While the return of in-person events has seen a steady decline in the number of virtual events, virtual is still a powerful tool for connection, employee engagement, and personal and professional development. More and more, we’re seeing event planners use this medium to complement and enhance the impact of their in-person events. 

As we move in the Fall events season, we checked in with one of our esteemed sales agents, Dwight Ireland, who has been with Speakers Spotlight for 15 years, to explore how our clients are now using virtual events alongside their in-person programming.  

Lunch and Learns

With in-person events returning, Dwight said, we’re seeing clients opt to use virtual for their smaller events, like lunch and learns. They’re putting more emphasis and resources into their big, annual events while using virtual for their smaller events throughout the year.

Virtual is a budget-friendly pathway to further the learnings and impact of in-person events and provide supplemental professional development opportunities throughout the year. Many keynote speakers offer continuous learning sessions as a complement to their presentations.  

Global Town Halls

Likewise, Dwight continued, virtual continues to be cost-effective for global town halls. It’s a great tool to keep remote teams spread out across the globe connected with each other and the organization as a whole.

We’re seeing clients plan town hall sessions to provide leaders with a platform to engage in meaningful conversations with keynote speakers about issues pertinent to their organization and industry. Virtual allows these events to be timely and more accessible for all team members.

Budget-Friendly Alternative

Speakers have invested a lot of money into their in-home studios, Dwight said, it’s like being in the same room with them. Clients with smaller budgets are taking advantage of this, booking speakers virtually who otherwise would have been outside of their budget.

This especially benefits our international clients. During the pandemic, Dwight said, they enjoyed having access to North American speakers and continue to host virtual events today to take advantage of global thought leadership.

Themed Events

We’ve also seen a rise in themed events, connecting to special days, weeks, or months, such as Black History Month, Mental Health Week, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, etc. Of course, our clients were booking in-person events to coincide with these special days pre-pandemic, but the frequency of them have increased as virtual provides a more affordable and accessible way to engage employees, association members, board members, and attendees in these important conversations.

Hear more from Dwight in the video below:

We’ll continue to track the new and innovative ways clients are using virtual in partnership with in-person events to provide the best experience for their audiences.

Contact us to learn more about the virtual and in-person experiences our speakers offer.