Since social distancing measures are in full swing across the globe, large gatherings are now being frowned upon. Although it might seem like everything has been halted, there are still lots of activities that can be hosted virtually. One of such is an awards ceremony. Through the use of video streaming tools, along with adequate planning, replicating a virtual awards ceremony is possible. You can reach out to an online event consultant like We & Goliath to learn more about this.
Whether online or offline, award ceremonies are undoubtedly a big deal. Therefore, adequate preparation has to be made to ensure its success.
How Do You Plan A Virtual Award Ceremony?
There are three main stages to planning a virtual award ceremony successfully and they are:
- Arming every connection,
- Defining your worst-case scenarios,
- Organizing.
Arming Every Connection
Since virtual award ceremonies are live-streamed events, as such you need to adequately optimize the connectivity of your presenters or speakers before the event.
You can do this by:
- Checking The Respective Upload Speeds Of Each Of Your Speakers/Presenters
This is to know how high of a resolution you can stream. The standard to aim for is 4-5+ Megs for HD or 10+ for full HD at 1080p.
- Hardwire Your Computer Into Your Router Or Modem
This is an effective method to prevent your Wifi card from disrupting your feed. You can even go as far as to mail your speakers or presenters an ethernet cable. In case your speakers’ laptop doesn’t have ethernet ports, a good USB hub can do the job.
- Stream From The Same Room As Your Router Or Modem
This is to improve the quality of your connection and reduce the problem caused by barriers like floors and walls.
Defining Your Worst-Case Scenarios
The next stage in planning a virtual award ceremony is defining your worst-case scenarios. This will help you make an adequate backup plan.
Some of the possible worst-case scenarios you can experience while hosting your virtual event includes:
- Power Outage
This should be number one on your list of worst-case scenarios. You and your team should ensure that there is a backup generator available in case this happens.
- Damaged Server
If any problem arises with your servers, there should be a backup plan in the form of a mobile hotspot.
- Platforms Down
If you are hosting your award ceremony via a virtual conference platform, you should ensure that its server is not blocked by your browser. Your speakers should also make sure to run a test as regards this before the event starts. You should also ensure that there is no interference from firewalls.
Organizing The Event
While the first two stages of planning a virtual award show mentioned above deal with the technical aspect, the third deals with the actual organization of the ceremony.
- Create A Submission Form For The Event
The first thing to consider doing when planning a virtual award ceremony is a submission form. It allows you to know the number of people that will be attending that event.
- Make A Schedule For The Event
Virtual award ceremonies require well-detailed schedules that must be adhered to, for them to be successful. A good schedule should include names of those that will be anchoring the event at every point in time.
- Get Sponsors For Your Awards Event
Getting sponsors is one of the easiest ways to raise funds for your virtual award ceremony. The majority of the time, you will find brands who are willing to support you when you reach out to them. While trying to get sponsors for your event, how well you can sell the event to them and arouse their interest in the event, matters a lot. The right sponsorship can also help you attract more attendees.
- Choose Your Judges
Since it is an award ceremony, you can’t do without a panel of judges. So whether you’re organizing a real-time award ceremony or a virtual one, you need a judge. When choosing judges for your awards event, you need to be careful as a wrongfully selected panel of judges can impact your award ceremony negatively. It can also reduce its credibility. It’s often advisable to pick judges from the higher management of your firm or opt for the voting system.
Lastly, when planning a virtual awards event, don’t forget to channel your energy towards promotion. Some of the ways you can do that are by sending reminders about the event multiple times and creating a sense of urgency as the event date gets close.
HussaiN is a full-time professional blogger from India. He is passionate about content writing, tech enthusiasts, and computer technologies. Apart from content writing on the internet, he likes reading various tech magazines and several other blogs on the internet. Email ID: [email protected]