Let’s Meet Up… Online! Roxana Chirila and Pandemic-Era Event Organizing

Everyone has an online event happening in 2020! One happened this week. One is happening next week. And YNOT is having one this summer.

It’s because of COVID-19.

When you think about it, though perhaps not “ideal,” online trade events are not awful either. In many ways that extend beyond the pandemic, an online event may be physically healthier and mentally less exhausting than a conventional trek to Las Vegas or Prague, while also being super productive. An online trade event is also less expensive and time consuming, as well as better for the environment (perhaps).

By this point in 2020, we’re all sorta warming up to the idea of online trade events. People are working the kinks out of programming and are actually figuring out ways to create meaningful human interactions and business opportunities within the confines of strictly online exchanges. But mark my words when I tell you that eight-to-ten weeks ago, this concept sounded absolutely outlandish.

Except that it didn’t sound outlandish to the folks behind AWSummit. They jumped into the pandemic-era online trade event space with gusto, pulling together their AWMeetup event — which happened in late April of this year — in record time.

We spoke to Roxana Chirila, AW’s Event and Sales Director, to learn more about the processes (and boldness) behind being first-to-market with the pandemic-era online trade event.

YNOT: You announced AWMeetup in early April, which was very early in terms of the pandemic. What was the thought process behind that move?

Roxana Chirila: When the quarantine situation started, we needed to postpone the real AW show from June to August because of safety reasons. For this reason, we thought it would be nice to do something for this industry, especially because most of the people worked from home. AWMeetup started before any other virtual events of its type, and now it seems many conceptually similar shows are in the works.

It started like an idea to connect with the industry while we are struggling with these hard times without any possibilities to travel for business or any shows around the world. Its purpose was to give back to this industry, help people to connect, do business and improve their knowledge. This was the main idea, and to attend this show was totally free, the possibility to have a booth was free and the chance to be a speaker was free. Everything was for free so anyone could benefit from it. We just used our experience to make it possible.

How successful was the show? 

We managed to organize this Meetup in less than three weeks, and it turned out to be a great success. We had over seventy booths with companies from the adult and mainstream industries and almost 1,000 attendees. It was incredible how people supported this and started promoting the event themselves making other people join too.

The work volume is different when it comes to a virtual summit. Everything is digital, but it requires of course attention and time to put everything in order and make sure people find what they need in there. We received a very good feedback, and people even requested another AW Meetup in the next months. We are really considering it.

Will you hold similar events in the future?

Yes, we are planning to do it. We will do two separate virtual shows this year: one in mainstream and one in adult. We will announce it soon, so stay close.

Though you probably can’t fully answer this, how will the pandemic impact AWSummit?

Unfortunately, in Romania right now, events with more than 100 people are prohibited. The situation is uncertain in the next months, and honestly I really think there will be no events this year. As far as I heard, lots of flights are being cancelled by the airline companies, but even if there would still be possible to travel, people would be afraid to do it or companies wouldn’t allow their employees to travel because of safety reasons.

So, unfortunately, I don’t think we will be able to host the AWSummit this year.

Do you see online-form shows as being viable and as useful as in-person events? 

For the moment, online shows are the best solution to keep in touch with the industry and do business. If you are doing it right, you can have the perfect online business environment. People are spending the same amount of time on this kind of events as they are spending at regular shows. The only disadvantage is that you cannot meet in person the people you are talking to. The interaction is different, but still you can see each other by sharing your camera.

At the same time, there are a lot of advantages too. For example, people are not in a hurry as they are at real shows when they are running for meetings. People actually spend more time with each other, connecting online and doing business. We had people who spent the entire day on the platform we used for the AWMeetup, ending the day with many social and networking events. It was really AWesome.

The AWMeetup had a main stage where my colleague Thomas Skavhellen hosted a talk show every day. It had a networking area where people had the possibility to connect and describe what they are doing and a session area where we had experts from the industry sharing their knowledge. The great thing here was that people could create sessions themselves and share ideas there.

We also had the expo area where more than seventy companies asked for exposure and had the possibility to share a video presenting their company or actually go live and speak with their clients. What we loved about this was that people even branded themselves and took all of this very serious creating an AWesome experience.

[Editor’s note: Chirila wrote “AWesome” exactly as rendered above, and it’s the best thing we’ve ever seen.] 

Any suggestions or cautions for people thinking about holding an online event of this nature in the near future?

Technical issues might appear when you’re doing an online event, but these kind of things can happen in reality as well. The most important thing is to detect them and solve them as soon as possible.

We are very happy we did the first online event. If we managed to put all the concept in order and gather almost 1,000 people in such a short time, just imagine what we are able to do for a real summit.