On February 15, 2022, vFairs hosted the first-ever Eventeer Awards, a virtual awards ceremony celebrating the best in virtual and hybrid events. vFairs customers, team, partners and friends all came together to let loose and celebrate their accomplishments from the past year. The party was hopping, the awards were received with fanfare and history was made.
What Are the Eventeer Awards?
The vFairs team realized that although virtual & hybrid events make up the majority of current events, there is little to no recognition for the amazing ideas and event designs that wow global audiences. The Eventeer Awards were designed to close this gap, and to recognize excellence in virtual and hybrid events.
But who really knows what a great virtual or hybrid events look like? We let the public decide. Starting in November of 2021, we began collecting nominations for the awards. Anyone who had hosted an event with vFairs could nominate an event. Some event organizers nominated their own events while others nominated events that they had enjoyed attending in 2021.
Then, the voting began. We opened it up to a public vote to determine the winner for each category. In total, our nominees competed in 20 categories to win.
Finally, on February 15th, we convened through the vFairs platform to award our winners and honor all our nominees.
Let’s check out some of the highlights from the virtual ceremony.
Highlights from the Eventeer Awards
Before we get into the event, here’s a look at what the awards achieved. The awards program honored the best use cases from the vFairs virtual and hybrid event platform, and it was received incredibly well. Throughout the process, we saw approximately:
- 200 nominations submitted across all categories,
- 6000 votes, and
- 700 registrations for the online ceremony.
For a first-time awards program, that’s a lot of engagement!
The feedback we received throughout the process was extremely positive as well. Our nominees kept promoting via social media, emails, press releases and more to ensure they got as many votes as possible for their event. Here’s some (anonymous) feedback received from nominees:
“I just wanted to say thank you so much for the nomination. We feel extremely grateful that we were able to host another event through your platform”
“Thank you so much, we will share this ASAP. We would be honored to win this award!”
“This is VERY exciting!”
Needless to say, our nominees were just as excited as we were about the Eventeer Awards.
The Eventeer Awards Ceremony: Event Overview
Now for the moment we’ve all been waiting for – the inaugural Eventeer Awards Ceremony. It was an incredible celebration, almost like the Golden Globes for virtual events. Here are some of the most notable highlights of the event:
The Awards Ceremony Live Stream
The Eventeer Awards Ceremony was live streamed and hosted by the charismatic vFairs event experts Carlos & Candice. As they gave away the awards, our winners would rejoice and get the floor for an acceptance speech following their win!
Live Entertainment Break
It wasn’t just about the awards. Halfway through the ceremony, the incredible Felix & Fingers Dueling Pianos performed a live set for our virtual attendees. They played a mix of classic rock, pop and some newer hits to appeal to audiences across generations! They kept the energy high and offered the perfect respite to an intense competition.
A Hall of Fame
We featured all of our winners, runners-up and nominees’ events in our Hall of Fames. Divided into two ballroom-style halls, the venues featured overviews of each nominated event. Attendees could scroll through, see images and links for each event.
A Virtual Photo Booth
What better way to celebrate and memorialize the occasion than with a virtual photo booth? Attendees could take photos, add custom backgrounds and stickers and publish them to the virtual photo wall or share on social media! They could also browse through the photo wall and ‘like’ their favorites. The person with the most likes received a prize from vFairs!
The Concluding Virtual Wrap Party
A virtual wrap party was hosted following the close of the awards ceremony. The wrap party was a high-energy, exciting way for winners, runners up and attendees to join the vFairs team to unwind and have some fun! The party featured a virtual DJ, dance cam, games and prizes.
Eventeer Award Winners
Eventeer Awards nomination and voting process was very competitive. Our nominees really dedicated themselves to the process. Voting was neck to neck until the very last minute. Alas, only one winner in each category could come out on top. Here they are:
- Best Virtual Conference – The Manila Rotary Presidential Conference 2021 by Rotary International
- Best Virtual Trade Show – 2021 Land N Sea Marine & RV Virtual Dealer Trade Show by Land N’ Sea Distributing
- Best Multi-Employer Job Fair – UCCD Career Expo by University Centers for Career Development, The American University in Cairo
- Best Single-Employer Career Fair – Bell Student Recruitment Experience by Bell Canada
- Best Virtual Open Day – Experience ISU by Idaho State University
- Best Virtual Education Fair – UK University Search by UK University Search
- Best Virtual Food Show – Harbor Wholesale Spring Show by Harbor Wholesale
- Best Non-profit Event – Cultivating Your Disability Workforce by National Disability Practitioners
- Best IT Event – GameX by Epiphany Pakistan
- Best University Event – Virtual Bocconi and Jobs by Bocconi University
- Best Healthcare Event – Rothkoff 4th Annual Symposium by Rothkoff Law Group
- Best Telecom Event – IAUG Wired 2021 by Innovatis Group
- Best Agency Event – Holcim Business Summit 2021 by Archiestic Events Production
- Best Use of Networking Technology – AM Industry Summit by ASME
- Best Exhibition Experience – City Expo Malaysia by City Expo Malaysia
- Best 3D Virtual Designs – Sci Fest by Science Spark
- Best Use of Gamification – 21st Grand Reunion and Convention by UP Alumni Association in America
- Best High Volume Event – Adventist Virtual Global Camp Meeting 2021 by 7th Day Adventist Church
- Best Out of the Box Event – IMS Shoutout by IMS India
- Best in Class Hybrid Event – Himel Digital Customer Meet by Himel
We’ve consolidated overviews of each of our winners on our winners page – check it out to learn more about each event!
What’s Next for the Eventeer Awards?
Great events happen every year. The success of the inaugural Eventeer Awards not only made us feel warm and fuzzy inside, it also validated that this should be an annual celebration. We can’t wait to host an even more epic iteration next year, and we hope to see everyone nominating, voting and celebrating with us!
