When the world’s largest mobile tech conference, Mobile World Congress (MWC), cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns, that’s when it really hit me: business life was about to change beyond all recognition. After MWC’s cancellation, a raft of other leading, in-person technology events inevitably followed suit. Others, like the Red Hat Summit and Microsoft Build, went virtual.
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Paul Scholey[/caption]
Before the lockdown, we had long been championing virtual events primarily as a way to promote products or extend live events to those unable to attend in person—the former aptly taking shape in the form of webinars, and the latter often referring to the internal company ‘town-hall’ meeting, where executives and project teams share news with employees. But when it came to hosting customer, prospect and user community events, outside of livestreaming keynotes, companies had been somewhat reluctant to change the format of their conference - until now.
In the same way business leaders have changed their mindsets on working from home, many are now attending and even running virtual events. I find that people are often pleasantly surprised at the audio-visual quality, how well attended they are, and how easy it is to share content during and after the event. Beyond this, when done right, virtual events ease some of the burden that comes with attending conferences live—think no commute or trekking back and forth across convention centres all day long.
But virtual events, especially those organised during a lockdown, require different planning, skills and best practices in order to run smoothly, look professional and ensure the safety and privacy of hosts and delegates. Here are my top ten tips:
1 - Plan virtual events with the same rigour as physical ones
This means doing everything from choosing an exciting, timely theme and agenda to attract delegates and sponsors; communicating well to all stakeholders and prepping speakers in advance. Virtual events lend themselves very well to community building and content sharing, so remember to follow up afterwards with links to things like presentations, recordings and speakers’ LinkedIn profiles.
2 - Make it social
Virtual events lend themselves very well to social media amplification. For public events, always create and share a unique event hashtag so you can create buzz ahead of, during and after the event. Remember also to share the Twitter handles and LinkedIn profiles of all the speakers in your communications, on the event website and on presentation slides so delegates can more easily connect and socialise content and quotes.
3 - Set up host and unique passcodes for each attendee
Do not publish passcodes anywhere in the public domain, including on social networks! This important safeguard helps ensure that only registered delegates attend your event. For the safety and security of all participants you should only use a system that has this capability.
4 - Give a detailed brief to all speakers presenting from home
This should include advice to help speakers look and sound their best over video; what to show (and not show!) in the background; a reminder to ask family members not to interrupt and minimise background noise (mobiles on silent); and how to test audio and visual settings and equipment (speakers’ laptops or PCs should ideally connect via Ethernet cable rather than Wi-Fi). It’s also very important to get the lighting right - for example a bright sunny window behind a speaker can cast a dark shadow.
5 - Assign multiple moderators
Speakers should never be asked to also moderate at the same time. Slides will fill up their screens, obscuring the moderator controls. Events with more than 100 people should have two moderators to keep up with all the action. The moderators will be responsible for monitoring who is joining the event, muting/unmuting speakers, pushing the optimal video layout at the right time, promoting attendees and responding to Q&A.
6 - Hold a ‘dress rehearsal’ before the actual event
This ensures things run smoothly on the day. Not only will your speakers appreciate the opportunity to work out any flat moments and other kinks in their presentations, it allows the moderators to get comfortable with all of the controls at their disposal in the videoconferencing system and IT to do a sound check on the network and devices being used.
