5 Benefits to Live Streaming Your Association’s Event
In the digital age, news travels at what seems like the speed of light.
Technology has given us the ability to witness things in real time with few restrictions through the birth and growth of live-streamed events. While some organizations and event planners still question how this movement will impact in-person event attendance, the vast majority are readily investing in live streaming.
For those who are still on the fence about live streaming their next event, today we’ll be looking at some of the major benefits it can offer. Your members and your audience will appreciate it!
Continue reading to learn how introducing live streaming to your event can improve your association overall:
1. Increased Attendance
Live streams have the ability to increase your event attendance in several different ways.
For one, live streams expand the reach of your event. With virtually no geographical restrictions and the reduced costs associated with attending live streams, people from all over can tune in.
These digital events also cater to an additional crowd: attendees who would otherwise never attend an in-person event can watch from the comfort of their own homes. People with physical disabilities or social anxiety, for example, can not only attend your event but participate with virtually no limitations. Inclusive and effective!
In general, live stream attendance requires much less of a commitment, so people who were originally on the fence about attending are granted an easier, lower-stakes decision. Live streams mean lower costs and easier access, so there are fewer barriers to entry.
However, live streams don’t just improve overall attendance of your current event–they may also impact future events, both online and in-person.
Live streams can serve as an introduction to your organization and your events, giving potential attendees a closer look at how things are done. This can help interested attendees make an educated decision on whether to attend an upcoming event–they’ll be able to see what your association can offer, after all! In fact, upwards of 30% of live stream attendees may actually attend the same event in-person the following year.
2. Improved Engagement
Nothing inspires engagement like videos–even more so when they’re live!
According to Fidji Simo, the Product Management Director at Facebook, live video viewers comment 10 times more often than regular video viewers. The live aspect better connects viewers to the content and other viewers, likely because they can interact and receive responses in real-time.
For even greater effect, event organizers can interact with viewers on their streams by hosting a Q&A, participating in the discussion, and involving the stream audience in the physical event as much as possible.
Live streams can also improve engagement among members within an organization–especially those who aren’t as involved, committed, or enthused. Often called “dormant members,” these more inactive people may be more willing to tune into a live stream than attend a physical event.
In many cases, live stream audiences are partially made up of people who have never attended a physical event in the past. Providing this group with a means of interacting and engaging with your organization can pay major dividends now and in the future!
3. Create New Material
While a live stream is a powerful tool at the moment, the session recording can be used in a number of ways for a variety of purposes in the future, too.
A recording of your event can be archived and made accessible to viewers at a later date. For potential event attendees, an archived recording of a past event may help convince them that the new event will be worthwhile. These event archives can also be used to attract potential speakers, exhibitors, advertisers, and sponsors for your future sessions.
Furthermore, the recorded material can be broken up, reused, and repackaged in multiple ways. For instance, an organization may use videos of workshops or presentations as part of future training programs. They may package certain videos by theme or type, or else make a “highlights” package for quick event recaps.
You can even use event clips for marketing purposes to help drive brand recognition, promote future events, and encourage membership renewals.
4. Additional Revenue Streams
In addition to the revenue-boosting material live streams bring about after the fact, live sessions can help bring in new revenue in real-time.
For example, live streams often feature digital workshops or online-only offers, which present additional revenue-earning possibilities. Your live streams don’t just provide the material for these offers, but they also help encourage the audience to partake in these offers.
Moreover, live streams can help attract new advertisers and sponsors, particularly those with an online influence or those with a brand influence that stretches beyond the location of the physical event. In fact, they can be especially attractive to advertisers and sponsors due to their replayability; because live streams are typically recorded and hosted for later viewing on an association’s website (whether in course-form or not), the expanded audience means a higher return on investment!
5. Enhanced User Data
One of the most underappreciated aspects of live streams is the data that they can provide an organization.
Aside from the obvious recording of an event and its sessions, live streams often leave a very detailed record of audience activity and responses. Organizations can use the resulting viewer data, forum records, and survey results to generate an accurate reflection of the event as a whole.
This information can be incredibly helpful for planning future events and improving customer service:
- How well was a speaker received?
- Which topics drew in the most consistent traffic?
- What was missing from the event or the live stream?
- What were some of the highlights and lowlights?
Live stream data can go a very long way in helping organizations answer these questions–and more.
When associations take advantage of the information available to them, they become better able to serve their audience by pinpointing areas of improvement and excellence; you can do more of what works and fix what doesn’t. Because of this, collecting data and analytics is crucial when planning for the future!
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Conclusion
Keeping these benefits in mind, it’s no wonder that event live streaming has become an increasingly popular option for event planners and organizations.And, with the increased attendance, improved engagement, and ease of creating new material, it’s easy to see why! The additional revenue potential and access to enhanced user data make it an especially attractive option for those looking to expand their reach and boost their profits.
Incorporate live streaming into your next event; your audience–and your association–will appreciate it!
