The face of entertainment has been changing dramatically over the past few decades. The media landscape is always changing - entertainment was changed forever when radio became popular, then again with the television, the advent of the home computer, and yet again with the internet.
Today, we’re going to look at some of the advantages of live entertainment, as well as the advantages of virtual entertainment. Here, virtual entertainment means live entertainment, done virtually.
The benefits of live entertainment
A feast for the senses
With virtual entertainment, you can see and hear the entertainers - but that’s about it. Virtual events can feel a bit intangible - like they’re not really happening live. With an in-person live event, you can see, hear, feel, and smell what’s happening. In some cases, you can even taste the smoke in the air from pyrotechnics.
Connecting with the performers
This is something a bit more intangible - but it’s still there. When you see a performance in-person, there’s a connection that happens between the performers and the audience. This connection can inspire the performer - the artist - to take their art to the next level. This power to transcend the ordinary, sometimes called duende, is often brought out by energetic audiences at live performances.
Live entertainment is magical
When you’re watching magic on a screen, all kinds of thoughts might enter your head. Are they using digital magic tricks? (We don’t - there is no digital altering to our routine). Is the object they made disappear just hidden off screen?
Live, it’s a whole different story. There’s no denying that the magician seems to have been cut in half, or that they really did find the audience’s card, or that a piece of jewellery did seem to vanish in a puff of smoke.
In-person, everything feels more real - and that makes the magic feel real, too.
The benefits of virtual entertainment
It’s perfect for nationwide teams
Getting every member of your organization together under one roof isn’t always easy. Virtual entertainment solves that problem - as long as everyone has a screen and a network connection, you can all get together.
That makes virtual entertainment an excellent option for very large teams - or teams that have a lot of long-distance remote workers.
It can be less expensive
Renting out an entire venue for a team building event can be a pretty hefty expense. Setting up a meeting on Zoom or some other digital conferencing platform? That’s a lot easier on the budget.
It saves time, too
Planning a live event tends to be pretty time consuming. You have to choose the venue, arrange for transportation, sign paperwork, hope COVID isn’t an issue - among other things. Virtual events have none of these problems.
Analytics and feedback are made easier by digital events
Want to know how many people attended your virtual event? Want to get feedback on whether or not your team enjoyed the entertainment? That’s all easy to do in a digital atmosphere - you can prompt people to review the event as they leave, and analytics can come in automatically.
Which one should you choose?
As you can see, there are huge advantages to live and virtual entertainment - and we’ve only covered a few of the advantages of each. So which one should you choose?
If metrics, low cost, and high attendance are important to you, virtual events may be the way to go.
And if you want to give people something they’ll remember - something they’ll talk about for weeks, and think fondly of years later - live entertainment is the way to go.
We truly believe in the power of live entertainment to change lives. The joys of live entertainment - the thrill of being asked to come onstage, the anticipation that comes with not knowing what’s next, and the energy that cycles between performers and the audience - are second to none.
If you’re looking for corporate entertainment in Toronto, we’re happy to finally be offering a live show once again. We’d love to see your face in the crowd - together, we’ll make magic happen.