How are people around the world connecting with each other for an event that is both interactive and accessible to all? Do you know? The answer: Virtual events.

You might have participated in or attended a webinar or joined virtual meetings before. Add extra features such as live video sessions, engaging webinars, chatrooms, and gamified engagement to the same experience, and it begins looking like a virtual event.

Whether it’s large conferences, tradeshows, and career fairs, or small workshops, virtual events enable the attendees to attend the call from the convenience of their homes. If you’re searching to manage one, there is a list of the most general types of events that work.

13 Types of Virtual Events That Work for Most Companies in 2026

1. Virtual Conferences & Summits

Virtual conferences are well-suited for enterprises prioritizing accessibility and cost-efficiency. These may include non-profit organizations with small budgets, associations offering geographically dispersed members, and businesses organizing internal summits that can provide multi-session educational information without venue or travel expenses. 

They are perfect when your key goals are knowledge sharing, thought leadership, and targeting maximum attendees.

2. Online Trade Shows & Exhibitions

We all agreed that the primary goal of any company is to increase profit by growing leads. But are we really growing leads if we aren’t targeting a global market? The best thing is that it is never too late to do it right. Organizing a virtual trade show and expo can allow the organizers to interact with people around the world.

Later, they would be able to use live chat tools, guide them about the offering using live webinars, and transform them into an in-event e-store.

3. Webinars

Another effective virtual event, a Webinar, is one of the most often held virtual events. Last year, 52% of the B2B marketers leveraged webinars for content sharing.

Hosting a webinar is the go-to option for companies seeking to interact with customers online. They are more intimate, unlike large virtual events that can usually feel overwhelming. Basically, ranging from 50-500 attendees, they can build an environment where participants can directly communicate with presenters.

You may also use the live polling and question and answer section of your webinar system and event registration platform to create the interaction where the participants will get the responses in real-time from the team members or presenters. It is the most preferred format that builds trust and interaction in a manner that other preferences struggle to match.

4. Virtual Product Launches

When you look to broadcast a product launch to the largest number of people, a virtual product launch is a good option to connect people worldwide. It lets you display your solutions and products and gives potential customers a way to shop the moment they’re launched. An online marketplace also prefers the product owners’ tools to take follow-up with the leads, like product listings, lead capture, and real-time analytics.

5. Virtual Wedding Expo

Planning a wedding together could be a nightmare. From booking halls to finalizing caterers, there are always multiple searching websites and running after vendors engaged. Wedding expos have simplified it to prevent the chaos by providing all vendors under one roof for attendees to take their preference of the litter.

The one-stop solution for weddings is going online to help make planning a wedding even more comfortable. A virtual wedding expo allows customers to look for caterers, musicians, event planners, designers, photographers, and more. The interesting part is that you can do it with just a single click.

6. Online Music Concerts

Online music concerts are another solution for virtual events in 2026. They’ve enabled worldwide fans to discover their favorite international artists live, something only countries like the US, Canada, and the UK could experience earlier. Multiple popular artists also connect online to perform for their audiences. They even hold these virtual concerts for good reasons and solidarity. The initiative, like a one phrase: Together at Home, has promoted their supported with the help of virtual events.

7. Online Film Festivals

The movie festivals or virtual film combine the allure of traditional film festivals with the availability and flexibility that an online event format offers.

Without being limited by geographical and logistical concerns, it’s a good way for filmmakers to represent their work to worldwide audiences. Virtual event features, including polling and live Q&A, support the viewers directly communicating with their favorite directors and producers, making the whole experience a two-way conversation.

Indie film festivals have experienced the highest adoption for the virtual event pattern, while major film festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival are even experiencing increasing viewership from online channels.

8. Virtual Career Fairs & Job Fairs

The best organizations globally get their best employees by growing their target and virtually meeting their future employees. Apart from canceling career fairs, onboarding them online can enhance the quality of applicants. Hence, multiple 1:1 audio/video chat tools, job boards, and useful video assessment tools are quite helpful. Not only that, but a virtual career fair enables employers to boost their brand to customers around the globe.

9. Virtual Onboarding Fairs

The promoters or business owners often agree that success completely depends on hires. Hence, companies have to set up powerful onboarding programs to ensure new hires fit in well. A virtual onboarding fair can allow the enterprises to enhance productivity for shared hires. Additionally, they can guide them with rich creative tools like webinars and chats. The cherry on top – they can even analyze the performance and make changes anytime accordingly.

10. Virtual University Fairs

Universities usually set up a number of fests or fairs to support their students in receiving the details and opportunities to obtain their goals. Due to this reason, leading universities base their fairs around motivating top students worldwide.

To interact with the audience, the initial step is to be visible and accessible. As a result, virtual university fairs could be used from any smart device from anywhere in the world. With the diversity, this is how multiple types of virtual events help students and alumni communicate with universities, along with top employers.

• Virtual open day– Let potential students get familiar with your university, meet your faculty, and submit lead capture forms. Virtual open days will enable you to reach and connect 350 to 500 more students compared to a physical one.
• Virtual University Fair– Assists the universities in demonstrating their infrastructure, culture, and programs to a wide range of potential students. Furthermore, there is a virtual education fair at which the masses of students get to be educated about the higher courses of study under a single event.
• Virtual Student/Alumni Networking Fair– Links students with successful graduates of the university. Such events also increase the use of interactive tools that are rich, like webinars, discussion forums, and chat tools.
• Virtual Job Fair– Assists students/alumni in networking with the top employers and locating sustainable jobs. This is accomplished through a portal that is available online and full of interactive features.

11. Virtual Housing Fairs

A lot of international students are searching for on-campus and off-campus accommodations every year of school. What is a good way to interact with a global student body with university accommodations?

A virtual housing fair allows you to bring accommodations providers and students together to help them interact online. Many of the housing fairs, along with informational sessions for students with an idea of what to expect, is complemented by virtual booths to display accommodations. 

Online interaction tools like live chat and meetings may be a good option for the accommodations providers and students to connect and discover potential housing agreements from the convenience of their homes.

12. Virtual Malls

We have noticed that a completely new concept has evolved this year: virtual malls. Importantly, people shop in a virtual space, make it into a mall with 3D visuals and ad spaces, and rent out booths to vendors on a month-by-month basis. Interested leads can use the mall 24/7 and 365 days a year, and buy from their favourite sellers. The malls have an online shopping cart to simplify shopping.

13. Virtual Benefits Fairs

The virtual benefits fair can be used to educate employees on employee benefits in a convenient and interactive manner online. It eliminates the negativism and time wastage that HR needs to work on individually. Better still, it offers more effective access to certain plans by employees.

Do you have any other type of virtual event in mind?

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What technology is needed for attendees to join a virtual event?

A. Attendees just require a working phone or laptop and a stable internet connection to join a virtual meeting.

Q2. What is the right way to make my virtual event engaging?

A. You can leverage live polls, Q&As, chatrooms, gamified engagement like scavenger hunts or leaderboards, and offer live content for your virtual events to make them more appealing.

Q3. How do attendees register for virtual events?

A. Create a landing page with event details and time zones. Integrating an automated event registration system ensures that attendees receive their unique login links and schedules instantly upon sign-up.

Q4. How to track event success?

A. A virtual event platform allows you to monitor attendees’ rates, engagement rate, session views, and post-event analytics to help you track event success down to every minute detail.

Conclusion

The success of virtual events relies on the fact that events are structured to achieve objectives, to be engaging, and in the optimal format that suits the audience. Whether it be webinars, workshops, conferences, or networking, the best virtual events are interactive in nature, offer content of value, and have technology that is compatible with the event.

Through the selection of the appropriate form of virtual event and the crafting of an event to meet the demands of the participants, organizations would be able to develop powerful and meaningful experiences that would reach further and produce long-lasting outcomes.