3 Things You Must Understand Before Planning a Virtual Event

By Georgie-Ann Getton-Mckoy, @GSDwithgeorgie  Original post

As we see a massive shift from in-person events to online events everyone is scrambling to figure out what platform to use. The key problem with this is that the platform isn’t the first thing to think about. The first thing to consider is the event format. Understanding your event format will help you to understand what features you need from the platforms you are going to use. 

After producing over 40 online events from 1hr webinars to week-long conferences I have broken down online events into three key formats.  

The Three Event Formats 

1. Meetings 

Meetings are semi-formal or informal sessions where individuals meet. These events often take place internally within a community or company. When you think of a meeting it’s often a small group that have similar goals. In meetings, there is a primary speaker leading the session but participants can engage by communicating in the chat or requesting to turn on their mic. There may also be a round-robin effect where everyone has a chance to share information with their mic on and the rest of the group comments back. Because of the nature and format of meetings, the ideal max amount of participants is 20-25. When you have more than 25 people in a space with cameras and mics on, not everyone gets a chance to talk or engage ( unless its a really long meeting). 

Some examples of platforms that are great to facilitate meetings include Zoom, Go to meeting and Webex.

2. Lectures

Lectures are content-heavy sessions that are led by instructors. When you think of conferences, panels, keynote speakers, you would think of a lecture. The primary speaker(s) will lead the session giving a presentation that could include a slide deck, diagram, or other assistive tools. With lectures, you can have as many attendees as you want because they are just there to receive information. Attendees would be focused on taking notes and forming questions to ask after they receive the information. The participants would primarily engage via chat and their communications would mostly be directed at the speakers(s) instead of trying to network with each other. 

Some examples of platforms that are great to facilitate lectures include Webinar Jam and Get Response 

3. Experiences 

Experiences are events where networking and collaboration are essential elements to the event’s success. Think of meetups, group projects, hackathons, networking events, and summits. These events have times where a speaker will share information and then the opportunity for participants to engage, ideate, clarify misconceptions amongst each other, discuss, build, and take action on the information they received. In live events, we would do this in breakout sessions and networking. 

Through all my research and testing, Remo is the only platform that I have seen that successfully creates virtual experience-driven events that value participant networking. You can have up to 800 people split between 10 floors per Remo Virtual Venue. Participants are virtually seated at tables where you can have up to 8 participants at a table so that it’s easy to engage and have meetings. The platform also allows for a presentation mode where speakers can conduct a lecture to teach or discuss a topic and participants will engage via chat. This is the all in one meeting, lecture, and experience platform. 

I hope this breakdown will help to save you time, money, and energy as we all look to keep engaging, learning, and working in our new socially distant world. 

Download PDF version of this guide HERE

Feel free to Schedule a platform tour of Remo with me! 

Learn more about virtual events at GSDsolutions.xyz/virtual