What it is and how it can benefit your business?
Conference live streaming or video conference recording, as some like to call it, has grown massively in popularity over the last couple of years. This is not surprising at all, thanks to simple and easy-to-access platforms like YouTube Live and Facebook Live, or enterprise platforms such as Quickchannel, making it all a simple and straightforward process for anyone looking to broadcast their conference live to the world.
Conference Live Streaming – well beyond just sharing video
Live conference streaming today isn’t meant for just sharing a personal video or two. Businesses and particularly event planners across all sectors are cozying up to the idea of broadcasting almost all of their conferences, meetings or special events to virtual audiences across the globe – as it has proven to be a very cost-effective way of boosting ROI, industry authority, customer loyalty, business reputation and more.
It’s entirely up to you, of course, whether you want to stream only conference highlights or all of it, but one this is for certain: offering an audience halfway across the world a glimpse into what’s happening within the confines of your board room or trade show venue can pay off in a really major way.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that businesses should seriously consider incorporating conference streaming into their next event is due to the ROI it yields. To get you started off on why it’s important to live stream a conference in today’s digital marketplace, here are three common ways in which it can benefit your business:
1). Far greater attendance
Yes, you read that correctly. While the goal of nearly every major conference or event is to attract the most attention, a video conference recording streaming live can really help you put the ‘maximum’ in attendance. In fact, according to a Meetings Today study, businesses engaged in conference streaming experience approximately a 23% conversion rate in virtual attendees who become on-premises attendees in future events or conferences.
Perhaps businesses should move away from the notion of converting virtual attendees into physical ones as being ‘crazy’ or out of reach, because it is quite the opposite. The simple fact of the matter is, many reasons go through an attendee’s mind due to which they choose to not physically attend an event or conference. For instance, a common one is fear of the unknown – will the event be worth the time and money or the energy spent travelling back and forth?
However, with a conference stream, people are assured that you’re hosting a quality event, and that gives them reason enough to invest the time, money or necessary resources to visit you on location the next time they get an invitation.
2). Improved marketing efforts
There’s a common misconception among businesses and audiences alike that live conference streaming is no longer useful once the event in question has come to an end. Well, this is just that: a misconception. In reality, video conference recording and streaming is not just a great way to engage audience members who were unable to physically make an appearance, but it is also a marketing national treasure just waiting to be discovered.
You see, the video conferencing recording can be cleverly reused and repurposed by your marketing team throughout the year. In fact, you can use it during specific seasons to garner special attention such as a sale.
Apart from that, there are multiple ways in which you can squeeze more value out of conference streaming long after the event has come to an end:
- Use the clips as “success stories” in an upcoming conference or event
- Share key moments from the conference on social media all throughout the year to keep audience members engaged
- Upload footage to YouTube and Instagram to create more awareness and provide increased exposure to your event
- Archive and showcase the entire event on your corporate website
- Use strategically chosen highlights to coax potential advertisers to become your sponsor at next year’s event
- Use the footage for reference when creating blog posts about key points discussed during the conference or event
Your marketing team should be thrilled to have access to this video for repurposing, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise when they come up with really compelling and original content based off the clips.
It’s fair to say that the quality, uniqueness and underlying value of the marketing materials shared for your conference will most likely help make up someone’s mind if they want to attend next year’s event in person or not. So keep that in mind: making this footage accessible after the event could be the hook you need to get as many people to attend on-location as possible the following year.
3). More revenue opportunities
As most events rely on ad campaigns and sponsorship for funding, video conference streaming can make for a superb additional revenue stream. For example, you might offer a sponsorship deal to a single advertiser, where you’ll advertise their name and logo throughout the live event, or offer a similar deal, where each speaker on your team is sponsored by a different advertiser.
However, using video conferencing live stream as an additional income source doesn’t end with sponsorships. You can also charge virtual attendees a small fee for gaining access to the live feed or for downloading the recorded version after the event has successfully concluded. You might even partner up with an industry organisation to let them use your event live stream as content on their own website.
In Closing
While conference live streaming certainly is a very effective way to increase your event’s overall impact, it’s best to partner with leading video conferencing vendors such as Pexip and Cisco for the more impact and cost-effectiveness. This can help offset the cost of setting up and running a live conference and the Quickchannel platform enables businesses of all scales to get more return from their live conference streaming investment.
Quickchannel’s primary focus is on user-friendliness, integration and security, which can all be easily adaptable to your company’s colors and logos. The base package includes live and on-demand streaming of video material in a variety of supported formats, and the platform can be customised for use with video conferencing or mobile streaming, with the added capability of streaming in single or double streams.
Please don't hesitate to contact us for more information or if you want to book a free personal demo.Good luck with all your events!