Content is King! And, there is no doubt about it. But, the one typical question that is continuously bothering event planners, sponsors & exhibitors is, which one is best? The virtual event lives or is Pre-recorded. Both scenarios, inevitably have their advantages and disadvantages. Finalizing what to choose for your virtual events depends on factors like event goals, demographics, budgets, etc.
In this article, you can learn about the pros and cons of both live & pre-recorded sessions.
Virtual events and online event platforms are taking over the industry. Live concerts, music shows, parties, expos and many more have shifted online and people are really enjoying the experience. Though the entire world has come to a halt, sponsors & exhibitors are finding light at the end of the tunnel with online event platforms & event planning apps.
Let’s check the differences in detail.
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Virtual Event Live or Pre-Recorded Pros & Cons
Live streams are popular models. Industry experts, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, comedians, speakers as well as educational mentors have all turned their eyes to live talks. They say live talks are one of the virtual events’ best practices to keep up with the trends, gain new knowledge, have open conversations, entertain audiences and share voices. But as the saying goes, everything has its pros and cons. Live talks too, come with their share of pros and cons. Let’s dig into the detail.
● Live Sessions: The Pros
1. Create the Best Engagement
Research states that live sessions are the best for creating engagement. Speakers get an opportunity to interact with the audience in real-time during virtual events. If you have an excellent speaker on board who knows how to create the best engagement, your job is done. Organizing small games in between seminars, and asking silly questions makes the event more interesting & creates better entertainment for the audience. Further, look out for the audience engagement ideas here.
2. Instantaneousness
Online event platforms are designing experiences that support instantaneousness & match audience interests. No matter, whether your content is either pre-recorded sessions or live videos, online virtual event software are ensuring that the presentations are updated, accurate and timely.
3. Minimal Effort
As the streaming is live, there is not much hard effort to do in the backend or pre-event. As the event goes on, the real work happens in live sessions. So, online event platforms are being designed to support hassle-free & faster live streaming.
● Live Sessions: The Cons
1. Bad Network & Quality
Live events must be spot-on, of high quality and have the best network. Any unwanted discrepancy at the live show can cause serious damage to not just the exhibitors or sponsors but also there will be an equal loss to the online event platform. Exhibitors might lose their business & audiences. While online virtual event platforms may find it hard to strike the right tune again with exhibitors, sponsors and audiences as well. So, having a good network bandwidth capacity & high quality is considered key in virtual event strategies.
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2. Hefty Online Work:
Everything happens online here. So, virtual events must be handled with utmost alertness & foresightedness. If anything does not work properly or goes haywire in the middle of the virtual event, then there is a high chance for serious damage to engagement as well as reputation. Time plays a key role in live sessions. Everything has to be set up, and run and must be ended right on time as live sessions happen in fixed time slots.
3. Extra Work for Post-production
Keeping your content open for on-demand access is an important part of your virtual events. But much time needs to be invested in editing sessions.
Pre-recorded sessions can be product demos, short videos, presentations, brochures, webinars etc. They can be inserted into the online event platform and virtual event planning & left to play in set time frames. These are most popular with hybrid events. So, let’s get exploring the next popular event element – pre-recorded sessions – their pros and cons.
● Pre-recorded Sessions: The Pros
1. Low Risk for Speakers
If your speakers are not experienced with the systems or aren’t much tech-savvy, pre-recorded sessions can be useful. They can ease their stress and perform better with backend support.
2. Better Production Quality:
You can perfect your sessions to deliver excellent results. From lighting to audio to production quality & transitions, you get enough time to work on every element of your video. And for sure, your audiences are going to love the experience you offer.
3. Better Lead Generation & Faster Popularity
Content is king & evergreen too. So, in pre-recorded videos, you can share your content everywhere from websites to social media. Further, the updates will bring you better leads every time you post your content online.
● Pre-recorded Sessions: The Cons
1. More Pre-Event Work
With pre-recorded sessions, there will be a lot of pre-event work involved. For most of the work, there might come a need for dependency like renting a studio, hiring a virtual event production company service provider, editing sources etc.
2. Might Seem of Low-Quality
The authenticity of pre-recorded sessions can be a bit low when compared to live sessions. This might give your audience a low view of your session.
Well, whether your choice is a virtual event live or prerecorded session, virtual reality event planning is on the high now & event planning apps are gaining attention. Creating a list of your event goals, engagement strategies, speaker content, budgeting etc are identified as some of the virtual events’ best practices. Virtual event platforms today enable you to host both live and pre-recorded sessions.
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