Behind the scenes: organizing the Virtual PR Summit

What is a Virtual Summit?

A virtual summit is almost the same as a "normal conference" except it happens 100% online. Instead of seeing people giving a keynote on a real stage in a big room you can enjoy their presentation via any connected device wherever you are.

Imagine a webinar, neatly organized around 30 keynote speakers, over 5 days, delivered on demand. And in the case of the Virtual Public Relations Summit, on a global scale.

Here are some advantages for participants:

• Enjoy the summit whenever you want. Watch and listen to the keynote when you have time and are ready to take in all that knowledge. It's your agenda.
• Enjoy the summit wherever you want. On any connected device. The podcast version is great while driving or jogging, the online version for home or office.
• Optimized for learning. A virtual summit allows you to space content over time and combines graphics, verbal descriptions and written material.
• On Demand. You can replay any presentation you like. Come back to it later, take notes & rewind.
• No travel required. Air traffic accounts for about 3 percent of global emissions, three times more than the total emissions of a country like France. This is a "no fly conference"*.
• No expenses required. No hotel bookings and other travel expenses needed. The average for an international business trip is at $2,525 nowadays**.

Why a Virtual Public Relations Summit?

As a Public Relations professional I invest in my own continuous learning on a regular basis. Conferences like the EACD Summit or Quadriga events are part of this. But over the last three years I missed several due to a large amount of work related travel.

And I'll be very honest, like many freelancers, I don't have the luxury of having a dedicated business travel & conference budget at my disposal.

A couple of years ago I re-discovered e-learning and followed several University level courses. I still do today. This approach allows me to learn on the go and earn certificates and degrees.

So, why not mix the two experiences I asked myself? Why not gather public relations thought leaders in a conference setting and add the advantages of e-learning to it. That's how the concept for the Virtual Public Relations Summit was born.

I immediately saw the advantages for both speakers and participants. It would be way more practical to ask speakers to book time behind their PC than to take a plane and travel. And participants would enjoy the benefits mentioned above.

Another important aspect is that I wanted the summit to be truly international. The world is becoming very, very small for us communicators. I always believed we should learn from each other as much as possible, irrespective of borders and distances.

Gathering the speakers from the countries above (yes, it will be a truly global event) would have been an impossible for me to organise this, both from a financial and operational point of view.

How do you organize a virtual summit?

Once the idea was there, I started to do my research. To my surprise I didn't really find a comparable summit in the public relations industry. Yes, there were webinars with three or four speakers which were called a "summit" but no +30 speakers over 5 days.

Luckily virtual summits are a "thing" in the marketing space and that's where I found my inspiration. I also discovered that it is not a small undertaking to organize one. Usually it takes 3 to 6 months for a team. In my case, a bit more than a year... and still going...

There are many different aspects & steps about organizing a virtual summit (127 if you want to be exact), but here are the most important ones:

1. The Speakers. Without the enthusiast help of each and every single thought leader on the program of the Virtual Public Relations Summit it would simply not exist. Although many kindly said yes after a first personal email, others had to be researched, found and invited. LinkedIn's introductions played a major role in this. Professional networking via an online platform really does work.
2. A Platform. A virtual summit is not just about publishing a couple of videos. It's making sure that keynotes are hosted correctly, include additional information (documents, downloads etc...) and allow on demand playback. After many trials and tests I found what I needed. The platform is called New Zenler and has all the features I need.
3. Collaboration. From an operational point of view this summit takes up all my free time. Without the kind collaboration of communication associations like the European Communication Director Association (EACD), the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and many others, this would not be possible.
4. Organization. Luckily I practice what I preach. The summit is run in an Agile way and each step is organized in my Kanban project management tool. It is easy to drop the ball and forget something... This approach has already saved me an enormous amount of time (and mistakes).
5. Participants. When you work solo on such a big project, the smallest positive feedback, tip, signaling a typo or encouragement has an important impact. It keeps me going and gives me a real boost of energy every single time. Good communication and feedback are the cornerstone of every type of project. This is no different.

Below some of the 30 keynote speakers of the Virtual Public Relations Summit

What is the "model" behind it?

There are different possible objectives to run a summit, however I chose the "freemium" model whereby default participation is totally free. Participants can register and follow all the keynotes for a limited time. In this case till 48 hours from when they go live.

The All Access Pass version of the summit requires a purchase. This version does not impose a time limit and gives participants full year access to all keynotes.

The pass also includes exclusive benefits such as; a podcast version of all keynotes, discounts on Public Relations services and tools, e-books etc... valued at more that $2000. It even includes a private guided tour of the city of Vilnius! (I am not kidding).

When is the Virtual Public Relations Summit?

To be honest? No hard date has been set yet. Most probably around May/June.

Some people might find this strange but there is true value in working "out loud" on a project like this. The speakers are all on board, and we start recording their keynotes in the next following weeks.

In the meantime I am collecting live feedback from website visitors, industry colleagues, and potential partners. All this input is integrated "while we go", in the true Agile fashion.

However, you can already preregister for the Summit! The website in online, the registration forms work and although information will be updated on a regular basis, all systems are a go.

Why should people attend the Summit?

Apart from the flexibility and the on demand aspect covered above, the opportunity to learn from the thought leaders who will speak at the summit is immense. All of them are specialists in their field and will share their experiences.

They will cover internal, external, crisis and digital communication. The program has been set up in such a way that we will also talk about cross-cutting topics like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Social Sciences and more.

Is this the end of real conferences?

No, not at all. I will be attending several real conferences in the next couple of months myself. The EACD Summit in Amsterdam and the International Crisis Communication Conference in Berlin.

The "in real life" networking is still important - although the Virtual Summit will also offer a secure online community space for attendees.

But I do know that virtual summits have a place in our beautiful profession. Business travel is not always the solution or even possible. Environmental, budget and time considerations will play an increasingly important role.

Together with real conferences, virtual summits make it possible to balance these priorities and fit perfectly with the required flexibility to be productive. At the same time they allow us to invest in our professional development in an on demand format.

What's next for the Virtual Public Relations Summit?

The process of finalizing what I call the "back end" is under way; fine-tuning the platform to host the keynote presentations and the required promotion of the summit.

Then the coordination work with the Communication & Public Relations Associations will intensify. Every association which supports the summit will have All Access Pass discount codes for their members (so check first!). The EACD, AMEC and IPRA are already on board, but I am also reaching out to national organizations.

Finally, I am really looking forward to start recording the webinars with all the speakers! That in itself will be an amazing experience. And it will be good to chat again with so many colleagues from across the globe!

You see, it is not all "blood, sweat and tears"... ??

If you enjoyed this look behind the scenes and think the Virtual Public Relations Summit might be of interest to your network, friends, colleagues... Please don't just "like" but do share it with them.

Thank you and do join us!

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*The Carbon Footprint of Conferences - https://nonprofitquarterly.org/the-carbon-footprint-of-conferences-being-the-change/

**Business Travel Costs Around The World - https://www.expertmarket.com/business-travel-costs