Whether you’re in sales, marketing or event management, I think we can all agree – these past months have been a rollercoaster ride. For some of us, the ups and downs were not very enjoyable. We prefer a smooth ride full of forecasting, planning, and flawless execution of our carefully crafted strategies.   

The determination and resilience of industry professionals like you continues to impress! We might have to strap our seatbelts down a little tighter as these next few months promise more loop-de-loops. Right now, our plans for 2021 are shaky at best and include a pretty wild cocktail mix of hybrid, live, virtual, recorded, webinars and more.

It’s my hope through writing this article that you will be able to gain clarity into the shift to virtual, and that through this clarity you will be able to craft a solid blueprint for the future. Let’s focus on creating a plan for the future by first diving into the past.

In-Person Events

In this high-energy scenario, hundreds or potentially thousands of people would pack the floor. We would mingle and migrate from booth to booth, starting or ending the day by squeezing together into a small room for a presentation. Extensive planning would go into choosing booth decor, swag, printed leaflets, and travel arrangements. In-person events and the connections made while there were so vital to so many industries – Then, we hit an abrupt and unexpected stop. 

Virtual Events 

While the feedback on these shows were originally trending towards negative, the pioneers and visionaries of virtual event platforms have pivoted in such a way that virtual events are now becoming more widely accepted and effective. 

However, web conferencing alone is not a complete solution to overcome the challenges of the decreased engagement of the passive virtual attendee. That is where Virtual 2.0 is slowly emerging. 

Virtual 2.0

With the world already pivoting to embrace virtual events, the gap still remains clear. We need a way to engage the potential client beyond a static image and a short sales form that is pasted onto our virtual booths. What the virtual event space is lacking is the high-energy, fun and excitement we found in F2F events in the past. Let’s be honest… We also miss the swag and rewards that came out of spinning a wheel for a prize! 

That’s where Captello steps in. We can provide fun and entice potential customers to visit your page by offering an entire line up of exciting games like Whack-a-mole, Trivia, and even Spin the Wheel! In addition, we offer instant rewards and follow-up through our Digital Gift Card offerings. E-Gift Card Rewards seal the deal with over 250 internationally recognized e-gift cards, delivered automatically on your behalf by the Reward Center

The Next Normal

With the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine, we will start seeing in-person shows again in the future. However, based on industry surveys, we predict that there will always be either virtual or hybrid options. The question still remains – How do you fully utilize these platforms in order to meaningfully engage attendees? 

Captello has been working hard to develop new, next-normal opportunities to create meaningful connections and engaging experiences across virtual, live and digital platforms in any industry. Primarily, by next level lead capture and gamification software with rich features, deep personalization capabilities and automated workflows to help you engage prospects and obtain measurable results at virtual and in-person events. We also provide everything you need to run your own events of any size, whether that’s corporate conferences, road shows, product launches, or “other”. Our growing arcade of exciting games and activations deliver on average 35% increase in traffic across platforms. 

In conclusion, We need to change, starting TODAY.

Change takes place through long-term transformative customer engagement strategies allowing companies to clearly communicate their differentiated value, develop sustainable and predictable revenue streams, and provide a true competitive advantage – thus, coming out stronger when the storm clears. We won’t go back to the old way of doing things or continue to operate as we have.

Get more information about Captello Games for Business, Universal Lead Capture, and Hosted Event Solutions.

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