In 2020 we had a very special year and also for those who like us work in marketing there was an invasion of digital events. We experienced new ways to stay in touch, new ways to embrace each other, new ways to study and work. These are not ways of living and working that we should never have known, on the contrary! The year 2020, said in a very positive way, has accelerated many of these processes. What can the positive pandemic bring us? Surely, looking at the situation, we can answer with “very little”, but let’s try to look beyond everything.
Digital events: opportunities during the pandemic
Author: SaiKaiAngel
Did this 2020 make the leap into the future shorter? Definitely yes! As for us at Japan Italy Bridge, for passion or need, we made sure to stay afloat and continue to present our proposals … online!
Anyway, we were already organized and prepared for this, considering the sentence we always said when introducing ourselves as “The future is online”. Now, we are sure that that phrase, which we were waiting for it to become our daily heritage maybe in a while, has suddenly become customary good from this moment! We at Japan Italy Bridge are committed, waiting to be able to physically embrace you again, to build and propose digital events and situations that can give you emotions, if not equal, but similar to physical ones.
We have experienced, during the lockdown, many online events such as school, work, webinars, meetings, often seeing them as something new and more exciting than the online presence. Why? Simply because we are facing something new. Before we get used to this too, let’s try to exploit the enthusiasm in all its essence.
Digital Events
Let’s talk about online events, for example. Yes, because apart from the online work we have always done, events were the only thing we kept offline and based only on the presence of people. While waiting to do it again, we looked for online solutions that could actually, for the moment, create if not the same enthusiasm, something similar.
How do you organize an online event?
First of all, you have to focus on the guests, just like the event in the presence, nothing changes! You have to identify the people who might be interested in that event and become an interesting link for companies that want to communicate their work to others.
What is the main goal of the online event?
The online event, like the offline one, is to reach as many interested people as possible. You have to make sure that you create the right platform and the right place for them to best facilitate their presentation and communication with other participants. The online event, therefore, becomes a favourable place to exchange opinions that can then become a tool for the contact between companies. One of the positive things we find in this is the reduction of organizational costs. It then becomes completely free without any problems of audio, lighting, culinary entertainment. The most important thing is to have a platform capable of holding and maintaining the event without problems and, certainly, a good connection. Among the most popular platforms are zoom and meet.
Another absolutely essential thing is the ability of the event’s creator to entertain guests by ensuring that spaces and moments can be respected. In this case, we need a good “host” who is not very different from those we see on TV programmes. The presenter must be able not only to ensure that the times are respected but also to keep the enthusiasm high for the entire duration of the event, intervening when the situation fades away or when it becomes too bright. Nothing so different from the offline event, in short. This is proof that the creator of the event is part of a consolidated company capable of dealing with any type of situation.
At Japan Italy Bridge, for example, we focus on creating a bridge, as our name suggests, between Japan and Italy. Until this bridge can be built physically, as we have already done with our previous events, two random names “Japan meets Italy” and “Spindle“. we are very keen to keep the interest and communication between these two nations high. For this reason we have studied how to make our events online and interesting.
Obviously, one of the things we think may be essential for a digital event, is not the payment, but at least the registration. Registration will allow us to have a closed list of participants and a beginning of moderation. The registration should at least contain the basic information: name, surname and an email to be contacted. In this way, you will be able to have not only a certain moderation of the event, but also a way to communicate suitable for your profile. The guest will not find a bedlam of people who are not interested in anything about the event, but only and only guests interested and enthusiastic to participate, listen and share.
Listening and sharing
Let’s not go so far from the offline event, in this case, the focus is always the same: finding people and companies interested in sharing. We all know how difficult it can be to connect companies of different nationalities, but we are also sure that Japan and Italy have a lot to share and feel united, otherwise, we would not do this job!
The online event should not be scary, if we look at this carefully, we will realize that it is not so different from the event in presence.
So what do we need to create an online event?
- Identify people and/or companies that might be interested in the event.
- Create the right environment to facilitate communication between them, perhaps by establishing a dialogue first.
- Leave the guests in the right place and moderate the time available to them in order to make it the same for everyone.
- To have a good interlocutor and manager of the event that can enforce time moments and keep up the enthusiasm of the audience.
- To have the conviction to do the right thing, without being frightened by the difference between offline and online.
Whether it is on a digital platform and in presence, many things remain the same, one of which is enthusiasm.
Never lose your enthusiasm, it is what will allow you to live properly at any time, making the waiting less heavy and above all fruitful. You will learn to “feel” the enthusiasm of the other person and also to create new connections. make it a new challenge!
As for us at Japan Italy Bridge, we are ready to continue to build this bridge also digitally and then continue to do it in person.