How to organize online events on a low budget ?

“Virtual and hybrid events are here to stay”, argue many professionals and experts. Veertly wholeheartedly agrees! Virtual events do not only reduce costs for organizers and CO2 emissions, but they also have the power to connect people from all over the globe. As online events become the new “norm” and grow in popularity, so do the topics on creating and executing a perfect online event. 

As with in person events, online events also do need some thought, creativity, planning, time and of course, budget in order to make it a success! However, Veertly understands that budgets for events such as online conferences and digital workshops vary, especially if for example, you are a start-up, small enterprise, student association, a non profit organization, or perhaps you are looking at gathering some of your friends together on one digital event platform. Great news is, online events do not necessarily have to break your pockets. Hence, Veertly brings you 4 tips on planning a virtual event on a low budget.

1. Decide on the event objectives and your budget

You have decided on creating your own virtual event. Congrats! Now what? Understanding and knowing the tone and the objective of your event is a major component in perfectly executing your event.

Define your why

Having a clear goal and an objective of your online event at the beginning of your planning process is of utmost importance. Here are some questions you can ask yourself which might assist you in this step:

• What are the reasons you have decided to make your online event?
• What do you hope to achieve by organizing the event?
• What do you hope your audience will get out of attending the event?
• What kind of an event will it be? A virtual conference or perhaps a fun gathering with your friends or colleagues?

Having answers to the above questions will help you in executing a perfect event, and will lower the possibilities of mishaps throughout your event planning journey. No worries, we can help you if you are still looking for ideas for successful online events.

Define tasks for your online event

After having a defined goal and an objective of your upcoming event, it is time to understand the tasks you need to do in order to realize your event. Will it be a fun gathering with you colleagues or friends? Think of some fun games you can do all together. Will the event be a conference? Think of who your speakers will be and which tools you will need in order to give your speakers and attendees the best possible virtual experience.

If the budget for your event is low, we recommend reaching out to your potential speakers and explain to them your goals for the event. It is possible that if they identify with your ‘why’, they might reply and offer some of their services for a discounted price! And don’t be afraid to reach out to companies which you believe would support your cause. There are plenty of ways a company can sponsor your next event. We have written a wonderful article on how to present your sponsors in Veertly.

Event equipment

Streaming and recording your event is possible! If you decide to have a quality recording and stream your event on other platforms such as Facebook, Youtube etc, having a good camera, lighting and sound equipment is needed. Equipment usually is quite costly, however, there are ways you can work around it!

If you already have a DSLR camera, this is a great way to start. If not, there are various options to buy used, second hand cameras either through local buy/ sell groups or through online websites such as Amazon! In case you are purchasing a product directly from a private person, just be careful and make sure that the camera which you are buying is in a great working condition. Test it out before you purchase it. If you are purchasing from a website, take a look at the rating and the comments of the business which is selling the camera. Same goes for microphones and lights.

2. Choose a virtual event platform

Once you have determined your budget, the type of an event you will be having, as well as how many attendees will be attending your event, it is time to research and compare virtual event apps. Your next virtual event does not have to be only a general video call, but instead it can be an interactive and seamless experience for both you and your attendees! Choosing to execute your virtual event through an online event platform brings you many benefits. Not only does it save you time, but also gives you flexibility and creativity on how you would like to entertain or captivate your audience. Plus, it also gives you an option for a unique networking experience, which we are sure, your attendees will love!

If your event is to be organized on a low budget, Veertly offers the usage of the platform for free for up to 60 minutes and 20 attendees. The event can be created with only a couple of clicks and customized to your own needs, wants and online event idea. The ability to embed various tools and websites do not only give you vast possibilities, but also assist in making your event a fun one! And do not fear, in case your event has more than 20 attendees and is longer than 60 minutes, please contact our customer support team as they would be happy to help you out with your needs, wants and budget. We also do offer discounts for NGOs and non profit organizations such as universities. Not to mention, our customer support team is multilingual! Still need solutions? It only gets better with our next tip!

3. Check for an open source

Many companies offer an open source of their products. What does this mean? In theory, this means that the original source code is freely available and is allowed to be redistributed and modified. So, if you do have some coding knowledge, you can feel free to use the code and create your “own” virtual event platform. Hence our tip is to always check for open sources of the virtual event platforms!

And yes, you guessed it right. Veertly does have an open source. Talking with our co-founders, we found out that they have decided to open source Veertly in order to collaboratively find a new way of living in the coronavirus outbreak. They do believe that the only way we can go further and build something great, is to do it together. Why? So we can have more meaningful connections, virtually! We encourage you to have a look at our open source and use it to create your next virtual event. We hope it will give you a bit of an insight of Veertly at its core. However, a word of warning, the open source works good for small meetups and events of up to 50 people, it does have several limitations and it is different in terms of features compared to the Veertly platform.

Create video content

Social media trends continue to show us that video content is the future. Our tip is to not be afraid to try out and utilize Instagram reels or social media video based platforms such as TikTok. There are many fun ways you can promote your next event. Present some educational facts about the topics of your event, present your speakers or do a live Instagram Q&A. But just remember to tailor your content according to the platform. See what kind of content works best for each of the platforms and don’t forget that Instagram has changed its algorithm when it comes to recycling video content from TikTok.

Utilise Instagram and Facebook stories, Twitter Fleets and LinkedIn stories

We know that Instagram stories became a huge success; they are short, concise and can be informative and fun! Their success prompted other platforms to utilize their own version of stories such as Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn. Hence, Veertly believes that using stories is a ticket to success and to further reach your followers and audience in promoting your event. There are some great features you can utilize in stories: Create a quiz, make “this or that”and use plenty of emojis 😃 , create a countdown to your event (this will allow for the interested parties to get a reminder for your event).

Create polls

Polls are not only a great way to engage your followers and the audience, but they can also give you a bit of an insight of your audience’s thoughts and opinions on particular topics and your upcoming event. They are easy to make, take less than 3 seconds to interact with and are a great conversation starter.

As we come to an end with the blog post, we hope that our 4 tips on organizing a virtual event on a low budget will help you in creating and executing your next event. The main two components of organising your virtual conferences and event are research and creativity, and we hope we gave you a little bit of an insight on where to start. In case you are interested in creating your next online event with Veertly, please do not hesitate to contact our wonderful customer support team, so we can assist you in making your idea a reality!