Author: Czarina Mae Magpantay
Date of Publication: 10/02/2023
An event is a gathering where people organise for a mutual purpose. When it comes to events, they can be anything from the simplest to the most important. In fact, everyone of us has experienced attending an event, and most of them are physical events. However, over the past year, events have been drastically changing due to the pandemic. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why, nowadays, virtual events have increased significantly. So, let’s take a look at the difference between physical and virtual events. Also, we will highlight the benefits that people can get from attending events, whether they're physical or virtual.
Physical vs Virtual Events
Physical events are face-to-face gatherings where people do handshakes, and interact with different types of people from all over the world personally. Events have a huge impact on our lives and can be experienced through things like virtual reality, a technology mode. Thus, physical and virtual events can have both advantages and disadvantages when it comes to event planning that people might consider. So, while planning an event, whether it’s face-to-face or virtual, it still consists of many factors that organizers have to include in their plans. For instance, some of them are budget, demography, content, engagement, and data collection.
Physical Event
Budget
Since physical events require more effort and time, organizers also have to consider the venue, staff, and expenses associated with travel, food, hotel, and entertainment. Therefore, budgeting for this event is very important to be able to achieve all the necessities.
Demography
Organizing a physical event also has some restrictions when it comes to targeting people. In particular, when they want to prepare for a large scale of attendees, the budget must be bigger for a venue to pay.
Content
To be more focused content is important on the environment as long as they enjoy the event by being entertained, fed, and aware of what to expect during the event.
Engagement
Organizers should consider being more open and talkative and letting the attendees talk to each other physically and get a real-time reaction.
Data collection
Since then, the physical event has required check-in data during the event, and the organizers will give surveys for better improvement.
Virtual Event
Budget
Attending an event online saves money. Unlike organizing physical events, virtual events can be organized without having huge venues and food. In fact, it will minimize the workload of organizers and just focus on the technical costs. Therefore, they can host a virtual event whenever they want, which is more cost-effective.
Demography
Anyone can join a virtual event wherever and whenever and can stay live up to 24/7 more feasible.
Content
Organizers have to consider the marketing content of the segments so as they can deliver better results to the audience. They also should mind time zone differences and set a schedule for the event agenda since it is just on screen.
Engagement
It is more difficult for the participant to focus and to interact because they won’t feel that they are in an event at all. To let the attendees, feel more engaged, organizers should give interesting engagement.
Data collection
Since the virtual event is through an online platform, it is much easier to track the attendee’s data and gather insightful insights.
Benefits of attending an event
- People can build more memorable connections.
- Increased engagement
- Extend your reach
- Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone
- People are more energized.
- Showcasing an achievement
Tips for attending an event
- Be yourself.
- Set reasonable expectations.
- Treat other people like your friends.
- Ask great questions to show your interest.
- Be specific.
- Don’t be afraid to join in and be engaged.
So, who wins the battle between physical vs virtual events? Let's say that people will attend an event, whether it’s physical or virtual, because it’s now a part of our daily lives. Since the changes that happened during the pandemic, virtual events have increased significantly and become more popular. However, people still prefer interaction with one another to feel and enjoy the event.
Reference List:
Epicenter. (2022, December 19) Online events vs. physical events.: Why your next event should be virtual.
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