Be aware that in comparison to physical fairs, virtual fair planning is usually busier in the leadup to the fair, in particular requiring significant communication from your office to both employers and candidates

It’s helpful to build a mental model of how the virtual fair will play out, to both candidates and employers; this video gives a general overview of how a virtual fair runs on our platform (from a candidate perspective)

It’s advisable to have a hard deadline on when employers are allowed to register for the fair. We don’t recommend letting employers come in right before the fair, as it’s unlikely you will have the time to onboard them, and they won’t have the same level of success without candidate bookings on their schedules

After your fair goes live, and employers have been invited to the platform and begun creating schedules, we recommend fair organizers host a Q&A Webinar for employers. This gives you the opportunity to pass on any important information about dates and testing the video platform, as well as to answer questions they have about schedule creation and management. Click here for help on hosting this webinar

In physical career fairs, employers often have the opportunity to network among themselves during either a breakfast, or a lunch event. We recommend hosting a pre-event virtual ‘meal’ on your fair date to give employers an opportunity to connect and share experiences, as well as to ask any final questions they may have before the event gets underway

To increase visibility for your Career Services Office, as well as to answer any career-related candidate questions that arise, consider offering a virtual ‘helpdesk’ on the day of the fair. Candidates can drop in to your Zoom room (or platform of choice!) to ask about resumes, elevator pitches, interview etiquette or any other questions they have surrounding best practice for them at virtual fairs!

Once the fair goes live in the app, we encourage regular monitoring of your fair status, and daily messaging and marketing to candidates to ensure strong uptake

Wording is important! Help your employers understand that the interactions they have with candidates are not interviews, but informal and casual opportunities to connect. We sometimes call them meetings, appointments, or bookings, but they are not intended to be formal interviews

Do instruct your participating employers to test out the technology before the day of the fair; this is critical for success!