The Real Scoop on Virtual Events

With fall upon us and colder weather coming, our "hibernation" instinct kicks in and people start to stay in more. But even if you are ensconced in layers of blankets with a pumpkin latte in hand, you can still grow your professional knowledge base. Virtual events have been growing in popularity among event planners and attendees alike. In the government market specifically, over 60% of federal employees surveyed reported attending one or more webinars in the past year. 46% of government marketers surveyed are planning on investing in webinars in the coming year.

The allure of virtual events is cost and time savings. With no physical venue to rent and no need to travel, both planners and attendees save money as well as time. These virtual meetings run the spectrum from basic webinar-type presentations of power point slides, to interactive video demos, to fully immersive virtual worlds with online tradeshow booths that include the ability to chat with exhibitors. But no matter the format, all virtual events share a key challenge - how to engage and keep the attention of attendees who are in an environment full of distractions. Meeting this challenge requires commitments on the part of attendees and event planners.

For a virtual event to be successful, it needs to have the right type of content for an online environment. Since a virtual event can be put together relatively quickly, they are a great option for communicating and collaborating on timely topics and information. They are also a great way to show demos of new technology and answer direct questions about functionality and potential uses of products. Finally, virtual events are often tied to a specific learning goal. The online format allows for testing to be built into the event allowing for immediate measurement of information retained.

We've pulled together some engaging events that understand the challenges of the virtual medium and deliver great content as well as great experiences.

• Cloud Performance Monitoring (October 31, 2018) - This webinar will break down the complexities of cloud environment performance monitoring. The tips provided will help to support advanced troubleshooting and also generate performance data and reporting to help achieve agency cloud objectives and service level agreements (SLAs). This webinar qualifies for 1 CPE.
• OMB's New Customer Experience Guideline (November 1, 2018) -- In June 2018, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued new guidance for federal government agencies on incorporating best practices and principles of customer experience as a business discipline into their organization. This webinar will discuss what the A-11 Section 280 guidance is and what it means for you, which agencies it applies to, and how customer experience and strategic planning executives, along with other agency executives, may need to partner across their organization in order to comply with the new guidelines.
• Public Health - Flu (December 4, 2018) - This FEMA led virtual tabletop exercise (VTTX) has a focus on the impacts of a novel influenza virus on the public health community. The VTTX involves key personnel discussing simulated scenarios in an informal setting, and can be used to assess plans, policies, training, and procedures. It is intended to provide an opportunity for responders across the Nation to simultaneously participate in a hazard-specific facilitated discussion.
• Virtual Tabletop Exercise - Long Term Power Outage (January 16, 2019) - In this virtual event, key personnel from the emergency management community of practice will review a pre-packaged set of exercise materials, then convene for a four-hour tabletop exercise discussion of a simulated disaster scenario with a total of 10-15 individual sites. The virtual format allows the connected sites to assess current plans, policies, and procedures while learning from the other connected sites, as they provide their perspective and practice while exercising a similar situation.
• The Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program (on-demand webinar) - Produced by GovLoop, this webinar details Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigations (CDM), a program that provides government agencies automated cybersecurity capabilities oriented around prioritization to defend against today's advanced cyberthreats. It introduces the CDM program and walks attendees through the process phase by phase.
• Orchestrating Digital Workspaces in a Multi-Device World (on-demand webinar) - Computerworld magazine features Steve Brasen, research director at a leading IT analyst firm, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), to discuss how to adopt digital workspace solutions that create consistent user experiences by leveraging self-service capabilities, automation, and integration. It features results from primary, survey-based research on current endpoint utilization and workspace requirements, as well as get a pragmatic guide to on-boarding a digital workspace solution.

Let us know where you're (virtually) going for continuing education.