Are you looking for advice on how to run a successful virtual open day? These days it’s important to be able to provide viable virtual alternatives for most types of events even if they were previously exclusively in-person. Open days are no exception! Or maybe your organization was a virtual event “early adopter”? Well, in that case, we can still help you improve your form.
We’ll mostly be discussing education-related virtual open days in this post, however, with a little bit of modification to the content, a variety of “open house” events could be reconfigured as virtual! Use your imagination and you might be surprised.
Jump to:
- What is a virtual open day?
- What activities take place during a virtual open day?
- Advantages of the virtual open day for both universities and students
- How to choose a virtual open day platform
- Kaltura’s platform as your solution for virtual open days
- Conclusion
What is a virtual open day?
A virtual open day is the online version of an in-person “open day,” that is, an opportunity for members of the public to visit a place or institution (colleges and universities in particular!) to where they otherwise would not have access. It also might be referred to as an “open house.”
Virtual open days are the way to leverage all of the advantages of a virtual event to emulate the experience in a convenient online format, where some of the hassles of travel and accessibility can be eliminated. At the same time, you’re still able to promote your institution and give perspectives a feel for what it’s like to be there in person.
From here, as we mentioned in the intro, we’ll discuss primarily education-oriented open days such as at colleges and universities. But there’s no reason not to consider how our recommendations and advice can be similarly applied to other types of virtual open-day events!
What activities take place during a virtual open day?
Campus tours
The “killer app” feature of a virtual open day is being able to provide your prospects with pre-recorded 360-degree video tours of campus and facilities as well as other audio-visual content. The tours can live on your platform as on-demand content, you can schedule them to be accompanied by a live “guide”, or, if you want to be daring, even have guides livestream a walk-through tour that prospective students can then contextualize with an online map or a larger on-demand video tour.
Interactive info sessions
Multi-participant sessions and live Q&A sessions in webinar format help students and parents learn more about your school and its programs. Sessions could be as small-scale as a representative speaking to a family, or as expansive as a large-scale virtual presentation with a whole group of prospects and parents.
Connecting with prospects
The object of a virtual open day is engaging with students and families. You can talk to prospective students through one-on-one audio and video calls or engage them via text chat. It helps your school save time searching for profiles and scheduling meetings with top candidates and gives the students opportunities to access and save brochures, program guides, and other content to access later.
Advantages of the virtual open day for both universities and students
The advantages of a virtual open day are similar to the overall advantages of virtual events: both convenience for your attendees as well as an expanded, global reach to your events. Remember if physical attendance is not required, you’ve just expanded your potential audience to “everyone, everywhere”! (At least within the student cohort you’re looking to attract.) Additionally, with some effort and planning, you can create evergreen-style content for your open day that can be made available all year long. Finally, a virtual format provides excellent data, engagement information, and the ability to track success metrics!
How to choose a virtual open day platform
When selecting a platform for your virtual open day, keep in mind that while there are many virtual event platforms out there, they’re not all created alike. Having the best features for your job–the best features to complement this type of virtual event–are essential. While a flashy 3D graphical interface to navigate may be optional, top-quality video streaming, chat functionality for Q&A and networking for that “human touch”, and other quality engagement features are a must!
Kaltura’s platform as your solution for virtual open days
With all that said, Kaltura Virtual Events is a versatile enough platform to manage a variety of virtual events, including your virtual open days. We feel strongly about our platform but are confident that you will too! Kaltura Virtual Events is a full-featured virtual event solution with five main event templates covering a wide spectrum of virtual events. Whether you’re looking for intimate webinars for virtual open days or a multi-track Open House virtual event blowout, we’ll ensure your events are easy to set up and run, on brand, and highly individualized to users–plus we’ll be a fantastic asset for all other virtual events your school runs over the course of the year.
Conclusion
A virtual open day provides you the opportunity to showcase your programs, faculty, and campus to prospective students from all over the world. With a focus on what your school (or other organization or institution!) has to offer and a high-quality virtual event platform, you can create a highly successful event. Great open days can communicate the value of your courses, location, and amenities and get students talking for days, months, and years to come!
