Get best of the week

Lifehacks for organizing online events

I have been organizing IT conferences offline for many years. But new realities are forcing our team to explore the possibilities of going online. In this article, I collected information and life hacks from articles of foreign colleagues. Many tips will be relevant for organizers of offline events.

Online Event Formats


  1. Live


    The option is the closest to the format of offline events, only without talking over coffee breaks. Speakers and listeners at the same time are connected to the platform, reports are delivered “live”, participants communicate in a chat and ask questions.

    Advantages: clear and simple format, speakers do not need to make preliminary recordings.
    Disadvantages: a lot of risks and uncontrolled situations for the organizers: the speakers have problems with the technical part / the speaker just does not appear at the right time, technical platform malfunctions.

  2. Live for days or weeks


    This format makes the event a mini-festival. This can include various additional sessions, discussions and discussions, some networking, than significantly expand the interaction during the event.

  3. In recording


    All sessions are pre-recorded and shown on the appointed day of the event.

    Advantages: less risk for organizers.
    Disadvantages: more preliminary preparation and no sense of “event”, since everything has already been recorded in advance.

  4. In a recording involving


    In this format, the speeches themselves are recorded, but the speakers are present online during the lecture and can answer questions and conduct other activities.

    Benefits: Speakers can focus on communicating with listeners. In this format, live chat and recording are more balanced.
    Disadvantages: the organization of video recording of performances is required.


More information about formats can be found in this article .

" "
An example of a speaker’s live speech at an offline conference

Regardless of which format you choose, there are a number of general tips and tricks that foreign sources write about. So, you decided to organize your online event.

Life hacks


1. Find a “big idea” for your event


It’s relatively easy to gather speakers, schedule several days of webinars, and call it all an online conference. The problem with this approach is that as a result of the session, as a rule, they are loosely coupled, participants receive only selective facts and very little real training takes place.

Find the “big idea” that brings your event together. This idea should become a single line around which you can build all the reports and connect them together.

To highlight these connections for participants, you can organize introductory “preparatory” and final “summarizing” sessions on each day of the conference.

Use preparatory sessions (approximately 30 minutes) in order to highlight one of the main topics or ideas of the conference, to tell how the reports of the coming day are related to it, and what brings the reports together.

In summarizing sessions, invite participants to take stock of the day, think about what they have experienced, and tell them how they plan to act.

2. Create a place for participants to interact


One of the main disadvantages of virtual events is usually called the inability to achieve the same level of communication as at offline events. Although face-to-face communication does have qualities that cannot be translated into a virtual environment, the level of interaction that you can create on the network is quite high - if you make an effort.

As a webinar platform, you can use services that have the option of conducting live sessions. For example, Zoom allows you to connect chat in addition to the Q & A feature during webinars.

Find a separate chat moderator. Prepare suitable seed questions in advance, which he will be able to send to the chat and start the discussion. Ask the moderator to constantly encourage listeners to take part in the conversation.

After the online sessions, provide a place where discussion can continue between presentations and after them. For example, private groups Facebook and LinkedIn are suitable. And special services will help integrate the discussion wall and social media features with WordPress.

Keep in mind that discussions never begin just like that. Need to remind people to participate. Constantly invite participants to chat during live sessions. After the event, include in the e-mail newsletter mentions of the most active discussions in groups and put links to them.

" "
Use private groups in social networks or instant messengers as platforms for discussions

3. Use at least some live video


Even if your event is fully scheduled in the recording, use at least some live video. For example, a moderator may represent speakers at the beginning of a report. The goal is to show that while the learning environment can be “virtual,” it is filled with real people — the people who are there for learning and discussion.

Please note that the participants will see both the speaker himself and his presentation. This applies to events going on-line, as well as in the recording. The “frames” of the speaker and presentation can replace each other at the right time, or be combined in one window.

For example, at our offline conferences, volunteer Stas Fomin recorded performances for his 0x1.tv library , and then added presentations to the video.

" "
Add a presentation to the speaker video

4. Provide excellent customer support


Make sure that all participants understand what reports, when and where they will be held, how to get access, when records will be available, etc. Make sure that the navigation links to key information are located in the obvious areas of the conference site and send reminders to the registered mailing list several times with all the necessary information.

Place your email address and support phone number in the footer of the site, create a contact page and remind where to go for help in the newsletter.

5. Talk to speakers in advance


“Talk in a voice” with your speakers before they speak. Tell us more about your audience, expectations from the report, which is usually better perceived by the audience. Find out what questions the speaker plans to discuss and discuss how you can help make the session as successful as possible.

Schedule a “test run” time for each report. Make them in advance to leave time for speakers to finalize the material and re-listen if necessary. Introduce the speaker to all the technical nuances of the service for the online conference in which you decided to hold an event.

" "
Talk to your presenters before the event.

6. Address participants as co-authors


Ask participants for specific cases for some presentations. For example, registrants can provide a description of their project task or a piece of code to parse at a presentation.

Conduct general “Follow Up” sessions to discuss issues and any content covered in the event. Invite listeners to participate in the discussion and join in the video.

7. Attract sponsors and partners


If you are organizing an event from a company - find those who are not your direct competitors, but ideally their services complement your product.

Do not worry if you do not have a large audience. Most companies want to find a well-qualified audience. If you can give a chance to speak in front of such a group, this is valuable.

There are various options that you can offer sponsors: from mentioning their company (for example, by displaying their logos on the page of your site or links to them in the newsletter) to providing an opportunity to manage the session or otherwise talk with your audience during the event. These different approaches should, of course, have different prices.

Sponsors can offer prizes or discounts to your members - this is a great approach that draws attention to the sponsor. Finally, a sponsorship brand can be useful to support your own brand and increase confidence in the event, which, again, helps to attract visitors.

Below are some key tips for finding sponsors if you've never worked with this task before.

  • Identify the benefits that you could offer to potential sponsors and clearly describe them.
  • Explore other events in your area to find out who has sponsored such events. At the same time, also look for any information on the prices of sponsorship packages.
  • , . - , Facebook LinkedIn.
  • , - , , .
  • , . , , .

8. -


A virtual event can take place for a long time, with shorter sessions scheduled for 1-2 hours several days a week.

By gaining knowledge over a longer period, your participants will have more time to digest, analyze and apply what they have learned. And you will get a break in planning, adjust during the event and reduce your workload.

It will increase the likelihood that listeners will use chat rooms for discussions. First, they just have more time. Secondly, they will almost certainly get more questions and comments related to the content.

Another key benefit is the ability to pre-record performances. You can fully record sessions before the conference or make a recording for emergency cases, if, for example, it turns out that the speaker will not be able to speak online.

9. Do not save on reminders


One of the features of virtual conferences is the ability to postpone later or not to come at all. Moreover, the recordings of reports - which are offered by most virtual conferences - make the excuse “I will see it later” (and, of course, they rarely watch it later).

There is no way to completely overcome this problem, but one of the most effective methods is to send frequent reminders. This includes email reminders for upcoming reports, reminders for participation in discussions, reminders that posts are posted - all that helps keep you up to date and get participants involved.

Of course, it’s important not to overdo it and not annoy the participants with too many notifications, but it’s better to be mistaken than your event will not be remembered before it starts.

10. Find time for all of the above.


If you would like to add a tip to the list above, it would be “start in advance!”

Everything that is described here is feasible, even alone or by a very small company, but you need to plan ahead so that all the parts line up.

" "
A detailed article about these life hacks (in English).

And finally, a few more short tips


  • Remember about time zones (especially if you plan on the participation of foreign speakers);
  • use your speakers and participants to promote - offer them ready-made texts and images about your event, which they can share on social networks, ask speakers to tell on their pages about preparing a speech;
  • write a detailed scenario of the conference and pre-write down all possible risks and solutions;
  • study and configure a spare platform in advance to avoid technical problems, teach your speakers and moderators to use it as well;
  • create an organizers chat for the duration of the event to discuss urgent issues.

Have you already had an online event? Share tips and life hacks with beginners. :)

More articles:


All Articles