This past year has been a learning experience for everyone and with people going remote, holding a virtual event is becoming the favorable option. There’s a multitude of technologies that are able to help organizations and companies promote their content with viewers across the globe. Webinars and livestreams have always held an important place in the past and now they are even more essential. Allowing viewers to interact, helps further the discussion, which helps the experiences feel more like that of an in-person event.

Of course hosting these virtual events is not easy and just like an in-person event, it requires a lot of work. Having backend support such as what Strategic Event Design (SED) can provide can go a long way to making a virtual event successful. Backend support provides the services that allow businesses and events to function. They are in fact the operations part. In other words, the part that customers and members of the public rarely see or hear, the behind the scenes.

Having backend support can help make the virtual event operate smoothly hence making the event successful. These include:

  • Technology
  • Good production
  • Great content

SED can help provide all-inclusive plans and budget proposals that would help the event’s overall production triumph.

Technology
The most important backend support is the actual process and skill of using the technology for the virtual event. This is what backend support is mainly about, it is a term used by computer professionals to describe the different aspects that make up a computer program or a website.

Most data and operating tools are kept in the back end of a computer system. In order to make sure the virtual event runs successfully, you need the proper technology for great backend support.. A fairly new computer and router because if it is older than five years, it may not
upload or download as fast. You will need a clean camera, a microphone, and the most important tool…great wifi. You need to make sure you choose the right platforms because when it comes to the virtual event, it’s not like making a tiktok, it’s so much more than that. You need to be prepared for anything. Speaking with Babette Roberts, a backend developer, “It’s like rolling a digital dice.”

Now, to answer the main questions, why is having backend support essential to virtual events? Well, backend support allows for a great experience while making sure that your site or virtual event content and creation supports your event goals. So having backend support is in fact important for long-term accomplishments.

Good Production
It’s incredibly important that the backend developers have good production. It is better to create, collaborate and use teamwork to avoid problems when helping produce a virtual event.

Having good production can save the whole entire event. You need people who can understand and use the platforms, easy access is important. You also have to make sure your infrastructure in your own home or environment is at tiptop because that is where you will be working most. Lighting sets the mood and vibe for the event, so make sure you have good lighting. Virtual events need as much work as in- person events so rehearsals and tech checks are a must.

“If I lose you, I lose the show.” – Babette Roberts

Event planners can’t run it all. You need the behind the scenes as well as the front-end to go as smoothly as possible and that takes a lot of hands.

Great Content
Backend developers need to be able to have access to the content in a timely manner. It needs to be on point and ready to go. Having the right content can help the backend support be able to deliver the right content to the right customer on the device or platform of their choosing. The content also depends on backend strategy: modularized, structured, format-free content
supported by rich metadata. So in simpler words for those of you who aren’t tech savvy, backend strategy makes sure that the content can be used over and over again in various contexts so that computers, and people, can always find it.

It really depends on organization and scheduling.

For example, SED will provide written plans to summarize actions, decisions and assignments; schedule and coordinate such meetings as required and provide ground plans drawings of the proposed event. It will be an opportunity to spend some time understanding the most important aspects of the event. Once there has been a clear understanding of the event and of the goal, then the creating starts.

In order to accomplish a successful virtual event, you are going to not only need frontend support but most importantly, you will need backend support.