Make Your Case – 5 Reasons to Implement a Virtual Conference

By Lance A. Simon, CGMP, CVEP

So -- you want to implement your first virtual conference! Any good conference starts with a good proposal. Let's take a closer look at the key elements that can help sell your virtual conference project. Think it's just about cost savings? Think again. Here are 5 top benefits you want to highlight.

1) Implement significant cost savings.

A virtual conference eliminates many physical conference costs - travel (of course!) but also conference rooms, advanced materials, on-site support, meeting materials & printing costs, and on-site A/V services. I recently worked with a CDC meeting planner to compare the costs of a basic 3-day physical conference with a comparable virtual conference. We compared 2 sizes - 350 and 1,000 attendees. Costs excepting travel were approximately the same for a 350 person meeting. But the virtual conference scales up with much less cost per incremental attendee --virtual conference costs were 20% lower than a physical meeting, or a whopping 75% lower if travel is included!

2) Improve attendee measurement and reporting.

Where are your attendees? Virtual conferences enable you to measure attendee knowledge against agency learning objectives - before, during and after the conference. You also get detailed reports on who attended which sessions, how long they were there, and what else they did in the site.

3) Decrease the environmental impact of meetings.

A CO₂ savings goal should be a compelling argument in your proposal. You can use a variety of models to calculate greenhouse gas emission savings, based on a given number of attendees coming from various locations. When you total it up, you can generate hundreds to thousands of metric tons saved by implementing your conference online.

4) Comply with laws, guidelines, executive orders, and your agency's mission.

We all know about EOs 13589 & 13576, and OMB 12-12. But there are many other related government directives you can leverage: support for digital strategies, calls for reduced meetings travel, and support for new methods to increase transparency and global collaboration.

5) Increase satisfaction and professional learning.

Are you expecting that participants will be less satisfied learning with an online conference? If so, get ready to be surprised. At a recent agency virtual conference,  94% of attendees indicated that the summit somewhat or absolutely met their personal learning objectives, and 89% were satisfied or highly satisfied with the event in terms of travel and convenience. Those are results to be proud of!

Previously published in the SGMP-NATCAP newsletter. iCohere, Inc., has served government agencies, nonprofits and associations since 1995. GSA Contract No. GS-35F-0490U. (202) 870-6146. Learn more about the iCohere 11 Unified Learning System at http://gov.iCohere.com and sign up for our innovative online training course at http://GovMeetingsGoVirtual.com.

The views expressed in this article do not represent any official views or positions the U.S. Government.