Planning Virtual Events : From the Webinar

Nicholas Longtin | March 2021

Planning is Critical for Virtual Events

While a successful virtual event may look effortless and smooth to the audience, a lot goes on behind the scenes and the final product is often a culmination of weeks of work between many different collaborators. We have developed a great process for planning virtual events, and over the past year of producing them it’s become obvious how important the planning stages are.

Above you can watch a small section of one of our webinars on Virtual Events for Nonprofits. This section covers our top tips for planning virtual events, Don’t forget to watch the entire on-demand version of this webinar to learn more about producing virtual events.

It Will Probably Take More TIme THan You Think

Planning virtual events will usually take as long as planning your in person events if not more. For in person events speakers and and other participants just need to show up on time, for virtual events they may need to be filmed ahead of time or get training on your platform. A-list individuals are usually very busy and scheduling filming can be difficult.

During a virtual event everything attendees see is on a screen and a lot of small pieces of content need to be created for a robust and fully produced feeling event. We typically have the entire program created and have done a test run a full one week before the event date.

Tips For Scheduling Your Milestones and Keeping On Track

Plan your milestones and deadlines by working backwards from the event date
Schedule your final deadlines and practice run for at least one full week before the event date
Schedule in some extra time for unexpected delays and issues
Be very clear about call time, start time, and time zones with all participants

Choosing Your Platform

Choosing what platform to host your virtual event on is an important planning step. The platform will determine a lot about how your event is run, what the attendees experience, and how much staff you need to execute the event successfully. Many virtual events use a combination of platforms to handle different aspects of the event and coordination between the systems is critical. Carefully consider your platforms and learn their features well. When using an unfamiliar platform make sure to practice with it and test any critical features.

Tips For Choosing A Virtual Event Platform

First review what you already use and pay for
Be mindful about platform pricing, many systems have hidden costs
Carefully test and review how your different systems will work together
Make sure you have enough staff to manage all aspects of your platforms

Create Great Event Documentation

Successful virtual events require great documentation. Most live event producers and staff are used to creating a “run of show” document, however, our typical virtual event “script” contains a lot more details than a standard run of show document. These “event scripts” are essentially a minute by minute breakdown of what viewers will see on the screen and link together other supporting documents like title files, sponsor video clips, Zoom information and more.

Key Things Your Event Documentation Should Have

Detailed event script with a line item for each time screen elements change
All supporting files listed along with on screen elements organized for easy review
PDFs and other file downloads should be accessible

Build The Right Team

How your website functions and it’s interactive features is another important area of website accessibility. Forms, image sliders, popups, chat and other interactive features should all be checked for accessibility. All form fields should have the proper label coding and buttons or other forms controls need to have descriptive text. If your forms are very complex and have validation and other features that rely heavily on scripting code you may need to implement ARIA tags. Popups can be especially troublesome for accessibility if they don’t receive “focus” on activation.

Tips For Building and Managing a Virtual Event Team

Label text / code for all form fields
Good button and form control text
ARIA coding for complex interactive forms
Proper focus coding for popups or other full screen elements