Digital Event

Strategist
MODULE 4 WORKBOOK
 MODULE 4
MODULE AGENDA

Production Planning 3

Evaluating Digital Event Platforms 8

Sales + Marketing + Attendee Experience 12

Speaker Experience 16

Exhibitor Experience 21

Live Day Preparations 24

www.pcma.org Page 2
 Module 4 Takeaways:
Plan your production process and evaluate digital event platforms.
Design attendee, speaker, and exhibitor experiences with best practices to drive engagement.
Best practices for live event day preparations and readiness.

Lesson 1 Main Points: (Will Curran)

When it comes to planning your production and all the technical elements that go into your digital
event, it sometimes can be overwhelming the amount of work that needs to be done.

When building your project plan = First Step: Get it out of your brain and out of pieces of paper.

Start by getting it out of your brain and into a system.

You need a system that allows you to collaborate and feedback from additional people around
you e.g. from the experts, your platform suppliers, production suppliers, etc. Allow everybody to
be in one collaborative space.
This system should be a big part of every meeting that you have, going forward into the day of
your event.
When having a touch base meeting to talk about the event schedule, make sure you have a great
software or tool available to you and your team.

Now, you can start to build that plan out.

Start by saying: What are all the potential things that we need to happen?

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 Get this all out of your head.
When it comes to the actual event, you may forget to tell other people about it.
The number one thing that can sometimes lead to an ineffective team is lack of communication.
Have a few tools available to you, and know when to use them appropriately.
Eliminate email as the primary modes of communication.
Move the conversation internally with your partners, away from email.

Tips, Tricks and Tools for Effective Communication

Video conferencing tool:

Have regular conversations with video to be able to screen share, share ideas, have deep
brainstorming sessions, etc.
When planning a meeting, plan it to be shorter than the time you actually think it will take. If you
think it is going to take an hour, instead schedule for 30-45 minutes.
According to Parkinson's law, the time it takes on your schedule will be the time it takes to fill.
If you schedule an hour, even if you do not have an hour worth of content to discuss, you will
somehow find a way to fill the full hour.
Do shorter, quicker, upbeat meetings.

Text-based chat system:

Use Slack, Teams or a similar too.
Allow quick, concise communication, file sharing between each other and quick answers to
questions during your communications.

Audio system:
Helpful for long stints working on a project, building something out, getting quick feedback, and
asking quick questions.
Tandem is a good resource.
You could even do this by hopping on call and staying on for a long period of time.
The only problem is people can not hop in and out as easily. A tool like Slack or Zoom can do this.
Do a call with someone just to bounce ideas back and forth.

Project management software:

Make deadlines a task.
Have conversations within the task.

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 Instead of breaking up into separate emails or separate conversations, keep it all fluid and inside
of one tool.

Key metrics for your event

Understanding Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):

When it comes to your event, how do you know whether it was successful or not? This will be up to
you and the key metrics that you end up choosing. In the world of digital events, there is so much
possibility in terms of measurement and data collection. It is easier than with in-person events.

While establishing your key metrics, look into key metrics related to marketing. Why? The
marketing world has been in this digital marketing space for so long that they have established
great metrics.

Whether it is conversion rates or net promoter score, there are many possibilities when it comes
to your key metrics.
Make sure you are staying laser-focused on your key metrics. Those are the ways you are going
to measure. Ask "Why is that important?"
When you are evaluating a platform or a system, you want to make sure that platform can help
you measure those key metrics.
Use a whiteboard and write down all the things that can potentially happen with your event, that
you would like to know more about, or to measure better.
This can be the number of people who actually signed up, how happy they are, how many people
watched a live stream, etc.
Circle three metrics. Why three? Two is fine. One is fine as well. Three is the nice middle.
Do not bog yourself down with a thousand metrics.
What is measured is what gets done, and what is measured is what matters.
Focus on those three things that you need to know.

When those get the check mark or good positive score, you know that everything went extremely
well.

Project management tips, tricks and tools:

Select a project management software that works for your needs. If you are working by yourself and
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 need a way to write down your to-dos and all the things you need to do to get out of your head,
check out Todoist.
This is a great, simple software to use.When those get the check mark or good positive score, you
know that everything went extremely well.

Project management tips, tricks and tools:

Select a project management software that works for your needs. If you are working by yourself
and need a way to write down your to-dos and all the things you need to do to get out of your
head, check out Todoist. This is a great, simple software to use.

If working with a team, check out Asana and Basecamp. Asana is very powerful and has a lot of
features, but is less user-friendly than Basecamp. Basecamp has the option to share with your
clients so they can see what you are working on.

If looking for something that allows you to keep track of many pieces of content as they move
through a funnel or through different stages, consider Trello which is very easy to use.

Pro tip: Asana has features of Trello inside of it.

If you need a way to track all of your pieces of content and data, use a tool called Airtable. This
software allows you to create great databases where you can reference a lot of information.

If looking to save a little bit of time, and not have to do the back and forth on meetings, check out
Calendly. Calendly allows you to send a link to someone, and they get to pick the time that they
want to meet with you.

A tool that allows you to schedule and functions as a big publishing calendar is CoSchedule. You
can host multiple webinars all the time, publish blog posts and more. Coschedule is ideal for
publishing a lot of content. In CoSchedule you can set the due date and the deadline in which you
are going to be publishing, then set your tasks based on that schedule. If you move the deadline
for an event, all the due dates move on with it as well.

When working with a lot of video content try Frame.io. This allows you to share video, as well as
comment on it like Google docs.

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 Looking for a tool that allows you to connect other tools to each other? Check out Zapier.
Zapier allows you to connect and say, “When something happens inside of this tool, do something
else inside of this tool.”

Questions:

1. What is the first step in building your production plan?

2. What are KPI’s?

3. List two tips, tricks or tools for project management.

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Lesson 2 Main Points: (Will Curran)

What you need to see inside of a platform

Important: Create a list of "needs to haves" vs. "nice to haves." With the "need to haves", begin by listing
completely non-negotiable needs. For example: Integrations. The app natively integrating with all the
other apps that you use, may be a need. Another need could be that it is simple to use. (If it is too
complex or hard to use, then it is probably too difficult for attendees to use too.)

The "needs to have" list is just a couple core things that the platform has to have. Then you can
begin to build out a more extravagant nice to haves list.
Why is this important? You may be willing to sacrifice the nice to haves as long as you get the
needs to have.
Now you can start to look at platforms and figure out which ones check all the boxes for you.
Make sure that you make this as measurable as possible.
A "needs to have" is that the platform can actually measure your KPIs inside of it.

Platforms, Technologies and Vendors:

Start looking to a secure platform. Do a demo. A demo is when you have company show you all
the software, how it works, what it is capable of, etc.

Start off with your search for a platform. Google search for the “best virtual event platform” or “best
digital event platform”.

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 Build out a list of all potential vendors. Start by seeing which ones fulfill your "needs to have"
checkbox. (Once you are interested in a platform, reach out to the vendor.)
Always keep in mind that the demo is a great opportunity for the vendor to show the most perfect
scenario of what things are going to look like.

Some important things to ask are: "How much of this was custom built?" "How much of this was
custom designed? How can I make mine look this way?"

Ask if you are not sure about something. Next, go down the "needs to have" list. "Does it do this?"
"Can you show me this?" "Does it have this?"
Make sure that all those "needs to haves" and "nice to haves" are also included in your proposal,
with written down promises from the vendor saying they can accomplish it. As you secure all
these demos and start to see them, you may become fatigued.
Once you start to get a good feel of what these platforms look like, start to narrow down your list
and look at their websites. Do not do a demo if you see on website that a platform does not offer
what you need.
Pro tip: To eliminate the need for a demo, and knowing whether it is going to be a good, easy to
use platform, look at their website.
If their website is easy to use, easy to navigate and easily communicated, chances are the
platform will be as well.
If their website is ugly and not easy to use, chances are the software is not going to be too easy to
use either.
Secure your demos, start asking questions and get all your questions put out there, that way you
can get the answers.

Evaluation Grid:
Create an evaluation grid for all these different platforms and technologies. Open up a Google
spreadsheet or an Excel spreadsheet and make every column a different platform, technology, or
vendor.
Every row is your list of "nice to haves" and "want to haves".
Start checking off those boxes. Which ones do what?

Pro tip: Use a conditional formatting or coloring system. This way, when it is a thumbs up or a
checkbox, it is green, and when they don't have it, it is red.

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 This allows you to very clearly see which ones have, and do not have each item.
When you have this evaluation system visually built in front of you, this creates one big visual
plane for you to easily compare and make the right decision.

Ask all of the questions that come to mind regarding who is responsible for what, when it
comes to producing your event, do not wait until halfway through the process.

Start this conversation first with every single vendor. Ask them, “What are you responsible for?”
and “What am I responsible for?”
Make sure this conversation is written down and confirmed.
Take this information and plug it back into the project plan in your project management
software. Put these as tasks assigned to those different vendors.

This creates accountability. Make sure that you are having a clear, explicit conversation from
the get-go of who is responsible for what.

The client, the platform, and the production companies are all responsible, but their
responsibilities change every single time.
Make sure all of this is clear before you sign the contract, because if you ask for help after the
contract is signed, you are begging.
Asking ahead of time, it is negotiating.

Integrations:

Integrations are the new powerful feature. You have to make sure that when you are looking at
your platform, that it integrates everything with everything that you need to do.

A lot of people say you can integrate anything via an API. An API is just a tunnel that allows two
systems to talk to each other and pass information back and forth.
When you hear the term API, think software developer, someone who has to be technical enough
to do that. It is not as simple as clicking a button and it is done.
If you do not know what an API is, or you do not have developers on your team, consider it
needing a little bit more money.
The platform might be able to help you with that.
You might be able to hire a freelance developer to help with it, but technically it is not native.
It is not going to be perfect and there is a potential it could have things that break.
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 Zapier allows you to connect multiple tools with each other. It is very user-friendly.
You can take courses on it online. You can watch a lot of YouTube videos where they show how it
works.
The problem was APR, the idea that it is not officially endorsed. It is a middleman, connecting one
tool to another tool.
If Zapier ever breaks, or if one tool does not work with another tool, you could have a potential
issue where something stops working. It is not necessarily the best when it comes to integrations.
A lot of apps love to say they integrate with everything, and then have asterisks where it says
using a Zapier integration. (This is a big red flag.)
Always look for a native integration. This means that natively, the two apps will connect to each
other, they have done it before and they do it all the time. (For example, WordPress integrates
with HubSpot because WordPress has a plugin where it installs HubSpot on it. It works all the
time.)
It is 100% native and you know, it is going to work. This means it is more reliable and that you are
going to get more data from it.
Pro tip: On a website there will usually be an integrations tab. Click on it.
If you can not find the integrations tab, try scrolling to the bottom of the tools website. (Sometimes
they put the integrations link down in the footer of the website.)
If you can not find any integrations page in the top or the bottom, integrations obviously is not one
of their big killer features. Instead, Google the name of the software and the term integration.
Sometimes this will help you find a page that lists all their integrations not listed on their main
website.
If you are really technical, find their frequently asked questions, help support page or find some
documentation that discusses their integrations.

Questions:

1. What two lists should you create prior to searching for the right platform?

2. How can you utilize an evaluation grid in your search for the right platform, technology, and/or
vendor?

3. List two things that are important to consider in regards to integrations.

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Lesson 3 Main Points: (Joshua Butler)

Pre-show topics. There will always be more work to do pre-show then during the show.

Four areas in preparing for your virtual event:

1. Sales and marketing
2. Attendee experience (User experience)
3. Speaker experience (Presenter experience)
4. Exhibitor experience

When considering these four areas, think about the pre-show, during show and post-show
experience for each area. Knowing where you want to end up will help inform decisions about the
entire process.

Sales and Marketing:

You more than likely do not need to reduce your prices for virtual events.
Virtual event production should be cheaper for you, but that does not mean it has to be cheaper
for your attendees or exhibitors.
They are already saving money in travel, meals and lodging. We know based on six solid months
of producing virtual events during the pandemic that most events will see their registrations
double.
This means double the potential value for exhibitors at a lower cost.
Sweeten the pot by adding value for attendees. This could include access to enduring materials
or free memberships.
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For exhibitors, you have a lot more options.

Give them access to better data, sponsored sessions, pre-show or post-show promotions, pre-roll
video commercials, or even the chance to produce their own session content.
As the industry shifts back towards hybrid, you can offer these new features at additional cost, but
do not reduce the price of your registration or your exhibitor packages.
Keep the value up in our industry.
The content we provide has not changed. It is just as valuable now, if not more valuable than it
has ever been.
Do not pass up digital marketing! Virtual events are digital events and digital marketing is not hard
and can be very cost effective.
If all you can afford is to boost new Facebook posts, then do it.

Attendee Experience (User Experience):

Ask ourselves four questions: "What, how, why and where."
Save where for last, because as we answer the first three, it is going to inform the fourth.
The what is your content...it is the specific sessions and materials being presented.
There are four general types of content: educational, motivational, entertaining and social, at a
well-rounded event. All of these can be delivered virtually.
Next, you need to determine "how much content to include." This question undoubtedly will result
in some debate.
You do not have to cut back on content or reduce session times.
We use a lot less energy consuming an event on a computer at home than walking around a new
city and convention center all day.
The content does need to be engaging, but with the reduced cost of producing virtual content
and no physical constraints, why not provide more options to your attendees?
This might mean you have to do more concurrent events, and may have a significant impact on
your event platform and/or production partner.
The how is the way your attendees engage with the content and each other.
There are two ways to consume live content virtually. You can watch a stream or you can
participate in a video conference. (Both of these have different engagement options.)
Primary difference is that a stream is one way.
Content is always flowing in one direction, from the presenter to the audience.

Streams require additional tools to provide engagement opportunities.

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 This can be in the form of a chat, a Q and A or polling widget on the webpage.
The latest platforms offer player overlays where users can respond to polls directly from within
the video player.

Two major downsides to streaming:

1. The attendees have no access to their camera or microphone, and therefore cannot engage
directly with the presenters.
2. There is almost always a significant delay between real time and when the attendee watches
the stream.

The better production vendors are now offering real time streaming.
While this will come at a premium cost, the result is a mere half second delay between real time
and the attendees stream.
The second way to consume live content virtually is within a video conference platform such as
Zoom, Teams or GoToMeeting. In these platforms, users can be seen on camera and can ask
questions directly via their microphone.
While this can create a much more engaging experience for some attendees, it is also very
difficult to manage with many attendees.
The best virtual event will combine both types. For instance, the general session should be a
stream and perhaps small round tables or sessions with fewer than 50 attendees could be very
effective as a video conference.
Another way to increase engagement is to allow your attendees to communicate with each other.
This can be through networking sessions or by seeing who is online and sending direct
communications.
A very popular aspect of virtual events is gamification.This means real games that require the
attendee to explore the site and consume a variety of materials.
A great example of this is "Where's Waldo", where you task the attendee to find instances of
"Waldo" throughout the site.
This could be a picture of your CEO or an association president. This could be a general session
bingo, where attendees download a bingo card and then fill it out as they hear certain words
during sessions.
This could be cumulative trivia, where you do a question before every session, and the best
scores at the end of the convention or event win.
Regardless of how you engage your attendees, it is a requirement with virtual events. Without
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 engagement, all you have is on demand video.
The why is the purpose of the event. "Why are attendees registering for your event? For education
credits, networking, industry research, or simply to have fun?"
Understanding the "why" will help you prioritize your event needs.

Now with our answers to the "how", "what", and "why", we are in a better position to answer the
"where" with virtual events, the "where is your venue."

Just like a physical event, you will choose your venue based on your overall event scope.
If your event needs only a small hotel meeting room, then perhaps you can do your event within a
video conference tool like zoom.
If your event needs the whole floor of meeting rooms, you will likely need an entry-level virtual
event platform, or a custom event microsite.
If your event needs a convention center, you need a full featured virtual event platform with many
tiers of service, and a virtual event production partner to see you through it.

Questions:

1. What should be the four focus areas in planning your virtual event?

2. Should you reduce your prices for virtual events, as opposed to live?

3. What questions should you ask yourself in regards to the attendee experience?

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Lesson 4 Main Points: (Joshua Butler)

This is the area of virtual events, where there are the highest levels of anxiety - Speaking.

When you are on site at a physical event, all the speaker has to do is get their slides up on the
screen.
Now they have so much more responsibility at physical events.
There are professionals at live events making sure every aspect of the event is perfect.
With a virtual event, the speaker takes on many of those same roles.

To help ease into the virtual event experience, there are a number of steps you need to take.

The first step may be the most important: Make sure to complete technical checks with anyone
who will appear on camera.
These should be one-on-one video calls over zoom, preferably one-on-one because then they
are the most effective at convincing the user to follow our guidelines.
Often, if there are assistants or colleagues on the call, it will create a groupthink effect and the
user will likely be less compelled to follow the guidelines.
Remind them you simply want them to look and sound the best they possibly can.
This will trigger a self-interest concern that works every time.
These meetings are crucial to setting a high standard of quality across the wide range of remote
presenters.
Your event will likely include technical checks that are important for both the tech novice and the
seasoned user.

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 The latter may be comfortable with the technology, but they are breaking many best practices with
their camera, microphone or lighting.

Aspects to cover in your technical checks:

Internet Connectivity:
Most people don't understand the distinction between their available bandwidth and their wifi
connectivity.
The number one reason for internet stability issues is not a lack of bandwidth, but rather too much
distance from their wireless access point.

Top recommendations: Close all other browser tabs and apps that you don't need running. and tell
the family to get off of Netflix and then to get closer to the wireless access point, also known as
your router.

Audio:
If we lose their camera mid-presentation, we can keep going, but if we lose the audio, we have to
stop.
Require that no one be allowed to present using their laptop's microphone. (Get a USB headset.)
Monaural is a good option. That means it only covers a single ear, Sennheiser headset. These and
similar quality sets can be purchased for $50 or less right now, and more than likely delivered
tomorrow.

Camera:
Most people will be using their laptop and probably will not want to add another camera.
However, if the speaker is using a desktop, they might be more receptive to purchasing a new
webcam.
There are some very good cameras right now for around $100 that will send full HD, 1080p to all
video services.
A laptop camera will likely be positioned on a desk, looking up at the speaker, which is about the
worst possible position.
Get some books and prop up the laptop.
The goal is to get the camera to be eye level.
Your presenters will look better and they will thank you.

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Windows:
Windows should be in front of the presenter and not behind them.
As a rule of thumb, you do not want any light sources in the frame.
You do not want overhead lighting.

Best tip: Have a small desk lamp that you can place directly next to your screen.

Backgrounds:
Will often come down to personal preference.
Virtual backgrounds can be distracting. They accentuate the fact that it is virtual.
Using real backgrounds, pay close attention to what is in effect "your stage."
Think about what typically goes on a stage.
Often see pleasing designs and shapes as set pieces.
There could also be greenery and floral pieces with a few nice pieces of furniture. All very pleasing
to the eye and not too distracting.
Encourage speakers to do the same. You do not want your attendees to get distracted by the
"menagerie."
Avoid bookshelves, as attendees will have the ability to look at personal photos and book titles,
instead of focusing on the speaker.
The background blur option can be very effective at keeping the video looking realistic and yet
reducing distraction.

Controls:
Review the video conferencing app's controls, most importantly how to properly share and record.

With all of your presenters receiving this level of technical check. You can rest easy knowing that
most, if not all technical issues were caught and dealt with before the show.

Another step you can take as an event planner to ease the anxiety level of your speakers is to
pre-record their presentations.
Pre-recording is here to stay as a fixture of modern events. There are so many reasons why this is
the best approach to virtual event management.
Pre-record with the help of a production partner, or if you are comfortable with it, you can even
have your presenters record themselves.
Recording will dramatically reduce the stress for presenters on show days, allowing them to enjoy

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 the event or spend more time focusing on engagement with attendees.
With the help of a production partner, you can ensure the highest quality recordings and enhance
the production value with editing.
You don't have to lose the live aspect of your event. Your presenters can still do live Q and A's
immediately following the playback of their recorded presentation. In most cases, you can pass it
off as live and your audience will never know.
Biggest issue with pre-records is that it requires your presenters to be ready to record well before
the event. No last minute changes when you record two weeks early.
Finally, you will need to plan for some training and/or rehearsals, depending on your event's
needs.
If doing a big general session with many different elements, schedule one or more rehearsals.
You would never do a physical event general session without rehearsals. It is simply the only way
to get the timing right.
A role that your event is very likely to have is the moderator. This is an important role to the
success of your event. When doing moderator training, start off by telling the group that they
have been chosen because they are the smartest, most engaging, most talented, most capable
people for the job. Often it is the moderator that will start and end every session.
That means they are book-ends and they will set the tone for each of their sessions.
They will also encourage engagement with attendees, relay questions to speakers during the Q
and A, launch polls and keep your sessions on time.
You can see why with all of that responsibility, you should choose your moderators wisely and
hold at least one training session to make sure they all understand their role and are confident in
the technology.

Questions:

1. List two important aspects to cover during technical checks.

2. What is included in an ideal background for a digital speaker presentation?

3. Who can help you ensure the highest quality recordings and enhance the production value with
editing?

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Lesson 5 Main Points: (Joshua Butler)

The exhibit hall is one of the most difficult aspects of physical events to effectively virtualize. It is a
part of the traditional event experience that seems to thrive on physical presence,

For many exhibitors, response to virtual events has been "meh".

It is not that the numbers are bad, but more that exhibitors need to adjust their strategies and KPIs
to fit the virtual exhibit model.
It is not that attendees do not want to see new products or hear about new features. It is that
attendees want to do it differently.
They do not want to log 20,000 steps in one day, visiting a dozen booths.
They can now get the information they want in a few clicks, set up a meeting with a rep to see a
demo, download a few PDFs and still get in their afternoon run.
To help ensure exhibitor satisfaction, you must understand what it is they want and for most
exhibitors, the answer is leads. This is where virtual exhibits shine.
At a physical event, an attendee would have to physically enter a booth and get scanned in order
to appear as a lead for the exhibitor.
Virtually, an attendee has to only click one time into the main booth of an exhibitor for that lead to
get logged.
With the doubling of attendance at virtual events, this effectively ensures that exhibitors will get
many more actionable leads than at a physical event.

Couple that with the fact that a virtual exhibit is most likely to cost much less to build and staff
than at a physical event. You have a significant incentive to exhibit virtually.

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 How do we get attendees to visit the booths? Build easy to navigate, attractive and informative
booths.
3-D and virtual booths feel like a bit of a novelty, and often the content like a video is shown in a
three-dimensional form.

This does not seem natural.

Think of a virtual booth as a single page website that is embedded within the virtual platform.
The booth should include easy to access cut quality content, such as PDFs and videos.
There should be an option for scheduling a one-on-one meeting with a booth representative.
Surveys or forms are another good way to get feedback from visitors.
The most effective way to quickly engage your booth visitors is with a staffed chat room.
The problem with the virtual exhibit experience, just like the rest of this technology, is that it
requires training in order to effectively use it.
You can give an exhibitor a bunch of tools, but if they do not understand the optimal user flow, then
they will not be able to take advantage of the tools.

Show a clear path to success and coach exhibitors to be very active in chat and then to incentivize
users to connect in some way in the chat.

This means bribe. At a physical event you bribe with food and alcohol. Giveaways work best for
virtual.
Every exhibitor should give something of decent value away. Have participants say hello in the chat
to be entered in the drawing.
Once the user says "hi", the exhibitor now has an opportunity to engage and to sell.

The final step is to promote them. This is incredibly important: It is not "if you build it, they will
come", but "if you build it and promote it, then they will come".

With virtual, it is easier than ever to skip a ride over the exhibit hall. Make sure that you have set
your exhibitors up for success.
Ensure there are numerous ways throughout your platform to find and access the exhibit hall.
Build breaks into your schedule, and not just at the end of the day.
Spend actual ad dollars promoting the exhibit hall through your digital marketing channels.
Do not forget emails.
Once the show has completed, you get to thrill the exhibitor with a treasure trove of data.
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 Any good virtual event should give you the ability to provide details on the activity of every user
that visited the exhibit
They can know who, did what, when and for how long. This is where virtual will shine.
Spend some time early on helping your exhibitors understand that their booth is an inbound
marketing tool and they will be much happier in the end.

Questions:

1. What is one of the most difficult aspects of physical events to effectively virtualize?

2. What do most exhibitors want?

3. How can you ensure that exhibitors get traffic at their booth?

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Lesson 6 Main Points: (Joshua Butler)

The bulk of work takes place before the actual event. You can be left with with hundreds, perhaps
thousands of stakeholders staring at computer screens, hyper analyzing every aspect of the event to help
make sure you are prepared for the big show. Have these items ready and in place.

Part of your job as a planner is to make sure that all of the pre-show items are completed in a
timely manner.
Make sure all speakers have completed their technical checks, and more importantly make sure
all content is ready.
This includes pre-recorded sponsor commercials, pre-show materials like walk-in slides, intro
videos, and other produced video content.
An often overlooked, yet crucial piece of successful virtual event execution is link management,
especially when you have multiple concurrences across multiple days.
This results in hundreds of links, links for the moderators and the speakers, links for the session
pages, and links for engagement tools like Q and A moderation or polling.
Spending extra time to make sure links are organized properly will save you so much grief during
your event.
Spend considerable time updating and managing a complete "run of show document" for the
production team.
These documents often include a by the minute schedule of content and activities.

A comprehensive "run of show" document will ensure that the whole team is on the same page
and that your show is run smoothly.

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 In the last couple of days leading up to your event, make sure to complete all of your rehearsals
and your moderator training, then you are ready for the big day.
The moment has arrived.
Registration is complete.
Content is loaded.
Speakers are rehearsed.
Booths are staffed and you are ready to rock.

Here are a few last minute items to consider:

Make sure that you have a good communication process established with your production
vendors.
You should have immediate access to at least a production manager, if not the actual
technicians operating your streams.
An open channel for communication allows you to accommodate content checks, ensure
speakers and moderators are present and on time, and to effectively deal with last minute
changes.

Now you are ready to simply watch and observe.

This includes both the content and also the engagements channels, such as chat and Q and A.
Make sure you get updated daily on attendance and other important metrics, such as user
feedback.
Once the event is over, you have a whole new set of tasks.
You should be getting lots of reporting from your virtual event platform. (This includes reports
for exhibitors, sponsors and session speakers.)
You will be reviewing all of the post event surveys and preparing follow-up emails to attendees.
It is at this point that your focus should now shift to the on-demand virtual event experience.
All of that content that you just helped create can now be accessed on demand.
That means opportunities for additional revenue, membership and training.

Well, that's it! You have successfully made it through your first, second or third virtual event. With this
guide to virtual event production planning, you should be well-equipped to deliver successful virtual
events!

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Questions:

1. When does the bulk of work for an event take place?

2. Organizing will save you so much grief during your event.

3. What will a comprehensive run of show document ensure?

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