Live Event Streaming
Live streaming of events is fast becoming the norm as more and more event organisers realise the massive opportunities it provides. Here, Exhibitions.co.uk looks at how this medium can benefit the exhibition and event industry.
Engaging more people via live streaming or webcasts can act as an advert for future events, reaching people who may never have considered attending the event before. The live streaming of events has a positive impact on general audience figures and can increase interest in future events and knowledge of your brand.
Event streaming also allows for greater integration of social media, encouraging a real-time debate between audiences during the event. If you can get your event trending on twitter it can drastically increase virtual visitors.
This year the BBC reported a record 1.5 million unique browser’s accessing their digital Glastonbury coverage. This was an increase of 98% from the last Glastonbury in 2011. The Saturday coverage of Glastonbury also stimulated the most TV-based tweets that day according to SecondSync.
Companies are leveraging webcasting to expand the reach of key meetings, conferences, events and messages. Streaming events is a cost-effective way to reach wider audiences. It allows for more engagement from those limited by cuts to travel expenses or little time to attend events in person.
The Fourth Source recently shared their experiences of Kaltura’s first virtual summit, which was dedicated to online video in education, learning and training. They found that the Virtual Summit significantly accelerated the speed at which deals in their business pipeline were signed and that the volume of people registering for the event was much higher because travel was taken out of the equation. Holding the Virtual Summit also allowed them to get a much better idea of what viewers were interested in as they could track what presentations they opted to attend and who they wanted to speak to.
Keeping the live streaming interactive and allowing the audience to participate and network online will increase the time they spend watching and the value they perceive they have gained from the event. You can track the viewer participation and performance increasing transparency and accountability.
Live streaming events ranges in complexity but peoples’ expectations for the quality of webcasts are always extremely high. Challenges include logistics, editorial content, technology and execution. Live event viewers are sensitive to buffering issues, so it’s crucial to use a reliable video platform.
The live streaming of events could be your golden ticket to achieving extremely high engagement and valuable brand differentiation, so finding a good audio visual supplier who can produce great live video content for your event is a must. Exhibitions.co.uk has a number of leading audio visual, lighting and video suppliers listed on the site, click here to take a look.