3 Best Virtual Experiences I’ve Done This Pandemic
Pre-pandemic, I can’t think of a single virtual event experience I was invited to participate in. But starting this summer, PR teams started jumping on this bandwagon—some to better results than others. We’re all experiencing Zoom fatigue, so there are a lot of ways to get virtual events wrong and leave a journalist feeling like they’ve wasted his or her time participating. Here are three events that went well for me, why they worked and what I’d like to see from PR teams going forward.
Interactive Virtual Cheese Tasting
One of the first virtual experiences I participated in this summer was a cheese tasting event for Travel Wisconsin, put on by Turner PR in mid-June. This may sound like an obvious winner by nature of the topic (who doesn’t love cheese?) but I was really impressed by the organization of this event, and I swear I saw writer friends also on the call talking about this for weeks afterward. It was one of the first events where I received a box of goodies in advance of the call (namely, cheese samples and some cute extras, like cheese knives and a “passport to cheese” board), so that had my attention out of the gate. Since then, it’s become much more common, but the first always leaves an impression. This event was very interactive and questions were encouraged, which I liked. Post-event, follow-ups were fast and friendly, not pushy. I’ll keep Wisconsin cheese experts I met virtually here top of mind for future stories.
What made it great: Communication was stellar. We received several emails showing exactly where to register (believe it or not, this is not always clear with virtual event invites), what to do and how to prepare. I liked how everyone was on video for this event, and also that they included all relevant social media handles and hashtags to include. They even made GIPHY stickers for the event on Instagram. Talk about creative!
Fall Foodie Tour
In early October, the PR manager with Traverse City, Michigan, invited me on a “fall flavors” virtual media tour. I’ll admit I’ve been leery of accepting any invites for things called virtual press trips, simply because I spend enough time behind my screen each day and previously hadn’t expected a lot from these. No matter what approach you take, there’s no replacement for an in-person visit to a destination. What impressed me most about this was the extremely well curated box of treats that arrived a few days in advance of the hour-long event, though: delicious dried cherries (including chocolate-covered ones, too), a fantastic loaf of sunflower seed bread and ingredients to make a cocktail with local ingredients from Iron Fish Distillery (to name a few).
What made it great: Besides the delicious treats, this event was very well organized. Communications clearly spelled out who would be on the call from local Traverse City businesses, listing out their full names, titles and links to their respective websites. I also enjoyed how the PR manager put all photo, video and information assets from each spot in a single Dropbox link and shared with us pre-event.
Virtual Paint and Sip
Once again, Turner PR delivered an incredible experience – this time for another destination client, the Tupelo (MS) CVB, in late September. The communication was also wonderful on this one: The PR pro provided a friendly invite spelling out exactly what we’d be doing and how much time we’d need to commit to taking part (this is key!). Using the box of art supplies that were delivered two days prior, we were guided through a fall foliage painting experience with a local artist—that even included gold leaf!—and learned how to make a cocktail with Tupelo-made mead and lavender.
What made it great: I was intrigued from the beginning at the concept of this, because I loved the idea of taking a creative break in the middle of the day (the event was held from 2:30-4PM my time) to play with paints. Because the event was kept small (I think we had six or eight writers on the call), it felt intimate and a safe space to talk and ask lots of questions. I got several solid story ideas from this one that are in the works.
The top takeaways here: Communication is key. Send the calendar invites early, clearly spell out what’s in it for the journalist to participate, and become really good at the friendly follow-up. Pushy doesn’t work here. Expectations are different for virtual experiences than in-person visits. It’s more about creating a lasting impression than looking for immediate results. Lastly, having something tangible to look at, taste, feel, smell, etc. while you participate makes a difference. It’s not about things, but the thought that goes into it, and connecting the virtual to IRL experience.
A few things I’d like to see from virtual events that I haven’t yet:
Sharing lists of who else is on the call in advance (provided they are reasonably sized, say 20 people or less), and doing something to forge connection among participants, even if it’s just giving everyone 30 seconds at the beginning to introduce themselves. There’s great value for me as a freelancer to network with other writers and editors on these shared experiences, but PR teams are (so far) not capitalizing on this.
Greater interactivity on the calls—letting attendees help shape how they flow, rather than having a set agenda that takes up nearly all of the set time, leaving little room for questions at the end. PR teams could do this by asking questions to participants via email pre-event, or opening up questions at the beginning to learn what journalists want to hear about.
Very intimate lists (less than five journalists) that provide specific story ideas that a writer would theoretically be able to turn around and immediately pitch to an editor following the call, without having to first schedule a follow-up interview. I would like to see PR collaborating more with writers in the process of planning these events so that there can be strong results from both sides immediately. I’ve been working with one PR pro on an experience like this already, and I’m excited to see what comes from it.
What have been your biggest challenges with virtual events this year? Are you seeing any ROI from them? What can I help you with in terms of planning your next virtual experience for journalists? Share with me in the comments below, or send me an email.