Jalal Benbrahim at the International Youth Economics Forum
“Building a Digital Platform to Foster International Trade“ is an international business conference organized by the International Youth Economic Forum in Russia, on June the 5th. The purpose of the conference is to bring together businessmen from different industries to exchange the major tools they used during the pandemic to overcome communication problems. The discussion focused on the convenience of virtual shows in establishing effective b2b and b2c communication.
Mr. Jalal Benbrahim, the cofounder of the FoodEshow, took part as a speaker and shared his valuable insight from the FoodEshow experience. Here are some of the main takeaways from his intervention.
Virtual events have been a solution to survive communication during the pandemic. Jalal thinks that this is an interesting concept we can adapt even after the pandemic because of all the possibilities it allows us to explore. But, in order to guarantee the success of virtual events, there are two main points to consider inspired from the experience of the FoodEshow.
It’s a new adventure
At first, people were not used to virtual events. That is why, before we could start the FoodeShow, we had to educate everyone who should be involved on the value of participating in online events. In addition to that, we needed some time to explore the idea in action and look at the ways we can implement it. We worked on the design of the whole experience starting from planning the objectives, choosing the platform that will host the show, and working on the content of the event and the marketing campaign. That’s why it’s been a learning journey indeed.
It’s hard to maintain engagement
We thought that managing an online event would be very easy compared to onsite events. It actually turned out to be quite the opposite. The thing that we found most challenging was to ensure participants’ engagement. We had to make sure they log in at the right time and keep them engaged during the whole event.
But hey, it’s a rewarding experience because…
Given the challenges, online events involve many unique opportunities. Besides the convenience of time and space and the ability to communicate with more people from all around the world, according to Jalal, the core value lies in long-term community engagement. Creating communities and serving them with valuable content throughout the whole year; before the event takes place and after it’s over, is the essence of a successful virtual show.
Check out the conference session at (link) to see Mr.Jalal’s intervention and learn about the experience of other businessmen from different industries. The conference is in Russian but make sure to turn the page into English so you can benefit from the translation in the session.
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