Everything has changed.

One minute your plan for an upcoming tradeshow is all set to go, and the next minute the mere prospect of large scale in person events is obsolete. This year has flipped everything on its head and has left many of us with the question, “What are we supposed to do now?”

Online events aren’t new, but converting a large conference into a remote event, within hours or days in some cases, is fairly novel. With that conversion comes different requirements for visual collateral and branding. While the overall delivery of such collateral is vastly different, the goal of virtual conference and in person conference graphics are somewhat the same:

 To spread brand awareness and show brand cohesion
 To deliver a powerful and memorable experience to your audience
 To showcase a unique story with a compelling message

Chances are you’ve already created your visual identity, logo, tagline, and merchandise. They are deliberate and all play a role in telling your company’s story. So instead of pamphlets, banners, tradeshow display cases, business cards and company swag, what are the necessary items that you need?

Well, instead of physical swag, you may need to come up with virtual freebies: think exclusive content and access to free downloadable giveaways. Remember that people are looking to digital channels more than ever before to drive human connection and do business. Experience is everything. Video content, especially animated explainer videos, are key tools commonly used to describe how to use your product or service, or they might address a more broadly applicable topic. They are easily digestible and colorfully eye-catching in the same vein as materials you use at your tradeshows. Another way people connect is by adding a link to a raffle in the communications you have with your customers, which gets people on your email list and is an added incentive to drive virtual booth traffic.

Nowadays every visual aspect associated with your companies name is even more important because physical human contact in these virtual conferences is not possible. So, ensuring all graphics and visual content delivers a message, down to what shirt you’re wearing in your Zoom presentation, is all part of your marketing scheme.

Remember, no matter the medium, event marketing is all about putting yourself in the shoes of your customers – they were excited to hit the road and see live product demonstrations, and many had put together lists of questions to ask during your Q&A sessions. Think about ways to engage that same sentiment in virtual sessions. It is still possible! In order to do this, you first must consider modifying large scale booth graphics to smaller digital graphics that allow you to customize your booth, while keeping the original messaging, but at a much smaller scale. In a virtual booth environment, you have places to add banners so that conference attendees can differentiate your company and offerings from others. Obviously these are small graphics on your computer screen instead of large printed graphics in an event hall, so you have to consider how to condense the message of a 10 foot tall booth backdrop into a tiny virtual graphic on a computer screen. That’s where Oblique Design comes into play. We can help with this conversion. We can create videos, digital brochures and sell sheets, and digital graphics to ensure a well branded, engaging virtual presence.

As the French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr once said, “The more things change, the more they continue to be the same thing.”