Canadian voiceover artist and voice actor Dervla is the Founder and Co-Host of VO North. Here she shares her top tips on creating the perfect interactive virtual event!

Top 5 Tips for Running a Successful Virtual Event.

1. PHYSICAL TOUCH-POINTS

For V.O. North, we sent out surprise swag boxes to participants. The box itself was fully branded in the V.O. North colours and logo (which was also very Instagramable!), and inside was a note from us saying we’re looking forward to having them join us, as well as a few house-keeping notes to prepare for the event and lots of items to be used over the course of the weekend and beyond; items like a branded glass for the happy hour (made of acrylic so it didn’t break in transit!), snacks to eat for energy during the weekend, mini emoji signs to hold up on camera, a note book and pen to take notes, a face mask, and a few more goodies too!

2. VIRTUAL EVENT PRIZES!

V.O. North had lots of opportunities throughout the weekend for attendees to win prizes. For the giveaway draws, every attendee name was automatically included with their purchase of a pass.

3. KEEPING YOUR VIRTUAL EVENT FUN!

Speaking of prizes, we also kept in mind that this is a creative audience and voice actors can be all sorts of wild and wacky, so it was important to keep it fun. 

We had V.O. North’s Got Talent, where top prize was a pass to the 2021 conference. We had trivia on the Saturday night, grouping people into Zoom breakout rooms where they had a chance to win prizes. This was also a good opportunity to network with fellow attendees.

4. NETWORKING DONE BETTER

We had an overwhelming response to our networking events, with many saying they preferred the virtual events that we hosted rather than those in-person. Following the happy hour cheers we hosted a speed-networking event, where people would be randomly grouped into rooms of 4-5 people for 10 minutes. This was great for introverts and shy people, as it skips the initial approach to strangers, which is arguably the most daunting part of any networking… right!

5. IN-PERSON MADE VIRTUAL

We wanted to make sure that our audience felt comfortable and there was still some of that familiarity of an in-person event, even though this was fully virtual. To achieve this we implemented 3 steps;

1. The Lounge – One of the best parts of a conference is going into the lobby/lounge and seeing who’s around. We kept a virtual “Lounge” Zoom room open throughout the entire weekend. If attendees wanted to take a break from the talks, they could pop into the Lounge and see who’s around for a conversation! There were always people here throughout the entire weekend. It was a huge success.

2. Audience – We formatted almost all of our sessions to “meeting” style in Zoom, and gave everyone advanced notice that they would be on camera. That way they could look around and see who else was in the audience, just like at a live event. We kept the private messaging open so colleagues could chat with each other and have little side conversations/comments through-out the sessions. And we also made most formats as Q&A style, so people had an opportunity to get engaged in the conversation, rather than just staring at a screen.
   
3. One-on-Ones – Throughout the entire weekend, we created an opportunity for attendees to schedule uninterrupted facetime with in-demand pros from all areas of the industry. Therefore not only making this a fully interactive conference, but also a bit of an exhibition/tradeshow too, where people could have more in-depth discussion with specific speakers/talents/creatives, where they could ask questions, gain advice and potentially expand their cliental.

VIRTUAL EVENT BONUS:  KEEP ON SCHEDULE! 

And make sure time-zones are very clearly marked!

International Voiceover Artists.

Dervla is just one of our professional International Voiceover Artists at Great British Voices. With an impressive client list, she’s a sought after talent – to hear from from Dervla click here or you can listen to her commercial demo below

Make an Enquiry.

At Great British Voices we use Source Connect, systems such as Cleanfeed, Zoom and Skype, to provide dial in-voice sessions for media producers especially as our voiceover talents are based all around the world

If you’d like to book Dervla or any of our VO talents to voice your next project, whether corporate, commercial, explainer or character – pop us an email at Great British Voices or call +44 1753 439 289 to speak with one of the Great British UK team.

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