Producing Failover Conf: Lessons Learned from Creating a Successful Virtual Event ...in Under 6 Weeks

“Should we plan a virtual event?”

A colleague posed the question on one of our team calls as the first industry event of that quarter had just cancelled their in-person conference. Before answering, my teammate Kimbre Lancaster and I quickly sent each other Slack messages and decided if two more industry events were cancelled that quarter, we would pivot to planning a virtual event. Sure enough, within a few days of making this statement, two more industry events changed plans. 

Although we were still unsure of the scope of COVID-19, we knew that we needed to find a solution for the conversations and connections that we would be losing that quarter. As a startup, leads obtained from industry events are a crucial part of our business for both opportunity creation and for brand awareness. As such, we weighed our options and felt that the energy, effort, and limited costs involved in executing our own virtual event outweighed the costs of trying to join industry programs that came with no guaranteed results. This may not be the case for every company. Before making a decision to move to a virtual event, I recommend weighing the bandwidth of your team, what results you’re missing from in-person events, and what other competing virtual events are currently available to your audience.  

For us, acting quickly helped to alleviate the concern of competing events. We had the first brainstorm on a Thursday, then several more calls that Friday, approval from the executive team Friday evening, and with the full team’s support and effort, we were ready to launch on the following Tuesday with over 20 committed partners, 3 confirmed speakers and a CFP that would end up surfacing over 100 abstract submissions. 

Same Page, Same Vision

I believe those first few initial calls were critical to the success of Failover Conf. It was imperative that all involved understood and contributed to the vision of the event. This involvement in the creation of the idea helped us all have an equal sense of responsibility to stay true to our message and to produce an event that would resonate with our community. 

By outlining clear messaging and assigning roles based on the team’s strengths, skill set, and connections, we were able to execute the announcement quickly and efficiently. This sense of ownership carried the team throughout the event, allowing us to act cohesively while efficiently executing our individual tasks. To put it simply, being a part of the conception of the idea gave us all some skin in the game.

Partnering Up

Similarly, our sponsorship structure allowed for our partners to feel equally motivated to drive awareness for the event. The structure of the partner agreement was based on a minimum lead requirement that we held consistent across partners rather than asking for sponsorship revenue. By enlisting the help of what ended up being over 40 partners, we were able to have 8,680 people registered by the time of the event (more than 4x our original goal of 2,000). 

With a growing partner list and so many companies hitting their minimum requirement, we realized that we needed to create some supplemental options to keep those companies engaged and to reward their hard work with an opportunity to engage with attendees more closely. We worked with partners to provide a one-minute video for attendees to enjoy at the start of their sponsored break and to create conversation starters to be used during Icebreakers (a platform that helps to foster 1-on-1 virtual introductions). 

We also allowed sponsors to post about their solutions in the #tools channel in the Failover Conf Slack (which I’ll talk about later). In hindsight, I think creating more meaningful connections between attendees and partners would have helped those attendees feeling overwhelmed by their inboxes after the event. This is something we’ll be working to solve for at our next virtual event. 

Finding the Right Tools

Due to the speed at which we moved with this event, we didn’t have the luxury of debating which platforms to choose, meticulously testing out each feature, having several calls with reps, and selecting a solution that we all agreed best fit our needs. When we chose a platform, we knew that having something that would seamlessly integrate with BigMarker (our current webinar tool) would be a huge help. Having individuals on the team that were familiar with BigMarker and having established a relationship with the company’s reps helped us significantly in the execution of the event. 

If given the opportunity, having a list of needs as well as nice-to-haves along with clear milestones for the event will help greatly in the selection process. There are more virtual event platforms out now than ever before and while they all seem like they’re basically the same, there are some major differences. If time allows, I recommend setting up test events on your top 3 platforms and running through each step of the event process with your team: creating a landing page, connecting it to a talk, registering, sponsorship placement, email functionality, viewing live talks, post-event replay pages, etc. Some automated features may seem like helpful functionality, but knowing exactly what you’re trying to accomplish can help determine if those features will hurt rather than help. 

Not Just a Webinar

Once we launched, we started getting in so many great abstract submissions that we knew that we’d have amazing content. Although the content was sure to impress, we realized that we needed to find some solutions to make sure this didn’t just feel like an all-day webinar. 

We were also launching our Remote Chaos Engineering Bootcamps around this time and decided to revisit some of the things that we had learned during that process. While the aforementioned Icebreaker is a great tool for allowing face-to-face interactions, we knew that we wanted to make sure people were focusing on and engaging with the content for most of the conference. In our observations while creating the remote Bootcamp program, we determined that sending attendees in too many directions, especially to any unfamiliar tools, will lead to a decrease in engagement with the content and/or a lack of participation in the external tools. As such, much of our audience utilizes Slack at their companies and so we knew this would be a familiar tool. Having this be a desktop or mobile app also helped negate the need to jump between tabs on a browser to get the full experience.

By creating a limited number of clearly labeled Slack channels, we found that attendees were able to engage with each other, speakers and sponsors to discuss the sessions, problems and solutions, and what life is like for them during the time of COVID. Most importantly, this helped attendees feel more connected during a time of isolation which resulted in 97% of attendees saying we met or exceeded their expectations.

Just Please Don’t Do it in 6 Weeks

Yes, we pulled it off. Yes, we had 3,400 people watch (a show rate of nearly 40%), but 6 weeks is not nearly enough time to make sure you’re using the right tools, properly testing every step, thoughtfully considering every angle, and making sure you’re offering the best event possible for attendees, sponsors, and speakers. My biggest piece of advice is give yourself time to make sure you get it right! While it may seem like less lift than an in-person event, there’s a lot more that isn’t in your control and with endless possibilities for tools and platforms, you want to make sure you’re using the right ones.

And Don’t Forget about the People

It was truly an honor to work alongside my teammates at Gremlin on Failover Conf and to provide a space for people to connect and learn. My biggest takeaway from planing a virtual event is that whether it’s learning from experts, catching up with old coworkers, or asking for tips on the latest tools, people will always want to engage and connect with one another, no matter the format. 

Have questions? Want to swap tips, tricks, or resources? Please feel free to email me at [email protected].