Whether your next fandom event is hosted completely online, or is an in-person event with virtual components, it’s important to settle on the right event technology to turn your online dreams into a reality. While some event organizers have taken to sharing free live streams or past content via social media or other third-party platforms, these scattered tools can leave fans feeling less than fulfilled. To create your complete virtual fandom convention, it’s key to partner with an integrated event technology solution in order to provide a seamless fan journey from start to finish.
We’ve broken down seven key components of a complete virtual fandom solution to explain what a difference they can make to you and your fans!
Gated Access
When it comes to your online content, controlling who has access to your streams, panels, fan communities, and live chats is crucial to generating revenue from ticket sales. Take full control over who attends each part of your online fandom experience and secure your exclusive content by providing every fan with a unique access code to use for entry into your virtual event. For them, the experience isn’t much different than buying a ticket to any other event! For you, automatically assigning a unique access code to each attendee means you can easily track who attends your sessions, panels, and other online activities to gain valuable insights for targeted marketing campaigns and future event content planning.
Event Companion App
One of the most effective ways to keep your fans connected before, during, and after your virtual fandom event is by offering an event companion app that acts as a centralized hub for event content, session details, announcements, and more. Encourage attendees to download your app when they purchase tickets to access a dashboard of your entire convention lineup that highlights your full schedule of events and activities. With our parent company’s (Patron Technology) integrated mobile app features, you can even give your attendees a custom experience. They can plan out exactly what sessions, panels, and activities they want to attend, play branded games, and easily connect with your community.
Live Stream
Whether you’re putting together a virtual comic con, gaming expo, or anime convention, live streaming is the primary medium for bringing your fandom event’s content to a virtually limitless audience. With a fully integrated solution like ours, you can stream live sessions, pre-recorded content, or a hybrid of the two to fit the busy schedules of your celebrity guests and exhibitors. Throughout your event, you can provide registered fans the ability to unlock your online content, like panel discussions, demo presentations, exclusive screenings, and intimate Q&A sessions, bringing every bit of the action straight to their screen. And after your stream is finished, you can choose to share a recording with those who attended live, or even continue to sell access to the recording after the fact!
Celebrity Meet & Greets
One of the absolute focal points of any fandom convention is the ability to meet some of their favorite celebrities and creators. Level up your virtual event by giving fans the opportunity to do just that with virtual meet & greets! A virtual meet & greet works in much the same way as an in-person experience, giving fans the chance to have a full-on conversation with a celebrity, artist, or entertainer, either one-on-one or in a group setting. Our solution enables you to provide your fans with things like timed meet & greets, limited-capacity fan chats, personalized pre-recorded videos, and even autograph requests. Picture it – your attendees get to meet their heroes, then receive a recording of their session as the ultimate keepsake from your virtual fandom event!
Gamification
Build your virtual fandom experience to be just as engaging as any in-person convention by offering an array of fan-favorite games, like GIF battles, virtual scavenger hunts, match-to-win puzzles, and more. While waiting for your next epic panel or session to start, your online attendees can play games and connect with each other right from within your dedicated event app, so they’re always engaged with your event (and sponsors)! Fans simply log into your app, pick their game of choice, and follow the instructions to earn badges and win any and all exclusive prizes you choose to offer, like VIP online celebrity experiences or limited edition merch.
Community-Driven Experiences
A tight-knit community is central to any fandom event, and fostering those connections online is a crucial piece of making your virtual event a memorable fan experience. It’s important to provide every opportunity for genuine connection and engaging interaction between your virtual attendees to ensure your online convention will bring the same sense of togetherness as the in-person events. Do so with features like live chats during your streams, interactive waiting rooms before panels and sessions, virtual cosplay tournaments with in-app voting, exclusive watch parties, and real-time user-generated polls.
Sponsorship Engagement
Sponsorship activations will always be a key component (and major revenue source) for any fandom convention, and our solution allows you to ensure your virtual fandom events are no exception. Take your virtual sponsorship offerings beyond the obvious in-app banner ads and branded push notifications (which we absolutely do offer!) by also providing prospective sponsors even more exciting features, like pre- and post-session sponsored videos, merchandise unveiling sessions to showcase their products and offerings, sponsored online games and prizes, and much more. It’s a win-win: while fans gain access to exclusive sponsored content, your sponsors will be on the receiving end of valuable customer data they can use for future marketing campaigns.
Ready to start planning your fandom experience? Find out today why Patron Technology offers the perfect virtual fandom event solution, which, of course, is completely integrated into the ShowClix system!