What we learnt taking our study fairs online

I didn’t think a virtual fair would replace a physical fair for me, and to be honest I’m not there yet. However, I do think there is a lot of value in virtual events, and some real advantages of being online:

1. Geography is not a problem

Virtual fairs remove the distance, time and cost restraints of actually attending physical fairs, which meant our university exhibitors were based all over the world, as well as the fair attracting an international visitor audience.

This facilitated university and prospective student interactions which may never have happened at a physical fair.

2. More subject specific knowledge

The platform we used allowed exhibitors to have up to 10 representatives take part. This meant that universities who might normally send one representative to a physical fair, could have specific representatives covering admissions, funding, student support and experience, specific faculties, current students, or even alumni.

3. Recorded conversations & analytics

Our exhibitors were able to gain lead data from all visitors who accessed their stand, as well as visitors who were interested in their programmes, and view their public and private conversation transcripts.

Having this data gave our exhibitors clear records of their conversations and a ready-made list for easy follow-up.

My take homes after running our first virtual fair

1. Choose the right platform

We always knew this would be hugely important, but our first experience has only reiterated the significance of this. The platform you choose controls the event aesthetics, user-experience and functionality for universities and students, as well as the support and response you’ll receive if something goes wrong.

Probably the biggest thing I’ve learnt is that all software will have merits and limitations, and software may not be able to deliver every item from your ‘wish-list’. The important thing for me is knowing these limitations from the start and being able to make informed decisions based on what’s most important for the event, your exhibitors and visitors.

Getting to grips with the intricacies of the software is another key takeaway for me, as the quicker you know the software inside out, the easier and more efficient troubleshooting will be.

2. Make things easy for exhibitors

For some exhibitors this was the first virtual fair they had taken part in, and for most, the first on the platform we were using, so there were lots of questions about the software from the offset.

Our events team were always on hand to assist, and one feature of the software that was particularly useful was the demo function, which enabled exhibitors to view their stand and test the software before the fair.

We’re now armed with a whole host of questions and queries that exhibitors asked this time around, which not only fed into our software ‘wish-list’, but also will shape our communications in future.

3. Think about the users

You can create exciting graphics, or excellent chat functionality at a virtual event, but if users can’t navigate around the fair, find universities, or access useful content, then something isn’t right.

We created four different exhibition halls for Masters, PhD, MBA and Online Study and exhibitors featured in these depending on what programmes they offered.

This allowed visitors to find universities that they might not have necessarily known about and clearly signposted universities as offering various levels of study.

It’s certainly not all been smooth-sailing, but we’ve had some successes, and have learnt a huge amount from our first FindAUniversity virtual fair. We’re now looking forward to putting our experience and feedback into practise to create bigger and better virtual fairs in the future.