Over 37 million people attended 412,000 business events across Australia in 2014, according to Ernst & Young’s most recent report on the conference and business event industry1. But while these numbers are certainly impressive, imagine the potential if you could reach 10 times that number, and include every single one of your employees in the event?
Conferences and business seminars have traditionally been exclusive, invite-only events for your enterprise C-Suite and industry experts. This creates a barrier between attendees and the rest of your business, which can affect morale and create disinterest. If you could, wouldn’t you empower all your employees with insight from your conference?
Live streaming is an excellent tool for breaking down the walls of your event centre and bringing more people to a conference than ever before – with a number of business benefits.
Increase your demand
While there is no substitute for physically being at an engaging conference while its happening, every event centre will have physical and geographical limitations. Your business won’t have an infinite budget, so probably can’t afford to send all of your employees to every event. Similarly, attendance is limited by the size of your space.
Event centres have physical limitations – by live streaming, you can reach a far larger online audience.
With live streaming, physical limitations are lifted – you become instantly accessible to employees and audiences anywhere in the world simultaneously. This massive online audience also has the benefit of creating greater online interaction between global employees, getting them talking about your business. Creating this demand will likely lead to more requests than ever to be at your next conference.
Over 37 million people attended 412,000 business events across Australia in 2014.
New revenue streams and marketing opportunities
While you will need to make your stream instantly accessible and free for your business employees, there is a lucrative market in applying a small charge for other interested parties in your industry who may want to have an eye on proceedings. By charging for the stream or a saved video copy, you can continue to gain from your conference, even after it is all done.
Similarly, live streaming offers marketing and sponsorship opportunities which can increase revenue. You could offer a number of sponsorships packages, from allowing different organisations to sponsor individual speakers all the way up to having one brand as the official backer of your business event throughout your entire webcast.
Improve productivity and flexibility
You want your employees to be as engaged with and knowledge about your business as possible, right? Using professional live streaming and digital services gives your employees insight into the expert topics discussed during your conference, with this information part of a learning experience in making them better workers.
Having an event live streamed provides employees with the flexibility to attend the event from anywhere. If you have employees away on another conference, sick or on holiday, they can still be a part of the event by simply accessing your stream.
With a live stream, employees can still be involved in conference proceedings, from anywhere in the world.
Embracing a digital future
We all know the future of business is tied to digital technology. But by embracing live streaming and other similar technology sooner rather than later, you can gain a valuable reputation for being a thought-leader in your industry.
Digitell Inc claim that by 2025, 75 per cent of the workforce will be made up of millennials. This generation has grown up as digital natives and online learners, so offering live streaming services as a means of feeding their appetite for professional development will make your business stand out in the long run.
Accessing professional live streaming services
Want to know more about the power of streaming your next conference? CMS Australasia can guide you every step of the way as you blow open the walls of the event centre and allow more people than ever to attend and contribute to your conferences.
We can assist you with every step, from setting up the necessary equipment to monitoring in-video playback to ensure nothing goes wrong. We also offer digital service options such as closed captions, mobile playback, secure logins and live interactive elements.
For more information on how we can help your business take your conference to the world, request a proposal today.
1– EY’s last comprehensive industry report