Events are a significant part of our lives. We host events to celebrate the various occasions in our life. Some of these occasions are personal, like birthdays, anniversaries and many more. While the others are professional, like academic or career achievements. And one of the most common ways to celebrate someone’s work is by awarding them.
Many industries around the world host various prestigious award shows every year. For example, The Red Dot award is hosted to recognise the best designs. While the Academy Awards celebrate the talent in the world of cinema. It doesn’t matter in which industry you work. Everyone likes to get recognised for their skill and work. And this is what awards do. They not only help in identifying and appreciating one’s talent and performance. But also encourages others to push boundaries and excel in their respective fields.
However, when the pandemic spread, every event was cancelled. It included award shows. But as the world shifted to the digital medium, we saw the return of events in the virtual form. And it involved virtual award shows. But how can one organise a virtual award show? If you are also looking for the answer to this question. Then, don’t worry. We are going to help you in organising a virtual award show.
Steps to Host a Virtual Award Show
1. Visualising the Event
You can begin planning by deciding the primary things for your virtual trade show. These include the date, time and duration of the event. However, this is not the only part, but you also need to select other things like-
- Motivations – What is the ultimate purpose of organising the show
- Award categories – From which categories people will be nominated for the award
- Submission process – On what criteria, the entries will be accepted
- Judges and jury – Who will decide the deserving candidates for different award categories
- Distribution of prizes – And how prizes will be sent to the winners
These factors will help you in visualising the event. Also, you need to decide the features and services required for your virtual award show.
2. Budget
After deciding the event format, now you need to settle for the budget for your event. And for this, you need to identify the amount of money you are willing to spend for the event. And bifurcating that amount for various arrangements. Usually, in a physical award show, you need to spend money on several things. To begin with, you need to book a venue, catering services and other arrangements. However, for organising a virtual award show, you have to spend money on only a few things. The most necessary thing is getting the right virtual event platform and equipment like a camera and microphone. And this makes virtual events far more affordable than their physical counterpart.
3. Choosing the Right Platform
The most crucial part of hosting a virtual award show or any other virtual event is getting the virtual event platform. Since the audience experience will be decided by the virtual event platform, you need to get the right one for your event. But the question is, which platform is the right choice for your event? And how will you be able to determine the right virtual event platform? The process of getting the right platform is easy.
Before checking platforms, you need to prepare a list of features and services required for your event. And compare that list with the features and services offered by various virtual event platforms. The platform that ticks all the boxes is the one you should go with. However, apart from this, you need to check for things like
- Interface – It has to interactive for an immersive experience
- Navigation – The platform should be easy to navigate for a smooth experience
- Security – Make sure that the platform has various security measures
- Tech support – If you encounter a technical issue, you should get assistance from the platform provider
4. Sending Invitations for Your Event
After making all the necessary arrangements, it is time to invite people to your event. But apart from nominees, judges and jury, who else should you call? You need to invite guests and sponsors to your event. Also, to get coverage from the media, you need to call journalists and reporters from various media houses.
Remember, while sending the invitations, don’t forget to mention the necessary details. To begin with, you must include the date, time and duration of the event. Also, share the link to the platform before the event day.
5. Pitching Your Event to Sponsors
Sponsorships are essential for the success of the event. Usually, people think about the financial benefits of getting sponsors. However, there are also other benefits linked with sponsorship.
Sponsors can help you with promoting your event. Ask your event sponsors to promote your event on their social media accounts. This will give you access to their audience on social media. Apart from that, the reputation of your event is linked with the sponsors. So if you get big and respected brands as your event sponsors, your event will be considered highly reputed. This will act as good publicity for your event. So pitch your event to prestigious brands from your industry and related industries.
6. Spreading Word for Your Event
To get the attention of the people, you need to promote your event. For this, you need to craft your words carefully. Since you will introduce your event to the world, the content should be engaging and compelling. But you must be wondering, where to put this content? Or how to share this content? The answer is social media.
Nowadays, social media is considered the most crucial digital marketing channel. However, promoting anything on social media is not easy. You need to have a strategy to target people on various social media platforms. Also, you need to understand which type of content is supported by each platform. And what is trending on social media. These factors will affect your marketing campaign on social media.
7. Rehearsing Your Event
One common mistake that people often do, while hosting a virtual event is not rehearsing the event. And this can be a terrible mistake. Since by not rehearsing the event, you will lose the benefits that come with rehearsals. But what are these benefits? Let’s find out.
Rehearsing an event can help you to check each and every arrangement. Is everything working fine? Or do you need to make some changes? Also, you can check whether the event schedule is good or if it requires any changes. And the event host will get a chance to practice and improvise before the event. Lastly, you will be able to test the event platform. How is it working? Are there any issues? And how can you solve them? These are the questions you will be able to answer. So don’t forget to rehearse the event.
8. Deciding the Dress Code
In many events, there is a predetermined dress code. This helps the nominees and audience to get the right dress for the show. And it is common to have a dress code, especially in award shows. Also, it gives a sense of uniformity. And makes everyone feel as if they are on the same level. Apart from that, it furnishes a professional and aesthetic look.
These are the steps you should follow to host a virtual award show.
We hope that this article will prove helpful. So tell us about your thoughts on virtual award shows or other virtual events.
