans trust businesses, yet trust in brands is at an all time low.
We’re not saying lower than average trust in brands is anyones fault. Everyone has tried to do their best in using different event channels under current circumstances. We’re saying with the future of event delivery channels transforming into a completely new normal, taking a closer look at how to get better is critical. Through the use of experts driven to make you a success in events, it could make a significant difference in moving the needle and increasing ROI.
The Cutting Edge of Event Production
Whether you stay the course with virtual events or plan to introduce hybrid options for 2021, the expertise of technical event production and creative design producers are critical in your lineup. Do you have the team in place to get you the results you need?
Event production expertise is really the technological and creative execution of an event. Using sound, lighting, video, design and immersive elements, production controls the atmosphere, mood and emotion of attendees. This is true whether on the screen or in the room.
Don’t Believe the Hype
Sure, we hear the hype too … everything can feel the same in digital events as they did in person … we’re just not feeling it in most cases. However, an experienced, virtual event production team will know exactly how to make that actually happen. They work with your vision, and creatively stage it to draw audiences in closer to the screen, making them feel like a part of it all. With elements of color, lighting, sound and graphics, they can make breakout rooms, sponsor activations and pre-recorded videos into works of art.
Likewise, when no physical venue or stage exists, it’s easy to overlook production needs that arise with speaker support, bandwidth issues or platform streaming. Platforms that are self-service and have no production support can lead to epic fails if you aren’t technically trained to mitigate the trouble spots.
If You Hire, Hire For Both
How will you execute the pre-production, on-site, and run-of-show logistics to achieve your goals? The answer to this question will dictate if you need a full production team. Also ask yourself if your event can benefit from adding in experiential design. The lift here is that participants feel they are “in the room” interacting with the event and each other.
If you decide to explore hiring creative and production experts, we strongly recommend hiring a production company that can help you create, produce and design both virtual and in person events. The idea is to get more done with less mistakes, at a lower cost than hiring more staff, full-time. Look for a partner offering both virtual production experience (5+ years) and in person production experience. This will give you the option to pivot as needed so your hybrid or virtual event strategy runs smoothly.
Salesforce, Twitter, Samsung and many others are reimagining physical events for 2021. They regularly evaluate evaluate virtual and in person production roles in which they will outsource. Complimenting their internal staff of marketers, event specialists, IT and creatives when it comes to virtual events is a regular part of their business model.
Curtain Drop
In a recent blog post, we shared our take on the 5 virtual event roles necessary on your virtual event team. Keeping up with the ever changing event technology and audience engagement demands is not easy. It might help you further to know what triggers define the need to hire a production company.
While you’re deciding which of your event production needs to hire, virtual or hybrid, here’s a few vendors to consider that add value to almost any event.
OVATION is a fully integrated virtual event platform and hybrid production partner. We support you with production teams or creative staff to compliment your internal teams. Get in touch for a discovery call to learn how we might help you change the game.