Are you planning an event this year? If so, you're in good company. Event planners and managers are ramping up their efforts, eager to jumpstart conferences again. In fact, 96% of event runners are organizing in-person events for 2022.
According to a Northstar Meetings Group survey, 96% of planners will do an in-person event this year, with only 4% waiting until 2023."
- Ken Sterline, Executive Vice President of BigSpeak, Pent-Up Demand Could Make 2022 a Big Year for the Events Industry
Virtual and hybrid conferences are also gaining traction, with a recent study suggesting the following:
The best part is that people are really excited to attend conferences. They're eager to interact, learn, and connect with other people. But of course, that means you must deliver the best experience possible. The last thing you want is to fail to meet people's expectations and pent-up demand.
How can you entertain, energize, and engage your audience? Use conference interactive tools!
These systems help gamify in-person, remote, and hybrid events. They're sure-fire ways to foster conversation and increase audience response, but that's only if you use the right conference interactive tools.
Many platforms on the market promise to supercharge events, but not all of them are great. If you want to ensure your in-person, remote, or hybrid conference gives people the experience they're paying for and seeking, you should consider 8 conference interactive tools.
Slides with Friends is a comprehensive presentation and hosting software for virtual, in-person, or hybrid events. The easy to use, easy to customize slide deck presenter works for groups of varying sizes, from 2 to 200, making it a perfect tool for your next conference. Offering tons of fun, ready-to-play decks, you can rely on Slides With Friends to increase interaction with icebreakers, polls, team-building exercises, trivia games, and more.
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If you need a tool to engage and energize an in-person, virtual, or hybrid audience, you need Slides With Friends. For your conference, you can pick a wide range of slide decks to interact with your audience in real-time. Get answers to your questions, run polls, check the temperature of the room through wordclouds, and even have the audience share photos, all from a phone.
As an added bonus, Slides With Friends is easy to integrate with tools you already use for your conferences, from Microsoft Teams and Zoom to Webex and Google Meet. And if you're meeting in-person, you can still utilize these templates. Just set up a larger screen and have participants use their phones.
Many of the activities are like Jackbox games, which are always a hit. All of the decks are easily customizable. With a premium plan, you can change the colors, questions, branding, and features. Also, every activity is free for up to ten players, but you can always sign up for a Slides with Friends paid plan if you have a bigger group. A premium plan also gives you the ability to download event results, giving you easy to understand analysis of how your audience engaged during your conference.
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Do you want to enjoy or create a game where the outcomes change based on attendees' actions, tasks, and real-world objects? Then, LoQuiz is a great option. This platform helps you create real-world games like scavenger hunts. And because the outcomes can change in real-time, no game is the exact same, a feature that will definitely keep guests engaged and on their toes.
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Offering a unique Netflix-style experience, Goldcast is for virtual and hybrid events that cater to a B2B audience. This conference interactive tool is best if you want to host an event that fosters engagement and increases sales. Goldcast allows you to encourage interaction with chats, Q&A, rich content, and polls and then gain insights about your audience that you can use to create after-event campaigns to generate revenue.
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This platform is another popular conference interactive tool. It's best for virtual and hybrid events, and it comes with several fun features. With Glisser, your attendees can view slide decks, take notes digitally, engage with presentations in real-time, and enjoy on-demand content.
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With Hopin, you can access a full suite of management and hosting features that are best for virtual events. Hopin is an excellent conference interactive tool if you have up to 100,000 attendees. It allows guests to do many things remotely like watch keynote presentations, access breakout sessions, network over live video, check out interactive expos, and exchange business cards virtually.
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Whether you're having a virtual happy hour, training, or expo, Remo is a good video conferencing tool for remote events. It's unique because it provides floor plans that replace actual rooms where people can gather at a table and talk in smaller groups. You can customize how the rooms look by changing them to mirror your office, a restaurant, or a real-life conference.
Your attendees can walk around these floor plans to join conversations that interest them. Once your audience finishes networking, you can bring your guests together to present information via videos, whiteboards, or slide decks.
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If you want to create a unique virtual environment for networking, SpatialChat can help. This tool is great for remote events because it will take attendees into a unique virtual space that can be anything from an office to a pool on a sunny getaway.
SpatialChat provides virtual environments that are visually impressive and life-like. With this conference interactive tool, your guests will enjoy your remote event without feeling bored in their home office.
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Perhaps your event will have sponsors. In that case, you may need a tool that caters to this audience, making Hubilo a good option. This platform focuses on the sponsor and guest experience at virtual events.
One of its more unique features is gamification. This element allows attendees to earn points for checking out exhibitor booths, watching sessions, and messaging other audience members. The more points a person gets, the more likely they'll win event swag.
With conferences kicking off, you can expect people to attend in droves, but be sure to reward them for investing time and money into your event. Don't allow your conference to bore guests. Whether you're planning an in-person, virtual, or hybrid event, take steps to ensure it's a hit by including conference interactive tools.
