If you run conferences or large events, you might have recently found yourself faced with
the decision of canceling your event or trying to host it online.
While there's no replacement for in person interaction, there are ways to still provide
a memorable online conference experience.
In this video, I'm going to walk you through how to provide an excellent online conference
through Zoom.
Let's get into it.
Hello creators.
I'm Ben Toalson from Podia where we empower creators like you to make a living doing what
you love.
The conference experience is hard to beat.
Connecting with peers, workshops where you can sharpen your skills and learn new things,
groundbreaking keynotes.
While creating the same experience online seems like an impossible goal, online tools
like Zoom help us get closer than ever.
In a previous video I gave you a checklist of things to remember when planning an online
event, but in this video, I'm going to take you through 6 different types of conference
events and walk you through how to run those events through Zoom.
You can check out this video for an in-depth walk through of how to use Zoom to host webinars,
which is the main method we’re going to use in this video, but for this walk-through,
I’ll take you through some basic steps.
Conference event type 1: Keynotes
Keynotes typically include the host or emcee who gives introductions, the presenter, and
sometimes a Q&A session where the audience is able to ask questions.
The Zoom webinar feature is perfect for this type of event because it automatically mutes
attendees, creates a Q&A option that can be managed by an admin, and gives the host the
ability to appoint one or more presenters.
To set up a keynote event from your Zoom dashboard, click webinars and click schedule a webinar.
Now type in the title of your conference.
In the description, you can fill in details about your conference, but we’ll also come
back and edit this later.
Under “When” choose the starting date, and then choose the earliest time your keynotes
may begin on a given day of the conference.
Now set the duration to the hour after the latest time a keynote may end on a given day.
Now check recurring webinar and select the last day of your conference.
Setting it up this way will ensure you can use the same webinar instance for each keynote
and you can treat the link for this webinar as the main room.
Make sure registration is set to required.
Set Host and Panelists video to on, and under webinar options, choose the options that fit
with your event.
If you have any alternative hosts, enter their emails.
Now click schedule.
Event type #2 is special events
Special events could consist of musical performances, stand-up, or any other kind of performance-based
event.
Setting up a special event is similar to a keynote, except in most cases, the Q&A feature
may not be used.
It could be fun to keep the chat available so attendees can interact with one another
during the performance.
You can either plan to use the “main room” for special events by pointing people to the
webinar you’ve scheduled for keynotes, or you can create a new webinar specifically
for this event.
Event type 3: Panels
With panels, where multiple presenters share stage time, the webinar feature is still a
great solution.
As the host, you can designate as many presenters as you want, and the Q&A feature is great
here especially if you have a moderator who can share questions with presenters throughout
the panel session.
Again, you can use the “main room” and point people to the webinar you created for
keynotes, or you can create a new webinar.
Event type 4, workshops
Workshops typically consist of a single presenter and a limited number of attendees.
Depending on how you intend to run the workshop, you could use the webinar feature so attendees
are muted, or you could run it as a regular zoom meeting if you'd like attendees to be
able to participate and ask questions aloud.
If you decide to set it up as a regular meeting, just follow these steps.
An important note…
If you have multiple workshops with some occurring at the same time, you'll have to set them
up through additional zoom accounts, because you can only conduct one meeting or webinar
at a time from the same account.
Event type 5: Breakouts or groups
Breakout sessions, where attendees get a chance to interact with one another in smaller groups,
can also be facilitated in a regular zoom meeting.
The biggest challenge to this type of event is the 1 meeting at a time per zoom account
limitation.
You may need to designate several breakout session leaders and coordinate with them ahead
of time to set up each individual zoom link.
Event type 6: hangouts and mixers
Opportunities for attendees to get together in an informal setting are a staple of in
person conferences, but getting dozens or possibly hundreds of people unmuted on a zoom
call at the same time would be pure chaos.
So how to you give people an opportunity to make new connections?
This one takes a bit of creativity.
We suggest using a similar method to the breakout or group sessions with a little twist.
Have multiple hangout rooms that attendees can sign up for with specific goals for each
room.
Maybe one room could be for people who are new to the industry, one could be people who
are trying to achieve a specific result in their business, or one could be for people
who want to swap virtual business cards.
The key is to identify the types of connections people who attend your conference would typically
make and then theme the meeting rooms around those connections.
You also want to try to limit the rooms to between 12 and 15 attendees so everyone gets
an opportunity to introduce themselves.
Once you’ve scheduled all of your webinars and meetings, go back to the main webinar
and edit the description to add the conference schedule, along with all of the event links,
so your attendees and presenters can easily find the event they’re looking for.
Also, at the bottom of your webinar details page, in the Invitations tab, click edit to
the right of where it says “Approval.”
This will open up registration options where you can set a registration price and connect
a paypal account to collect registration fees.
And now you’re all set to run your online event.
Have you done or do you plan to do an online conference?
Tell us about it in the comments!
And as always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.