This post is for our Data Connectors Community Partners, who work hard to design their own virtual booths to showcase their extensive offerings at the Virtual Cybersecurity Summits. If your organization is interested in becoming a Community Partner, please contact info@dataconnectors.com.  Keep following the blog for more updates on our virtual platform, plus best practices for participation on all of our events.

Have questions? Contact post author Leila Nathaniel to set up a meeting on developing a successful Virtual Summit strategy.

As your very merry booth wizard, I’m pleased to present some of the great new features we’ve implemented into the Virtual Exhibit Booths for our Cybersecurity Summits. In an effort to improve everyone’s experience, whether an attendee, a vendor partner, a speaker, or a fellow industry professional, we have worked hard to augment  the Virtual Summit Environment  to help ensure the highest quality event and peer-to-peer networking.

Having run over 50 Virtual Summits since April 2020, the Data Connectors team have become experts in making online events work for our North American Community.  Many of the updates summit over summit come from attendee suggestions, survey feedback, and a relentless focus on improving the user experience. Here is some of the latest:

Booth Presence (Group Meetings)

This super-cool new feature allows exhibitors to have a consistent booth presence via a group video chat within the platform. Upon entering a Virtual Exhibit booth utilizing this feature, attendees can enter a voice or video chat session that is just as if they walked up to a live exhibit at a conference.  They will be able to see/hear and talk with the exhibitor, as well as others who are in the booth at that time.

A dozen or more people can be in the booth chat at the same time,  Each group meeting will display the profile image of each attendee in the meeting, so everyone on the chat knows who’s there.

Booth Analytics

Virtual Summits give us the opportunity to provide more robust analytics and data than ever before. The Virtual Summit Platform is to in-person Conferences what Peloton is to cycling: an experience that can be just as rewarding, and offer a lot more data!  Detailed analysis of booth traffic enables partners to cater responses to visitors, understanding what materials piqued their interest the most, and providing an opportunity for thoughtful, bespoke follow-up after the summit.

At the same time, partners can understand their traffic compared to others in their category, and give them clues on how to improve audience engagement throughout the event.

One-On-One Meetings

Miss connecting with peers? Want to meet with someone at the summit? Set up a one-on-one meeting. Using the calendar within the platform you can set up times you are available to meet and attendees can select an open time block from your calendar. Once in the meeting you can have a live video chat, present your screen, answer questions live and even invite other team members to the meeting.

When a meeting is scheduled for a later date and time, it will be added to your agenda view and an email will be sent as a reminder. All you need to do is click on the link in your email or in your profile, and you’ll be able to join. No need to download yet another app or program – everything is built into the platform.

User Interface Improvements

We’re all stuck with the same challenge – with so much happening and available on screen, how do you stay  focused within the environment? With the rest of the world a click away how do you put forth the best information within the platform to keep everyone engaged? iFrame it! We have worked with the platform creators to optimize custom HTML iFrames to look and perform great while remaining in your virtual exhibit booth. For example, got a Calendly or HubSpot link to schedule meetings? Set it up as an iFrame!  Same thing with blog posts, specialized downloads, and more. Keep attendees in your booth, chatting and engaged, while showing off your best assets and resources.

Level-Up Your Resources

Want to show off your spot in the latest MQ? New Wave report looking sharp? Those key resources are favorites for the Community, and we will highlight them at each Summit with special broadcast messages for the entire audience. Broadcasts include direct links to those materials, and partners are provided with details on which attendees were most engaged with their documents.

Mobile & Tablet Views

As attendees tire from their monitors – the Virtual Summit Environment has continually improved its mobile interface. The mobile landscape and portrait views stack panels, and the tablet landscape and portrait views now mimic the desktop experience.

Many more new features are in process. Keep an eye out for regular updates here. Want to maximize audience engagement in your virtual event booth? Book a meeting with me for a full review.

Virtual Exhibit Booth Improvements: New Fea …

Virtual Events Posted by Jen Greco on Jun 10, 2021