How To Plan & Run A Virtual Job Fair
A job fair or a career fair is an event where people seeking jobs connect with recruiters or potential employers and find out appropriate career opportunities. These fairs were organized in a physical setup, where job seekers could visit booths set up by employers, go-rounds in interviews, and build connections with employers.
But, with the rise of ‘virtual job fairs’, things have quite changed.
The employers set up virtual booths and job seekers can interact with these virtual booths from the comfort of their homes while creating a chance to connect with talents boundlessly!
Why Are Virtual Job Fairs After All In Trend?
The advancements in technology coupled with the pandemic have altered a lot of things relating to work, including the hiring process. Remote jobs are becoming increasingly popular and the advent of virtual job fairs are simply part of these changes.
But the reason for them to be in trend might be curtailed down to:
- Cost-saving: A virtual job fair is way more affordable than a physical one, while saving travel and set-up costs for both the potential employers and employees.
- Boundless Reach: Attendees from across the globe can be a part of the job fair. Thus, giving chances to connect, network and hire without any geographical limitations.
- No Limitations Of Space: In the traditional set-up. The number of attendees was to be restricted depending upon the space of the location. But, in a virtual trade fair, unlimited guests and exhibitors can be invited.
- Shift To A Digital Hiring Process: Potential employers need not have to worry about carrying documents before and after the job fair. Everything can be stored digitally, streamlining the entire process of hiring.
- Easy Analysis: Event organizers can easily keep track of the performance of the event and make amendments as and when needed.
How Can You Plan & Run A Virtual Job Fair?
Follow these virtual social event ideas to plan and run a virtual job fair.
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Create or Choose Virtual Job Fair Platform
You can either build your own platform from scratch or leverage a third-party virtual job fair platform available by various third parties. The platform should at least have the following functionalities:
- Custom Landing Page
- Customizable Virtual Booths
- Secure Communication
- Mobile Friendliness
- Networking Opportunities
- Resume Search Filters
2. Develop Your Concept
After choosing or creating your virtual job fair platform, you will have to design a concept for the same. Think on what grounds and solutions will the job fair cater to. You can consider the following points:
- Will the job fair be single-company? Multi-employer? Or only for freshers?
- The stream requirements (if any)
- Budget estimations
- The content that will have to develop for the job fair, etc.
3. Setting Up The Event
After deciding on the concept, you will have to design your virtual job fair. Set up attractive and customizable virtual booths that you will offer to the exhibitors.
The features will somewhere depend on the career opportunities getting explored in the job fair. But, remember that different job fair platforms will offer differential features for their booths.
Further, depending upon the requirements of your virtual job fair, you will have to set up different spaces like virtual rooms where the interviews would be conducted.
4. Event Marketing & Engagement
You will definitely not want to rush into setting up and marketing your virtual career fair. But promoting your event by making the most of social media to get the audience’s attention and creating a buzz around it is an amazing way to ensure maximum attendance.
While you might be going wild, running checks on marketing pre-event, but your real-time marketing starts when the job fair is live. Consider the following options:
- Ensure that you are providing quick links and short forms, remember that long and heavy forms are not liked by people anymore!
- Conduct Q&A sessions, resolving queries that attendees might have, go live on social media channels to make way for two-way communication.
- Easy Analysis: Event organizers can easily keep track of the performance of the event and make amendments as and when needed.
- Don’t miss out on gamification. This is what holds onto the attention of the attendees. Choose among contests like leader board or giving sponsored prizes to take the engagement of the virtual job fair to an entirely new level.
- Showcase funny videos that can release some of the pressure from the employers and the employees.
Let’s Call It A Wrap!
Virtual Job Fair might be a new concept comparatively, but it sure has a positive impact on the networking opportunities for the recruiters and the job seekers. The best part about the job fair going virtual is that now it is easily accessible to people across boundaries and people can attend it from the comfort of their homes.
Now that you have a comprehensive understanding of a virtual job fair, hope you have a successful one!
