When you hear “attendee avatars” do blue creatures from a major film come to mind? Or do you picture the audience at your next virtual event? For today’s post, let’s stick to the latter.
Now more than ever, it’s important for your virtual event to stand out. In a world where you can expect your event to be just one of many your attendees will experience in a given month, you want your event to be remembered for the right reasons.
Engagement and interaction
And to run a successful virtual event, your audience needs to be engaged. There are incredible speakers out there who are known for keeping their audience’s unwavering attention. But this can be really tough, even for experienced speakers, if there isn’t an element of interactivity.
Of course, at an in-person event, your audience can interact with one another, raise hands to ask questions, and they generally feel more engaged being in the same room as a presenter.
But as we all know, virtual events are becoming the norm.
So, what can you do to encourage interaction and help your virtual event stand out in a crowded field?
One of our favorite ways of doing this is with attendee avatars. An exciting option includes giving your attendees the ability to create their own avatars. On the other hand, you can also create attendee avatars to get insight into your target audience.
What are attendee avatars?
Think of avatars as 3D alter egos. They’re digital representations of your audience that can be created to look just like them, down to their hair and eye color or even their shoes.
During virtual events, attendee avatars give your audience an exciting and engaging way to interact with one another. They can even be connected to audio so your audience can use their own voice for their avatar.
Attendee avatars can talk, type, ask questions, clap, and perform many of the same actions you’d perform at an in-person event.
You might also think of avatars in a simpler form: as a profile you create for your event audience. This profile helps you determine who your audience is and what they want out of your event.
Before we talk about profiling these avatars to improve your events, let’s talk about why they’re useful in the first place.
Why use attendee avatars
In a rapidly evolving and growing industry, there are new applications for avatars each day.
As far as audiences go, they offer a unique and creative way to involve your audience. Rather than attendees typing questions and answers in a text box, having them first create an avatar and using that to communicate makes the entire process more fun. Your audience is also more likely to interact and engage with other attendees this way.
Not to mention, your virtual event is sure to be unforgettable if it involves attendee avatars!
Virtual meeting avatars
An increasingly common use for attendee avatars is during remote meetings. With attendee avatars, your audience doesn’t need to worry about being on screen or camera connectivity issues. Instead, they can attend the meeting as their avatar and the meeting can be just as effective (and a lot more fun!).
Team-building
Building bonds between team members is still possible during virtual events. With attendee avatars, your audience has a more immersive way to interact with one another.
Often, an audience is more comfortable interacting as their digital self rather than on video, so it fosters open communication which will lead to more discussion and bonding between your team.
While you’re here, don’t miss this post on the six questions you need to ask your keynote speaker before your next virtual event.
Profiling your attendee avatars
When your attendees create their avatars, they enter important information about themselves. As the event organizer or host, you can use this information to create a more engaging and specialized event.
You’ll learn all sorts of things about your attendees by watching them interact and hearing what they have to say.
This includes things like:
- Their demographics
- Their preferred communication style
- What they want to focus on in a presentation
- Any questions they might have
- Particular challenges or pain points to focus on
If you’re not using real attendee avatars, try this instead: Create five attendee personas that could attend your next virtual event.
Try to put yourself in their shoes as much as possible and ask yourself what they would want out of a virtual event. As you learn more about possible event attendees, you’ll create a more personalized virtual event that will be memorable for all the reasons you want it to be.
Understanding your audience
Whether you use attendee avatars to help your audience get to know one another and interact or you create your own attendee avatars to help you get to know your audience, they both help ensure your next virtual event is your most successful yet!
Of course, we can help your virtual events be better than ever too. Get in touch with us to find the perfect speaker or expert for your next virtual event.
Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to help you:
Nine tips to promote your virtual event effectively
Virtual Event Planning: 8 Tips to Help You Move An Event Online at the Last Minute
Six steps for putting on a virtual event that works.
