Did you know that virtual events are up 1000% since Coronavirus? Many webinar platforms worked on adding virtual conference features to keep up with demand.

There are virtual events for personal celebrations, such as holidays or weddings, and professional events, such as conferences or networking. Keep reading, and we will walk you through 10 reasons why companies are using virtual hiring events for tech recruiting.

1. Lower Costs

Career fairs or networking events can be costly. You want to make your business stand out, whether you have a table or sign and swag to hand out, so people remember your company.

Virtual events allow for a less expensive way to network because you can put them on for free and can use that money to send people fun swag and market the event. You can get creative with marketing and target the types of candidates you’re looking for with your company’s current open positions.

2. Dare to be Different

At the beginning of quarantine, many companies were hiring freeze or had to go through layoffs. Now that everything is back and companies are looking to hire and bring people back, you need to make your company stand out before and during the interview process.

Creating a virtual event that shows what open positions you have helps promote your company’s culture, and incorporates a fun activity or way to meet people that can set you apart. In-person career fairs don’t allow for activities; they usually aren’t real-time ways to display your company culture.

3. Targeted Reach

In-person events are restricted to a particular location. For college career fairs, they are usually in-person at the college, and you’re only meeting with students there.

You have to spend money to travel to multiple colleges to meet a range of candidates. With online events, you can promote it to people from all over, and no one has to travel; they can attend from their dorm or home.

You can put some of that money toward targeted marketing. You can send out emails and create social media ads.

Around 49% of marketers say having audience engagement is the most significant factor in making your event successful. You can use social media to get people engaged and create fun contests and get people engaged on your social media accounts.

4. Take Control

Another positive to virtual events is that you can control the complete setup, who attends, and who you talk to after. There’s less control in person because at career fairs or significant networking events, and you can’t control who comes to your table or booth.

This connects to control over your reach as well; you can make it as open or structured of an event as you need. You can make the event invite-only and less available if you’re looking for a niche group of candidates.

5. Timing

A benefit to virtual events is that you can have people from multiple time zones join simultaneously without the expense of traveling. However, with busy schedules and the West coast is three hours behind the East coast, you want to find a time that works best for everyone.

People say that 11 a.m. PST, 1 p.m. CST, and 2 p.m. EST is the ideal time across all three coasts. With busy meeting schedules and not wanting to go past working hours, this is an excellent time for an early or late lunch event on either coast. It also helps that people are more in control of their free time and hours.

6. Becoming Tech Savvy

People keep up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, email, and on phone apps. Use technology to your advantage with virtual events.

Make fun virtual invitations that will attract audiences on all forums. You can show your potential candidates that you can communicate effectively and efficiently through these platforms.

Familiarizing yourself with these platforms will also lead to a successful event because you can use them to make virtual networking interactive.

7. Capture Information

You can gather people’s information and organize it a lot easier than at in-person events. At in-person events, people hand out paper business cards, resumes, and write out their name and phone number.

At virtual events, you can gather all of this information by having each person create a profile or using Excel Sheets or email. You can make it a requirement for people to send over some basic information and a resume to attend.

8. Broad Audience

Just as easy as you can target a particular audience of people with multiple years of experience or in a particular industry, you can also open a virtual event for people all over the country in many different industries.

Depending on what you’re looking for, you can make events as open or closed as you want. It’s nice to have the option with virtual events to choose between a targeted or broad audience.

9. Break Out Rooms

If you’re worried that people won’t have close interaction because of the more significant amount of people attending virtual events, there are ways you can make it smaller.

Some platforms allow for a breakout function, where you can put people into rooms and have them do activities or have recruiters for certain positions meet with people that would be a good fit. It’s an excellent way for people to network in a smaller setting at an overall more significant virtual event.

10. Recordings

Another positive to these platforms is that you’re able to record significant events with speakers or activities, and you can send it to participants that could only attend parts of it or wanted to rewatch it later.

It’s a great way to keep people interacting with your company after the event and make it something they remember.

Virtual Event Ready

Now that we’ve walked you through the multiple advantages to virtual recruiting, networking, and company events, you can start tech recruiting today.

Use social media, identify whether you want a broad or targeted audience, and brainstorm engaging activities that will make your company stand out. Use technology to your advantage.

Work through your marketing events budget or contact us with questions about how we can help enhance your virtual marketing event today.