How to Plan a Successful Virtual Tech Event — Part 1
Methods on how to prepare before your virtual event
Introduction
The year 2020 brought many changes to traditional work-life as did it to the world of hosting traditional in-person events. Meetups were a chance to bring people together to learn and network. However, that was soon taken away from us and we were left trying to figure out how to bring our community together.
So, of course, the next best thing was switching over to the digital world and deciding to host virtual events. Getting used to this space had its ups and downs, but after a year of practice, we finally had a solid routine down.
The purpose of this blog will be take some of the burden off of trying to figure out this new way of hosting and to impart some of the knowledge that was gained over the last 12 months on how best to prepare before your event takes place.
There will be a Part 2 blog going over how to handle your event while it’s happening and what your should do after, so stay on the lookout for that!
Regular Group Meetings
Depending on how big your event is, I would highly recommend you set up regular meeting times with your core organizers (about once a week) to go over the logistics of the event planning process. Here will be a chance for you to discuss updates on tasks that will need to be completed and the like. For large-scale events with multiple speakers, you will want to start the planning phase 2–3 months in advance. Though, for smaller ones, roughly 1–2 months in advance, since you will also need to consider room for advertisement.
This is what you should have prepared before meeting up with your organizers.
- Create a Google Doc to help organize event tasks.
- Make a list of priorities that need to be addressed before and after each meeting.
- Share it with all your organizers.
- Start collaborating!
Here is an example.
Doing this will help tremendously with staying organized while in the planning stage.
As you get closer to the event, you can incorporate more meetings with your team. Once you hit that 2 week mark out from hosting, it’s highly recommended to meet 2x per week. But you can decide what works best for you given the size of your event.
Single Source of Communication
Creating a Slack, Discord, or some form of communication where everyone can exchange ideas and updates in one single location is highly recommended. It’s nice to have a designated area where you and your organizers can channel all of your thoughts and ideas.
Keeping everyone in the loop during the organization process is going to save you a lot of time and headaches. When your organizers know what is going on, then everything else will fall into place more easily. Plus, less time wasted with having to notify each person since it will be in one location.
It’s also a great place to discuss internal information with your team once your event is in session, but don’t wish your audience to be apart of. You never know what can happen during your event. Technical difficulties might arise, such as sound not working, issues with video recording, etc. Being able to communicate with tech support without bothering your attendees and resolving the issue quickly will be very important. So, utilize this as much as possible, trust me!
Roles to Consider
When going about your planning process you’ll need to consider all the roles that need filling. How many people should you actually have to make it all run properly, depending on audience size, number of speakers, and things of that nature.
Jot down on a piece of paper or Google Doc all the possible roles you might need before and during the event as part of your preparation process.
Your list could look something like this.
- Tech support
- Lead organizer
- Graphic designer for advertising assets
- Moderator of chat channel during event
- Q&A assistance
- Speaker introductions
- Video recording
- Virtual photographer
- Social media announcer
- Prize organizer
- Attendee/speaker feedback forms
- Organizing speakers
Once you have your list in hand, you can then begin assigning roles to your team or see who wants to volunteer.
Speakers and Topics
You will want to first get a sense of what type of event you are wanting to host and topics you think your audience will be interested in hearing more about.
Ask yourself these questions to get a sense of what you want.
- What are some common/popular topics being discussed right now that you feel your audience would draw value from?
- Do you want several speakers or just one?
- Is this going to be a single-track event or multiple track one?
- Who would be your ideal speakers on chosen topics?
- What are your goals for this event?
From there, it will be much easier for you to figure out what type of speakers you will need and who would be a good fit. Now you have a general idea of what you want, you can begin to reach out to your network to see who would be interested in giving a talk.
If you don’t know of anyone offhand, then I would say check out these two resources.
Both of these platforms allow you to customize and filter what you are wanting topic wise.
After you have gotten a list of speakers who you feel would work, put all of that information in a Google Doc and review the submissions with your team to discuss who will be selected from that stack.
Once you have secured your speakers and they have been approved by your team, get their contact info and keep them in the loop as to how the planning process is progressing. Collect any needed info from them that will assist in the whole preparation process.
Here are a few things you will need from your speakers.
- Profile photo for advertising
- Short bio
- Speaker slide decks
- Short description of presentation + title
- How to pronounce their name properly
- Speaking slot preference + length of talk
- Social media handles if they want the audience to connect with them
Choosing the Right Virtual Platform
You will now need to decide on a virtual hosting platform. There is a multitude of digital platforms on the market, but it really does boil down to what you are wanting out of your event. If you want something that allows you to network with other attendees, then choose something with this option where your audience can easily meet and connect with people.
In our last big event, we used Remo, which allowed our attendees the option to network at different tables that we set up and labeled with the types of topics they would want to discuss with other members. Honestly loved using Remo, but be aware that the platform is not free from the start, and you will need to spend a considerable amount. But for large-scale events, I definitely would recommend it.
Bevy is another video conferencing platform that has solid reviews and quite a few people have loved using it from previous organizers I’ve spoken with.
For your smaller events with just 1–2 speakers, then employing these platforms will definitely get the job done.
- Zoom
- Google Meets
Just make sure before using any virtual hosting platform you try it out in advance. Make sure you are aware of what each of the buttons does, how things will look if a presenter goes on stage to talk, how screen sharing works, will there be options for recording, and things of that nature. Always do a tech check beforehand, that way before the event you have time to iron out any kinks that might arise.
Advertising
Give your potential attendees plenty of time in advance on when your event will take place, types of talks you will be holding, who your speakers are, etc. That way people will know in advance if this is of interest and if it will fit into their schedule. This will also aide in building awareness and gets the buzz going.
Note — don’t just send out one update and expect people to remember and immediately RSVP as soon as they see that first post. Most of the time people will RSVP at the last minute, so don’t get bummed out if you don’t get a lot of sign-ups with your first announcement.
To help build the hype, have a consistent advertising schedule that will help keep the event fresh in people’s minds. People have busy schedules and it’s easy for them to forget.
For example, your posting schedule could look like something like this.
- First announcement — let people know about the upcoming event.
- Second announcement —time and date of event.
- Third announcement — introduce your speakers.
- Fourth announcement — speaker topics plus speaker time slots.
- Fifth announcement — reminder update.
- Sixth announcement — day of event reminder.
You get the idea!
Run of Show
One of the most important documents you should seriously consider creating is a Run of Show. This document is an ordered list of everything that will take place during the event in detailed form. Here you will have laid out in a Google Sheet the list of speakers, topics, talking times, breaks, names of people who will introduce speakers, script, moderators, links to slide decks, a link to hosting platform, etc.
It could look something like this.
Once your Run of Show is complete, share it with the list of organizers involved and then that way once the event takes place, they can easily refer back to this source of information and know exactly what needs to be done.
Tech Check
Always, always do a tech check on any piece of equipment, online platform, or used tool ahead of time. If you’re taking on a new hosting platform for the first time, sit down by yourself and get familiar with it. Don’t just assume that because you have used other hosting platforms in the past that all of them operate the same way! Figure out what buttons do what, and how will your speakers come onto the virtual stage. Once you have this cemented in your head, schedule a time to meet with your team to make sure they are on same page too.
Next, meet with your speakers before the event and get them in sync with the platform. Walk them through every aspect of that digital space and how each button behaves.
If you’re recording the event, check to make sure this part goes smoothly too and that you’re familiar with it. If you’re not tech-savvy on this front, that’s ok, we all have our strong points. Just assign this task to someone who knows all the ins/outs of that and is comfortable taking on this role.
Feedback Forms
Yes, this is something you should always do for any event you are planning. If you’ve never hosted a virtual event before, then all the more reason to. Remember, this is still such a new way for many people to attend an event and knowing what is working and not working is very important to the success of future online events.
You always want to improve and make it the best possible experience for both attendees and your speakers. Submitting feedback forms is a great way to gain insight as to what was liked or not liked.
It’s a good idea to create two types of forms; one on how your speakers performed and one for what your attendees thought of the event overall.
Note — keep the number of questions short and to the point. Your attendees don’t want to spend 10 minutes filling out a questionnaire, so only include questions that pertain to the type of data you want collected and will be of use towards planning future events.
Slide Decks
You will want to make sure you have slide decks prepared and ready to go before the event. Once completed, share it with your attendees during the event. This way your attendees, if they forget, can easily refer back to on what comes next.
Here are some things to include.
Beginning of event slides:
- Have a welcome slide. It’s a nice introduction before you start.
- If you worked with multiple organizers, have a slide that thanks them for all their hard work. It will make them feel appreciated.
- Introduce your speakers.
- A slide with the agenda.
- Feedback forms with appropriate links to each.
End of event slides:
- Again, thank your speakers and organizers for being a part of the event.
- If the event is recorded, where attendees can find the videos later.
- Reminder to fill out feedback forms.
- Prize giveaways, if any.
One thing you will have to decide, and honestly it’s up to the type of format you want, is when it comes time for your speakers to present, do you want them to present their slides, or do you want them to submit all of their slides to you and then from there put everything into a single deck? If you do the second option, you will have to coordinate very closely with each speaker when it comes time to present their slides. If you decide to go this route, assign this task to someone.
Note — if you have a speaker who wants to demonstrate working code in real-time with the audience, then I would highly recommend that they use their slides and not bother with the second option mentioned above. It will be much easier for them to switch back and forth between their slides and the demonstrated codebase.
Conclusion
Thanks for sticking around and hopefully you learned something valuable as you set out to plan your next or even first virtual event! It might seem daunting in the beginning but with practice it will become easier. Plus, the added bonus will be the feeling of accomplishing something that momentous and knowing that you helped provide value within your community.
There will be a Part 2 blog coming soon discussing what to do and expect during an event and after, so keep an eye out for that.
Good luck and you got this!
As ever, QuarkWorks is available to help with any software application project — web, mobile, and more! If you are interested in our services you can check out our website. We would love to answer any questions you have! Just reach out to us on our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram.
