Your next International Dance Festival deserves to be more exciting and engaging than a standard Dance Festival. A Virtual Events Platform can help transform a standard Dance Festival into an amazing hybrid event. One where both attendees and also virtual attendees around the world can interact.
In this article, I will share some basic advice on adding a virtual events platform to enhance your Dance Festival. Specifically by embracing new forms of digital marketing and management technology.
Firstly, let's go over what is a Virtual Events platform?
A basic definition of a virtual events platform is software that assists users to host virtual & hybrid events. It can include meetings, festivals, trade shows, conferences, seminars, sports events, etc. This type of software includes many features, which go way beyond the well-known video conferencing software.
Why should a Dance Festival Organizer add a virtual events platform?
A virtual events platform enables you to property promote, scale and better manage your International Dance Festival. It can also increase your revenues, cut costs and help you to better organize your event. It is basically another tool in your toolbelt.
What are some important event technology items to consider when setting up a Hybrid Dance Festival?
1. Dance Festival Website (SEO)
A Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Festival website. This is a key tool to shape the marketing message that you want to share. Your Dance Festival website should provide potential attendees with all of the information regarding your festival.
This includes but is not limited to the schedule, list of performing artists, instructors, DJs, styles of music and dances at the festival, number or dance rooms for each dance style, hotel information, transportation information, promotional codes, and links available for promoters, registration information, types of passes and what each pass includes, contact information, etc.
While many organizers rely on Facebook to promote their events, a properly tuned SEO Website will reach a larger audience. Additionally, using other free SEO Dance Festival websites with worldwide events calendars, such as Bachata Embassy and Kizomba Embassy, will help you increase the visibility of your festival to potential overseas attendees.
2. Online Event Guide
One of the most frustrating items for Dance Festival attendees is not having an up-to-date online events guide. As a result, they have a tough time deciding what workshops, performances, and special classes to attend. Many Dance Festival organizers do a poor job of keeping attendees updated on changes to their festivals schedule. By utilizing an online events guide, festival organizers can easily update schedule changes in real-time. Thus resulting in a significant positive impact on the attendee’s overall experience.
3. Virtual Registration
By using a virtual events platform for registration, you will be able to speed up the process when the attendees arrive. This is also an important tool to collect data, which can be used to grow your future festivals.
During a virtual registration, attendees can pay online, answer preference questions for theme parties, dress codes and also workshops. The important thing to remember is to use this information to scale your Dance Festival for future editions. Additionally, by hearing directly from attendees prior to the festival, you are able to tailor the event to what they want in order to have a successful event.
4. Email Marketing
Email Marketing is vital to your current and future festivals. It allows you to communicate directly, increase registrations and receive feedback from surveys. Using an email marketing tool with personalized automated emails can also assist you in increasing the number of attendees. Many companies provide this service so choose one that meets both your needs and your budget.
5. Dance Festival Feedback System
Dance Festival feedback is very important to organizers. It allows them to improve each festival and fix mistakes and problems that occurred at past festivals. Every Dance Festival has its positives and negatives. By utilizing an easy feedback system, attendees can highlight the issues to the organizer in a discrete manner.
What are some specific things a Dance Festival Organizer can do with this software?
1. Develop new Dance Festival Sponsors
Dance Festival sponsors can help cut the cost of setting up your Dance Festival and also attract additional attendees. By putting together smart sponsorship packages, you can find good sponsors, who are also interested in marketing their services and products to your attendees.
Currently, I only see large-scale dance festivals in major cities of the United States of America receiving good sponsorship deals from many large corporations. A good example is the New York International Salsa Congress, which has multiple sponsors.
2. Hold live workshops for virtual attendees
Let’s face it, not everyone is financially able to travel and attend International Dance Festivals and events. Why not consider using a Virtual Events platform to hold a live dance workshop from your festival. A special virtual pass can be sold to virtual attendees thereby increasing your revenue.
3. Dance Festival Automated Promotion
A Virtual Events Platform can help you with automation. Dance Festival marketing is a difficult job. In order to run a successful Dance Festival, it requires a lot of work. Moreover much of which starts almost a year in advance of the actual festival itself.
Automation can seamlessly promote your festival across multiple social media platforms. It can also help you to track exactly which campaign is working well and which are not.
4. Host a Live Dance Competition & Awards Ceremony Online
Host a Dance Awards Ceremony live so that people around the world can watch it live. This can also be done for your top dancers’ performances.
5. Hold live polls during your festival
Engagement is the key to growing your festival. By holding live polls during a festival, organizers can gauge the festival’s attendee’s answers in real-time. They can also make changes on the fly resulting in a better experience for the attendees.
What to look for when choosing a Virtual Events platform?
1. Pricing
This varies with each company so make sure to find one that falls within your budget. Some virtual event planning tools only cost a few dollars per festival attendee. While others can cost thousands per event. It mainly comes down to the level of on-demand support you want to receive from your technology partner.
Request a tailored demo for your hybrid dance festival that fits your budget and needs. Let these companies assist you with setting up your hybrid festival. See what suggestions they have, that may be of interest to you. Options normally include a special customizable landing page for your event, online registration, festival passes, and a payment system. A custom 2D or 3D lobby, live event monitoring, event production, etc.
Some virtual events platforms require you to pay a monthly fee to get access to their software. Additionally many have a free trial so you can check out the features before you buy.
Many virtual events platforms will also offer full-service event management to help you plan, run your hybrid dance festival. Make sure to choose the best one to meet both your needs and budget!
2. Ease of use
Remember the KISS principle, which is an acronym for Keep It Simple Stupid! Look for software that is easy to use. Start small, keep it simple and stay within your budget!
3. Scalability
Look for software that can help you grow your festival over time. Festival organizers that wish to grow their festivals rapidly should pay special attention to the scalability of the software they are considering using.
Additionally, don’t forget to ask about software integration. This is the process of linking several different subsystems together into a unified system.
4. Reviews
Check out what other people have to say about the platform that you are considering using. One popular location to see user reviews can be found at Capterra.com.
I hope this information is useful to you in enhancing your Dance Festival. While many festival organizers have a low budget, don’t be afraid to look at some of these options to use new technologies to enhance your international Dance Festival!
Let me know if you have any additional recommendations or see any other technologies that can help dance festival organizers with future festivals! You can leave a comment below or contact us here!
Brian Moran
CEO of Kizomba Embassy
Brian Moran is a Salsa, Bachata & Kizomba dancer from New York City. He has been fortunate to live and work abroad in Europe, Asia, and also the Caribbean for over 13 years.
While living overseas, he has attended hundreds of international dance festivals and events and has also taken classes with some of the top professional Salsa, Bachata, and Kizomba Instructors worldwide.