10 Tips to Prepare for Your Virtual Career Fair

Launching a virtual career fair for the first time can seem overwhelming at first: it’s a new tool for most recruiters and companies, and there are a lot of decisions to make. Luckily, 6Connex is here with some handy tips to help you prepare your career fair from start to finish!

1. Develop your event budget.

There are many factors to consider when creating the budget for your virtual career fair. Variables such as the event scope, features desired and the virtual event platform you want to host your event can all affect the amount of money you’ll need to host your career fair. While costs vary depending on these factors, a virtual career fair still ends up being a fraction of the price of a physical fair.

2. Choose a platform to host your career fair.

The very first - and possibly most important – decision you’ll make is on which platform you’ll host your career fair. It's important to choose the right virtual event platform to work for you and your organization. Because career fairs can bring in anywhere from a few hundred to thousands of people, you must carefully evaluate the platform to match the needs of your event. There are some platforms out there that offer a simple webpage and chat window, while others offer different booths, halls, chat windows and a resource center.

3. Start strategizing.

Finding the best date(s) possible to host your career fair with a great turnout, planning the content and speakers, and building your list of potential attendees are all important strategic points that must be carefully considered. Be sure to get together with your team at least two months before the career fair goes live to start planning these important details.

4. Develop content for the fair.

Planning content early is important for both potential employees and for your event speakers. Gathering key content and topics can help your speakers develop presentation topics that are right for your fair.

Crucial content for most companies to include during a virtual event include:

• • List of current open positions
  • Downloadable company benefits
  • Company locations map
  • Current company PR/news and stock information
  • Corporate or departmental videos

5. Customize your career fair.

Just because your career fair is virtual, doesn’t mean it has to be boring! You can still create an engaging design and theme for the fair that will present your brand to potential employees. By using a virtual event platform like 6Connex to host your career fair, you can easily use pre-built templates to walk users through the virtual recruiting process step-by-step!

6. Set expectations with fair partners.

As the career fair gets closer, take time to reach out to any event partners, sponsors and/or speakers to educate them on what you need from them, set expectations and ensure you’re all on the same page before the fair gets started.

7. Staff the event.

More than anything, you want your career fair attendees to be able to find knowledgeable recruiters or hiring managers who can help answer their questions at all times during the fair hours. Make sure you have the right amount of staff ready to help your job candidates.

8. Start marketing your virtual event.

The biggest challenge with hosting a career fair is simply getting attendees to come. Creating an integrated marketing strategy for your virtual event is one of the most effective ways to ensure you reach all your leads and potential attendees in the months prior to hosting the fair. The more diverse the selection of marketing channels used, the better your chances of getting a great turnout at your event.

9. Send key event reminders.

In the age of social media, it can be tough to keep the attention of possible attendees. Just because someone registered for a career fair a month ago doesn’t ensure that they’ll actually attend, so be sure to send out key reminders through social media, emails and any other communications you have with potential attendees to make sure your career fair stays top of mind.

10. Launch your career fair!

Now that you’ve done so much hard work, you can officially launch your career fair! Some virtual career platforms, such as 6Connex, offer the ability to watch speakers or recorded webcasts on-demand even after the event is over, and give access to a resource center with downloadable content from the fair.

Congratulations on hosting your first virtual career fair! Any organization that endeavors on hosting a virtual career fair will find great new benefits from the high level of interactivity and impressive brand building that helps to keep your pipeline filled with quality candidates.

To learn more about how you can host a virtual career fair with 6Connex, visit www.6connex.com.

For more help with setting up your virtual career fair, download our free e-book, How to Design a Virtual Job Fair Program.

Additional Resources:

Checklist: 8 Things to Consider When Planning a Virtual Job Fair

Your Ultimate Guide to Hosting a Virtual Career Fair in 9 Easy Steps

5 Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Career Fair

How to Set Up a Virtual Career Fair