Salesforce

• Due to the global pandemic, a US marketing platform maker, Salesforce, translated its Sydney World Tour event into a virtual event. They "transformed the space in the International Convention Centre (ICC) into a series of Salesforce-branded studios."

• To create an online expo, the "sessions that couldn’t be streamed from the ICC were recorded using meeting rooms at Salesforce’s offices in Melbourne and Sydney." Live demos and consultations were then held in these meeting rooms.

• This online expo provided the online attendees with "18 different ‘rooms’ where they could access a product expert to explore Salesforce Customer 360 through demonstrations, and also ‘asking anything’ sessions, and were able to offer one-on-one consultations."

• This virtual event generated over 1.5 million views during the "the main conference day, coming in via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube." Also, 80,000 were able to turn in to Salesforce Live who received online access to all 100 Salesforce sessions during the launch day.

Best Practices

• Before the virtual event, it is best to keep the online registration simple by using "an event registration page or microsite as the landing page when prospects click through to details on the virtual event" and by limiting "the information required to four or five fields."

• Since Facebook and LinkedIn both provide target group segmentation, it is best to promote the event on these sites.

• It is also best to "provide an easy way for attendees to get the virtual event on their calendars" by sending "two reminder emails — the first should be one week before the event, and the second should arrive one day before the event."

• During the virtual event, it is best to have a creative way of engaging the audience. Some creative ways include holding "surveys, polls, group chats, and networking sessions to allow the exchange of ideas among attendees to better assess their interest in specific products, ideas or themes." One can also "create a contest or treasure hunt to encourage attendees to tweet or blog about the event."