Modelling Attendees Participation in Virtual Events

ABSTRACT

With the recent pandemic ravaging the world, virtual events have significantly increased to replace physical gatherings. Virtual events aim to create as similar experiences as possible to their physical counterparts, however, a major challenge being encountered is the passive participation of attendees. Several factors influence the participation of attendees’ during virtual events. This study aims to investigate attendees’ participation in virtual events through qualitative and quantitative approaches, towards developing models to determine the participation levels of attendees. Four virtual events, such as conferences, workshops, webinars and e-learning were considered. Data was collected from various event administrators and several participants of major virtual events. Nine variables that influence attendee’s participation in virtual events were formulated for developing the models. Given the nature of the variables, multiple regression analysis implemented in the R programming language was used to distinguish active participation from passive participation. Results from the analysis show that the variables used for the models have significant effects on the level of participation of attendees in virtual events. Therefore, the proposed models in the study are effective for determining attendee’s participation in virtual events.

INDEX TERMS active, analysis, attendee, models, online, participation, passive, virtual event