Pandemic got you in a tight spot and you don’t know how to host the event you have been planning for months? We at StarEvents understand and we have got you covered! This article will go over some of the top virtual events and ideas we have heard! Hopefully this will give you the inspiration you need!
SBC DIGITAL SUMMIT
The SBC Digital Summit was a 5-day interactive online event for the betting and gaming industry, attracting over 10,000 attendees.
THE CONCEPT
SBC wanted an impressive space for their online event, so they designed their very own virtual space, based on a real conference centre. The “advanced digital platform” came complete with a 3D lobby, auditorium, breakout rooms, exhibition booths and networking lounge, which immersed attendees in an experience that felt like a physical conference and exhibition.
Plus with high-level speakers, a jam-packed agenda and innovative networking opportunities, this Summit stood out from the rest for all the right reasons.
BIG TOP BY HIRE SPACE
Back in Lockdown 1.0, we at Hire Space realised that the festive season was going to be very different in 2020. So, we wanted to create a virtual offering that was more than just a virtual quiz: we wanted a virtual extravaganza that was fun, exciting, engaging and extremely unique. Building on early work by Sparkle – the organisers of 2020’s virtual Burning Man – Hire Space gathered some of the world’s best performers and thus, Big Top was born.
THE CONCEPT
When guests arrive at our virtual Christmas Extravaganza, they’re greeted and whisked away to the main party by one of our fantastic performers. From there, guests can explore the festive clickable map and enter each room at their leisure. You could find yourself in the jazz bar with your CEO, the smoking area with your desk buddy or even end up in the comedy club with Louis Theroux! The opportunities for fun are endless!
PLANET IMEX
Every eventprof worth their salt has heard of IMEX. Their huge bi-annual exhibitions are a hub for attendees to come together, learn and share experiences, and attending either the Frankfurt or Las Vegas event is a bucket-list item for many event planners.
This year, like so many others, IMEX was forced to pivot to virtual. Instead of creating a one-off virtual event and calling it a day, IMEX instead decided to design and create a virtual learning hub, providing valuable content throughout the majority of 2020.
THE CONCEPT
Back in May, IMEX created a multi-sensory 3D island-themed platform featuring ocean sounds and colourful, interactive features. There were three different islands, packed full of blogs, podcasts, videos, and even a special ‘island sounds’ DJ mix. They also created a hub of news articles and podcasts from industry publications to keep visitors updated. To launch the platform there was a 3-day conference (which was kicked off by our very own Co-Founder Ed Poland), packed with sessions on relevant and interesting topics with great speakers, as well as multiple social events to wrap up each day.
For the second virtual event in October, IMEX this time created an underwater-themed experience with a colourful coral reef, sea life and other nautical elements making up the event platform.
TOMORROWLAND AROUND THE WORLD
Tomorrowland, one of the largest electronic music festivals the world has ever seen, decided to take a jump and go virtual for its 400,000+ attendees this year.
THE CONCEPT
Tomorrowland created an interactive experience to bring a quarantining world together for a weekend in July, using “the best 3D technology, video production, gamification and special effects” the world has to offer. The festival was set on a mythical island in the sea, showing how digital experiences really can break through the boundaries of time and space!
The Belgium-based festival created an online realm of 8 stages and over 60 artists, and attracted over 1MILLION people. Now if that’s not a sign of success, we don’t know what is!
OKTANE20 LIVE
Oktane Live is an annual event run by software company Okta, which brings together thousands of IT professionals, product leaders and developers. This year was the first ever digital version and was a huge success.
THE CONCEPT
There were over 65 breakout sessions and some very high profile speakers in the IT world taking part, which provided fascinating, relevant content to their attendees.
Wary of not wanting to bore their delegates, Okta put a lot of thought into the engagement tools they used in order to encourage delegates to join in with the event, offering several cool techy features. For example, they designed a virtual lobby, which acted as ‘home’ from which attendees could join the keynotes, breakout sessions, networking chat rooms and even pose questions to the speakers in real-time.
For more top virtual events and ideas head to this great article! For more of our blog posts, visit our page here!