With most in-person industry events canceled or postponed until 2021, data centers and telecom companies have turned to virtual events to make connections, grow brand awareness and demonstrate thought leadership. Even the biggest annual telecom conferences have made the shift to virtual, hosting important roundtable discussions, featuring top keynote speakers and fostering connections amongst an audience that is engaging with the event from around the world.
With so many telecom companies and data centers embracing virtual events, you may find yourself considering one of your own, but don’t know where to start – after all, there is a considerable amount of planning and details that go into a successful virtual event.
One of the first steps in the planning phase, it is important to familiarize yourself with the different virtual event formats and determine which type will best support your marketing and business goals. Below we’ve included a breakdown of the top four virtual event formats used by data centers and telecom companies to assist you in your planning process – read on to learn more:
1. Data Center Virtual Executive Roundtables
Virtual roundtables are a type of virtual event that bring together executives and a moderator to discuss a timely topic. This highly-engaging virtual event format is a great opportunity to highlight a new partnership or discuss an exciting new project. Or, simply use it as a means to discuss an aspect of your data center business that is highly relevant to your customer base, such as the topic of disaster recovery in preparation for hurricane season.
2. Data Center Webinars
Featuring a real-time presentation format by one or many speakers with the purpose of educating the audience on a topic, webinars are virtual events that offer an excellent opportunity to showcase your knowledge and establish your brand as experts on a particular topic. Webinars are often interactive, providing participants the ability to ask questions, take part in polls and provide feedback. An added bonus of webinars is that the recorded version can be edited and used as a resource on your website, and promoted across your social media platforms.
3. Data Center Virtual Press Conferences
If your company has a big news announcement that is expected to garner a lot of media interest, a virtual press conference could be a valuable option. Limited to an audience of journalists and analysts, virtual press conferences offer the opportunity for a telecom company or data center executive to personally present in-depth information on your announcement with details or explanations that go over-and-above the words found in a press release. This type of format also generally includes a live Q&A, making it an ideal alternative to scheduling several separate phone interviews.
4. Data Center Virtual Happy Hour
When your goal is to connect with colleagues or customers from a more social perspective, consider hosting a virtual happy hour! Invite customers, partners or internal employees to pour a drink of their choice and join everyone for virtual networking.
If you’re envisioning a busy video call with everybody’s windows in one big conference, think again. Virtual happy hours can be set up with multiple “rooms” where participants can move about freely and chat in smaller groups, similar to an in-person happy hour where one can visit multiple groups of people congregating throughout the event space.
Just because we can’t be in person, doesn’t mean we can’t connect.
Virtual events offer considerable value to data centers and telecom companies – especially when an in-person event is not possible. JSA offers an in-house virtual events planning team that can work closely with your company to determine which event format is a best fit for your event goals. Our virtual events experts also offer turnkey event planning services that help you strategize, plan and manage pre-production, day-of-production, and post-production, including outreach, registration, hosting, social sharing and reporting.
Learn how JSA supports telecom company and data center virtual events HERE.
