With the growth of endless Zoom meetings and online conferences, many people are being haunted by virtual event fatigue.
The culprit is obvious: virtual events which lack social interaction and engaging content. The solution is even more obvious: virtual events need to be created with consideration for our wavering attention spans. Innovation is necessary to help people navigate the new arena of online events by creating an experience which is both informative and enjoyable.
Spending hours in front of a screen bored isn’t helping anyone and that’s why virtual events need to be revolutionised, and here’s how:
Bringing networking opportunities to you
Finding ways to virtually network with your colleagues is undoubtedly a challenge; however, if done correctly online networking can allow you to meet the people who can help you in your career.
Virtual events need to be selective by only connecting you to people in your field with compatible professional interests. This makes sure that the experience is beneficial to you both by introducing you to people working on similar projects and exploring similar areas of research.
Icebreaker questions help to provide your discussion with direction whilst simultaneously defeating the awkwardness of meeting a stranger.
The way people network is rapidly changing and it is important to embrace this development by finding new ways to form meaningful connections with your peers.
Inspiring content
The attention span of the average person is around 45 minutes, but forcing ourselves to concentrate online can be even more difficult. We can be easily distracted by funny youtube videos or online shopping. To combat our failing ability to keep focused content needs to be exciting and relevant.
Event attendees need to see a summary of a presentation before deciding whether they would be interested in viewing the full-length talk. This is so important because everyone’s time is precious and you should only attend the talks that will be useful for you. Teaser videos are a perfect way of giving you a taste of a speaker and their area of focus.
Each of our presentations will be conducted by experts introducing new and enlightening ideas and data. We give you access to the full schedule of speakers so that you can select your favourites based on the teasers and descriptions.
So often virtual events don’t give you enough choice. You are forced to sit through talks without knowing whether they will be advantageous to you. We want our virtual events to work for you by giving you the opportunity to explore the most recent developments in your field without moving an inch.
Keeping it concise
The most important thing we can do to eradicate virtual event fatigue is to keep virtual events short and sweet. If you are a busy drug developer working long hours in a lab you simply don’t have the time to be spending all day on your computer.
Virtual events need to keep you in touch with important advancements without further increasing your screen time.
A well-deserved break
People are not machines. Everyone needs a break to grab a coffee and walk around. Breaks are also essential to give you the time you need to reflect on the connections you have made. Our sessions are jam-packed and a break can be useful to note down the details of the people you have met or to look into some new research that’s been brought to your attention.
Our philosophy
Online events are completely different to regular events. People behave differently online so trying to use the same format for in-person and online conferences is a recipe for virtual event fatigue.
We’ve created virtual events with your busy schedule in mind. By attending a Jam session you’ll get the chance to network with your peers and preview a range of interesting presentations, all in 55 minutes!
