Virtual Event in Thailand

As a result of both the immediate effect of Coronavirus and its subsequent and lasting cultural change (“new normal”, and all that), most press conference events, launches and business interviews have gone to online-only.

In some ways, managing  virtual events is more challenging than traditional in-person media activations, as the event manager or PR manager needs a way to ensure media attend remotely, as well as ensuring there are no technical problems occurring during what is essentially a live broadcast event.

It is typical to have members of the business’s executive team checking in and responding to questions and presenting different sections from other countries and other time zones, too, which all needs to be taken into account.

As with hosting an in-person event, the most important things to have before commencing any program are: A) approved key messages, which is essentially what you want people to know about you and your company, B) a schedule of proposed or confirmed times, dates, order of sections and overall content planned to be delivered, and C) an MC script, as you definitely will need someone to “host” your program and bridge/introduce different sections, spokespersons, etc.

Your event schedule and MC script (as is always produced well in advance by Gemini PR) will list in detail all of the component sections of your online virtual event program, and this will guide your technical delivery, running order, etc. It is important that well before your virtual event day, all of your spokespersons, representatives, any customers appearing to give testimonials, any panel discussion contributors and so on are fully briefed on: what is required of them, what they are going to say at the virtual event, and also the running order and where they need to be at what time, etc. Gemini clients benefit from having our very experienced virtual events team on the ground and there in person with them wherever possible to make sure everything goes great and your spokespersons are a hit with our media guests.

The exact platform that will be used to cast your event will have something of a bearing in terms of how it is live-distributed during (or immediately after) its recording. Depending on the session requirements, certain segments of your program may be pre-recorded. Maybe you will cut over to a divisional director in Singapore for a scripted section, whilst the rest of the team is presenting live to media in Thailand, for example. You may also have media professionals there with you in person, if a live Q&A is key to the program delivery (which we refer to as a hybrid event rather than a virtual event).

Please reach out to us to discuss your exact requirements and we can plan the entire programme for you.

The most common request we receive is for an online press conference. In terms of delivery, this involves: working with the client to ensure their messaging is all on-point and they are fully prepared for the occasion, the hiring of an MC if required, preparing the briefing books to assist all spokespersons, providing media coaching if required, and then inviting media guests and confirming the RSVP, as well as issuing a press release for media guests and those unable to attend.

The average cost for this is 130,000 THB to 150,000 THB depending on exact requirements. Please contact us using the form so we can have an in-depth discussion to understand your needs and firm up a full quote quickly for you.

Before answering this, it’s worth having an understanding of the types of media guests in attendance. If it’s a strict business event organised for you to communicate your marketing strategy for the next year, it may not be the best idea to hire a stand-up comic to introduce your guests with a sardonic 10-minute comedy improv introduction. Same with government representatives, where controversial or risqué topics and skimpy dancer outfits are best avoided. Likewise, with your lifestyle experiential type programs where reading out a corporate keynote in a monotone may not be the best approach for tugging on the heartstrings of your “lifestyle excitement junky” media guests.

There are literally thousands of themes, gimmicks, approaches, activations, special guest appearances, panel discussions or interesting sections you can include in your online press conference, online product launch or e-FAM trip. Please connect with us using the form and we will organise a video call between you and the full team so we can shoot through some great ideas (consultations with us are always free).

Facebook Live, MS Teams, Zoom and Youtube Live are all viable “dial in” platforms, in addition to a more bespoke solution which can be used, perhaps hosted on your own corporate site or a proprietary domain created especially for the new program.

Depending on budget, some clients choose to host their program in one of Bangkok’s high quality online content production studios. We are able to manage your program fully for you to ensure its success, whether you want to handle everything internally and simply use Gemini for media RSVP, through to a full campaign from storyboarding and script creation to final media guest confirmation and delivery of results metrics upon successful completion.