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I am searching for information on virtual fairs in the healthcare space. My company is considering investing time and monies in the space and I'd like to know any success, pitfalls, sources that anyone can share.
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Regina (and David)
I want to apologize for the late follow-up and hope this is still pertinent information. A couple things to consider with regards to Virtual Career Fairs:
We've seen success with these types of events when companies are trying to bring recruiters and candidates from different regions of the country (or even different locations within a state) to a single place without incurring travel, lodging and logistical expense. We've seen this work for a variety of industries and job categories and we've received a great deal of feedback from candidates that they are seeking more healthcare companies in this virtual space. The interest is there from candidates to communicate with healthcare organizations at virtual career events and we've seen that those healthcare organizations that have attended have seen success in this format.With regards to pitfalls, I think it's important to establish benchmarks for the event to manage expectations, generate a concerted media plan to promote the event to ensure good attendance and a well-aclimated candidte pool and ensure that your event is staffed with enough recruiters to handle the flow of candidates.
In my experience it's also important to point out that there is a wide variety of Virtual Career Fair events available. This title covers a broad spectrum of formats in the marketplace. The format we work is essentially holding a day-long event as similar as possible to a physical event, with all of the aspects that people are familiar with at a hiring event: booths to visit that hold pertinent information about the company, availability of recruiters to chat with in real time to talk about opportunities, presentations that will peak the interest of the attendees and give them more incentive to attend AND stay at the event as well as the opportunity to network with other candidates. Added to this, our virtual format allows candidates to visit the exhibitor's website and apply to jobs thru their booth and more. Furthermore, the reporting available after a virtual event far exceeds the information that a physical event could hope to provide, since virtual events can provide you with record of chat transcripts and booth visit information, in addition to the traditional information recruiters expect to receive after attending a physical event.
Hope this helps and that this information is a bit more comprehensive.
Thank you,
Mike Vogel
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Thank you to all who chimed in here. I'll be reaching out to some of you for some one on one conversation. Thanks again.
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Hello,
We have assisted our clients with Virtual Career Fairs, and I believe they can be very successful events if managed and promoted correctly. When considering cost and timing, be sure to factor in enough budget for publicizing the event. You can build it, but they (your target audience) won't necessarily come unless they are told about it and reminded about it throughout the duration of the event. With so many social media and web options, there's opportunity for paid and unpaid venues, and you need to consider online and offline alternatives. I found that there was a lot of interest (and publicity) on the front-end of the event, but budget didn't allow for enough of a sustained reach-out and therefore visitor traffic was also not sustained. Virtual career fairs are evolving and have gotten better and more cost-effective. Choose your vendors wisely.
Connie Poll,NAS Recruitment Communications, cpoll@nasrecruitment.com
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Hi Regina,
There are a wide variety of virtual career fair services out there, and when making decisions on which platform is best for you, it is a good idea to have a clearly defined what kind of time and financial commitment you want to make. The best virtual career events are the ones that truly build and expand on your brand and the brands of any other participating employers to create thorough and personal jobseeker experience.
Virtual Career Fair jobseekers are looking for an experience that goes above and beyond the typical job posting board. As such, it is important to select a platform that allows a variety of ways to communicate with the jobseekers which can often mean participating in VCF add-ons such as a live chat experience can enhance the jobseeker experience. For example, an excellent live chat feature is "instant resume transfer", which can closely mimic the kind of chat and information exchange interaction that is commonplace at brick and mortar career fairs.
As mentioned below, it is also important to target your marketing efforts to reach only that niche healthcare audience. That way, less money is spent per qualified applicant delivered, and less time is wasted on the employer side sifting through unqualified applicants.
Beyond that, your virtual event will excel with close monitoring from the beginning to the end of the event. Often, the best way to make your particpants satisfied with the end result of a VCF is to be aware of the current performance at all times so that shortcomings may be addressed and remedied before they become a problem. Being able to regularly view and interact with analytics and reporting will help you ensure your virtual event is a success from start to finish.
Please feel free to reach out with additional questions or comments you may have at vcf@aftercollege.com
Looking forward to it,
Valerie Henry, Partnerships coordinator at AfterCollege.com
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Regina,
Here are some of the issues you should consider based on our experience in hosting a virtual event last year.
Although my experience was not in healthcare, I think the issues are the same.
1. Cost
A virtual event can be very expensive because of the advertising and the technology costs. You need to consider how often you plan on having events, how long these events will last, etc.
Also, you can only maximize this tool if people come to the event. You need to build into the budget and plan what type of marketing, advertising costs are based on your goals
2. Management
What metrics are you going to use to determine whether this event is successful?
How are you going to assure that the people who you want to be on-line to interview/chat with people will actually be there?
It's amazing how many times people are scheduled who find some reason not to "appear". Also, some appear and don't know how to communicate, don't know what the jobs are and can't answer questions. Since you've put this money into it--you want to make sure you're branding your company the way you want.
I can add a lot more, but I think these are two of the more critical elements you need to decide.
Who we are
We are a human resource consulting firm specializing in talent acquisition, training and career development. When we work on client projects, we help them work through the pros and cons of making this commitment. Plus, we seek to leverage the resources already available to the client, as well as bring strategic partners to the table ( including advertising agencies) so that we can maximize the ROI.
If you would like to discuss more, please contact me at cbgurne@careercentralonline.com
Best,
Cindy
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I see that a couple of recruitment advertising agencies have jumped on this question as an opportunity to pitch their services. That's fine, but it would be far more helpful if you agency folks used your experience with events to answer the question that Regina asked.
I'm sure that the others reading this thread would be much more inclined to learn about your services if you'd teach them something new instead of talking up your agencies without really adding any new thoughts to the post.
How about it? Can anyone tell Regina what helps make these events successful? What pitfalls should she avoid?
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Thank you for the feedback, David. You make a very valid point and it's a good lesson for me with regards to posting information and replies to posts. We're holding a Virtual Event today, so things are pretty busy right now, but I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your good feedback. Once this event is over, I'll post some more pertinent information and will be able to speak to how today's event work. Hopefully that will be a better response to Regina's querie.
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Thanks Michael - I appreciate it, and I am sure that Regina will too!
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Hi Regina,
Do you mean participating in a healthcare virtual job fair or doing your own virtual fair (i.e. a virtual open house)?
WakeMed just did one with AfterCollege (we provided the technology and most importantly, the audience) http://wakemed.virtual-job-fair.com/
WakeMed's virtual fair has gotten 290 registered members, all nursing and allied health (so very targeted) and 167 applications.
The cost varies on your target audience, but if you measure our fairs on a cost per registrant, you should be very pleased.
In my biased opinion (because we do virtual job fairs) these events are great at getting the right type of audiences. For them, it's online, more convenient, and you will get greater participation.
The downside is that if you don't worry about how to target people to invite, you will get everyone and their brother attending, especially in this economy. If you are looking to reach the masses, then not an issue. If, however, you only want to target specific audiences (geographies or disciplines) then you need to make sure you use the right channels to get an audience.
In AfterCollege's case, we can provide both the technologyand the audience.
What type of fair are you looking to do and for what audiences specifically?
Please let me know if you would like to know more about our fairs. You may email mdawes@aftercollege.com
Best,
Roberto
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There are two prime considerations for evaluating virtual job fairs, I believe - technology and candidates.
First, the technology supporting the event must be robust, but also user-friendly from the exhibitor AND candidate points of view. It also needs to be stable and have the bandwidth to handle more than the anticipated traffic.
Second, who are the candidates that will be attending (are they a good fit with your needs) and what is the event provider doing to drive more of your target candidates to the event?
My suggestion is to visit some of the virtual job fairs the turn up in a Google search. Attend as a candidate and evaluate the experience, also looking at the exhibitor features. For the ones you think are the pick of the crop, contact some of the recruiters directly for their feedback.
That should help you make some good decisions.
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Good Afternoon Regina,
My name is Mike Vogel with Shaker Recruitment Advertising and Communications. We have experience in hosting Virtual Career Fairs and can provide support, training and marketing for your organization to host their own Virtual Hiring Event. We are hosting two events next week, one for CTJobs.com and another for Allstate, and are involved with more events in the coming months.
Please let me know if you'd like more information about our experience with events like these and if you'd like to hear about our services. I can be reached at mike.vogel@shaker.com and you can learn more about our organization at www.shaker.com
Shaker is a full-service Recruitment Advertising and Communications agency with nearly 60 years of experience in the Recruitment area. We have a high concentration of healthcare accounts and are adept at partnering with these valued accounts to position themselves as Employers of Choice and to market themselves to best-fit talent.
We can help from start to finish; setting up the event, building your virtual booths, marketing the event to candidates, providing support during the event, as well as post-event marketing and reporting.
Shaker can also help to identify and recommend upcoming events geared to the healthcare industry.
Kindest Regards,
Mike VogelFollow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/RecruitVirtual
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Sorry Regina - that first post was from me. Didn't mean to confuse you. I was not logged in. Again, please contact me at kim_h@bayardad.com. Thanks! Kim Harrell
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Hi Regina,
I'd be more than happy to share some ideas and success stories with you. We have assisted our clients with many virtual events like this successfully over the last few years. If you'd like, perhaps we can set up a quick conference call so I can learn more about your specific requirements and we can provide you with some targeted solutions. Feel free to contact me at kim_h@bayardad.com. I look forward to speaking with you. Kim Harrell
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