Types Of Virtual Events To Try in 2021

10 min readFeb 12, 2021

Types of Virtual Events

Introduction

2020 has seen an exponential rise in the use and popularity of virtual events. Industries, organizations, and communities that once shied away from establishing their presence through online events, now just can’t seem to get enough of the virtual platform.

This year, companies did not just take their events online, they explored various avenues that the vast virtual world had to offer and chose multiple routes to execute them perfectly. This has paved the way for growth in different types of virtual events.

Let’s take a look at the top 20 virtual events to host in 2021.

Virtual Conferences

Maintaining the spirit of offline conferences, virtual conferences are focused around an in-depth agenda and structure through which they can host multiple speakers live along with several keynotes, sessions, and even engaging breakout sessions. These enable participants to view key segments of the event and also form a two-way communication between other attendees and speakers.

Take look at this virtual conference organised by Samaaro.

Virtual Tradeshows

Taking tradeshows online has transcended the geographical restrictions of a physical event, enabling large organisations to launch and exhibit their products to other businesses across locations, increasing exposure, and reach. Exhibitors can post videos, demos, collaterals, and more, while attendees can interact and provide real-time feedback through live chat rooms and Q&A sessions.

Furniture China’s ongoing digital trade show allows exhibitors and traders to network through virtual brand showroom, online meetings, online RFQ and more.

Also learn how Samaaro is the Best Virtual Tradeshow Platform to host amazing online tradeshows.

Virtual Summits

How do you bring together executives or CXOs of industries to discuss and provide insights to a niche audience in the midst of a worldwide pandemic? Virtual Summits are the answer. These open up avenues for leaders across the globe to exchange ideas, participate in relevant conversations, and provide thought leadership content. Virtual Summits are ideal for a registered and specific group of attendees from the industry who can interact live with these speakers through virtual chatbots, chatrooms, etc.

A recent summit organised by Samaroo for ELETS Technomedia had over 2,000+ delegates, 40+ speakers, and 20+ partners.

Virtual Exhibitions

As the goal of most businesses is to maximise reach and in turn, increase profit, Virtual Exhibitions provide the perfect platform for organisations to present their products to a wide, global audience without exceeding the budget. Powered by a dynamic 3D environment, with stalls and booths, attendees can be engaged and informed about services through live chat tools, facilitating instant and relevant generation of leads.

Check out this Renewable Energy India E-Expo organised hosted on Samaaro by Informa Markets on the 3rd and 4th of September.

Also learn how Samaaro is the Best Virtual Exhibition Platform to host amazing online tradeshows.

Virtual Fairs

Keep your customers and consumers engaged with your services, even from home. With Virtual Fairs, businesses can exhibit their products, from a virtual stall to a virtual audience. Exhibitors can exchange information and conversations on chatbots, introduce new services, and even make real-time sales to a larger audience, through e-commerce platforms, increasing avenues for revenue generation.

Click here to check the annual IGHF Delhi Fair that will be going virtual this November with over 1500 suppliers presenting their product and services

Also learn how Samaaro is the Best Virtual Fairs Platform to host amazing online tradeshows.

Virtual Sessions

Even before COVID-19 shifted the world online, Virtual Sessions were immensely popular, especially with organisations that had employees and offices across geographical locations. These allow businesses to conduct lectures, discussions, training, and more with the same benefits of a physical session like networking, interaction, and feedback, but without the associated costs.

Check out these virtual sessions organised by Microsoft Ignite as a part of it’s first-ever, all-digital edition.

Virtual Town Halls

Miss those monthly town halls in your office? Take them virtual and make them just as interesting and engaging. Virtual Town Halls ensure that leaders can continue to communicate important updates and news with employees spread across different areas, through online, live streaming platforms. It simultaneously also gives individuals a chance to interact, discuss, and provide feedback in real-time to their management.

Virtual Meetups

Just like digital media, online or virtual meetups are becoming the preferred medium to connect, discuss, and share with like-minded individuals, from the comfort and safety of your homes. With platforms for video conferencing, streaming, and real-time interactions, these meetups are ideal for small groups of people who can either register or enter through invitation only.

Virtual Product Launches

What better time than now to explore the benefits of an online launch for a new product? With a Virtual Product Launch, businesses can extend the reach of their product to a more wide-spread audience in a time and cost-effective manner. Stream the launch live with presentations and product demonstrations, interact with potential consumers through chat forums, polls and provide them with resources like downloadable files, brochures, videos, etc.

Samaroo recently helped Provident Online Housing host India’s first online Real Estate Launch. Find out more about the event here.

Virtual Rewards & Recognitions

Good work should never go unrewarded, even amidst social distancing. Take your award shows online, without compromising on the grandeur and pomp of physical events. Complete your event with musical, art, or dance performances, through live streaming, and keep your audience engaged with questions and fun quizzes that they can participate in using chat forums.

One of our recent clients, SRF, a manufacturing company, wanted to recognise and reward their exceptional employees. Here’s how We hosted an amazing Virtual Awards show. for our clients

Hybrid Events

As the name suggests, Hybrid Events combines the world of live events as well as virtual events, to provide the best to a diverse audience. In the current scenario, when in-person attendance has to be reduced for safety purposes, Hybrid Events ensures that along with your physical audience, even your online audience can get an immersive, innovative, and interactive experience, from their private spaces.

Virtual Fireside Chats

Informal is the new normal, even more so when it goes virtual. A virtual fireside chat is an informal interview or discussion with a moderator and other guests, over a video conferencing platform. Often conducted in a relaxed and comfortable environment, it makes the discussions more engaging and personal, which in turn promotes the audience to interact with the members during the talk.

For some engaging, interactive and interesting Virtual Fireside Chats, watch these on-demand videos organised by Markletic Atlantic Council Global Energy Center

Virtual Keynotes

Keynote addresses by prominent speakers can amplify your event, even when it is organised virtually. Broadcasted live to a diverse audience, these can be made more engaging with meaningful visual design, multi-screen layouts, immersive virtual backgrounds and real-time interaction through polls, Q&A and chatbots.

Webinars

f your business wishes to organise a lecture for a large group spread across the world, Webinars are best suited to these needs. Through them, organisations can host a renowned speaker who delivers and presents a topic live and also encourage a two-way communication through chat forums or audio. These can also be recorded, downloaded and shared.

Organisations like TEDxGateway are now making webinars their go to choice to connect speakers and audience.Check out their webinar series here

Virtual Workshops

Going virtual with a highly interactive event such as a workshop may seem tricky, but many organisations are now opting for it. These skill-based training events are flexible, and can provide an immersive experience to participants across the globe, with innovative use of breakout virtual rooms, gamification, interactive polls and more.

Take a look at how the International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, New Delhi, adapted to a global pandemic by taking their workshops online.

Virtual Trainings

By taking the basics of offline training and recreating the same experience through a virtual or stimulated platform, businesses or organisations continue to hold training sessions for its members who are working remotely. These live sessions facilitate exchange of dialogues between attendees and trainers and also combine other platforms like webinars, sessions and e-learning for a hands-on experience.

Virtual Press Meets

Most agencies and PR organisations are now seamlessly transitioning to Virtual Press Meets, where flexibility of holding the press conference ensures that journalists or media representatives are not limited to a specific location. Much like physical sessions, attendees can ask questions via audio or chat rooms and can also be presented with multi-media content like downloadable presentations, documents, on-demand videos, etc.

Virtual Classrooms

With everything going online, can classrooms be left behind? Virtual Classrooms ensures that learning continues online with the same level of interaction, through live conferencing or streaming platforms. Students can ask questions and discuss through audio or text, while teachers can combine features of e-learning, webinars, sessions and more for a blended learning approach

Virtual AMA

With Virtual AMA (ask-me-anything) sessions that include a reputed guest speaker, organisations can now host experts from across the globe without the added cost. In a bid to transparently engage with the audience, speakers can address questions of attendees asked in real-time through video, audio or text submission or answer questions submitted prior to the event.

Virtual Hackathons

One of the most obvious benefits of conducting a virtual hackathon is to invite participants from across the globe, thus increasing reach and networking opportunities. Virtual Hackathons can replicate physical events by including a simulated environment with information booths, session rooms and also maintain social interaction through breakout rooms, activity feed for teams working together and virtual chatbots.

Many organisations are now tapping into these virtual benefits. Check out this ongoing Go Digital Hackathon organised by two impactful companies, Amazon Web Series and Adobe.

The possibilities for virtual events are endless. Yet, one could argue that virtual events may never fully substitute the face-to-face interaction, networking opportunities, or continuous engagement that a physical event provides. But a glimpse into the virtual events of 2020, that were executed with resounding success, and the numerous ones lined up for the year, and these arguments will be put to rest. So, if you are ready to take your event virtual, Saamaro’s numerous features, expert team and immersive experience will have you covered.

Meanwhile, if you are still not sure about hosting a virtual event, then read our Ultimate Guide: An Introduction To Virtual Events

Excited about Virtual Events? So are we!! Reach out to Samaaro: The Most Powerful Virtual Events Platform, and watch us convert your Virtual Event idea into an amazing experience! Mail us on hello@samaaro.com to book a free demo.

About Samaaro

Samaaro is the most powerful and one of the best virtual event platform that organizations leverage to host virtual events, virtual exhibitions, virtual conferences, and so much more. Ours is the one platform to go to for all your virtual needs — be it for Business Communication, Sales & Marketing, Education & Career, and Industry Uses to name a few. Our platform is rich in features for your business to effectively leverage to create a memorable virtual experience.

This was originally posted on https://samaaro.com