Top Benefits of Virtual Summits: The Creative Alternative to Conferences

We need creative solutions: events are being cancelled, schools are closing, and meetings are moving online. There is no indication of how long this may last.

The latest idea to emerge on the landscape is a Virtual Summit. While they are hardly new, they have emerged as an affordable and accessible way of moving business online. They are also a great means for building reputation, sky-rocketing visibility and affirming credibility.

A virtual summit is an online-only event where 1 or more people create and curate content around specific subject areas. The most common form is to present a series of pre-recorded interviews with subject matter experts with accompanying live chats.

The Summits are a great idea because they allow the producers to demonstrate the breadth of their know-how during the interviews, expand their network and share real, actionable content online. The concept also allows a broad range of emerging voice to be heard. Not everyone can access the time and goodwill of Big Names, so newer, fresher voices tend to agree to take part… making Virtual Summits THE place to go for the latest and most cutting edge in various subjects.

But more than these marketing benefits, Virtual Summits also offer benefits specific to what we are currently experiencing. For a start, having no expensive overheads to cover, they lower the economic barrier to knowledge and give access to anyone in the world with an internet connection. So, while we are nearly all immobilised in quarantine, they provide a venue for knowledge exchange, learning and community.

They also have almost no carbon footprint. No flights, no taxis, no busses. They are the ultimate green way to do international business and of course, to avoid exposure to infection.

The barriers to making a Virtual Summit have also dropped, with various all-in-one offerings coming online, the technical requirements are far less than a couple of years ago. This means you do NOT have to be a technical, coding wizard to pull a Summit off, you just need to have the network of speakers and the ability to spread the word. Oh, and a lot of time to get it all set-up in!

https://playfulcreativesummit.com/

I have spent since November working on the Playful Creative Summit 2020, a virtual summit all about Play and Creativity. We have interviewed nearly 40 playful creative professionals and unearthed some absolute gems of information, tips and tricks.

The summit hasn’t even happened yet, but already I have learned so much: anecdotes, observations and research information… all have come under the microscope.

The medium is also fantastic… allowing participants to see behind the curtain a bit and to get to know the person behind the craft. It is also a creative solution to the current conference scene.

In times like these, creative responses to shared problems are gold, so we are proud to be sharing a way for many people internationally to get together and think creatively. We hope this in itself may have some positive impact.

In our summit, we have interviews with painters, game coders, potters, designers, design thinkers, gamestormers, musicians, yogis and more. All revealing their personal take on playfulness and creativity with fantastic tips on how they do what they do and therefore how you could adopt their methods and enhance your own work/craft.