The first step is to determine the type of experience you want for your attendees. Will your event be for internal or external participants, will it be educational with little interactivity or do you envision a lot of engagement from the attendees, will it be a commercial fair where the key objective is to sell. What will be the audience size, will you need to ensure access for a larger number of attendees? This all needs to be considered as it will determine the features and functionality that the virtual events platform you finally decided on will need to provide.
Once you understand the basic requirements for your event and the experience that you want for your attendees the next step is to determine the event goals. What do you want to get out of the virtual events platform, what are your priorities? When considering your goals it is best to focus on key metrics. The general advantages of hosting a virtual event such as saving time and money, are not specific enough. By selecting a few key metrics and setting numerical targets based on these metrics you will be able to focus your goals, making it easier to judge the overall success of your event.