2020 saw more and more events move from a traditional conferencing space to an online one, and this is unlikely to change in 2021. Affiliates need to be able to manage their time in these video conferences as best as they can so they can maximise their benefits from them.
Keep up to date with the calendar
Your calendar might have already been filled with potential events that you wished to attend throughout the year. Decisions will have been made by the organisers as to whether or not they are going to push ahead with them, and so you should check back to find out if a digital alternative is going to be offered instead.
Constructing your calendar in this way will also give you time to organise other things too. Since the event is digital, you will not have to put time and resources aside for travel and potentially accommodation. This allows you to focus on other tasks that might need your attention in the run-up to the conference, allowing for a more productive event for you overall.
Do your research
If you were attending an event in person, you would do your research. From looking at the various topics available for debate or discussion to researching some of the speakers who will be attending the event with you, these are all key pieces of prep that would allow you to attend the actual conference with your best foot forward.
Take a look online to see what there is in terms of resources for attendees. You may be able to find an event hashtag or page that will allow you to see the other people who might be attending with you, or you might even be able to find some pre-discussion. This is an important networking event and, though it is very different compared to networking IRL, you need to ensure that you are building these key connections that could help your affiliate network.
Follow up
Once the conference is over, you will hopefully have a list of leads that you can follow up on. Make sure that you do – having a list of contacts and not reaching out to them is not going to achieve anything. It could be as simple as a check-in email. Just a quick introduction and a mention that you saw them speak at the event could be all you need to get the ball rolling.
The beauty of digital events is that many of them are also recorded and distributed afterwards. If there was a panel that you missed as it clashed with another, take a look to see if you can find a stream of it online. This will allow you to engage with even more content from the conference, and could potentially generate even more leads for you.
Digital conferences and spaces are likely to be the norm for 2021, so affiliates need to learn how to navigate them sooner rather than later. Take the above points into consideration as your first few video conferences of 2021 approaches.
