Guess no one knows what the future may hold, however it will be interesting to see what sticks long term.
💬 Taking conferences online during the pandemic
Tips we learned for running an online conference:
- Have a very clear programme with all the timings, URLs to access resources and meeting spaces.
- Stick to timings and chair ruthlessly – it can really mess things up if people in different spaces are not synchronised, and if things start to drag then engagement drops more quickly online.
- Run a staffed green room for presenters – it worked so well getting everyone prepared and ready to transition smoothly between presentations.
- Have plenty of staff to help with any technical challenges or people who need help.
- Have a staff backchannel to co-ordinate and discuss issues away from the content. We used our organisation’s Slack instance.
Thank you for the breakdown of your experience Oliver. I really like the idea of a virtual green room, even though it seems obvious it is not something that I have seen discussed. It was also interesting the way in which things were mixed up to accommodate the move online, such as moving the keynote.