• Virtual events are only for remote attendees. Virtual programs are still developed with the core contact and registration details found in EventsAir and are delivered to your virtual audience online. They can still view session content and interact and engage with other attendees, exhibitors, presenters and more.
• Hybrid events are where you organize both a live and virtual event at the same time. Many event planners run hybrid events and the EventsAir platform lets you design and publish both live and virtual programs from the same core platform.

When planning a virtual or hybrid event, consider:

• What type of content will you deliver?
• Will you run live webinars or pre-recorded content? Will you have concurrent sessions (a multi-track agenda) or just plenary sessions (for all attendees)?
• Will you work with professional AV teams providing you a live stream feed of your content?
• Will you offer virtual exhibitions, virtual networking functions or virtual group meetings?
• Will you limit access of streamed content only to remote attendees, or let everyone access it?
• Will you filter your audience in other ways (such as only letting attendees with a particular marketing tag response see certain content)?
• Once you've created a broad vision for your event, you can start building your agenda and enabling the required functionality in the EventsAir OnAIR platform.  There are three main types of content you can deliver through the OnAIR platform:
  
  Static Content is information you provide to your virtual attendees that is fixed and is not delivered by a presenter. This can include:
  • Agenda details
  • Virtual exhibitor profiles
  • Poster session slides
  • Downloadable brochures
    
    
• Session Content is generally a one-way presentation of information. Sessions can be large or small and delivered by one or more presenters.
  These webinar style presentations can include:
  • Live video and Audio
  • Presentations such as PowerPoint slides and Video presentations
    You can also add interactive components such as Live Q&A during session presentations.
    
    
• Interactive Content covers the small interactions during a virtual event, such as:
  • Instant meetings between attendees and exhibitors
  • Prescheduled 1-to-1 meetings with exhibitors
  • Poster presentations
  • Virtual networking functions and group functions
  • Live support video chats
  • Meeting Hub video chats

Sessions and Concurrent Sessions

Sessions and Concurrent Sessions are like a live event. These presentations can be presented live to the virtual audience either webinar style, pre-recorded, or as a live stream from a professional AV team. Sessions can also be presented as Interactive Workshops where attendees can all speak and interact with each other.

Targeted Sessions

All sessions can be filtered, or targeted, to a specific subset of your virtual attendees. For example, you may have two types of attendees: Educators and Administrators. You can set up two concurrent sessions, and you could designate one for Administrators and one for Educators, filtering on their registration types.

Live Stream Sessions

Live Steam Sessions are video feeds of live content, pushed through a video service such as YouTube or Vimeo. These feeds are typically generating by AV teams using professional studios and will often create professional content from multiple presenters or sources. OnAIR simply connects to the feed in Vimeo or YouTube and it is presented live directly in OnAIR.

Pre-Recorded Sessions

On Demand Sessions are pre-recorded but can be viewed in their entirety any time a participant selects it within the OnAIR Timeline. On-Demand Sessions are perfect for briefings and session that participants need to access at different times during the event.

Synchronized Sessions simulate a live event in that they start at a scheduled time and run in real time just as if it were a live presentation. An attendee who arrives late will see the presentation at the correct point based on the time

You can have staff running Live Q&A during a Synchronized Session, simulating a live presentation experience.

Virtual Networking Sessions

Virtual Networking Functions lets your participants meet with other attendees and exchange contact details: it's a virtual equivalent of a networking event at a live event. When you first join a Virtual Networking Function, OnAIR places you in a group of 2-3 other attendees where you can engage in a video chat for a preset amount of time. Here you can take notes and share contact details with other virtual attendees. When the time expires you are placed into another conversation group. The length of each networking session and the size (2-4) is set by the event organizer.

Virtual Conversation Groups

A Virtual Conversation Group can be compared to a seated dinner, where the organizer chooses who sits at the table. For these virtual group functions, the event organizer chooses which attendees are placed in the virtual group. Using the Table Allocation Tool, the organizer filters for specific attendees, based on any criteria they choose and then places them into specific groups. Each group can be organized by any filter, such as special interests, registration type, marketing filters, anything you like. For example, you could ask attendees during registration to indicate what special interest group they are members of, and you can then create virtual groups for each special interest group.

Each group can be assigned staff, exhibitors, presenters or facilitators as needed, and attendees can exchange contact details with other group members.

Virtual Exhibitions

Virtual Exhibitions, like a live exhibition, is a place where exhibitors can interact with attendees in an exhibition hall. Exhibitors staff their virtual exhibition stands, and attendees wander around the hall, stopping by different stands and interacting with stand personnel.

When an attendee selects a stand they wish to visit, they can ask to have a virtual conversation with as specific exhibitor. The exhibitor sees a list of attendees in a queue and chooses one at time to have a video conversation with. Exhibitors can share a PowerPoint side deck, and there's also the option to record the conversation.

Even if the virtual exhibition hall is not open, attendees can still visit it and view exhibitor profiles and download brochures in advance of the exhibit hall opening.

Virtual Poster Sessions

A Virtual Poster Session is like a live poster session where poster presenters stand by easels and attendees wander around the hall visiting presenters. Presenters make short presentations on their topic and interact with the visitors to their poster presentation.

Virtual Poster Sessions is very much the same as this. Virtual attendees review different poster presenters and when one interests them, they click into that presentation.

The poster presenter can choose they wish to present to (usually up to 10 attendees at a time) and present their topic. This is a one-way video chat where the attendees can view the presenter and their presentation materials. Attendees are able to speak with the poster presenter.

Attendees can also view or download presentation handouts and view a bio and a synopsis of the presentation.

Delivering session and interactive content via OnAIR

You can use OnAIR to prepare and deliver session and interactive content using any/all of the following:

Fully Pre-Recorded Videos (plus live Q&A)
A service such as YouTube or Vimeo is used to house your pre-recorded videos. When you present pre-recorded videos in OnAIR, you can still offer Live Q&A in real time running in parallel with your pre-recorded content.

Live Presentation
This involves using a service such as Zoom Webinars integrated with OnAIR to provide real-time presentations by one or more presenters.

Live Streaming
You can live stream a Zoom Meeting directly through Vimeo or YouTube. This option avoids the need for webinar licenses, as you will not have participant limits to manage. Alternatively, your contracted AV team can professionally mix all output and stream directly via a video platform such as Vimeo or YouTube. OnAIR connects to this streaming output and displays it just like any other session.