Before digital events were a thing, businesses had basically one option. Get your brand out there in front of hundreds of prospects on the expo floor and hope it moves the needle on your revenue goals. Events were hard to scale and even tougher to measure. Today it’s a different story. 🙌🏻

Digital events now play a central role in every high-impact marketing strategy. They help you save time and money, and can be easily scaled to drive brand awareness and revenue. But first you need to choose the right type of virtual events to make it happen.

A virtual event is an event that is conducted online instead of in-person at a physical event venue. Like an in-person event, virtual events have multiple sessions, often including networking opportunities for virtual attendees.

A webinar on the other hand, is like a seminar that is conducted online instead of in-person. It typically features one single session, does not include multiple presentations or content offerings, and has few or no networking opportunities.

While the exact definition of a virtual event can vary based on your organization’s goals and strategy, the main difference between virtual events and webinars is that a virtual event offers multiple sessions, while a webinar is a single-track event.

If you’re looking to uplevel your webinars, don’t miss our roundup of the most powerful webinar formats for getting more attendees.

From live streaming to post-event repurposing, Smart Events helps you get more out of every webinar. Get your free demo today.

Remember, the best type of virtual event is always going to be tailored to your target audience and aligned with your marketing goals. What’s important is that you choose the right format for you and your attendees.

With that said, let’s take a closer look at some of the top virtual event formats.

1. Digital field events

Just like in-person field marketing events, digital field events are typically closed gatherings with a group of targeted VIP prospects who are all linked via their industry, needs, or challenges.

A digital field event places face-to-face relationship building at the forefront. These events are a favorite among event organizers and account-based marketers for reaching targeted audiences of qualified prospects. With a repeatable format, marketers can measure and replicate their success in different audience segments or “fields.”

For example, this may mean hosting one large digital event, supplemented by smaller, regionalized roadshows.

Why pay for a booth when you could meet with prospects in a closed, focused setting? Learn why intimate field events are a cost-effective strategy for marketers. Watch the full event now: https://www.goldcast.io/on-demand-events

Event recordings collecting dust? Upload the file into Content Lab and transform long-form video content into a range of pre-formatted clips for LinkedIn.

1. Virtual trade shows

Like their physical counterparts, virtual trade shows aim to build excitement around a product or brand through a combination of live keynotes, panel discussions, breakout sessions, sponsor booths, and networking.

But in-person trade shows are heavy on logistics, not to mention your event management budget. Many brands are dropping the large-scale multi-day trade shows in favor of the more flexible (and cost effective) virtual format.

With the right platform, event organizers can easily replicate the presentations, booths, and networking opportunities found at an in-person trade show.

1. Digital expos

Expos are all about creating an immersive experience that takes attendees on a journey through a topic, challenge, or theme—often in the hope of presenting them with a solution at the end of it.

In-person expos are usually packed with booths, exhibitors, and folks handing out fliers directing attendees your way. At a virtual exhibition, you can replicate that level of interaction with virtual networking ideas designed to increase engagement.

But keep in mind, the aim of an exhibition is usually to drive awareness, as opposed to landing the sale there and then. Which means your virtual event branding needs to be a major consideration. Be sure to make it memorable.

1. Virtual conferences

Event planning looks a lot different since the days of the pandemic and conferences are no exception. The term virtual conferences is sometimes used synonymously with ‘virtual summits’. With a formalized agenda, high-profile speakers, networking activities and dedicated breakout rooms for small groups, virtual conferences are designed to replicate an engaging in-person experience in a virtual environment.

For example, when Signe Damgaard, Head of Marketing at Board of Innovation (BOI), decided to launch the world’s largest virtual summit for AI innovators, she knew she needed to pull every attendee engagement lever possible to deliver an immersive brand experience.

BOI’s large-scale virtual summit, AUTONOMOUS, included multiple tracks, 50+ speakers, and over 10,000 attendees. And with around 40 expert-led sessions, the on-demand event ends up being a great lead gen driver throughout the year.

“We wanted the speakers and the attendants to have a smooth experience where it didn't feel like sitting on a Zoom call or Google Meet call,” explained Signe. “I think the fact that it mirrors the setup of the actual events makes it feel more of an exciting event.” In terms of event ROI, BOI is seeing an average attendance rate of 45% on their webinars. And with hours of video content from summits and webinars, they’ve also been able to rapidly repurpose those insights and steadily grow their YouTube channel to 6K followers.

Signe Damgaard, Head of Marketing at Board of Innovation (BOI), uses Goldcast’s virtual event and webinar platform for on-demand and post-event content repurposing. Learn how the BOI team achieved an average attendance rate of 45%, while repurposing videos from events to help grow their YouTube channel to 6K followers. Read the case study here: https://www.goldcast.io/customer-stories/board-of-innovation

1. Virtual holiday parties

The holidays are a time we all look forward to. But while getting together in person is always a blast, it isn’t always easy for remote and distributed teams. That’s why virtual holiday parties have become the hottest ticket in town.

Virtual holiday parties are a golden opportunity to ditch the buttoned-up corporate vibe and build deeper connections—not only with your team members, but also your customers and prospects.

Whether you opt for a holiday-themed scavenger hunt, a digital photobooth, event gamification, or a virtual gift exchange, the options for merriment are endless.

1. Virtual happy hours

If you like having fun with your events, a virtual happy hour could be just the ticket. Whether it’s a team social or informal networking opportunity, virtual happy hours are great for fighting webinar fatigue and offering an event people actually want to show up for.

Consider tailoring your virtual experiences around cocktail mixing masterclasses and wine tastings. However you structure it, just make sure you’re targeting the right people.

1. Town halls and all-hands

Virtual town halls and monthly all-hands meetings provide the perfect opportunity to nurture a thriving company culture, celebrate shared wins, introduce new team members, and discuss important news and updates.

The right internal event also ensures that everyone feels heard. To support a sense of trust and transparency, make sure you use as many engagement tools as possible. From live Q&A sessions, to interactive polls, chat, games, and even virtual photobooths, give team members plenty of opportunities to grab the mic and get involved.

1. Virtual sales kickoffs or sales hybrid events

Sales kickoffs (SKOs) play a major part in any successful sales strategy. To keep your team kickoff productive, focus on communicating goals, clarifying tasks and responsibilities, setting timelines, identifying challenges, and hosting training sessions.

And if you’ve got the event data, don’t be afraid to use it to help your sales team craft need-meeting follow-ups to help them hit their goals.

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Ever heard of coin-operated sales? In a special episode of Event Marketers Live, marketers share proven strategies for sales and marketing alignment. Watch the full event now: https://www.goldcast.io/on-demand-events

With virtual career fairs, job-seekers have the opportunity to learn about available roles, straight from the comfort of their own home. For busy students, grads, or even passive candidates employed at another organization, that’s a game-changer.

For employer brands, virtual job fairs are a great opportunity to showcase career opportunities in front of a wider applicant audience, while making it easy for your internal recruiters to connect with potential candidates via interactive sessions, 1:1 chat, and more.

One of the easiest ways to deepen relationships, while increasing product adoption is through targeted customer marketing events. 🎯

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Customer event marketing is all about creating experiences for your customers that go beyond user support. It’s about building connections and communities through creative virtual event formats that turn customers into advocates.

For example, customer events can take the form of conferences, product launches, field events, customer advisory boards, user group gatherings, and more.

For 44% of event attendees, never having to miss a session is one of the biggest perks of a digital event. But sometimes, life happens. That’s where on-demand content comes to the rescue. At Goldcast, our research has found that 96% of attendees expect event content to be available on demand if they can’t be there in real-time. And there are plenty of benefits for you and your attendees.

Making your live events available on-demand is a great way to make your event program evergreen while opening the doors to a global audience. With a well-branded event hub, attendees can sign up for your events weeks or even months later and still feel like they’re getting the full event experience.

Offering events on-demand isn’t just a matter of convenience. It’s also about expanding your reach. Listen to top marketers share insider strategies for maximizing reach through on-demand events. Watch the full event now: https://www.goldcast.io/on-demand-events

With a lower cost and time investment, virtual events are so much more than virtual meetings or elevated online video conferencing. They’re a modern and convenient way to elevate audience engagement and nurture key relationships. And with the right virtual event platform, there are endless virtual event ideas you can pursue.

Goldcast makes each event a fully-branded, stress-free experience—no matter the type, size, or format. Built-in studio tools give you everything you need to wow your audience and increase engagement, while smart video repurposing tools make it easy to repackage event content for social media, email marketing, and other channels.

Learn how we can help you get more out of every event. Schedule your free personalized demo of Goldcast today.