I joined Seismic as an enablement intern and received a fast-pass ticket into the world of enablement. I was very new to the industry and I never thought my last college internship would turn into a full-time opportunity with the global leader in sales enablement. I was even more surprised when I got a chance to lead the communication strategy for this year’s go-to-market kickoff event, Seismic IMPACT. 

After the past two years, we’ve all grown accustomed to virtual events. As employees, we all know the feeling of Zoom fatigue that comes from back-to-back 30-minute meetings. But for many of my colleagues, it would be their first time in front of a screen for four straight hours. 

In order to pull this off, our planning team needed to think outside of the box. We needed to host an internal virtual event that would meet the needs of our full go-to-market engine, including sales, marketing, customer success, and strategic alliances. Without the ability to see our teammate’s reactions to the event, we knew it would be a challenge to measure success in a virtual format.

With the support of our enablement and marketing teams, we were able to use Seismic in a new way and solve some of the issues that come with planning and executing a virtual event. Our planning team used pages in Seismic to streamline communication to attendees and have actionable data to support engagement throughout the event. 

Our internal instance of Seismic became a hub for all things Seismic IMPACT. Before the event began, we created pages with resources and event details to build hype and excitement. During the event, we published content in real-time as our speakers revealed new initiatives on screen. After the event, our planning team also tracked the use of the resources we provided for our attendees which included session recordings and post-event learning resources in Lessonly by Seismic. These resources provided our go-to-market (GTM) team with additional enablement on our updated narrative.

Packing an event with quality information while balancing it with excitement to keep people engaged is not an easy feat. But something as simple as unconventionally using a product might be what differentiates your last virtual event from the next one.

If you’re a customer, enablement professional, or just trying to find a way to make a virtual event come to life, here are some of the key takeaways we gathered from Seismic IMPACT: 

1. Build a dream team to plan the event. Strong synergy within your planning team will make communication between team members and attendees easier and clearer. This ensures that everyone is knowledgeable and well-informed. 
2. Identify how this event will be better than the last. For us, it was using our product in a new way. We were able to keep a sense of community and high engagement, despite the challenges that come with a virtual event. 
3. Understand how you will track success. This will give you tangible data to see where you shined, as well as where there might be opportunities to improve the next event. Using pages within Seismic as a one-stop-shop for all things related to our event made it simple to track engagement with LiveInsights. 

For most organizations, virtual events are here to stay. I hope this post sheds some light on how creative thinking can lead to success despite challenges in a digital-first world. If you’d like to learn more about how your organization can use Seismic, request a demo today!