Author Archives: Natalia Gaal

8 Online Event Ideas for News and Media Publishers

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Online events for publishers and media outlets are a growing way to engage audiences. Run these events effectively, and you can keep your website audiences engaged longer, grow loyalty, and increase ad revenue.

Online Event Ideas for News and Media Publishers

1) Panel Discussions are Great for Audience Engagement 

  • Who Is It For: people interested in the latest insights in a rapidly changing topic
  • What You Need For This Event: a small group of exciting speakers to share insights.

Industry panels are a well-established concept that many publishers and event organizers have run for years. The key to making them successful is to offer a unique experience. The unique experience can be crafted in several ways: access (i.e. the chance for Q&A with CEOs, executives, journalists), networking (i.e. a small event limited to few people) or new insights. 

Note that industry panels go by various names, including summits and forums. For example, the Atlantic has held health-themed events like People v. Cancer and the Education Summit. You don’t have to limit the event to health content. Bloomberg is offering a Technology Summit in June 2022 that will have virtual and in-person options.

2) Executive Focused Event Branded by News and Media Publishers

  • Who Is It For: executives with a common focus like marketing or finance
  • What You Need For This Event: emphasize exclusivity and quality

That’s one reason why it can be hard to keep growing as an executive. Your direct reports may not always feel comfortable bringing new ideas. Conversely, sharing your leadership difficulties with the CEO or Board is not the right forum. Giving executives a place to connect and learn from direct peers is a smart idea. 

For the best results, we suggest filtering attendees for quality. You might offer free admission but advise attendees that you will verify if the event is appropriate to them before handing out tickets. The CMO Club, organized by Salesforce, has featured guest speakers from General Mills, Instagram, and Virtualware.

3) Hobby / Passion Themed Events bring Audience Engagement

  • Who Is It For: attendees passionate about interest and looking to share their interest
  • What You Need For This Event: a guest speaker with deep knowledge of the field is critical.

Connecting with like-minded people who share your passion for history, wine, literature, gaming, and other subjects is exciting. You may already have a lineup of potential speakers – editors, staff, and contributors with specialized expertise as a publisher. Decanter, a wine magazine publisher, has offered virtual events with two ticket options: a ticket with a shipment of wine (£195 or $324 US) and a ticket to the virtual event online only (£10 or $17 US).

As the Decanter example shows, passion and hobby-themed events can be structured in various ways. You can make your event more exclusive by offering to ship a unique item to the audience. This could be as simple as a copy of the guest speaker’s book or as rare as autographed memorabilia.

4) Viewing Party is Also a Good Event Idea

  • Who Is It For: participants with a shared interest in video or TV shows
  • What You Need For This Event: offering prizes or exclusive guests are one way to make a viewing party more appealing

It can be tough to find people who share your taste in today’s world of countless streaming services. Publishers can meet this need by organizing a viewing party. For example, Nerdist organized a virtual watch party for the classic movie “The Princess Bride” in 2020. You can use Arena to run your viewing party – just like Gizmoplex did with a classic movie recently.

5) Offer Early Access To Subscribers Will Grow Your Audience 

  • Who Is It For: publishers with well-known award lists and coverage that people look forward to 
  • What You Need For This Event: A significant audience passionate about a specific topic

For many years, the New York Times Book Review has published lists for the year’s best books. Recently, the publisher created an exclusive virtual event based on their list. The New York Times described a 2021 online event in the following terms:

How do editors of The New York Times Book Review choose the annual 10 Best Books list? Which fiction and nonfiction works made the cut, and why? This year, Times subscribers were the first to find out. On the morning of Nov. 30, before the list was published, The Book Review announced this year’s 10 Best Books list in a virtual event just for subscribers.

6) Organize An Event With Focused Demographic

  • Who Is It For: publishers looking to connect with a specific segment of their audience 
  • What You Need For This Event: A compelling virtual event concept that applies to the target demographic

Many publishers and news organizations have large audiences. Attempting to appeal to everyone in a virtual event is difficult, if not impossible. Instead, consider developing an event focused on a specific audience. Forbes organized the “Forbes 50 over 50” event to celebrate people who have achieved success later in life. Publishers can also apply this concept to other demographics like recent college graduates, women, and others.

7) Host A Multi-Part Virtual Event Series

  • Who Is It For: publishers with an audience passionate about reading
  • What You Need For This Event: A high profile author with a new book coming out

New books by well-known authors have a proven track record of attracting fans. The traditional approach to this type of event is to invite the author to read from their book and invite questions from the audience. That’s not the only way.

History Extra, a history magazine in the United Kingdom, recently offered a five-part virtual lecture series called “The Aftermath of World War II, with Keith Lowe.” Attendees can pay to register for a single event or pay to attend all of the lectures. In addition to the event itself,

8) Plan A Week-Long Event

  • Who Is It For: publishers with experience running more extended events. 
  • What You Need For This Event: a significant number of guest speakers.

Some publishers have a track record of organizing multi-day events. The organization has scheduled Future Healthcare Week Asia. This event is a hybrid format – attendees can participate in-person or online. The Economist event features dozens of speakers to fill a multi-day schedule.

Leverage First-Party Data with CDP 

Collecting data about what your audience likes with Arena customer data platform is vital. With a CDP in place, you’ll know which of your content sparks the highest engagement across all of your assets – articles, videos and events. Unlike surveys, Arena CDP is seamless and doesn’t require time from your users. Click here to start your Arena free trial.

Make More Out of Every Online Event

The online event examples above illustrate the wide range of possibilities publishers can offer. 

Whether you feature your journalists, invite external guests or take different approaches, excellent event content is the foundation of a successful event. 

As you offer more events, you’ll see the importance of interaction. Your audience wants the ability to ask questions and connect with others. Use Arena Live Chat – it takes less than 10 minutes to install – to transform your online event into a community experience.

SXSW 2022: Closing weekend impressions

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After 10 days with an agenda of promising technology outtakes and a variety of online events to watch, SXSW came to an end and left us excited with how technology is merging with the real world. Aside all the issues with online transmission, from the sound volume being too low, to unavailable chat for online viewers: it was, as usual, a massive opportunity to learn and understand what is happening in the world of technology.

With a final weekend full of exciting music attractions, such as first timer participant country singer and superstar, Dolly Parton, who partnered with FOX Entertainment’s Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL) to launch her first NFT experience “Dollyverse”, unarguably, the main topic of the conversations was around NFTs and the Metaverse. So let’s jump into the highlights of the weekend.

One Year Later: How NFTs Are Changing The World

Vladislav Finzburg (Blockparty), came back to SXSW 2022 a year later after talking about the initial stages of NFTs, bringing along updates, mostly with the mainstream adoption. He brought interesting topics of the gap between digital and physical NFTs and how the rise of NFTs, pointing out how brands and companies jumped full into the NFTs world – with innovative creation and an increased number of online transactions- even though it’s still circling around a niched group of people.

Bridging into the Metaverse: 5 Top Considerations for Brands

Metaverse was also a major topic of discussion, and in this session, Sebastien Borget, the co-founder and COO of The Sandbox, shared his insights about emerging best practices and top considerations for brands as they bridge over to  the metaverse. 

Brands such as Adidas and Warner Music are already making massive entries into the Metaverse. One topic that got our attention was, “How should brands protect themselves in the Metaverse?”. Data Privacy has been a huge topic of discussion over the past few years. We recently mentioned a couple of ways that data can be protected in the Metaverse in our blog.

It Starts on TikTok: Discovering Your Audience

The most downloaded app in 2021 was the main topic of this session with Carey Sheridan, US Head of Music and Content at Tiktok and Sadie Jean, whose first-ever song “WYD Now?” has become a certified sensation on the app, all because of the power of the #OpenVerseChallenge — a viral format that invites creators to duet with her during an instrumental opening of her song. A great example of why the community-driven video platform is impacting the music industry.

Next Gen Tech & The Live Entertainment Revolution

The fusion of the physical and virtual worlds in the entertainment world has brought so many opportunities to artists helping them understand their fans, and to fans living an elevated and personalized experience with concerts. For instance, Live Chat and Customer Data Platforms have been good examples of technologies that can be used  to create a Live Stream event. 

Conclusion

This edition of SXSW showed us that the future is here and we are already living in it. NFTs and Metaverse are already being worked into new technologies, and companies and specialists are very up front with innovative solutions and technology around various themes, like events, medicine, sports, entertainment and currency. And during these past 10 days, it  showed us nothing less than a brilliant technological future for us. 

It also was great to see it balanced with super sessions and themes about social justice & equity. Even though those who’re experiencing South by Southwest are somehow already connected with all the technology available, we have to see outside our own bubbles. A lot was said about what can be done to present opportunities and help bring the advantages that the technology has to where people have less access, and I believe this has to be the main topic of discussion for the next couple of years. We hope to see more conversations around access and inclusion in next year’s event. Are you already excited about SXSW 2023?

Check out our coverage for the first weekend and for all the other events that happened during the week.

SXSW 2022: What happened during the week

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The SXSW 2022 Conference agenda during the week was full of talks about technology and some extra special entertainment and music announcements. Our team focused on the talks about the metaverse, technology, and artificial intelligence, and here are some of our takes.

You can also find our impressions from the opening weekend here.

How is SXSW 2022 performing as a hybrid event? 

Considering we’ve been watching the SXSW 2022 online event, we have some criticisms to make about the transmission. As said to be a hybrid event, it was a bit frustrating to watch some of the sessions where the sound was so low, barely being able to understand what the speakers were saying.

Also, it is such a great opportunity to have a Live Chat during the talks, but in most of the events they were disabled. The ones that had it on were full of interaction between users, giving their point of view, and having live engagement and inputs between watchers. The tab with Q&A seems to be there just for show, as speakers were simply ignoring what was happening online, and only answering attendees who were physically there.

But, as someone who wanted to see most of the talks, being able to move around the rooms was very interesting and this made it possible to watch a great variety of events. Another great point was that most of the talks were made available on demand after a few days, or even on the following day giving us even more time to watch something we might have missed – or in some cases, rewatch what we had really enjoyed.

With so much to discuss and to watch, here are our top choices for the week:

Transforming Social Commerce: AR Beauty Tech & NFTs with Perfect Corp. and E.L.F. Cosmetics

Have you ever thought about how beauty brands are dealing with the new reality of AR, Online Shopping, and the Metaverse? In this talk, Perfect Corp and E.L.F. Cosmetics showed how they are already tackling this subject with their audience, and especially how AR is being a great ally when customers need to try a product online. It is a huge opportunity for brands to connect with consumers, build a community online and drive sales conversion.

Would you buy cosmetics using just AR and AI-powered virtual try-on technologies?; From what we’ve seen, this is what the future will look like.

Re-inventing Live Events for a Post-Covid World

We were expecting to see how technology will unite the real world with the virtual world. But for Rex Serrao (Salesforce), and Jeff Sinclair (Eventbase Technology Inc), they are completely different strategies. In their eyes, hybrid events are just a phase, a consequence of the pandemic, and are not here to stay, even questioning the reasons of who was watching the event in their homes, instead of taking a flight to Austin to watch it live. But as we can see in the chat in the image, the online audience felt differently about it.

Feature Session: What’s in a Metaverse?

These past couple of months, a lot has been speculated about  and talked about over the Metaverse. Facebook even changed their name to Meta. But aren’t we already living and experimenting with the Metaverse? In this talk, Raffaella Camera (Epic Games), Charlie Fink, (Chapman University), Philip Rosedale (Linden Lab) and Timmu Tõke (Ready Player Me), touches on their experiences and discoveries since the creation of Second Life, going through massive live events, such as Ariana Grande and Travis Scott concerts happening at Fortnite, an online game. We’re about to undergo a big metaverse consisting of different metaverses, in their words: a multi metaverse. But one question was left to be considered: Do we have the infrastructure to be fully in the metaverse in the next couple of years?

Renee Gosline: In Praise of Friction

Finishing up the SXSW 2022 week in great style, Renee Gosline (MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology) gave a powerful speech on friction in the online world: “Friction is neither good nor bad, it’s what allows you to change direction”. Questioning the current AI technology we have, she even voiced a great statement, as a black daughter of immigrants: “Algorithms would never predict that I would be here”. Explicitly expressing the necessity of humanizing the system – and with diversity – she finished it up with some suggestions on how to increment automated processes. In case you missed it, here are the 5 steps we should take to make the most of #AI and #MachineLearning.

1. Ask: should AI be doing this? Can it?

2. Audit AI journeys for touch-points that would benefit from added friction

3. Embrace the “discomfort” of inclusivity as good friction

4. Build a culture of experimentation testing before release

5. Eliminate “dark patterns”: asymmetric friction & digital lobster traps

Conclusion

With just a few days to go, SXSW 2022 is bringing so much food for thought to the table. Even though companies are already working on the future, maybe we have to take a step back and understand if the world is ready for all these changes. We can’t wait to see what will happen in Austin in the final South By Southwest weekend! If you want to keep updated, follow our live coverage: https://arena.im/sxsw-22/

SXSW 2022 Online: The Top 9 Online Events

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Are you excited to attend SXSW 2022 online? It’s one of the most significant media, entertainment, and technology industry events. There’s just one problem with SXSW 2022 – picking the suitable events. Our team went through the event schedule and picked out these must-attend events. It’s a broad selection of documentaries, panels, and keynotes on many topics. Use this guide as your starting point to build your agenda.

The One Trap You Must Avoid As An Online Attendee

Before diving into our recommendations, there is one trap you need to know about. Forgetting this trap is a recipe for missing much of the value of the event. As an online attendee, you might fall into the trap of viewing SXSW 2022 as “more content.” That’s a mistake. SXSW 2022 is a major online event where you have the opportunity to connect with world-class experts and interesting people. 

You can avoid the trap of seeing SXSW 2022 as “more content” by focusing your attention on the live chat opportunity. Most, if not all, of the online events, include a live chat room. Pay attention to the discussion there and ask good questions. Participating in the chat is one of the best ways to deepen your experience. For more tips on how to make the most of the event, see our post.

1) Scott Galloway Keynote

  • Who: Scott Galloway, author, and entrepreneur
  • When: Mar 11, 2022 11:30am – 12:30pm CT

As the founder of nine companies, Galloway offers a rare combination of industry expertise and academic analysis. This keynote address is likely to draw on his new book: “Post Corona: From Crisis to Opportunity,” published in November 2020. For those interested in the future of the media and tech industries, Galloway’s event is essential.

2) Welcome to Your Digital Afterlife (Featured Session)

  • Who: Greg Daniels (Amazon Studios) and Amy Webb (Future Today Institute)
  • When: Mar 11, 2022 2:30pm – 3:30pm CT

Curious to learn more about the metaverse? Join Daniels and Webb to explore the new Amazon series “Upload,” which explores a future where people can upload their consciousness to a digital world after death. The fireside chat experience gives you a rare opportunity to connect directly with the creator of a hit science fiction comedy series.

3) Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart

  • Who: Brené Brown, author and researcher with expertise in courage, vulnerability, and shame.
  • When: Mar 12, 2022 at 9:00am

Starting your day with an episode of a new HBO Max Series documentary dedicated to storytelling and connection is a beautiful way to ease into the day. The session includes an extended question and answer session with some of the series cast and crew. 

4) All About Games. Data, Trends, and What’s Next (Featured Session)

  • Who: Hosted by Joost van Dreunen, a leading writer and researcher focused on the video game industry.
  • When: Mar 12, 2022 10:00am – 11:00am CT

The video game industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Attend this beginner-friendly event to learn the latest data and predictions for the future. Even if you have no interest in the gaming or entertainment industry, attending this session is worth seeing what’s next in blockchain and web 3.

5) Podcasts and the Art of Adaptation (Featured Session)

  • Who: James Ellroy and Jimmy Jellinek from Audio Up
  • When: Mar 13, 2022 11:30am – 12:30pm CT

There’s so much more to the world of podcasts than Serial and Joe Rogan. In this one-hour session, you will hear about how Audio Up is breaking new ground with adaptations of Stephen King and other writers. If you are interested in the art and business of creating engaging audio, this session is for you.

6) Meet the Women Dominating Sports Media (Featured Session)

  • Who: Sara Fischer (Axios), Stephanie McMahon (WWE), and Erika Nardini (Barstool Sports)
  • When: Mar 14, 2022 4:00pm – 5:00pm CT

The sports industry is changing rapidly with the rise of digital content, live TV, and other formats. Find out what viewers want from sports media from these three highly accomplished sports personalities. Whether you’re interested in sports or the media industry’s evolution, this session is worth your time.

7) TikTok, Boom (Documentary)

  • Who: Multiple TikTok influencers including Feroza Aziz
  • When: Mar 15, 2022 9:00am

TikTok has boomed in popularity over the past few years. This documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, takes you inside the platform and the people making it successful. You’ll meet up-and-coming influencers like Spencer X and Deja Foxx. 

8) Blockchain Philanthropy: Discovering Emerging Filmmakers (Featured Session)

  • Who: Barbara Bruni, Roman Coppola (American Zoetrope), Tiffany Lin (Decentralized Pictures), and Leo Matchett (Decentralized Pictures Foundation)
  • When: Mar 16, 2022 11:00am – 12:00pm CT

Think blockchain is just about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Think again. This panel explores how blockchain technology is changing the film industry. Specifically, the panel explores new ways to discover and support tomorrow’s filmmaking talent with blockchain platforms like the Decentralized Pictures Foundation.

9) Elevating Communities That Created Pop Music (Featured Session)

  • Who: Gina Chavez (award-winning artist), Henry Donahue (Save The Music Foundation), Kelefa Sanneh (The New Yorker), and Noelle Scaggs (Diversify The Stage)
  • When: Mar 19, 2022 11:30am – 12:30pm CT

This panel session will explore the future of the pop music world and open it to new voices. If you are interested in encouraging new opportunities for youth in music, this event is a must-attend. 

How To Make Your SXSW 2022 Experience Memorable

SXSW 2022 offers a range of documentaries, performances, keynotes, and other fascinating sessions. You can do much more than sitting back and ingwatching as an online attendee. By joining the live chat session, you can meet other people who share your passion for film, the future of technology, and much more. Look out for sessions that give you the option to connect with others and ask questions.

7 Ways Live Chat Makes The Most out of SXSW Online

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SXSW 2022 is coming up soon! It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect with leaders, authors, and creatives across industries. And Arena Live Chat will be there as Online Exhibitors: that means online attendees have plenty of ways to engage at SXSW and meet new people!

Use this guide as your cheat sheet to help you make the most of the event using live chat. Before we dive in deeper, there are two essential points to cover

Two Ways To Benefit From SXSW 2022 As A Virtual Attendee 

Attending SXSW 2022 online is a different experience than attending the event live in Austin, Texas. As an online attendee, you have two main ways to benefit from the event. First, you can discover new insights from the keynotes, panels, and other online events. Second, you can interact with other event participants digitally.

Making the most of the event starts with pacing yourself. SXSW 2022 runs from March 11-20, so it is easy to burn yourself out with too much activity. That’s why it pays to be selective in choosing which activities to join. To help you select the best events, check out our guide. Once you choose your events, come prepared to take notes so that you can capture key points and quotes.

Of course, discovering new information is just one part of the value of participating in SXSW 2022. Instead, the social context of SXSW Online is a big part of the value. Given that the last SXSW event was held in 2019 with more than 100,000 attendees, you can expect a lot of excitement at the festival’s 2022 return. As an online attendee, you can meet new people – including celebrities and artists – by taking a strategic approach to the event. Use the techniques below to make the most of SXSW 2022 from a networking perspective.

7 Tips To Make The Most of SXSW 2022

At this point, you’re probably used to attending online events and meetings that last a few hours or even a full day. A multi-day event like SXSW 2022 takes a different approach. 

1) Define Your SXSW 2022 Goals

Participating in SXSW 2022 is not cheap in the ticket price (the most affordable option is around $500) or time (over seven days). You’re likely to waste your time and money. Fortunately, setting a goal or two for SXSW 2022 online is easy. 

Write out your goal in one or two sentences. For inspiration, use the following:

  • I am attending SXSW 2022 online to meet 20 people in the technology industry interested in marketing collaborations.
  • I am attending SXSW 2022 for inspiration and fun – discovering new music and ideas matters. My goal is to attend five performances or keynotes from people I have never heard before.

2) Create Your Schedule With Some Slack

Your personal SXSW 2022 schedule should strike a balance between structure and flexibility. If you are most excited about the networking potential of the event, give yourself spare time each day to arrange 1-on-1 meetings or send quick follow-up notes. As a general rule, plan to attend a maximum of three sessions per day, so you have time to follow up and avoid event burnout. 

3) Optimize Your SXSW 2022 Profile

When you attend an SXSW 2022 online event, put your best virtual foot forward. That means connecting your live chat persona to your social media accounts or a personal website. At the very least, make sure you have a professional-style photo that clearly shows your face. This setup should only take a few minutes, and it will help you connect with more people in the live chat sessions. 

4) Join Each Virtual Event Early

When possible, make an effort to join each SXSW 2022 online event early. Joining on time or slightly early is beneficial in two ways. First, you have the chance to introduce yourself by posting a short message in the live chat room. By posting early, your live chat introduction message is more likely to be read by other attendees. Second, arriving early means you’ll quickly learn any critical ground rules for the session such as how and when to ask questions.

5) Ask Good Questions In The Live Chat

Assuming the event has a formal question-and-answer portion, asking an effective question in the live chat is a major opportunity to shine and connect with others. 

To give your question the best chance of being answered by an SXSW 2022 panelist, keep these few guidelines in mind.

  • Relate your question to the event’s content. Asking a question based on something one of the speakers said in the events shows you are paying attention.
  • Keep the question brief. As a rule of thumb, avoid questions with a long preamble or that require significant context to answer. For example, asking a panelist for a resource recommendation might make sense, while asking for advice on how to solve a strategic problem in your business would not be appropriate. Keep your question to 10-20 words, and you stand a better chance of getting an answer.
  • Avoid yes or no questions. Asking this kind of question can make the panelist feel uncomfortable. 

6) Interact With Other Online Attendees 

While it is exciting to interact with the celebrity speakers at events, there is a downside to focusing exclusively on the speakers. It is relatively hard to get their attention, and there is a good chance that your question might not get answered if you are in a more significant event.

Fortunately, there are plenty of interesting people you can interact with through the live chat session. Start by looking for attendees who share common interests with you (e.g., maybe you are both from New York). In addition, attendees might ask simple questions that you can answer (e.g., what’s the title of that Seth Godin book that the speaker just mentioned?). 

7) Follow Up After The Virtual Event

In the final few minutes of each session you attend, reach out to a few interesting people. Click on their profile and follow them on social media. If the person does not have social profiles, send them a direct message through the live chat. Your initial outreach message should be short and include your contact details (e.g., email address and LinkedIn profile URL). Take your time with these messages – aim to send a handful of thoughtful messages, and you stand a better chance of getting a reply.

Build Your SXSW 2022 Schedule

Save time planning your SXSW 2022 experience by checking out our curated list of the best online events.

Enhance the E-learning Experience with Live Chat

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All eyes are on e-learning right now. Don’t be just another platform: improve your customers’ experience using Live Chat. Find out how you can do it.

Technological expansions stimulate the market and companies to put out their products and services. But when it comes to education and e-learning platforms, is just enough technology to reach revenue and success?

We can tell you it is not! But to answer, you need to achieve relevance, improve your services, and make money. We will present to you how Live Chat is the best solution you need right now, especially during this global scenario.

E-learning market evolution

Convenience, feasibility, and self-management are the main reasons digital studies have grown in the past years. Stiff methodologies and schedules complicate this generation’s ability to bend and adapt.

Personal routines do not follow a 9 to 5 structure anymore. Your audience demands options to build their agenda and keep on improving their technical skills and crave for better opportunities.

And that is the combination to birth e-learning: cyberspace that mixes distance, education, and digital resources. Through it, there are no more physical or geographical borders. Anytime and anywhere, the e-learner can join a digital classroom to study.

A fundamental factor in keeping e-learning fresh and updated is human interaction. Here is how you can get it!

Humanize with Live Chat

Live Chat is an add-on to a web page that allows users to interact with each other. Since an e-learning environment requires tutors, teachers, and students, Live Chat can offer multiple resources to establish more excellent communication.

Through text, voice, and video messages, users can create an enriched learning space. They can also share different types of file formats on chat.

Before the pandemic, e-learners could apply their new abilities at workplaces, exchange information with coworkers, engage at workshops, or face-to-face classes. Now, those options are limited.

Having a Live Chat and all of its features and possibilities is your best opportunity to keep on providing relevant experience to the users.

Pandemic times leading to new solutions

But now, amongst every other particularity, a student has in life to choose a more flexible way to learn, there is also COVID-19 and its repercussions. A healthy social interaction is now a must-have aspect that people consider in this “new normal” scenario.

Learning environments have softly evolved over time. Even though there were a few alterations here and there, its structure has remained the same, like the classroom space, for example.

Due to the pandemic, education’s core has been forced to remodel its shape, and e-learning is the only thing able to lead that change successfully.

Two groups of people you should pay close attention to during this are:

  1. The first group is the current customers. E-learners, they are already studying and should not feel that the absence of social interaction can compromise their learning process. These can not wait too long for better solutions to arrive. They want –– and need! –– them right now.
  2. And the other group are possible new customers. There are multiple unexplored niches to work with, like those who already know e-learning platforms and got caught up by your unique services, and those who do not know e-learning yet but saw in your company a reliable, complete, and humanized platform to kick off.

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More than ever, there is no place for halfway, lack of quality, or uncertain results.

Companies need to create this empathic and respectful environment to show that they are aware of the new challenges. But beyond that, present the best solution to keep the highest service and customer satisfaction on top. That’s called Customer Experience.

Improving experience through technology

The economic crisis mostly leads to desperate measures for many. Understandably, companies must do whatever they can to stay in the game, but when business actions arise from desperation and zero strategy planning, the result might be a failure.

That kind of outline calls for proper assistance, and because of the variety of possibilities, technology becomes the most capable one. Properly used, this powerful resource can meet the needs within the context of not having personal interactions on e-learning spaces.

Live Chat, as we mentioned before, integrates human management, relevant engagement, and a high level of support for the students in a single place. 

Following the users through the learning processes creates better engagements. The platform can compensate for the lack of physical relations with guidance programs, such as making a tutor or teacher available simultaneous to studying time on the same web page.

Live Chat bringing real-time interaction

Having a Live Chat on your e-learning platform can promote a sense of community. With a professional content moderator, students can go through paths that will enhance their experience. If you like a good benchmarking, you should check out how Pecege Institute is leveraging Live Chat to enhance the digital learning experience.

As a result, your brand’s status of authority gets stronger, customers can have better experiences, and they may consider making other purchases. They may also put relevant referrals out there since your services amazed them throughout the entire process.

Real-time engagements create live environments, with a sense of fresh curation and professional domain. It means the content is updated continuously and new, systematically watched by the teachers, tutors, and the platform itself.

Have a Live Chat solution now For Free

A well-managed Live Chat solution for e-learning spaces can aggregate more value to your services. You can increase revenue by showing your customers how much they can earn by studying your platform, highlighting the teacher’s role, and adding better experiences during the course.

You can also capture new customer’s attention, letting them know how exclusive, personalized, and complete your products are. Not to mention all the great references made by satisfied users.

Arena can give you a Live Chat solution right now. It will be fully operating within minutes on your platform.

What 5 Virtual Event Producers Learned in 2021

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The outbreak of the recent pandemic forced event producers to transition from in-person events to virtual events. While there were many roadblocks, successful event organizers were able to overcome the obstacles and continue hosting events virtually. This guide covers what five companies learned about the transition from in-person to virtual events. 

What Event Producers Learned

Event organizers need to keep learning how to optimize their virtual and hybrid events. The quick shift to virtual forced organizers to learn how to adapt quickly. Below are the most important lessons that Arena customers learned from making the transition to virtual. 

Hybrid is a Strategy, not an Event Type

Grip published a webinar that positioned “hybrid” as a strategy instead of just an event type. Its research indicated that interest in hybrid events is declining, and that 63 percent of event producers lack a clear strategy for hybrid events. 

The company emphasizes that, “Hybrid is not an event type, it’s a strategy and the best hybrid strategy is omni-channel, where organizers use different channels to engage attendees in different ways.” It stresses the importance of completing an objective at every touchpoint instead of completing all objectives at every touchpoint. 

It suggests that instead of creating hybrid events, organizers should create a combination of in-person and virtual events. It suggests that on-site events should focus on creating and building relationships, while virtual events should be short and focused on building brand awareness and educating attendees. 

Virtual Events can Improve Employee and Customer Connections

TV1, a company focused on live experiences, engagement strategies, and brand activation, has adapted to hosting virtual events. It learned that virtual business conventions can be created in a way to keep employees and attendees connected and engaged. 


While in-person events bring people to a physical location and make networking seamless, virtual events can do this too when set up properly. While helping Bayer host its first virtual convention for its pharmaceutical unit, TV1 was able to keep attendees and organizers engaged online. 

It emphasized it was important that “the experience did not overlook the dynamism and connections that are so common in the presence and that it engaged employees so that everyone was ‘on the same page’.”

It did this by integrating with Zoom and using augmented reality to facilitate training and using interactivity features to keep attendees engaged. It also enhanced the virtual event by using television logic, gamification features, enhanced scenography, and content transmission strategies. 

Virtual Events are Great for Training Employees

WorkCast discovered virtual events can be used to effectively train employees. The company writes on its blog, “Gone are the days of full-day staff training, complete with awkward icebreakers and trust falls. Instead, more and more businesses are using webinars for training purposes.”

Webinars allow employees to take ownership of their own career development, they improve efficiency, and they give companies more flexibility. They can be used to onboard new employees, provide continuing education for teams and individuals, and provide external training. 

WorkCast identified that training webinars are more accessible than traditional training methods. Employees can customize their training and complete it at their own pace. Webinars also let employees use voice-to-text software for taking notes, download transcripts for recordkeeping, and add subtitles to eliminate language barriers. 

Virtual training can be completed faster because it doesn’t require traveling to a physical location. It’s more cost effective than hosting an in-person training. It can also use Q&As, surveys, and polls to increase engagement. 

Cloud Engagement Platforms Enable Much More than Virtual Events

Cloud Conventions recognizes the scope of cloud engagement platforms (CEPs). CEPs don’t simply enable virtual events; they combine state-of-the-art digital marketing technology with collaboration features that encourage networking and interaction between attendees. 

Cloud Conventions used a report by Wainhouse Research to break down CEPs into three primary use cases. The report titles them “Webcasts”, “Interactive Events”, and “Virtual Hubs”. Webcasts require the least amount of technological complexity and costs, while virtual hubs require the most. 

Webcasts are used as an “online megaphone” to broadcast content. They offer limited attendee engagement options, maximum presenter control, and they’re best used for product launches and lead-generation webinars. 

Interactive events are used to combine collaboration and content streams. They’re typically one to two hours in duration, they enable sponsor promotion on-screen, and they’re used to increase attendee engagement and networking. 

Virtual hubs are online destinations that let attendees engage in multiple ways. They serve as the gateway for hybrid events, and they offer distinct online communities and can be used for online conferences. 

Virtual Events can Enhance Live Sporting Events

Sotic has learned that digital channels and virtual events are great ways to engage live sporting event attendees. Sotic has a video solution that lets brands tell their story, link to specific athletes and events, integrate with their video provider, and monetize their content. 

The company recently partnered with a rowing website to enhance the experience of their audience. It introduced its “Live Boat Tracker” to let fans follow live rowing races from the website. It also let viewers track insightful data like distance from leader, stroke rate, and speed. 

How Arena can Enhance Virtual Events

Arena’s software is trusted by thousands of companies including Swoogo, Grip, TV1, WorkCast, Cloud Conventions, and Sotic to improve their virtual events. Consider adding one of Arena’s tools for enhancing your own virtual event. 

Arena Live Chat

Live chat is a tool that lets attendees respond to polls, ask questions, and interact with your brand and other attendees during virtual events. By adding Arena Live Chat, brands can seamlessly integrate live chat capabilities with their virtual events. The feature lets online attendees provide feedback and share ideas virtually instead of needing to be physically present.

Arena Live Blog

Live blogs let virtual event organizers share quick updates like images, text, video, live scores, maps, and more as an event unfolds. Live blogs can provide important event updates, share ideas, present interviews, and keep attendees informed about speakers. Organizers can use Arena Live Blog to quickly improve their virtual event experience. 

Arena Customer Data Platform

Arena Customer Data Platform (CDP) can be integrated with Arena Live Chat and Live Blog to understand customer behavior and interests. Companies are finding it harder to understand their customers because of the heightened restrictions on cookies and data privacy. A CDP can solve this problem by building customer profiles and collecting data from different touchpoints. 

Other Resources

For those who want to learn how to create a superior virtual event experience, check out our guide. 

For more information on what to say during a live event, we have an eBook with live event scripts. 

If you want a comprehensive guide on how to get the best results using live ecommerce, check out our free eBook. 

Conclusion

The recent shift from on-site to online events has caused event producers to adapt quickly. Grip learned that “hybrid” is a strategy not an event type. TV1 learned that virtual events can improve both employee and customer engagement. WorkCast capitalized on the benefits of training employees virtually. 

Cloud Conventions recognized the several benefits of CEPs, and Sotic used virtual live streams to assist in the sports niche. For assistance with your virtual events, consider adding Arena Live Chat, Live Blog, or CDP. If you want to learn more about virtual event trends in the upcoming year, click the link below. 

Scale Your Digital Agency Following this Guide| Arena

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Building a business that’s predictable, sustainable, and scalable without negatively impacting output is a primary goal of most agencies. A scalable agency is one that adds revenue at a much faster rate than costs. If you’re looking to scale your agency, this guide is for you. It covers different strategies, ideas, and tools you need to create a scalable agency. 

How to Scale Your Agency

The inability to scale is one of the biggest challenges facing agencies. To overcome these hurdles, use the following tips on how to scale your agency. 

Build Scalable Lead-Generation Systems

To scale your agency, it’s important to have a continuous inflow of new leads. Avoid relying only on one-time campaigns or word-of-mouth referrals. You need to create lead-generation systems that can grow with your agency. An all-in-one system is the best way to do this. 

Whether you use organic search, email marketing, social media advertising, or referrals, you can combine them to achieve optimal results. Instead of looking at your marketing strategies as individual channels, understand how each of them work together to get results. It’s also important to have a marketing strategy that integrates with your sales strategy.

Dominate Your Niche

Some agencies have trouble scaling because their niche is too broad. They try to serve too many different audiences, and they never become the leader in their niche. That’s why it’s so important to pick a specific niche and focus only on serving clients in that pool. 

Let’s look at a simple business example. Someone who needs a software tool to help them build a high-rise skyscraper has two options. The first option is to use a software that serves the construction industry. The second option is to use a software tool that specializes in helping people build high-rise skyscrapers. Construction managers are far more likely to choose the software that specializes in their specific skyscraper project. 

By niching down, you can become the “go-to” leader in that area. This makes it easier to scale because you’ll understand more about your specific customers’ needs, and prospects are more likely to hire you due to your specialized expertise. 

Try Result-Based Pricing

Another way to scale your agency is by switching up your pricing structure. Many agencies either bid on projects or offer fixed-priced packages. To attract more customers, offer them results-based pricing. By doing this, you take the risk burden off your customer because they only pay for the results you generate. 

Before trying this, make sure you’re confident that your agency can deliver results for the customer. This pricing plan puts the risk on your agency, but customers appreciate it and are more likely to sign up. It’s smart to have enough overhead to cover any losses if you fail to succeed. 

Understand Your Client Journey

The client journey refers to every touchpoint between your agency and your client. The journey starts when a client enters the pipeline, and it lasts through final post-delivery communication. By standardizing this process, you can more easily scale your agency. 

To create a standardized process, you must first map out the customer journey. A simple example is by categorizing new clients into referrals and outbound sales. If these two types of clients are onboarded differently, include boxes and arrows on your customer journey map that correspond to the proper onboarding strategy. Referrals may be onboarded using process one, and outbound sales leads may be onboarded using process two. 

By creating a visual chart of this process, you’ll be able to streamline onboarding operations, connect sales and project management processes, and more easily scale your agency. 

Enhance Your Analytics

Improving your data analytics allows you to gain better insights into your customers, scale your agency, and show off ROI to prospects and clients. To enhance your analytics, invest in a software tool or hire an analytics specialist who specializes in areas relevant to your agency. These can help you improve the common types of analytics listed below. 

Descriptive Analytics

Descriptive analytics is done by taking content or data and determining what happened. It uses both historical and current data to reveal relationships and trends. You can use descriptive analytics to see how many customers downloaded an eBook, how many likes your social media post got, or how many people viewed your video. 

Diagnostic Analytics

Diagnostic analytics uses data to determine what causes certain correlations and trends between variables. Diagnostic analytics can be done manually, with statistical software, or by using an algorithm. An example of diagnostic analytics is testing the color scheme of a landing page and seeing which generates the best results. 

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics uses historical data, machine learning, and statistical algorithms to make future predictions. Predictive analytics can be used to optimize your marketing strategy by revealing what type of campaigns are most likely to work best, which customers are most likely to generate the largest revenue, and the best time to reach out to customers. 

Prescriptive Analytics

Prescriptive analytics takes the data collected from predictive, diagnostic, and descriptive analytics to make a recommendation on how to optimize your agency going forward. It uses algorithms, artificial intelligence, business rules, and machine learning to make a recommendation. Prescriptive analytics can reduce human error, create a long-term business plan, and save time for agencies. 

Tools for Collecting Data and Improving Engagement

One tool you can use to collect data from your users is through a customer data platform (CDP). Arena CDP can help by collecting and analyzing data from multiple touchpoints to form unique customer profiles. 

By integrating the CDP with Arena Live Chat, you can analyze what the user says online and use it to understand their interests and preferences. A live chat tool is also great for enhancing user engagement.

They can be paired with live virtual events to add instant messaging, group live chat, Q&As, polls, and other engagement features. Another tool for improving engagement, creating a superior live stream event, and collecting user data is through Arena Live Blog. 

This tool’s analytics dashboard lets agencies analyze audience behavior and monitor performance. It can also be used to provide quick, interactive updates during live stream events. 

For information on enhancing your live stream through engaging virtual event scripts, check out our free eBook.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to scale your agency, try some of the five strategies covered in this guide. Create lead-generation systems that are comprehensive and scalable. Pick a specific niche and dominate it. Try results-based pricing instead of a fixed pricing structure. Map out and understand each type of client’s journey. 

It’s also helpful to ramp up your descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. You can also use Arena’s CDP, Live Chat, and Live Blog tools to collect customer data, enhance engagement, and improve a live event experience.

Metaverse: virtual world experiences using CDP

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The next phase of the Internet – the Metaverse – is coming. There’s a lot of hype and uncertainty around how to make the most of the Metaverse. The technology underpinning metaverse experiences are still evolving. For a quick introduction to the Metaverse and what it means for marketing, check out our post “4 reasons the metaverse matters to marketers and what to do now.”

In addition to technology, two factors will drive metaverse success: good content built on a foundation of customer insights.

Why The Metaverse Is Like Fire

Fire was one of the most potent forces in early history. Used effectively, fire helped us thrive in hostile environments, prepare food, and more. Yet, fire can also hurt people and destroy buildings if used poorly. The difference between fire creating warmth and value and disaster lies in planning and skills. Finding success in the Metaverse is no different.

What does this have to do with the Metaverse and marketing, you ask?

Without the right plan, a poorly executed Metaverse virtual world may hurt your brand. Launching an irrelevant metaverse experience that does not speak to your audience’s interests will consume your team’s time without creating much value.

The Twin Pillars of a Successful Virtual World Experience

As a newer technology, it will take experimentation and patience to succeed in the Metaverse. However, random trial and error efforts take far too long. That’s why you need to think

Content

You might object to focusing on content first in the metaverse experience. Indeed, there is excellent value in emphasizing community and connection among your audience. That said, we need to give your audience why they should join your metaverse experience instead of doing something else with their time. Engaging content, therefore, forms a vital pillar of an engaging virtual world experience.

The type of content you create for a virtual world will vary depending on the technologies and scope of your plans. Use the following list as a starting point to create your content experiences.

  • Event scripts. You may feature presentations, speeches, and talks in your virtual world. Taking the time to create an engaging script and visual aids will make your event more enticing. 
  • Worldbuilding content. To create an immersive experience, every facet of the world must be planned. Do you want to create a virtual town experience? Or scale down to a virtual booth at a conference?
  • Narrative experiences. Take inspiration from the successful video games experiences that feature virtual worlds. Users have the experience to act out stories and interact with other characters. This storytelling approach is another way to use content in your company
  • Gamification ideas. Gamification means using video game mechanics (e.g., experience points, in-game rewards, leaderboards, etc.) to drive engagement. Your virtual world may use these types of mechanisms to encourage people to spend time in the virtual world.

Customer insight

The other pillar of a thriving virtual world is customer insight. Without this insight, you might create an entertaining world that fails to speak to the needs of your audience. A customer data platform is a virtual resource to inform the creation of virtual world experiences. Assuming you have collected data for at least a few months, you will be able to validate your virtual world content ideas.

Here are some helpful questions to sort through which virtual event experience ideas are worth pursuing.

  • What is your customer profile?

Ideally, you want to have quantitative (e.g. age, gender, location) and qualitative insights (e.g. what ideas and concepts get them excited).

  • What questions do customers ask most often?

Check your; live chat platform and staff to see what questions come up most often. For example, you may notice that a large percentage of your customer base asks technical support questions. In that case, your virtual world experience should start with a high degree of technical support.

  • What digital content has driven the highest engagement and conversions?

When possible, look for content linked to conversions (e.g., purchases or lead generation). If this information is not available, look for content that has driven the highest engagement in user time, likes, and similar metrics.

If you lack robust customer insights, get started today with the Arena customer data platform.

Using your customer data platform in the Metaverse

There are several ways to use your customer data platform to create and optimize virtual world experiences.

Plan and create a virtual world

A customer data platform can give you valuable insights about the kinds of content your users have enjoyed the most in the past. Based on this information, you can plan more successful metaverse experiences. For example, if your customers like virtual events that emphasize networking, then you can plan a virtual event with a focus on virtual events

Run a virtual world

A customer data platform can support running a virtual world. For example, you may use tracking links and discount codes to track purchases back to metaverse experiences. Tracking customer behavior is especially important when you offer large virtual worlds with many different experiences. Without tracking, you will not know which experiences and content resonate most with customers.

Optimize a virtual world experience

Once a customer leaves a metaverse experience, they will continue interacting with your brand. They might share feedback about what they liked and disliked in response to a survey or mention it during a live chat session. With a customer data platform, you can keep all of these forms of feedback organized.

Get Started The With Arena Customer Data Platform

Before investing time and effort in a virtual world, you need to understand your customers first. To keep your staff organized, install the Arena customer data platform. Once you have the application installed, you will have a single place to view customer activity. You can see the entire customer journey – website chat sessions, interactions with the sales team, and purchases – in one place. Get started today by learning more about the; Arena customer data platform.

Amazing Virtual Events Trends for 2022

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The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic paired with the rise of innovative technology spurred a shift from in-person events to virtual ones. Organizers have experienced the vast number of benefits from allowing events to be accessed by attendees online, and this trend is expected to continue in 2022. This guide covers what virtual and hybrid events are, their expected trends in 2022, and helpful software tools that can enhance these events. 

What are Virtual Events?

Virtual events are those in which attendees meet and experience events online rather than meeting in-person at a physical location. Virtual events can be large conferences with thousands of attendees or small sessions with just a few people. While virtual events have been around for years, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic skyrocketed the need for them. 

Virtual event types include courses, happy hours, conferences, networking events, concerts, festivals, webinars, and more. Virtual events can also be meshed with an in-person event to form a hybrid event. Hybrid events combine aspects of both types, letting attendees choose to show up in-person or join digitally. 

Virtual and Hybrid Events in the Future

While the future of the pandemic remains uncertain, it is clear that virtual events aren’t going anywhere. According to a LinkedIn survey of 1,800 professionals, organizers of in-person events are predicted to continue delivering “digital twin events”. This means that one or more components of their in-person events will be available to online attendees. 

It also found that 42% of in-person event organizers will continue searching for virtual event services to improve sustainability. In-person events often involve the use of consumables like plastic, and they require people to use transportation to get to and from events. By letting people attend online, companies can create more sustainable events. 

Hybrid Events

Before we dive into trends, it’s important to understand how hybrid events work. Hybrid events give companies the option to host in-person events while also letting people attend online.

Hybrid Event Benefits

The main benefit of hybrid events is flexibility. By setting up a hybrid event, companies ensure their event is hedged against risks. For example, if there are last-minute restrictions to public health guidelines, event organizers can easily pivot to an all-virtual event. This is also helpful if there are issues with the event venue. 

Another benefit of hybrid events is the added reach organizers can have. Every venue has capacity limits, and travel expenses can cause people to decide against attending. For example, people in the U.S. face significant barriers to attending an event in London. A hybrid event allows organizers to fill up a venue while also broadcasting to millions of others around the world. 

Virtual and hybrid events also give organizers better access to event data. By hosting an event virtually, organizers have more detailed information on how their content is being consumed. Organizers of in-person events don’t get the same access to this information. 

Virtual Event Trends for 2022

A study by Event Manager Blog indicates that 71% of event organizers will continue implementing digital strategies even when in-person events are completely back to normal. 

The following are some predicted trends for virtual events in 2022. 

  • More flexible participation options
  • Increased socializing and virtual networking aspects
  • More on-demand content
  • Shorter events
  • Greater focus on personalized content and small groups
  • Higher frequency of micro-events and virtual events
  • Increased access to sponsorship opportunities

Virtual Event Monetization

Physical events give organizers the opportunity to charge for tickets, food, drinks, merchandise, and more. Only 9% of virtual events were paid events in 2021, and virtual event ticket prices averaged only 20% of the price of in-person event tickets. Therefore, organizers will need to find better ways to monetize virtual events going forward. 

Virtual Event Sponsors

Virtual event sponsor expectations are changing going into 2022. Sponsors are encouraging an increased investment in digital event aspects and less investment in physical event aspects. They also expect a better understanding of ROI statistics from both virtual and physical attendees, which increases the importance of having helpful analytics tools. 

Emphasis on Attendee Safety

Because the Covid-19 pandemic is still a large concern, events are expected to continue high safety regulations going into 2022. Mask mandates, specialized cleaning crews, air-filtration systems, socially-distanced events, pre-screening requirements, and proof of vaccination of negative tests will continue to influence events. Safety concerns will also continue the trend towards offering virtual event options to online attendees. 

Virtual Event Software

There will also be a greater need for virtual event software that can do the following. 

  • Uncover rich data sets
  • Use gamification, matchmaking, and scheduling to improve events
  • Create pre-event, event, and post-event communities
  • Encourage audience interaction and participation
  • Create a unique virtual experience for users
  • Build a seamless user experience

How Arena can Enhance your Virtual Event

For help increasing your audience engagement, setting up user profiles, and enhancing your virtual or hybrid event experience, consider using one of Arena’s helpful software tools. Arena is trusted by thousands of customers like Swoogo and Cloud Conventions to help them run their hybrid and virtual events.

Arena Live Chat

Arena Live Chat is a tool that can be seamlessly integrated with your virtual or hybrid event. With this live chat tool, you can let attendees interact with each other, ask questions, and respond to polls during your event. With this tool, online attendees can share ideas and give feedback as if they were attending the event in-person. 

Arena Live Blog

Organizers can also enhance their virtual or hybrid event using Arena Live Blog. A live blog tool lets you share quick updates as your event unfolds. This tool lets you share maps, live scores, videos, text, images, and more. This ensures your online attendees are kept informed about speakers, interviews, ideas shared, and other details relevant to your event. 

Arena Customer Data Platform

Due to increased restrictions on cookies and data privacy, companies must find new creative ways to understand their customers. A customer data platform (CDP) fills this need by collecting data from different touch points and creating unique customer profiles. Event organizers can pair Arena CDP with its live chat and live blog tools to understand customer journeys and preferences. 

Additional Resources

For more information on how to create an unforgettable virtual event experience, check out our free eBook. 

If you want a comprehensive guide covering what to say during an event, we also have an eBook with live event scripts. 

For those who want to learn how to get the best results using live ecommerce, check out our guide. 

Conclusion

Public health concerns, innovative technology, and the recent success of virtual events have created a shift away from in-person-only events. Virtual and hybrid events offer increased flexibility, better access to data, and greater attendee reach. These events are expected to continue into 2022, and several new trends are expected to come to fruition. 

To improve the experience of your virtual or hybrid event, consider adding one of Arena’s software tools. Tools like Arena Live Chat, Live Blog, and CDP encourage attendee interaction, keep attendees engaged, and secure insightful attendee analytics. For more information on improving your live events, download our free eBook by clicking the link below.