How to Host High-Impact Virtual Events

After more than a year of hosting events almost exclusively online, we’ve all learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn’t. However, what kept students engaged at the beginning of the pandemic may not be enough now that so many are suffering from Zoom fatigue and struggling to balance overprogramming. Whether you’re looking to improve your virtual recruitment events or are hoping to wow your summer interns, it’s important to reevaluate and refresh your virtual event strategy.

In order to figure out everything from how to get students to attend virtual events, to keeping them engaged, and deciding which events are most impactful, we turned to the experts. We gathered dozens of campus recruiting experts for a community workshop to discuss everything you need to know to host high-impact virtual events. Here’s what we learned. 

Barriers to Hosting a High-Impact Virtual Event

There are many challenges when it comes to hosting a virtual event that really has an impact. If you focus on overcoming these four barriers first, you’ll be in a great place to start.

• Unlimited Event Options

Choosing what type of event to hold can be difficult. With so many options, from panels, to leadership Q&As, to virtual happy hours and beyond, where do you start? Figuring out what kind of event to hold is your first step to success. 

• Programming Challenges

Once you’ve figured out the event type, it’s important to come up with programming that resonates with your audience. It’s not always easy to find engaging speakers or to decide on a discussion topic that students will find interesting.

• Poor Attendance

Even if your event content is amazing, it won’t have the impact you hoped it would if nobody attends. With so many events available to them, it can be difficult to reach students and cut through the clutter—that is if they’re even up for attending another event after suffering from Zoom fatigue.

• Unclear ROI

An unclear ROI can hurt the impact of an event for both students and teams. It’s important to set clear expectations ahead of the event and deliver on your promises.

Best Practices for Virtual Events

In order to overcome the challenges that virtual events present, we recommend following these four best practices.

• Be Intentional

It’s important that you lay out your ideal outcomes before planning your event. Your strategy for the event should align with your end goal. With so many different options for the types of virtual events you can hold, it’s critical that you focus on what you’re trying to achieve and tailor your event to fit.

• Tailor Your Programming

Ensure your content and programming fit the priorities of the students you’re trying to reach or the specific group of interns who will be attending. When you know your ideal outcome, you can plan the right format for the event, choose the best topic, and invite the right speakers.

• Choose Your Marketing Channels Wisely

It’s important that you choose the proper channels to connect with the right students for your event. For example, if you’re trying to recruit students for a very niche internship, you can connect directly with the university departments that offer relevant programs. 

• Close the Loop

Provide students with an action item following every event. In a RippleMatch survey, 74% of students said the top reason they attend events is to increase their chances of landing an interview. By providing attendees with an action after the event, like an invitation to apply to your internship program, you’ll both incentivize attendance for the event itself and make it easier to stay in touch with the students afterwards.

How to Ensure Your RSVPs Turn into Attendees

If you have been working from home for the past year, you may be experiencing Zoom fatigue from back-to-back virtual meetings, happy hours, and other events. Many students are also struggling with this new phenomenon, resulting in lower turnout for events than teams would have expected based on how many students RSVP'd. Here were the best suggestions from our university recruiting experts for how to ensure you get the attendance you planned for:

Focus on the Right Students

One of the best ways to ensure you don’t see a large drop off in attendance compared to RSVPs is to invite the right students to the event. First, make sure the event description is clear. Eye-catching titles might be flashy and fun, but if they’re ambiguous, you could end up with journalism majors signing up for an event aimed at chemical engineering students. Focus on marketing channels that will connect you directly with your target audience, and be clear with your goals. A smaller audience filled with your ideal students is much better than a huge turnout that’s not engaged.

Get the Timing Right

It may seem like a simple suggestion, but make sure you’re timing your events properly. One campus recruiter mentioned that they have seen a lot of success hosting events at the beginning of the recruiting season before students have made any decisions, as well as at the end, where they might be able to attract students who haven’t found the right role yet. It’s important to also consider the time of day you’re hosting your events. With virtual events, you can have students from all over the country attend, so keep time zones in mind. Consider hosting the same event at two different times to accommodate students’ varying schedules

Partner with Student Organizations and Professors

Student organizations and professors have a lot of influence on campus and know the students you’re trying to reach best. Working with both professors from specific majors and targeted  campus organizations can ensure you reach the right students for your event. These campus influencers can even help you forecast attendance for your events ahead of time by estimating how many students they anticipate will be interested in joining. 

Incentivize Attending the Event

Finding different ways to incentivize attendance can make a big difference in your results. Of course, you can offer students a gift card or chances to win prizes by attending, but your incentives don’t have to be physical to be impactful. Hosting an event with practical takeaways that students wouldn’t learn in class, like how to stand out in a virtual world, could be a great incentive for students to attend. Offering students the opportunity to meet directly with company recruiters or leaders after the event can also be a powerful way to increase attendance and engagement.

How to Successfully Engage Virtual Event Attendees

Convincing students to attend a virtual event is one thing—keeping them engaged is another. It’s critical that your events are relevant, timely, and meet the expectations you set ahead of time. Mix up the focus of your events, and try to tie the topic in with current events to keep them fresh. Ensure students know what to expect in regards to the format of the event, as well. If they go into the event expecting an open Q&A, they’ll be disappointed if they realize the discussion was pre-recorded.

An easy way to engage your attendees is to make sure your presenters or moderators are engaging and relatable. Utilize your employees who can connect with students, whether that’s early career employees who were in their shoes a year or two prior, former interns, members of specific ERGs that can connect to the event topic, or well-known executives. And if it’s possible, provide networking opportunities. Giving students the opportunity to connect with each other and members of your organization is a great way to keep them engaged, even after the event.

Virtual Event Ideas

Even though the talent leaders we spoke with have hosted countless virtual events over the last year, they were still eager to discuss new ideas for fun and engaging events. Here are some of the events that they found to be most successful.

• Community Service Events - Events with a social impact received very positive reviews overall. For example, one internship program worked with a food bank to create cards that were included with meals that were distributed to people in need. Interns had a fun time making the cards and loved getting the opportunity to help others.
• Team Bonding Events with Physical Kits - Interns at a number of different companies loved any event where they were sent a physical kit to complement a virtual class or experience. For example, interns were sent kits to make mozzarella cheese from scratch and were guided through the process together on a video call. Some other (simpler!) examples were s’mores kits and olive oil tastings. 
• Wellness Wednesdays - This is an easy way to keep students engaged for weeks on end. Attendees focus on a different wellness initiative every week, like sharing a healthy recipe or playing a relaxation playlist. 
• Virtual Speed Networking - This is a great option for either virtual recruiting or intern events. It allows attendees to get to meet several people at one event, spending a short amount of time with each person to chat. The Run The World App makes this very easy to administer, automatically setting attendees up for rapid rounds of one-on-one conversations. 

Find 25 additional virtual recruiting event ideas here.

Virtual events certainly come with challenges, but with a little bit of creativity, and a lot of intention, you can host events that have a serious impact. By tailoring your content, messaging, and marketing to your target audience, you can ensure that both you and the students attending the event will find it valuable