Online events have already become a part of our everyday life for good. Despite this, many event organizers and marketing professionals are still faced with a dilemma and ultimately choose the stationary option. What could be the reason for this? Among other things, they are not aware of the benefits of holding a virtual event. In this article, I will present 10 such benefits and try to look at each of them.

1. Online events are easy to organize

It doesn't take much to organize an online event. All you really need is a simple tool or if you want extensive customization options, a slightly more advanced all-in-one event platform. You don't need more than one person to prepare an event in the tool or platform of your choice. The preparation of an event space is often limited just to selecting the modules we are interested in, adding the program and speakers, and creating a landing page with a participant registration module. In more advanced cases, we can also personalize our event with custom branding and graphic materials.

If we are preparing for a slightly more advanced implementation, for example, using a professional production studio, we will, of course, have to use the help of specialists and involve technical people in the process. However, compared to a stationary event, the organization of an online event is still an incomparably simpler task.

2. Access to online events is easy

In order to attend an in-person event, attendees usually have to present an admission ticket or a named invitation, or they have to give their name to an event staff person who will verify it on the guest list and note the appearance of the invited person. These activities firstly require the presence of a physical person to verify the data on the ticket or invitation. And secondly, they take a considerable amount of time, as the attendants are not able to do the check-in of all guests at one time.

In the case of online events, accessing and taking part in them is definitely easier. First of all, it is done in an automated way with the help of an account login or a unique token that is assigned to a particular participant. Thus, we have no need to involve any additional people to verify data or check attendance, and the entire process of gaining access to the event is managed by the participant himself. Importantly, the full automation of the event access process also makes it possible for all participants to show up at the same time.

3. Organizing an event online means lower costs and easier logistics

Organizing an event online is simply cheaper. We are then spared the costs associated with renting the space and arranging it. The cost of getting speakers for the event can also be lower, especially when they perform by connecting, for example, from their homes. Then we do not have to pay for transportation, hotel accommodation, and food.

4. Online formula means more flexibility for speakers

When organizing a stationary conference and inviting a speaker from another continent, the organizer has to reckon with the fact that such projects block the speaker's calendar for at least a few days, in addition to a high budget itself. During this time, the speaker is unlikely to accept another stationary assignment and will simply be unavailable. Online events give speakers a great deal of flexibility to attend conferences, as they can join from anywhere in the world and it doesn't require them to devote as much time. There is therefore a greater chance of getting a speaker online than if they had to attend the event in person.

5. Online event is easier to record

If you want to record speakers and panel discussions at an in-person event, you'll need the right (and usually expensive) equipment to do so, as well as a production crew to handle it. At an online event, where speakers connect online, recording the broadcast really just comes down to hitting the record button, then naming the video file with the recording and embedding it in a secure location

6. Online events have great potential for reformatting

When preparing your online events, you can often use ready-made templates that suggest spaces and functionalities that are important to you. When you organize each subsequent online event on the same platform, you can quickly duplicate many elements or transfer materials used at the first event to each subsequent one.

7. Online events have great potential to build expertise

If you're looking to build the expertise of a brand or your own, nothing will help to do this better than webinars. This is especially important for salespeople and sales professionals. When, as a salesperson, you meet with a potential customer and he or she immediately recognizes you from your webinar, your conversation has a completely different character, and you are immediately in a winning position.

8. At an online event, participants are more likely to discuss

It is a fact that we are more willing to speak up during discussions in the virtual world. This may be due to a greater sense of anonymity or security, or because when asking a question in a chat room, we do not feel the physical presence of others around us. Take advantage of this observation if you are looking to organize an event where you want to invite attendees to ask questions and interact with speakers and panelists.

9. Online events are a great opportunity to generate leads

Having to register an attendee for an online event is the best opportunity for an organizer to build himself a base of leads. Depending on what kind of lead information you need, for example, include fields related to the person's company and position or phone number in the event registration form. Such data will allow you to better segment your leads in the future in terms of their potential and make it easier to contact them.

10. Online event provides an opportunity to analyze interactions

Hosting a virtual event gives us a mine of insights about attendees - what they liked, what topics they were most interested in, and what content engaged them most strongly. It's also a plethora of data on attendee behavior, such as how many appointments they made during the event or how long their video calls lasted. Collect such data and analyze it carefully to learn from it for the future and create even better and more engaging events.