Without a doubt, an event of a global scale such as the COVID-19 pandemic that the entire planet has faced since 2020 has been a very complex situation for many people, who have seen their economy and mental health affected, generating a significant increase in the perception of uncertainty and anxiety about the future.

This pandemic has made us pay more attention to the concept of the well-being of people and their environment. Prioritizing the implementation of new actions by brands and companies worldwide, focused on issues such as personal time management and mental health.

But this situation has also affected the business sector, as is the case of companies dedicated to entertainment (tourism, concerts and other professional events), which had to face a significant increase in the rate of cancellations of their events.

However, these types of situations tend to generate new opportunities and show our most ingenious side to overcome different adverse circumstances. This is why, since the start of the pandemic, we must adapt to the new normal by changing the way we carry out our daily activities, even the way we relate to other people.

Likewise, many companies saw the need to modify the way they manage their daily activities and the way they deal with their employees, through strategies such as teleworking. In this way, many people managed to keep their jobs, performing their duties remotely with a computer and internet access.

This situation has also impulse the emergence of new digital tools and platforms focused on meeting needs that we previously only contemplated doing in person. Thus, many companies have managed to transform themselves by promoting new ways of offering their services, allowing their users to continue attending massive events without leaving their home, or exposing themselves to new outbreaks. But this would not have been possible without the momentum generated by the accelerated growth of strategies related to virtual reality.

In this way, many companies have managed to sustain their finances and even generate growth in the midst of such a complicated stage.

¿What advantages do virtual events offer?

Break the barrier of distance.

This new strategy now allows us that people located anywhere in the world can meet with a simple computer and an internet connection.

Costs reduction.

Being able to carry out our work from home or attend an event without moving from the armchair represents significant savings in travel, lodging and other transportation-related expenses. This allows that more people can access to services that would normally be out of their reach.

No capacity limits.

You will no longer have to worry about the number of tickets to your events, because now the access will be much more massive. An example of this is The Evening of Year 2, an event held by streamers on the Twitch platform in which there were more than 3 million people connected at the same time.

Less preparation times.

Virtual events require less preparation time, compared to face-to-face events, which represents a great relief for the organizers.

Real time measurement.

Now it is possible to obtain real-time metrics and know the performance of an event with much more precision.

¿What disadvantages do virtual events have?

Contact is reduced.

Unfortunately, losing physical contact with other attendees reduces the level of interactions that we can generate on a social level. However, there are alternatives that compensate for this disadvantage, one of them is the immersive factor that virtual reality offers us, which gives us the feeling of being in person at an event.

Low connectivity areas.

Although we are in a globalized world, in which more people have access to the Internet, we are still far from reaching 100%.

The most recent edition of the Digital 2022 report published by We Are Social and Hootsuite, indicates that the number of users with Internet access in the world reached 4,950 million people, this is equivalent to 62.5% of the world population.

¿What should a virtual event have to be successful?

There are many factors that influence the final result of any event, here we tell you some very important ones.

The interface is the key.

This also applies to many digital businesses. An intuitive and easy-to-use interface is key to getting users to stay on the site longer and find value in our service.

Excellent security protocols.

Given the imminent growth of users accessing new virtual content, there has also been an increase in cases of theft of personal information by hackers. For this reason, it is essential that the site offers the best security protocols to provide peace of mind to its customers.

High number of interactions.

Without a doubt, social interactions are the greatest advantage of face-to-face events over virtual ones, for this reason it is very important to enable channels that allow easy interaction between users during the event.

¿What can we expect in the future with virtual events?

Virtual events have been key to overcoming the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, so we can expect it to be a trend that continues to grow and continue to benefit many aspects of our daily lives.

For this reason, it will be more normal to hear about new concerts by our favorite artists on virtual reality platforms or to attend remotely guided tours of cities, buildings or museums. Because this new trend is here to stay.