07/24/2022

Use Guided Conversations to Engage Virtual Attendees

Staff-guided virtual chats receive high marks

Even though many associations have spent a good part of the last two years hosting virtual events, attendee engagement remains a hot topic. Amid Zoom fatigue and in-person distractions, keeping virtual attendees engaged is something many events struggle with. In a post on Collaborate [ASAE member login required] from earlier this year, Jack Coursen, senior director of professional development at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), noted that they'd found success with having staff-guided conversations.

Here Coursen shares more about how these conversations work and takeaways other associations might appreciate.

Chats Outperformed “Virtual Networking”

For ASHA, the move to virtual coffees and teas where participants had staff-guided conversations came about after the pandemic forced their main in-person events to become virtual. ASHA had been doing virtual events for some time pre-pandemic, and a favorite aspect of attendees was a text-based chat feature where they could interact. But, given that this virtual event would be held for attendees who would have attended in person had it not been for the pandemic, staff wanted to try something different.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.