How to Create Dynamic Virtual Experiences – In Just 7 Minutes with Brian Fanzo

Resources/Links:

• Check out Brian’s Website: brianfanzo.com/virtualevents

Summary

In the midst of this pandemic, are you looking for a way to host your events? Do you want to change and bring the offline to the online world?

Do you want to know how you could still host your event while making it a more dynamic experience for your clients or team, virtually? Are you ready to create a dynamic virtual experience?

Brian Fanzo is a digital futurist, virtual keynote speaker and podcaster helping brands and leaders find synergy between tech and humanity.

In this episode, Brian shares his insights on how you could make your offline events online. He also shares how virtual events are the future and how it can be limitless and can provide a better and more dynamic experience to you, your clients, and team, virtually, especially in the midst of COVID.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:02 – Brian’s ideal client: “Ideal client is anyone trying to leverage virtual to reach their, you know, new audience in this new way. So, it’s either moving at an offline event online or reinventing, you know, a way to connect with your online audience.”
• 02:20 – Problem Brian helps solve: “The problem I solve is really helping reinvent what a virtual experience is. We take something from offline and put it online. You’re competing with YouTube, Netflix, and all the other tools that are out there. I really try to help really shift their focus and have a new perspective on what’s possible and creating a virtual experience.”
• 03:09 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Brian: “So before COVID, this was an interesting one, because, before COVID, it was usually there was a disconnect between brands or their clients or customers that they interacted with offline, and then a real disconnect online on the relationship building, the scale, the marketing.”
• 05:15 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Brian’s solution: “One of the biggest mistakes is that we try to take what we do offline, and just repurpose it online.”
• 06:11 – Brian’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “A big step is to think about how you can create a participatory element. And what I mean by that is, rather than talking at your audience, virtually, how can I allow them to participate in the conversation and even direct where you’re going with your content?”
• 07:02 – Brian’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Brian’s Website: brianfanzo.com/virtualevents
• 07:54 – Q: What is the future of virtual events? A: When we’ve talked webinars, we talked virtual, I think virtual is going to be around forever. I think we are having a newfound focus on virtual. I mean, webinars have been successful and very valuable for 10 plus years.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“I don't believe everything needs to be interactive, but I do believe we can make everything feel participatory.” -Brian Fanzo Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Greetings everyone and another very warm welcome to yet another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Brian Fanzo. Brian, good day from down under. A very warm welcome, sir. Where are you hanging out?

Brian Fanzo 00:22
Thanks so much for having me. I’m hanging out just outside Washington DC in Northern Virginia.

Tom Poland 00:26
Northern Virginia. How’s COVID over there at the moment?

Brian Fanzo 00:29
We’re on pretty good lockdown. The kids are in virtual school through January and we think we can eat outside on the street sides, but no, that’s about it.

Tom Poland 00:37
Wow. So, you’re getting a lot of home-schooling time right now yourself because I know you’re used to flying around the world and speaking at like 100 conferences every year. So, you’re going stir crazy?

Brian Fanzo 00:47
Oh, yes, beyond stir crazy. And this is the longest I’ve ever been home since I left University. So- and, you know, in the 16 years since I left University, I’ve never been home four months in a row ever, and this is now five months in a row, so definitely stir crazy!

Tom Poland 01:00
Incredible. Folks, for those of you who don’t know, Brian, I got introduced to Brian through Webinar 23, who has an awesome webinar platform based in Denmark. They’ve flown Brian to Denmark to help them with their virtual events four times. He hosted an impeccably, and I’d have to say the DNA of Brian is that he can run a show professionally but have you feel so relaxed and like he’s a close friend at the same time. That’s the quintessential Brian Fanzo that we’re talking to. He’s literally in-demand as a global speaker. He’s a digital futurist. He’s a virtual keynote speaker and podcaster. Help brands and leaders find the synergy between tech and humanity. We could say tech and touch, I suppose, Brian. So, it’s truly an honor to have you on the show. Thank you so much for giving up your time. Our title, Brian, is “How to Create Dynamic Virtual Experiences” and we’re going to show people how to do that in just minutes. Our time starts now. Question number one, boom, who’s your ideal client?

Brian Fanzo 02:02
Ideal client is anyone trying to leverage virtual to reach their, you know, new audience in this new way. So, it’s either moving at an offline event online or reinventing, you know, a way to connect with your online audience.

Tom Poland 02:14
Perfect. Thank you. Six and a half minutes left. Question two, what’s the problem you solve for that ideal client?

Brian Fanzo 02:20
The problem I solve is really helping reinvent what a virtual experience is. We take something from offline and put it online. You’re competing with YouTube, Netflix, and all the other tools that are out there. I really try to help really shift their focus and have a new perspective on what’s possible and creating a virtual experience.

Tom Poland 02:38
Fantastic. Sounds exciting.

Brian Fanzo 02:41
I try.

Tom Poland 02:43
Yeah, that sounds interesting. Okay, so we’ve still got six minutes left. We’ve got these folks who, you know, your ideal clients, and they become aware that you can solve the problem, how do they know from a symptom point of view- this is question number three, six minutes left. How do they know from a symptom point of view what’s going on in their business or their event experiences, where they’re going? “Hang on. I need to talk to Brian about this. I need some of Brian’s stuff.” What are the symptoms they’re experiencing before they find your solution?

Brian Fanzo 03:09
So, before COVID, this was an interesting one, because, before COVID, it was usually there was a disconnect between brands or their clients or customers that they interacted with offline, and then a real disconnect online on the relationship building, the scale, the marketing. Now that COVID is here, it’s more of this idea, “Okay. We’re blasting all this information to them virtually but it’s either not hitting them or we can’t cut through the noise.” And so really, those symptoms are how do we truly connect with our virtual audience? And then how do we create something it’s not the same old zoom call, not the typical webinar, and do that in a way that really creates that same dynamic that is usually established offline?

Tom Poland 03:49
Okay. And I just want to point out at this point, folks, if you’re listening to this you know me, Tom Poland, Leadsology. We’re all about marketing with webinars. Brian’s expertise extends way beyond that. He’s an absolute rockstar with that but we’re talking about all sorts of virtual experiences, Brian, not just marketing. What are the sort of online events or virtual experiences have you been consulted on? This is kind of like a bonus question I’m slipping in.

Brian Fanzo 04:15
I like that. So, you know, everything from you have a traditional webinar, but let’s say a webinar that’s hitting new departments that have never traditionally used webinars. So, you have human resources, the recruiting department, and then we’re doing things such as live streaming. I’ve helped launch the very first Facebook Live for IBM, Dell, Samsung, SAP, the UFC, lots of big brands. I have launched their very first live stream, and then also creating kind of like that, you know, networking experience online. So, we’re doing things like speed networking, I’m actually doing a really cool one internally with a bunch of employees, where we’re helping them kind of shift up with their day to day conversation. And so, a wide variety, you know, traditional conference online, you know, mixing up webinars, but also live streaming video as well.

Tom Poland 04:58
I’m so glad I took the time to ask you that question because it just broadens everyone’s minds in terms of the scope for online meetings. Let’s keep rocking and rolling. Four minutes left and question four, what are some of the common mistakes you see people making when they’re trying to do virtual events?

Brian Fanzo 05:15
I think one of the biggest mistakes is that we try to take what we do offline, and just repurpose it online.

Tom Poland 05:20
Yeah.

Brian Fanzo 05:21
And what I believe you have to do in that scenario is you have to look at what the core values are that you create offline but remove the mechanics. If you bring offline mechanics, virtually, you can’t take advantage of what’s available virtually but if you take those values, and then you reinvent it, virtually, I like to say 360 degrees because virtually we have all of these options around us. It won’t replace what we do offline but it’s going to give us new opportunities to do things virtually. And I think that’s an important delineation where I’m not trying to replace a handshake, or what we do in an offline environment, rather reinvent and provide some new experiences online.

Tom Poland 05:57
Perfect. Thank you, sir. Three minutes left. Question five, what’s one valuable free action that an audience member could take that’s going to help them move a step closer to creating awesome virtual experiences, not going to do the whole thing, but it’s a step in the right direction?

Brian Fanzo 06:11
I think a big step is to think about how you can create a participatory element. And what I mean by that is, rather than talking at your audience, virtually, how can I allow them to participate in the conversation and even direct where you’re going with your content?

Tom Poland 06:26
That’s interesting because a lot of people talk about interaction stuff. People talk about engagement, but you’re talking about participation, which really gives you interaction and engagement.

Brian Fanzo 06:35
That is correct. I don’t believe everything needs to be interactive, but I do believe we can make everything feel participatory.

Tom Poland 06:42
Participatory. I get the sense this is not the first time you’ve spoken on the subject. Question number six, not your first rodeo. Question number six, two minutes left, what’s one valuable free resource that we could direct people to, a URL, a website somewhere where you could say go get this because it’s going to help even more?

Brian Fanzo 07:02
So yeah, Brianfanzo.com/virtualevents is the URL, and it’s all the resources that I’ve pulled together from videos to documents. I’ve done over 40 virtual events just since COVID started. I’ve done over 3500 live streams since 2014, and I really just try to throw as much information out there as I can to hopefully bring virtual as a whole- the entire space for it. So, videos, podcasts, blog posts, a little bit of everything is up there.

Tom Poland 07:30
There is an extra- I got it open right now. I’m looking at right now. There was just this extraordinary resource sitting there, folks. It’s Brian, B-R-I-A-N, Fanzo, fanzo.com/virtual-events. Go get it! Question number seven, one minute left, heaps of time. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Brian Fanzo 07:54
I would say what is the future of virtual events would be the question. And I think, you know, when we’ve talked webinars, we talked virtual, I think virtual is going to be around forever. I think we are having a newfound focus on virtual. I mean, webinars have been successful and very valuable for 10 plus years. Yeah, I think how we think of them, how we leverage them, how we measure success, and even how we present with them in the future. It’s- we can go back to offline events, it doesn’t matter if we can call it hybrid but I truly think of virtual as being that glue that connects us when we aren’t in those offline experiences, and that’s really where I think the future goes.

Tom Poland 08:29
Brian Fanzo, thank you so much for the time. This has been one of the most riches online interview experiences that I’ve had, so you’re really walking the talk. Thanks, man.

Brian Fanzo 08:38
Thank you.

Tom Poland 08:39
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.