 If your upcoming conference or event has cancelled, it may have left you wondering what to do with the awards and recognition aspect of your program. In fact, that's exactly what one of my clients recently asked me. And so I went out on a quest to find some ideas and best practices around creating a virtual awards celebration. Get ready to be inspired! Hey friends, it's Leanne and when COVID-19 hit and it wiped out our meetings and conferences, it also wiped out the awards celebrations that sometimes accompanied those events. In fact, one of my planner clients reached out to me, they're trying to figure out what to do with their awards celebration. So in turn I reached out to the meeting planning community because I needed some help in finding some ideas as well as creating some best practices about delivering a quality virtual event celebration that would rival a live event one. And boy did the community deliver. Some incredible ideas and some very well thought out best practices that planners can use to create the most memorable virtual event. But before we dive into the tips, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on that little bell to be notified of new content. We're creating new content for the meetings industry each week and we don't want you to miss a thing. So let's look at some best practices and some creative ideas that you can use for your next virtual awards celebration. Best practice number one, have an engaging opening sequence. Similar to watching an awards show on TV, you really need a hook to ensure that people are engaged in the process and want to stick around for the entire production. Tip number two, use a master of ceremonies. A professional moderator can go a long way from moving the program along and moving from one award to the next to anything in between that will keep your audience engaged. You can also use some lookalike celebrities and I've quoted some of those resources in the description for this video and in the blog post. Tip number four, keep the show short, tightly scripted and quick moving. You want to capture the attendees attention and so making sure you do that through engagement and through a fast flowing script will ensure that they don't drift off and leave the award celebration before it's over. Tip number five, consider pre-filming the acceptance speeches. So similar to when you're watching the Oscars or Grammys, you don't want your winners to go on and on if they are tasked to provide a speech. Film something in advance, edit it so it's short enough to keep your audience engaged and create a sequence with that video. Tip number six, include some storytelling. Now is a great time now that you have an engaged audience to talk about your association and your organization and to talk about its members and all the great things that they bring to the organization. Tip number seven, include graphics and transitions between slides. Again, these are the visual cues that help keep your audience engaged throughout the presentation. Tip number eight, consider using trivia between the award ceremonies. And again, there's a few apps that you can use and your moderator can use and you can find links to those apps in the description for this video. Tip number nine, consider hosting breakout rooms with the award winners after the celebration is over. Have each award winner sit in a room with a moderator and entertain questions for people who come in and out of the virtual room. And finally, tip 10, create smaller networking hubs to celebrate after the awards ceremony. Breaking them up into rooms again allows for that dialogue between participants and allows people to be recognized fully for their efforts. As for some creative ideas for production, we've seen some incredible ones out there, including a nod to the Oscars or the Grammys, as well as a nod to the publisher clearing house type format where the association showed up on the front doorstep to announce that the person has won an award. You may also choose to film some socially distanced fanfare. That's when the friends and the family members of the nominees are getting together to watch the celebration if the awards are being announced live and then to film the reaction of those groups of people. These are about a few ideas that you can try to incorporate into your next awards celebration. Now, if your association rewards award winners with a special monetary gift or a vacation for winning an award, we have some ideas for you there as well. You may consider creating a vacation in a box complete with culinary delights, maybe even an at-home chef experience, and bring the vacation home to them since they can't leave on a jet plane. Some other great ideas include the gift of membership and helping that award winner connect with someone they really, really want to connect with and take 30 minutes of their time. And finally, donating to the award winner's favorite cause. And right now there are so many causes to be mindful of. Chat with your award winner about what is truly important to them at this time. I hope these ideas and best practices were helpful, but like I said, there's so much more to see and learn over at the blog post at conferencesource.net. Hop on over there to get a full view of all of the options and best practices. Friends, what are you seeing out there as far as creative ideas around award celebrations? Will you please comment below this video and let us know what you're seeing? To learn more about our complimentary services for meeting planners, hop on over to conferencesource.net. There might just be something there that Steven and I can help you with at this time. Thanks for watching everyone. Bye for now.