“But If I Put It Online, People Won’t Come To My Live Event…”
Whether you’re organizing a tech conference, a non-profit workshop, or a marketing summit, it takes a lot of work and money. So naturally, you might be worried about how putting your event online could impact attendance. Here are 4 reasons why you have everything to gain from hiring a videographer for your next event.
There is no substitute for face-to-face interaction
In this connection economy, people fork out hundreds of dollars to attend live conferences for the chance to network with likeminded people, the hope of meeting someone they respect highly in the flesh, the feeling of laughing or gasping alongside thousands of others in the room, or even the bragging rights – being able to say “I was there!”
Your Online Content Sells Your Next Live Event
Think TED Conference vs. TED Talks online. Without the hundreds of TED talks available for free viewing online, it’s unlikely that TED would have spread as quickly and as far to become the international hit that it is now. Because when it’s valuable content, and easily accessible, it will be shared. Now ask yourself, how much more likely will someone be willing to fork out the money to attend the annual TED Conferences after they’ve had a free taste of what to expect?
If there’s one thing the modern day musician has learned, it’s that having a couple of their songs available online for free helps fuel the fire that spreads their art. And the real return comes from selling out concerts and merchandise to the dedicated fans who stumbled upon their music.
Reward Your Attendees
The one thing that audience members always come up to me to ask whenever I’m filming at an event is “when can I see this online?” For your attendees, having video becomes a valuable resource they can access anytime for a re-cap.
First, how great would it be if your attendees could spend that time really listening and engaging with the speaker, instead of struggling to write everything down at breakneck speed? I’ve seen many attendees faces completely light up when the organizer announces, “these talks will be recorded and made available to you after”.
Second, how many times have you found yourself at a conference saying “oh man, session A sounds good, but I really want to attend session B too!”. Save your attendees the heartbreak of having to miss out on one session just because of scheduling. Let them know you have them covered.
Great for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you want your website to show up in search results, then the content on your site needs to have valuable and relevant answers to questions that people have when they search the web. For example, if I were looking for information on how best to use social media to raise awareness about my conference, I might search Google for “how to use social media to market my event”. If you have a video of the “social media marketing” workshop that took place at your conference and put it on your site alongside a good writeup and carefully chosen search keywords, Google is more likely to recommend your page as a result for my search.
Spread Your Message
If your goal in organizing the event is to spread the word and for people to learn something new, then making your workshops, panels and sessions available for viewing online will simply extend the reach of your message. After all, why limit your impact to the capacity of the venue you’re in?
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Written by Shuling Yong
Shuling Yong is the founder of Media For Social Change, a Chicago video production and marketing company. She’s a documentary filmmaker, community engagement specialist, and a speaker at conferences. You can find her on Google+ and Twitter.
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Shuling Yong 