Question

Topic: Other

Virtual Events: Is Short Better Than Long?

Posted by Anonymous on 7/23/2013 at 11:44 AM ET 125 Points
Hi,

My name is Justin. I am helping to plan a multi-day virtual event in the fall and I am curious about the best way to plan it.
We are looking at 10-12 speakers for a "telesummit" and we want to know if it is best to clump them into 2 or 3 days or spread them out over many days.

Is there usually a big drop in attendance over the course of a few days?

Based on your experience, would you say it is better to have a shorter, denser event or a longer, more relaxed event? Why?

Thank you for your help.

Justin Harris
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 7/23/2013 at 12:07 PM Accepted
    Justin - are these simply broadcasts of prerecorded talks or are these live webinars (with opportunity for Q&A)? If the former, then what I've seen done well is to make the URLs of a few talks each day available only for 24 hours, then repeat for the entire event, then selling the video series at the end for those that didn't have the time to watch each day.

    In general, the more time things take, the harder it is to get on people's schedule.
  • Posted by Moriarty on 7/23/2013 at 12:26 PM Accepted
    I've seen this done both ways. The reasons for their being successful wasn't because they were long or short - the success depended on giving real concrete advice and avoiding the pitfalls of trying to sell, sell and sell.

    I recall a Dan Kennedy borathon, eight straight hours of sales pitch. It gave me backache, and I was only watching it sporadically because it was so dire.

    Perry Marshall can have as many as eight webinars in a series, one a week - and signups are good right to the end. Why? Sensible, solid advice with a blatant advertising interval conducted by Jack Born where you can dash off to make the tea or coffee without missing any gems ;-)
  • Posted on 7/24/2013 at 1:04 AM Author
    @Jay, These will be live speakers and the recordings will be available after the fact. One of us wants to do 1 speaker a day for 12 days. My fear was people ignoring the daily reminder emails after the first week. So I wanted to do 3 speakers a day for 4 days. Maybe it would be better to do like Perry Marshall and have weekly webinars. for 12 weeks.

    You all have been very helpful thank you.

  • Posted by Moriarty on 7/24/2013 at 3:11 AM Member
    You've gotten 12 webinars. How many of your audience will want to watch each and every one of them? To my mind this is a huge opportunity to slice up your email list. Work out three or four basic types of webinar, group them accordingly (two to five in each group depending) and find out what the interests of your email list is.

    It also means that you only have a series of webinars that'll last around a month. You can tailor them so that there are no conflicts so people who are really interested can watch one on Friday as well as Monday (and Tuesday and Thursday if they're really keen).

    This way you can maximize performance and do the most to please your list. Some may not want to watch webinars 1-4 but would love 5, 6 and 7. Only being bored by numbers 2 and 3 will have opted out long before 5 comes online.

    What are your thoughts on this?
  • Posted on 8/8/2013 at 6:05 AM Member
    In the short term, this means more paying customers and in the long-term,
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Other)