Nishchal Dua is the Director of Marketing at Airmeet – a one of its kind virtual event hosting platform, offering a unique experience to its users through its authentic representation of on-ground events virtually. The platform is designed to allow community managers to conduct frequent micro-interactions between knowledge professionals, industry stakeholders and thought leaders. As a seasoned marketing professional & entrepreneur, Nishchal has founded & exited two successful start-ups, Amicus Shopping Assistant (acq’2016) and The Remote Life (acq’2020). His remote work company, ‘The Remote Life’ hosts The Remote Work Summit, the largest online conference on remote work, organized annually with a global audience of 16,000+ entrepreneurs, HRs & CEOs along with speakers from Microsoft, Facebook, BCG, Intel, Shopify, GitHub, WordPress, Trello, Evernote and more. Nishchal believes that telling great stories is the best way to market good products. Fuelling this passion towards storytelling, Nishchal loves to travel and is a true advocate of the remote work culture and an ardent promoter of a location independent lifestyle. At Airmeet, his key role and responsibilities include building Airmeet into a globally recognized brand known for its comprehensive & scalable virtual events platform. Nishchal takes care of 360^ marketing including Digital, Content & Product Marketing to ensure community growth, engagement & happiness. Nishchal has also been actively involved in mentoring & consulting early-mid stage technology startups with a portfolio that spans from silicon valley to India, Hong Kong & beyond.
It is anticipated that by 2028, 73% of all departments will have a substantial number of remote workers. Working remotely and in a hybrid model has a significant number of undeniable advantages. While both employers and employees have mastered skills of staying productive and efficiently connected virtually, the day-to-day can sometimes feel monotonous.
In a conventional office space, employees have the opportunity to mingle and network amongst themselves and the senior management daily. These interactions are both professional and social – ensuring that the staff builds an emotional connection with the team and organization. However, this aspect suddenly goes amiss when working remotely, and conversations are limited to ‘times of need.’ Therefore, it falls on the enterprise to encourage frequent employee interactions to ensure engagement and satisfaction.
Corporate events have been a highlight of every staff member’s career trajectory. They have always represented more than the ‘event’ itself. Socially meeting people from inside and outside the organization, building connections, and more are integral aspects of the experience. Over the last two years, on-ground events took a backseat, and webinars became the new rage. The exciting part is that everyone attending was aware that they would learn something new during the session.
Banking on this observation, here is how organizations can leverage the power of online events to improve employee retention, build long-term loyalty, and ensure engagement and satisfaction during their stint.
- Know your Audience – Every employee has a different goal for joining an event. It might be a chance for some to gain new skills while exchanging ideas would take precedence for others. Intimately understanding their needs can put you on the right path to formulate a plan that covers all essential aspects of their desires. Key considerations should revolve around topics the participants are most fascinated with, how tech-savvy they are, the gathering’s size, and the format they would most interestingly engage with.
- Find The Right Platform – For virtual events, tech integrations are fundamental. The platform you host your event on can determine the extent of participation. When selecting a platform, enterprises go into as much detail as possible and take demos before finalizing one. Platform essentials should also include tools for dynamic interaction along with high-quality audiovisuals. These are critical for keeping your audience hooked to their seats through the course of the event. In addition, it is imperative that employees feel valued at every stage and have the means to put their points across.
- Establish networking opportunities – Effective networking is critical for achieving professional goals. The whole point of attending corporate events boils down to two things – learning & connecting with the right people. While the learning aspect can be taken care of by getting aboard a passionate orator as a speaker, networking opportunities must be pre-determined so that your audience knows the best practices to indulge in it. Utilizing personalization features pre-event can be a great way to establish connection-building possibilities. If you have chosen the right platform partner, networking features in accordance with your corporate event’s goals can also be leveraged strategically to encourage interactions. Moreover, including ice-breaking sessions, Q&A, and more throughout the event would allow attendees to participate consistently.
- Stress on the Value of Audio Visuals – An essential aspect of employee satisfaction is ensuring they feel comfortable communicating and building a connection with the right people in the organization. Emphasizing the need to have your cameras and microphones switched on during networking sessions at events can be vital to achieving this. When remote employees have face-to-face conversations with their peers and superiors during events, they tend to build a connection with them, encouraging flowing communication within the enterprise.
- Curate relatable and engaging Content – When we say content is king, we mean it. Employees stuck in the humdrum of their daily task lists often do not get an opportunity to indulge in upskilling and thus feel their growth is stunted. Virtual events designed by corporates can be the answer to this challenge. When hosting an event online, it is imperative that the agenda and talking points are given the stature it demands. Figure out the best content set and key messaging that aligns with the goals of your event and the interest of your employees. Ensure there are plenty of opportunities to insight responses from them so that they keenly participate in all sessions.
Gamification – Challenges are always fun. Utilizing tech integrations within your event to score employees basis their participation can be a very effective tool to keep them motivated. Gamification at events can take various forms, such as creating a leaderboard, rewarding the most active participants basis the scorecard, giving out badges and titles. These inclusions can make any event exciting and can make even the least engaged employee feel inclusive and inspired.
Remote working is extremely rewarding. However, industry gurus across the globe understand that every employee undergoes a bout of demotivation and disengagement during their stint with an organization, especially spanning over a long period of time. Therefore, regular virtual events organized in line with the above-enclosed guidelines can significantly contribute towards re-ignite passion among the workforce.