It’s 2021, and by now, we all have understood that virtual events will continue to stay and prosper in the months and years to come.
Therefore, our intention in 2021, has shifted to not just hosting online events but also making them exceptionally unique and bizarre.

If you are someone who has been striving to find fresh and novel ideas for your upcoming virtual events, we have come to your help. We have curated a list of top 20 awesome virtual event ideas, let’s have a look;

Make the Most of Hashtag Trends

Hashtags are an excellent way of interacting with new and potential participants during an online event. Let your teams create an event or session-specific hashtags to enhance the reach of your event to global delegates using different social media handles. These exciting hashtags can boost your brand value and increase your social presence. Maybe the hashtag earns awareness from more experienced event professionals, or maybe it is an enjoyable way to share any particular session’s information! All of these strategies are effective ways to encourage engagement at your event.

Include Content-rich Sessions

The success of any virtual, physical, or hybrid event depends on how well did the attendees connect and interact. It is vital to create compelling and engaging content to keep the audience involved and hooked throughout the event.
Get incredible speakers onboard who hold expertise in delivering their message along with engaging with the audience perfectly. Experienced industry leaders play a key role in making the sessions more interactive and exciting.

Keep Shorter Sessions

Distractions are just one click away at any virtual event. It can be very tiresome to sit at a place and gaze at the screen for long hours for virtual attendees. Therefore, it is necessary to keep short sessions or include breaks between the sessions to convey your message rightly to the attendees.
Consider keeping a break just before an important session so the attendees can restore themselves and be attentive throughout the sessions.

AI-based Recommendations

It is a powerful feature that allows like-minded people to connect during any virtual event. With events happening online, it is not possible to bump into each other, unline in-person events. Hence, this is why you can use AI matchmaking to interact with attendees who share common interests and concerns. Dreamcast makes use of data-driven technology to help you with a list of like-minded attendees, thus making way for new connections.

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

At-home or digital treasure hunts are an excellent method to get virtual attendees to start thinking critically. Virtual events can get somewhat monotonous, so try and involve the participants in a scavenger hunt that runs through exhibitors, event apps, online exhibitor booths, or websites. It is a fun activity that can be a great team-building tool too! You can include this virtual event idea to solidify your gamification strategy. Consider adding incentives by granting points for activities taken and a reward for the first one to finish the scavenger hunt.

An Immersive 3D Stage

Virtual events are all about delivering impactful and unique experiences. Creating a virtual stage with immersive visuals can leave a lasting impression on all the attendees. Right from creating a dynamic lobby, animated light, teleportation, GIFs, Dreamcast excels in all!

360-Degree Tour

It is an effective feature that can help recreate the experiences of a physical event. An ideal virtual event solution that leverages the right event technology can help you with the 360-degree tour of the platform.
A 360-degree tour can display your school or business virtually from anywhere in the world.

Trivia Night

One of the interesting game choices is Trivia. Also, it is comparatively simple when we talk about doing things online. A small healthy competition adds a lively spark as people love to share knowledge or enhance their learning. You can decide on a particular theme to set the entire event stage. Moreover, you can split attendees into groups to help create excitement around it. It will keep them updated regarding their teammates and opponents with whom they will be playing.

Send Out Swag Bags

Sending out swag bags has been a conventional practice at physical events to make the audience feel special. You can think of something similar at virtual events too. Sending swag to participants’ homes before the commencement of the event is an excellent way to keep them interested and excited right from the beginning. Think of the joy attendees could experience at home with those tote bags, award badges, or simple thumbs-up signs.

Live-streaming or On-demand Content

To make the event more interesting, consider live streaming your event to enhance its outreach and boost the brand value. Live-streaming on different social media platforms is an effective strategy to spread awareness about your virtual event. Attracting incredible sponsors and exhibitors through live-streaming can offer a vital source of revenue.

You can also choose to keep on-demand content for the important sessions of your event. This functionality lets the attendees have a glimpse of any vital session that they might have missed on the main day.

Live Polls and Q&A Sessions

Engagement is the key to conducting successful virtual events. The more the audience can connect and interact, the more lively or engaging is the event. Live polls and Q&A sessions are excellent ideas to facilitate 2-way communication. To do it right, look for advanced virtual event software and noteworthy speakers who can deliver the content in a way that the attendees are involved and feel interested.

Games and Contests

A notable and efficient way to assure people obtain vital information they’re learning is by including games. Several virtual event platforms have countless gamification options, or you may decide to employ an all-in-one virtual venue partner like Dreamcast that can provide you a library of 100+ games to make your online event even more interesting.
Games like tic-tac-toe, shooting game, word games, crosswords, spin the wheel are some excellent choices that can help add a fun element to your event.

Virtual Networking Tables

Virtual networking tables include live chat, audio, and video feature that encourages 1:1 and group discussion among the exhibitors and the attendees. It is a great way to obtain qualified leads and make new connections during an online event.

Concert or Comedy Show

Taking any of your events online like trade shows, exhibitions, job fairs, or career fairs does not mean that you cannot add unique ideas or excellent ways to make it realistic and memorable. You can get remarkable musical experts or brands, comedians, and singers on board to elevate the level of your virtual events. At times, some of the most significant draws at a virtual event are the highlighted performances.

Social Wall and Signature Wall

Adding a social wall or signature wall to your virtual event is a great idea to replicate the experiences of a physical event. This feature allows the attendees to pen down their fond memory or signature on the digital wall to mark their presence.

Photo Booths

You can think of keeping a photo booth, where participants can capture a snapshot of themselves with their families, pets, kids, or the event swag bags. They can later post these pictures on different social media platforms with your virtual event’s hashtag.

It helps enhance your social presence, get in touch with global delegates, and spread awareness about your event.

Photo booths are excellent engagement approaches to make your participants feel special.

Customized Virtual Booths

Customized virtual booths are a replica of sponsored stalls at a physical event. These booths can be entirely customized to lure more attendees and obtain qualified leads. Virtual event platforms help you create an excellent 3D virtual stage with digital screens & customized booths. You can display the content, products, and services of the exhibitors.

Pre-recorded Sessions

Pre-recorded sessions of some of your keynote speakers and vital sessions can notch the level of your virtual event. Getting some sessions recorded ahead of time gives space for improvements like editing or new addition in graphics. This idea helps you deliver a top-quality broadcast, decreases chances of major errors, and makes virtual events less painful to plan and produce.

Include a Leaderboard Challenge

The leaderboard challenge is a great activity to create buzz and excitement among the attendees. The leaderboard activity helps in awarding points to the attendees every time they win a game or participate in a notable activity. Later, the organizers can consider keeping interesting prizes and takeaways to make the winners feel ecstatic.

Invest in More Networking Options

Networking is an important aspect of any virtual event. Therefore, do your research and include exceptional features like business card exchange, B2B meetings scheduler. DIY booth builder, and more to let attendees and exhibitors connect and interact seamlessly.

Wrapping Up

When we talk about virtual events, you can include endless opportunities. And features to make them more engaging, unique, and bizarre. All you need is to have a strategic approach and be clear with your event and business objectives. It will help you understand your target audience better and then take the event accordingly in the right direction.