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Think there’s no money in virtual events? Think again

Say ‘virtual events’, and many of you will think of the deluge of conferences, awards, training courses, and more that scrambled to get online as lockdowns came into force worldwide. Some did virtual events well, but few did them profitably, and even fewer continued to offer them as the world opened back up.

However, for events consultant and Practically Perfect PA CEO William Thomson, the pandemic saw them move to delivering all their events virtually. Thanks to his 15 years of experience, they haven’t gone back to physical events and instead have focused on making their virtual offering successful and highly profitable.

Thomson shared what he thinks are some of the biggest blockers for media companies in making good virtual events and what they need to do to change that. But first, he explained that understanding the context is vital for understanding why so many publisher efforts at creating sustainable virtual events failed in the first place.

‘Path dependency’ on physical events

COVID may have seemed like an ideal opportunity to explore new business models. But Thomson thinks that path dependence – where what has been done in the past constrains future decisions – has hampered the drive to seek out longer-term alternatives. “No one really wanted to move from their business model that we had, which was physical events,” he explained. “Everyone was very happy with profit margins, and they had all the structures and processes in place. There was a real resistance to move to an alternative model.”

Suppliers, venues, and organizers were well aware that lockdowns were only temporary, even if they did go on longer than expected. But as soon as they were able, most were relieved to be able to go back.

One point that has been raised before by media organizations is that demand for virtual events petered out – ‘Zoom fatigue’ was cited as a reason to go back to in-person offerings. Thomson hotly contested this.

“There’s no such thing as customer demand,” he explained. “[Resistance] is because of this idea of path dependency: everyone who was supplying these events was saying, ‘Oh great, now we can go back to normal; and coincidentally, this is what the market wants..’. There’s been no real motivation to do anything different.” 

“I’ve got evidence to demonstrate that if you keep doing good virtual events, you’ll keep your customers who came to you originally because they see all the benefits of a virtual event.”

Thomson has advised on events for over 20 businesses and run 700 events. More recently, he has become a specialist in virtual events, running them for the digital brand Practically Perfect PA since 2018. He shared his advice for those looking to take them—and their profitability—more seriously.

1 – Prioritize the experience

Getting the experience right for virtual event attendees is just as important as getting the experience right for a physical one. Thomson theorized that the main reason many media companies were put off virtual events in the long term was that they had tried but done them badly. This led to a downward spiral of fewer people attending, less investment and attention, and an even poorer experience.

“Publishers didn’t get the engagement, or the interaction, or the uptake that they should have had, had they done it properly,” he explained. “All the principle reasons for [virtual events] being a success are there. But the application of the vast majority of people who are running virtual events is really, really poor.”

“Even now, the vast majority of virtual events are taking place on Zoom. That’s completely not appropriate for the vast majority of content-driven events. You go into an event and you see 25 people’s screens, people are suddenly unmuting… A successful virtual live event has to take place on a platform that’s designed for broadcast, not designed for a meeting.”

It should be noted that Zoom does have a broadcast-only paid add-on, although it’s not a function Thomson sees many organizations using. If people are reluctant to attend, it may be harder to get the investment in platforms or functionality that is more suited to a virtual event. There are, however, plenty of budget options out there. He pays less than $100 for a platform designed for broadcast which – crucially – doesn’t need attendees to download or install anything, just follow a simple link. 

Thomson’s platform choice also allows attendees to chat and ask questions. But he doesn’t see a huge demand for virtual events involving full breakouts, or audiences actually joining in the speaking themselves. “Most people who are joining an online event want to watch the content, ask a question, that’s it,” he noted.

That’s an expectation that has changed since the pandemic, where lots of platforms tried to replicate networking. But with most having at least a hybrid working arrangement, virtual networking isn’t a priority. “That’s a lesson that we learned pretty early on,” he explained. “Once everyone went back to the physical events, we needed to concentrate on the core deliverability of our virtual event, which is really good, engaging content, and allowing people to do a little bit of commenting, questions and interaction.”

2 – Put a fair price on content

There has long been tension between in-person and virtual event pricing. Those who have ticketed online events have found they can charge anywhere from 10% to 50% of the cost of a live ticket.

Thomson thinks media owners need to be more confident in saying an event is X amount to attend. He has tried a range of pricing strategies with his own clients, from high-priced tickets to a much more entry-level cost, and says that success depends on the type of audience.

“I ran an online events masterclass. It was a three-hour virtual event, and we charged €499 for it,” he illustrated. “We had 8 people turn up for that virtual event, so that was €3.5k for 2-3 hours delivery.”

The Virtual Summits run by Practically Perfect PA are priced at an ‘affordable’ $70 for between four and six hours of programming. “That’s not a huge amount, but if you’re getting three to four hundred people, then you’re really seeing the margin,” he added. Each Virtual Summit is repeated three times over 24 hours to cover audiences from Australasia, Europe and North America, with recordings available to attendees for three months.

PPPA has also been smart about pricing options, and now offers enterprise tickets for $1,330. “If there’s 50 people on from that organization or five hundred, it makes no difference to us,” Thomson said, unlike the per-person overheads of physical events. 

3 – Above all, content has to be excellent

Quality content is a strength of any good publisher. So if that quality content is coupled with good delivery, people will pay.

“People are willing to pay for something because there’s value,” Thomson explained. “What we’ve always done with our events is concentrate on having really good content, with the assumption that if you’ve got really good content, and we’re in an environment that’s easy for people to navigate, and there are no barriers to entry, then people will pay.”

Good sessions will take the pressure off other areas, like production. Some virtual events have felt pressure to have studio-quality broadcasts. But this isn’t something Thomson sees as necessary for success. “What we’ve noticed is for our virtual summits, we pay our speakers,” he divulged. “So we say, we’re going to pay you £150. We want 25 minutes of really, really good content. No Powerpoint! We want you to engage.”

“Hardly anyone is paying the speaker a fee to get good content. It seems to be taboo for so many organizations. But we’re investing say, £1,000 in the content and the hosting, and we’re making well over £10,000 profit each event. It’s a wonderful business model if you do it properly.” 

It’s worth noting that events run by media companies have historically not paid speakers as journalists don’t pay their sources as a matter of good journalistic practice. Many view events as an extension of their journalism, which can muddy the waters around whether speakers should be offered a fee. 

4 – Go beyond the virtual event

The final piece of the puzzle is the effective use of the sessions. Thomson noted that publishers have a history of not properly rinsing their content. There are plenty of options for extending the shelf-life of the virtual event and maintaining the session value.

“For one event we did, people paid to watch the event online,” he said. “Then afterward, we contacted them and said, ‘Look, if you want to keep access to this content, then you’ll need to join the thought community, and you’ll get access to all of the content. But you’ll also have the opportunity to chat about all of the content with other people who’ve watched it.’ We got a good 20-30% take-up on that for one of our big events.”

Another client uses the virtual events to push attendees to their membership site, making the sessions available on-demand and offering a discount for the first few months. “It’s really thinking about how you use the virtual content as part of your overall strategy, and not just thinking about how do I make X amount off this one webinar,” Thomson advised.

The PPPA takes the content from the speakers they have paid, and repackages the sessions as part of online courses. This gives the content a ‘double-airing’. “That £150 the speaker was paid is being paid back tenfold,” Thomson said, estimating that nearly 90% of their online training course content was initially part of a virtual event.

Growth opportunities in virtual

If the many different ways of presenting, packaging, and pricing a virtual event aren’t enough to tempt media owners back into the space, perhaps the international reach of events is. Thomson was keen to emphasize that, although COVID changes may not have stuck around, other pressures will likely force the focus back towards virtual opportunities.

 “If you start these now as an ‘early adopter’, where will you be in 2030 when you’ve really got to cut your emissions?,” he asked, highlighting that some companies are already asking staff to register travel to calculate business-wide carbon footprints. “If you start investing in this now, then you really do secure their longer-term potential for your business.”

Physical events won’t disappear completely, but if more organizations begin more carefully monitoring the impact of travel, virtual events are a useful tool to have established. Unlike the pandemic era, it’s not either-or. Exclusive physical events can be run alongside a roster of virtual-only events, or they can be mixed-and-matched to broaden the reach and content lifespan.

Thomson maintained that, from his industry experience, few publishers are realizing the potential of virtual events. There is huge scope for them to be done properly and profitably, if time and effort is properly invested. 

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