Virtual Open Days

Virtual open days are essentially college or university open houses that take place online, rather than in-person. Prospective students can attend online open days from anywhere in the world, any time and on any device with access to the internet. 

Attendees sign up to the virtual open day via a registration page, which takes them through to the event auditorium where they can attend the event. Virtual open days are multi-session online events, so they often include virtual tours of the campus, webinar presentations and webcasts. Attendees can interact with the institution or dedicated staff using interactive features, such as live chat, Q&A, discussions, polls and more. However, most virtual open days are bespoke, so the amount of features and sessions run within them varies from event to event.

⟶ Read Durham University's virtual open day case study

Virtual open days have been growing in popularity in recent years, as institutions are transitioning their traditional college and university open days to extend their global reach, reduce costs and safely engage prospective students into the thousands. So, how do you host a virtual open day?

Much like any event, hosting an online open day involves a lot of planning and preparation. So, when it comes to running a virtual open house, you can ensure it’s a success by following these simple steps: 

• Decide on your business goals and KPIs for your virtual open day 

• Define your format and interactive content e.g. live webcasts, webinars, Q&A, discussions, live chat and more

• Choose the best virtual event platform to suit your goals e.g. WorkCast Stratus

• Select your team i.e. presenters, speakers, guests, panel, moderators, etc.

• Select the best day and time to host your virtual open day to maximize attendance

• Promote your open day with at least 6 weeks lead time via social media, email marketing, landing pages, websites and more

• Practice, practice, practice - complete several dry runs 

• Run a test stream (if you’re streaming live) to test your internet and audio levels before going live

• Follow up with attendees by sending a thank you email and a link to any downloadable assets post-event

⟶ Learn more about our packages and pricing

Virtual events are becoming increasingly popular, as businesses are transitioning their traditional in-person events online, which is why it’s essential to understand the different types of virtual events.

Each virtual event type includes its own own unique features and provides various business benefits, but these are the main types of online events:

• Webinars: online seminars that enable presenters to connect with audiences and exchange information
• Webcasts: a high-quality, polished live video stream of an event or conference
• Virtual conferences: replicates a traditional conference in an online environment
• Virtual college open days: replicate traditional physical college or university open houses virtually
• Virtual open houses: property realtors host virtual open houses by streaming them online for audiences
• Virtual trade shows: allows exhibitors and visitors to interact online environment, rather than at a physical trade show
• Virtual careers fairs: allow employers to connect with job seekers in a virtual environment, rather than in-person
• Virtual benefits fairs: enable employers to communicate the benefits provided to their employees at scale through an interactive online environment

⟶ Learn more about virtual events 

If you’re wondering what the benefits of hosting a virtual open day versus a physical college open day, then the primary advantage would be increased attendance. On average, university virtual open days have a 75% higher attendance rate than traditional in-person open days, which is likely because they are accessible to a global audience. Attendees are not restricted by geographical location, so they attend from wherever they are in the world on any device. Meanwhile, 90% of college applicants have cited they would prefer to engage online with a college before visiting. 

Despite being hosted online, virtual open days drive increased interaction from prospective students - 47% of which would rather ask a question virtually than in-person. Therefore, interactive features, such as live chat, Q&A, discussions and polls encourage more engagement from prospective students and gives them the opportunity to directly interact with speakers and staff they would not usually have access to at an in-person event.

So, you want to know how much the WorkCast online events platform will cost? Whatever your business goals, or budget, we have a price and package to suit your needs.

Firstly, we have the Present+ self-service webinar package, which costs £95 (approx $116 USD) per month and allows you to run up to live and on-demand webinars using our platform for up to 500 attendees. Features for this plan include having access to 3 events experiences per month, embedding events on your website, webcam & screenshare, polls, event reporting and HubSpot workflows.

The second tier of our online events packages is the Producer package, which costs £395 (approx. $480 USD) per month and enables you to run live and on-demand webinars and virtual events for up to 5,000 people. You’ll benefit from the ability to host on-demand recordings and upload video content with this plan, as well as having access to 5 event experiences, 1 custom experience, embedding, polls, webcam & screenshare and more. 

The third tier of WorkCast’s plans is the Enterprise plan, which is considered the “full white glove experience”, as it is fully managed and supported by our Events and Customer Success teams. It encompasses bespoke requirements, allows you run live and on-demand webinars, virtual events, live video streams and webcasts for up to 50,000 people. Features for this webinar package include multiple event experiences, custom experiences, advanced reporting and polling, integrations and much more.

However, the cost of this plan depends on your business requirements, so for a quote you will need to contact WorkCast to speak to one of our experts.

If you’re still in the deciding whether WorkCast is the right virtual events platform for you and your business, then you’ll be happy to know that you can try WorkCast for free with our 14-day trial. 

With our free trial of WorkCast Stratus, you’ll be able to run live webinars with no plugins, no downloads and no barriers for attendees, create custom, branded webinars and create bespoke landing pages and event emails.

With our webinar trial you can supercharge your lead generation, increase audience engagement and grow your business - all completely free of charge.

WorkCast has multiple packages to suit your business needs. The short answer is yes, you can pay per use. If you wish to purchase a one-off managed webinar you can speak to one of our experts to discuss your individual webinar requirements, so that we can give you a quote.

In the meantime, you can get a free demo of WorkCast Stratus to determine whether our platform is suitable for your business needs.

Yes, you can purchase an annual license for WorkCast. Whether you’re opting for our Presenter+, Producer+, or our Enterprise webinar package, each of these plans is offered as an annual license, which customers can pay per month. For more information about what features and capabilities are available within each of our packages, you can visit WorkCast’s full list of prices and packages.