Have you ever closed your laptop at the end of the day and felt completely drained of your energy? Virtual event fatigue is very real. It is, as the name suggests, the debility caused by being on video conferencing platforms for extended periods of time. At the beginning of the pandemic, everyone was logging on for virtual events that lasted sometimes up to a few hours. For many working from home, this was on top of their normal work schedule of being on their computers, anywhere from six to eight hours a day. It was a wonderfully innovative way that live event production companies created to continue hosting events, but its luster has worn off over the course of the past two years. While football stadiums and concert venues are becoming packed, not everyone feels comfortable navigating large crowds to attend live events, especially with the current surges of the Delta and Omicron variants. Let us help you to say goodbye to virtual event exhaustion in 2022 with these five tips!

• Built-in Breaks are Necessary

Research shows according to the National Academy of Sciences, when we sit looking at a screen for hours on end, we blink less and our brain becomes convinced we’re shutting down to prepare for sleep. So in order to avoid this, offer breaks during your virtual event that include dance music, a game, or even a magician. It’s also okay to simply just give your attendees the chance to walk away from their screens, to give them a moment to stretch and grab a snack or drink. 

• Get Creative with Programming

Whatever you do, please don’t simply pick up your normal three day conference schedule and transfer it into the virtual world. Instead, think of your content and the community attending, to create a thematic experience. If you are hosting a multi-day virtual conference, try hosting an early morning group yoga session or end the day with a virtual cocktail hour. It’s a great idea to add a digital content hub where you can include takeaways, updates, or videos and pictures from your event. If you’re an event production company and are producing a hybrid event, include media from the live gathering into your digital platform. Instead of one long meeting that lasts hours, try stringing shorter events together. Most people don’t want to be at a virtual event for more than 30 min to an hour so keep that in mind when programming. Also, offering moments for your virtual attendees to interact with one another creates more engagement, and diminishes fatigue.

• Set to Speaker View

Keeping your screen on gallery view during Google or Zoom meetings and events creates so much visual chaos that it can become overwhelming. Suggest to your attendees at the beginning of your event to switch their views from gallery to speaker. We also suggest hiding your self view so you’re not checking on how you look every other second and are really able to give your attention to the speaker. Suddenly focusing on the one presenter feels much more manageable and lessens anxiety and exhaustion.

• Create a TV experience

Isn’t it funny that most of us can watch the sports channel or binge on Netflix shows for hours and don’t experience the fatigue that we feel when attending virtual events? That’s because TV programmers and producers understand exactly how to handle short attention spans of the general public. That’s why there are commercial breaks, or a change of scene and characters, or segments that move from one topic to another on your favorite talkshow. This is all to keep the viewers engaged. If you try thinking of your audience as viewers rather than attendees and your event like a TV show, we guarantee that you’ll find much success!

• Gamify

Gamification can be a game changer when it comes to programming and producing virtual events. Event gamification takes elements of games and competitions and applies them to a non-traditional setting. Adding games, fun, and teamwork to virtual events breaks up the block of time and prevents attendees from disengaging and becoming bored. Overall, it improves their event experience and doesn’t leave them with the same exhaustion they feel after a long virtual meeting. Some games to consider are virtual escape rooms, silly polls, scavenger hunts, and trivia. Include prizes for participation so there is an incentive to play!

 The ongoing pandemic has left us all totally saturated with video calls and remote meetings, craving the safe return of live events. We’re all tired of staring at our screens, but by following these tips, you can fight against virtual event fatigue and keep your guests engaged and wanting more! If you need help, contact the virtual event experts at Wizard Studios today and together, let’s make your next event a success!