In 2022, digital content will be more important than ever. For field marketers, questions of how to create, leverage, and measure the effectiveness of their content are key concerns. Regardless of event format (be it hybrid, virtual, or in-person), digital content is a game-changer for extending the life of events beyond their run time.

On December 10th, BDI’s CEO and Founder Steve Etzler sat down with enterprise video platform Qumu’s CEO Jen Dimas for Let’s Get Digital: Creating Content that Extends the Life of Your Events. At their fireside chat, Steve asked Jen to share her experience with hybrid events, what digital content she’s seen the most success with, and how to maximize the value of 2022 programs.

Check out a few of the top things we learned from the discussion on the 10th.

1. Post-event digital content is a major priority

“This is an interesting conversation…probably there are some people that didn’t hear about it that would benefit from this conversation,” Jen Dimas shared.

As the CMO of a video engagement platform, Jen knows that video content works, and she advocated for event attendees (and listeners of the event recording) to extend the value of their own events by creating and distributing evergreen digital content.

2. Don’t underestimate the power of analytics

Without data and analysis, the hard work your team is doing to produce and promote digital content is useless.

“It’s about making sure you have measurement in place to see what is engaging and what works, so that you can do more of the things that work and less of the things that don’t,” Jen said.

3. If you’re going to do hybrid events, do them right

Jen shared two hybrid event experiences she’s had in 2021 — one great, and one that was not so great. The event that was not well executed was held in a large, empty venue with a small in-person registration, and the virtual attendee experience was more of an afterthought.

The successful event, on the other hand, did an excellent job of integrating the virtual piece into the in-person event. There were screens on either side of the stage running the live chat and virtual attendee camera feeds during the presentation. “It really felt like they were sitting with us the whole time,” she remarked.

4. For the time being, virtual events are the safe bet

“Our Plan A is to have virtual events right now,” Jen said when Steve asked her what Qumu is doing in terms of event contingency plans.

She emphasized the importance of developing “on point” content, especially for virtual events where fatigue is at an all-time high. Engagement is also key for her. Asking virtual attendees to come on camera if they’re comfortable and to participate in the chat are so important for encouraging interactivity.

5. When it comes to virtual events, shorter is better

Snackable content is not only easier for virtual attendees to pay attention to, it’s also easier to convert into bite-sized digital content assets.

“I think the shorter meetings that you can do that are more on-purpose, that are more specifically placed that will engage people, that’s gonna be much better off,” Jen shared.

Curious to hear more takeaways from our conversation with Jen? Fill out the form at the top of the page to access the full event content.