LIVE (Events) in the Time of Corona
With due apologies to Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Image Source: Business Insider
If you’re reading this right now, it’s safe to assume that you’re among the lucky ones who can manage to work from home, in light of the health & safety risks associated with the #Corona virus.
In this post, we take a look at some of the major events that have been rescheduled due to the #lockdown issued by the government to curb the spread of the #Covid19 pandemic, which is spreading by the minute.
We also look at how some event organizers have managed to change their on-ground events to online events and encourage fans to #StayHome while still enjoying the event.
South By Southwest (SXSW)
Starting with the big daddy of them all – The South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual media festival in Austin, Texas, was cancelled due to the outbreak.
Source: Google
Adobe’s Annual Live Summit
Source: Adobe
While Adobe cancelled the on-ground summit, it is now organizing it virtually. Which means, you can attend it sitting at home 🙂 Here’s the link to sign up.
The Alipore Post’s Online Festival
Closer home, The Alipore Post organized an online festival on World Poetry Day (Mar 21st, 2020) featuring artists, poets, musicians, chefs, photographers and other talented folks. This was an excellent way to entertain and educate their fans who were stuck at home.
Virtual Startup Saturday
Source: Airmeet
Headstart’s Startup Saturday Mumbai Edition, which is held monthly at Bhavan’s College, Andheri, was held virtually this time. This is something I try to attend whenever possible and this time around, I managed to catch it virtually.
Next Steps: What can your brand do?
Considering that we are yet to find a treatment for the Corona Virus, it will take a while before we can go back to live events. So here’s what you can do to ensure that your events are not disrupted:
Webinars: Surely, you know about webinars and how they can help save costs. But guess what, in these times of social distancing, they’re a great way to get your audience on the same (web)page!
Platforms like Zoom, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams are perfect to host webinars for your clients or fans. What’s more, if this article is to be believed, Google & Microsoft are giving access to their Enterprise softwares for free.
Online-only Events: Event organizing portals like Eventbrite have added a few tweaks to their platforms, wherein you can now host a virtual event. Do read up more about it here.
Instagram Live: If you’re looking for a simpler and a more social-media friendly way to organise your event, Facebook or Instagram LIVE would be ideal, as seen in the case of The Alipore Post Online Festival.
If you’re looking to host a webinar for your clients, you could get in touch with us by contacting: Bharati at 9321699422 or write to info@bcwebwise.com
