Getting people to turn up to a virtual event is the easy part. Keeping them present and actually taking part is the hard one. The fix isn't one clever trick, it's building interaction into every phase of the event, from the invitation to the follow-up. This guide gives you practical strategies and a bank of ready-to-use ideas, organised around what to do before, during and after the event, plus how to measure whether any of it worked.
Table of contents
- Before the event: build anticipation and a soft start
- During the event: keep people taking part
- After the event: extend the engagement
- A quick bank of engagement ideas
- How to measure virtual event engagement
- Emerging options worth watching
- The platform does half the work
- Frequently asked questions
Before the event: build anticipation and a soft start
Engagement starts before anyone joins the call. A few things to do in the run-up:
- Promote where your audience already is. Share teasers, speaker previews and the agenda on social (X, LinkedIn, your community space), and run a quick pre-event poll so people arrive already invested. Tools like Whova can auto-tag and surface an event across attendees' networks.
- Set expectations. Tell people it will be interactive and that their input is wanted, so they come ready to take part rather than to watch.
- Open the room early. The single most underused tactic is the 'unofficial start': open the room 10 to 15 minutes before the official time with music, a welcome slide, and a one-word chat prompt ('Where are you joining from?'). People settle in, start typing, and the session begins warm instead of cold.
During the event: keep people taking part
This is where most virtual events lose the room, and where the biggest gains are.
- Interact in the first few minutes. Open with a low-stakes chat question or a quick poll before any presenting. Once someone has typed once, they are far more likely to again.
- Add a touchpoint every few minutes. Attention drifts fast online, so break up any talk with a live poll, a quiz, a word cloud or an emoji reaction roughly every five to ten minutes. Live-interaction tools such as Slido, Mentimeter and Poll Everywhere handle this well and display results on screen.
- Hand the audience the wheel. Invert the usual one-way flow: let attendees shape the agenda with a live topic vote, surface the best audience questions with upvoted Q&A, or build a word cloud from everyone's answers. People pay attention to something they helped create.
- Use breakout rooms with a job to do. Small groups only work when they have a clear prompt and, ideally, a facilitator. Give each room a specific question or task and a time limit; dropping people into an empty room kills the energy.
- Structure the networking. Instead of a free-for-all, match people by role, industry or the challenge they came to solve, and give them a conversation starter. Guided matching is what makes virtual networking actually happen.
- Gamify lightly. Points for taking part, a leaderboard, a quick quiz or a scavenger hunt across sessions and booths all add a reason to stay active. Keep it optional and fun, not a second job.
- Keep it short and varied. Alternate formats, build in breaks, and tell people what is coming next. A tight, changing agenda beats a long monologue every time.
After the event: extend the engagement
The event doesn't have to end when the stream stops.
- Share recordings and highlights. Publish on-demand sessions and short highlight reels so people can catch what they missed and revisit what they liked.
- Follow up with substance. Send key takeaways, the slides, and any resources promised, along with a short feedback survey while the experience is fresh.
- Keep the community going. Digital badges, a shared channel or a follow-up discussion keep the conversation alive and warm people up for the next event.
A quick bank of engagement ideas
Short on time? Pick a few of these and drop them straight in:
- A one-word opening question in the chat.
- 'This or that' quick polls between sections.
- A live quiz with a leaderboard (Kahoot-style).
- A word cloud built from audience answers.
- Speed-networking breakouts with a prompt.
- An AMA (ask me anything) session with upvoted questions.
- A 'caption this' or photo challenge for a light moment.
- A cross-session scavenger hunt with points.
- A short guest or entertainment slot to reset attention.
- A live demo followed by open Q&A.
These double as webinar engagement activities and work for conferences, workshops and internal town halls alike.
How to measure virtual event engagement
You can't improve what you don't track. A simple starting point is an engagement rate: the number of interactions (poll responses, chat messages, questions, reactions) divided by the number of attendees, as a percentage. The exact denominator varies, so be consistent and compare like with like over time.
Alongside it, watch:
- Attendance and drop-off: how many joined, and when they left.
- Participation: poll, quiz, Q&A and chat activity.
- Attention: average time in session and which moments held people.
- On-demand: replay and highlight views after the event.
- Sentiment: post-event survey scores and comments.
Together these tell you which tactics earned their place and which to drop next time.
Emerging options worth watching
Not every tactic suits every event, and a few newer ones are worth a mention with honest caveats:
- Hybrid formats combine an in-person core with a remote audience. They widen reach, but need deliberate design so remote attendees are not second-class guests.
- Virtual reality can create fully simulated venues and training scenarios. Companies such as Mindflight7, an Australian VR education company, use it to make learning stick, but the headset barrier and cost mean it suits specific audiences rather than a general webinar.
- AI-assisted personalisation and matchmaking can recommend sessions or pair attendees by interest. It's promising, but check what a given platform actually offers before you build a plan around it.
Use these where they clearly fit, not for novelty.
The platform does half the work
Engagement is a content decision, but it is also a platform one. If your video tool makes people leave the room to run a poll or open a separate app for Q&A, most of the tactics above get harder. It helps to run events on video conferencing built for events, with polls, Q&A, reactions, breakout rooms and quizzes native to the room rather than bolted on.
Digital Samba is a GDPR-compliant, European-hosted video platform for exactly this: interactive, branded virtual and hybrid events your attendees join in the browser. To see how it fits your next event, explore Digital Samba for events or talk to our team.
Frequently asked questions
How do you make a virtual event more engaging?
Build interaction into every phase: open the room early with a chat icebreaker, add a poll, quiz or reaction prompt every few minutes, run breakout rooms with a clear task, and follow up afterwards with recordings and a feedback survey.
What are some examples of virtual engagement activities?
Live polls and quizzes, word clouds, emoji reactions, a one-word opening question, speed-networking breakouts, an AMA with upvoted questions, and a gamified leaderboard or scavenger hunt.
How do you increase participation in virtual events?
Ask for input early and often, keep sessions short and varied, give quieter attendees low-effort ways in such as polls and reactions, and use small breakout groups where it feels natural to speak up.
How do you measure virtual event engagement?
Track an engagement rate (interactions divided by attendees), plus attendance and drop-off, poll, Q&A and chat activity, average time in session, on-demand views, and post-event feedback scores.
What tools help with virtual event engagement?
Live-interaction tools such as Slido, Mentimeter or Poll Everywhere for polls and Q&A, collaboration boards like Miro or Mural, and a video platform with polls, Q&A, reactions and breakout rooms built in.
When are VR or hybrid formats worth it?
When your audience and budget suit them. Hybrid widens reach for events with an in-person component, and VR can suit hands-on training or product experiences, but both add cost and complexity, so use them where they clearly fit.
