With studios and content creators trying to keep us entertained at home by making films and series available for free, now is the best time to host a screening for you friends or colleagues on Kast. Looking for ways to keep your meetup community engaged? Always wanted to launch a themed film club but never had the time? Go for it now! And you’ll learn soon enough that hosting one on Kast is nothing more than a few easy steps and you’re ready to go.
We’ll go through some tips for setting up a screening event, getting ready for hosting a party on Kast and spreading the word about it in your community through the example of the Interaction Design Association chapter in San Diego, who recently hosted their first movie screening on Kast, watching the film Objectified.
Why Kast?
Kast is perfect for hosting watch parties: up to 20 of you can share anything from their desktop or camera while 100 can watch. People can join from PC, Mac, iOS or Android, watch together and discuss everything in the party chat or over voice chat. You can host public or private parties, invite your friends to join and share invite links outside of Kast. Concerned about privacy and security, check out this article discussing our design decisions.
Check out our tutorial for getting started with Kast
How to host a movie screening on Kast
As a first step, you’ll need to download the Kast desktop app, create a party and get ready for hosting. You can decide if you want your party to be private or public. Everyone can join public parties and it will be visible for people browsing through parties. If you opt for a private party, you can get attendees to your party by sharing an invite link and you’ll need to accept those who request to join.
You can even do a paid event through Eventbrite for example, and only share the invite link with those who paid. Make sure to verify their username by asking them in advance.
Get the word out to your community
Create an event on Meetup, Eventbrite, Facebook or any other platform of your choice. Copy the invite link of your party and share it with your guests along with a brief description of your event.
Pro tip: use bit.ly to shorten and track your URL.
Share the word on Twitter, and if you want us to give your event a shout out, make sure you tag @kasthq.
Kast parties are nothing like meeting invites. They are not time-bound and they don’t depend on one host being present at all times. Once you’ve created the party, it’s there for your members to hop in anytime. This way, you can engage with your guests in-app before your event starts. Customize the party banner to reflect your community or the film you are about to watch, have some music playing or stream a one-slider about the agenda of the evening. The opportunities are endless! Just think of your Kast party as your virtual event space where you can host the pre-event mingle, the main event, Q&A, casual conversations and the afterparty all in one place.
Moving your event online does not have to mean it’s a soulless, boring, video conferencing experience — fill your party with lively discussions, hang out and meet new friends after the screening, just like you would IRL.
Screening time!
Once your event is about to start, make sure to give kasting permission to those who would want to share something from their screen, microphone or camera. Party chat is accessible for everyone but to be able to stream, your party members will need permission. If you have co-organizers, promote them to be moderators in your party so they will be able to give kasting rights or monitor the chat if needed.
When you’re all set, let’s get this party started! Enter theater mode to watch the movie you are streaming in full screen while leaving the party chat visible.
It’s a wrap
We hope you’ve found these tips handy and now there is nothing stopping you from hosting your movie screening on Kast. If you have any questions or need additional help getting started, do not hesitate to reach out to our Community & Support Team. If you need immediate in-app assistance, hop in to Kast Welcome Party — you will always find someone from our team there to help you test your sound or answer your questions.
