Producing Your Online Event

In this session we are going to go through all the considerations that you need to think about in relationship to producing your online event

When you “design” a large in person event, much thought is often given not only to the content that is delivered from the stage in the main plenaries but also to the design of the stage and the main auditorium. Also critical is the decor, flow and hospitality from the registration through the main sessions and the breakout seminars; the layout and the movement flow of attendees moving from main sessions to the exhibition hall and finally the time and spacing between sessions. 

All of this process, along with thousands of other considerations unique to your organization, takes time and consideration. The bottom line is the way that the event is designed communicates to attendees their value and the value of the experience. Design gives us the opportunity and the ability to create the correct emotion and feeling needed to highlight the importance of the content that is being communicated. 

Similar motivations must guide the approach to designing an online event. An amazing brand, combined with killer design, implemented with a highly intuitive user experience will create the difference between a good and a great event - creating this wow factor is something that will create the difference. 

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The way that the event is designed communicates to attendees their value and the value of the experience.

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Your audience is typically part of your “tribe”, they have come to your URL to experience your event. While your audience could experience your broadcast within the context of a social media platform or a cookie cutter platform, in such scenarios often the platform itself becomes a dominant part of the experience. You are in essence meeting in “Facebook’s building” rather than your own.  Those of the utilitarian mindset may not care for this “design” aspect, yet it is important to think about the video, the User Interface (UI - which is typically more about design) and the User Experience (UX - which is typically more about the functionality of the platform) as well as the timing of when different parts of the the event your event as components of the overall presentation that TOGETHER determine the quality of your event and the way to create the feeling you are aiming at in your audience.

Sardius’ approach to Design and UI

Sardius can adopt a number of approaches at this stage in the graphic design process of an event: 

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Approach 1 - We do everything

Sardius always provides the user experience functionality related to how the event works and can also offer professional design services which can be limited to simply the user interface of the main watch experience, be extended to creating a unique brand guide with logos, graphic assets and motion graphic assets to avoid workload for many busy design departments or create a unique interface for smaller organizations that may not have a design department. 

Approach 2 - You rely for graphic design on your tried and tested in house designers‍

We are aware however of the visceral effect of design and how much brand and design matter to the design teams and agencies of so many larger organizations. Outsourcing design to a new company, for what may be a large communication opportunity for the organization, may not be the road that you want to travel at this time. And that is perfectly fine! In such situations, Sardius provides your design team with different wireframe templates and previous examples of event layouts and user experiences that have been successful and invite your design team to dream about what your brand would look like in the most optimal situation. 

Approach 3 - The Modular Approach (for More Budget Minded Clients)‍

For those more conscious of time and budget there are also more modular approaches that we can offer in this situation, giving you dimensions of some of the design elements that will need to be populated for the event. In this case it will still feel customized as you will be responsible for colors, images and design elements, however it is a stripped down approach. A list of such design elements can be found in Appendix 4. 

Regardless of how the user interface is created there are many “design” type elements that you will need to provide to the project management team that will be used to build the event out. This list can be found in Appendix 4

Structuring The Event‍

Coupled with an excellently designed user interface which effectively communicates your brand is the schedule and structure of the event and considerations of when to present certain components of the event. We take the approach that an effective online event is not a static web page with a library of video and other information that the attendee gets to navigate through in their own time (there is a time and a place for this type of experience and a component of it may even be a part of your live event). But rather an effective online event, in much the same way as an in person event, is a shared experience of different event sessions that are served to the attendees in real time in much the same way that an in person event happens.

Most events consist of main plenary sessions and breakout seminar tracks. These sessions form the backbone of the event in terms of content delivery. Therefore it is important to consider a number of factors in delivering the most optimal experience for your attendees:

The Run Sheet - Stage and Content Order‍

Before considering anything technical, one of the most important tasks you will have to undertake is developing your event run sheet. This will require you to think through your overall event purpose and metrics. What are you trying to achieve in different parts of the event and how do you want to structure the communicators and the content flow of the event to achieve those goals? Traditional in-person entertainment will often build towards the “best” entertainer who is topping the bill, which typically happens last or close to the end of the event. While you might consider this, it may also be helpful to think of your entire event in the same way that you would consider a single presentation. Create a story arc that ultimately underlines your calls to action more effectively or helps you train your audience in sequence.  One of the many benefits of online events is the ability to include presenters from around the world in a way that would not be possible if they had to travel to your in person location.

There are a number of effective softwares and simple templates available to help you manage your minute-by-minute run sheet for the event. Just be aware that despite all your careful planning, many, indeed most, run sheets will not go exactly as planned, especially if you are broadcasting significant portions of your event live. Broadcasting your event live has many exciting and important psychological benefits (which we will look at below), but predictability is not one of those benefits! It is important to plan for the unexpected in your run sheet.

Allowing for the unpredictable in your online schedule is something of which you should be aware.

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Allowing for the unpredictable in your online schedule is something that you should be aware of. Sardius gives you the ability to create very complex event schedules ahead of time (which you need to do!). However if you have unexpected changes to your schedule at the last minute, you need to ensure that you are hosting your event on a platform that allows you to make last minute changes (rather than the event being significantly cached on the attendees machine). Sardius allows you to make those last minute changes and work them seamlessly into the flow of your event.

The Video Production

Typically for in person and hybrid events, it is recognized that video production must be of a certain quality level. The same realization is not always recognized with exclusively online events. With the proliferation of video conferencing platforms, video quality often isn’t given much thought until the audience is struggling trying to follow a presenter who has filmed his presentation on his mobile phone with bad video and audio. When we speak of video production quality, we are speaking of video camera quality, audio quality, lighting quality, background quality and finally broadcasting quality.  Often with online events the event producer is having to deal with presenters from diverse geographical locations that in the past may have only been the preserve of outside broadcasts on newscasts of election coverage. Without having to produce full-on TV quality, here are a few suggestions to produce the best quality video for your event and mitigate against some of the inherent risks.

Obtain a central location to film and broadcast from - Most individuals do not have access to high quality video production gear (this has changed somewhat in the post-COVID world) and even if you do, it is often wise to have a second set of eyes as a video producer to ensure quality production. If you obtain a central location to shoot the event with a higher quality production level (better equipment and tech personnel) and invite your key presenters to this location you can limit your exposure to bad video.

Pre-Record the segments of your event where you are broadcasting a video conference conversation - There may be legitimate reasons why you need to broadcast a low latency video connection live, for example if you require a live feedback/interaction with the audience. If you do not, it may be wise to pre-record this segment which gives you the ability to get better quality video which could possibly be edited if there are any mistakes.

Ensure key presenters have better quality video recording and broadcasting equipment - The success of your event may be dependent upon certain key presenters. If they cannot be at the central location, then try and ensure they have access to better quality video production. This might involve them traveling to a studio close to them or it may involve providing them with better cameras, lighting, audio and backdrop that they can record their presentation independently (even if it is part of a live video conference conversation) this can be edited for a later simulated live broadcast.

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Broadcasting - The LIVE or Simulated LIVE Question

The subject of whether your event should be broadcast live or pre-recorded and broadcast as a simulated live event is highly connected to the structure of your event. Having bad video can make or break an online event, therefore this is a consistent question that the Sardius team discusses with our clients. There are a number of pros and cons to each approach:

LIVE

Live events broadcasts have limitations in that they are restricted to a certain time and place, but it is these very limitations that make live events popular, creates a psychological buzz, results in bigger audiences and creates the ability to create finances through mechanisms like pay per view. You only have to look at audiences for live sporting events to realize that there is massive benefit in watching live versus the simulated live broadcast several hours later. Even outside the sporting realm, live broadcasts have a certain cachet that result in bigger audiences and, despite the inherent risks involved (see below), give you some opportunities that are not available with simulated live or video on demand. These largely boil down to live audience engagement, including interaction with questions from the audience who are posting in chat or via video conferencing; ability to poll or ask your audience questions and get in the moment responses.

The risks connected to live broadcasting are related to two main factors: 

 1. The unpredictable and complex nature of an event schedule (which can mean a much bigger production budget to ensure there are no errors in the broadcast) 

2. The reliability of your broadcast set-up, which may include all your video conferencing connections, but is mainly related to your video streaming encoding solution and your internet connection. While Sardius can and does work with many encoding solutions, there are a few that we recommend depending on the nature of your event. These include Resi, Haivision and Telestream. If you are unfamiliar with the world of web streaming it may be advisable for Sardius to handle the streaming portion of your event. For one off events we will typically utilize Resi as our live streaming partner due to the resilience of their streaming protocol in many event situations. One of the most frustrating possibilities in a live streamed event is the audience having to deal with buffering issues. Mitigating the possibility of buffering is something we advise repeatedly and believe one of the best ways to do this is by using HLS Streaming. To find out the distinctions between RTMP and HLS protocols check out this article.

SIM LIVE

Despite the cachet that is involved in live streaming. This may not be the right way for you to go for a number of reasons. Live broadcasts, if done well, can often cost more in terms of video production and streaming and can cause you a lot of stress due to the inherent risks involved. Some thrive on this risk... others do not. Another approach can be to pre-record your program and then broadcast as if live. This is often called a Simulated or Sim Live broadcast. If you are not interacting live with your audience and there is no difference between what your live broadcast would look like and a broadcast that is pre-recorded, there are a number of benefits. Added to reduced risk and potentially reduced cost, it also gives you an opportunity to broadcast at times that are convenient for your audience across different times of the day and different timezones. Simulated live broadcasts also give your presenters an ability to interact in real time with the audience within the chat which can make an extremely compelling experience.

Copyrights

It is important in building your event that you have the correct permissions to broadcast the content your schedule dictates to your audience for the duration of time that you wish to broadcast. This means it is important if you intend to live broadcast and keep the archive of the session afterwards that you have the correct permissions of the on camera individuals. If you are broadcasting music it is important that you obtain the correct performance and broadcast permissions ahead of time. If you need help navigating this you can talk with your Sardius Project Manager who can point you in the right direction.

User Interface Features: Providing Context for Your Audience 

Every organization has internal language, behaviours, assumptions and personalities.

Every organization has internal language, behaviours, assumptions and personalities. Operating within an organization for an extended period can blind you to such internalized communication, yet this can be confusing to visitors and new attendees to your events. There are simple methods of presenting information that can provide clarity and context to your event and which can orient your audience to help them quickly understand what is going on and ultimately help them understand you.  These include:

1. Bios -  Who is presenting now? Why should I listen to them? How can I connect with them through social links and other web calls to action and how does their inclusion add to the overall purpose of the event? Sardius typically recommends you include headshots, bios and links to your presenters and we can provide the total list of presenters or the pop out modals which will change throughout the event as your presenters on stage change.

2. Schedule - Providing a clear schedule for the event is a must. We typically do this two ways with an at-a-glance approach as well as providing an interactive timeline under the main video player which progresses throughout the event and gives the audience the ability to see where they are within the context of the whole event.

3. Calls to Action - Calls to Action (CTAs) are highly related to your main purpose and metrics of success for the event. These must be decided ahead of time. You must not overload your audience with CTAs, but they are helpful in being clear with your audience about what you would like them to do. And once determined, they can be included in many parts of your event, from presentations in the main sessions to linked overlays. However, within the main watch experience this might take the form of prominent text and graphics leading to a landing page(s) which can help your audience respond in an appropriate manner.

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