Welcome to episode twenty-nine of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Hey, I’m Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy.
Today we’re going to talk about “Planning your Big Webinar or Virtual Summit”.
We’ll talk about some of the pitfalls and advantages! Stay tuned…
In the last episode (twenty-eight) I talked a bit more about promoting webinars and virtual meetings. If you missed it, head to TheWebinarGuy.com and look for episode twenty- eight.
Here at TheWebinarGuy.com we’re often involved in large virtual events. These events can be “large” in different ways. What are those ways? And how does this play into your planning and budget? Stay tuned because in this episode, twenty-nine, we’ll discuss some of the many ways that larger virtual summits and multi-day, multi-presenter, multi-EVERYTHING is different than “just doing” a simpler webinar.
Let’s start with defining what a “Large” virtual event looks like. Maybe an “official” definition from the web is in order:
“Webinars provide attendees with a single session to attend, while virtual events offer flexibility in single or multi-session agendas that take place at different times or days” Okay, that helps, but…
Another definition suggests that the answer to virtual events is that they are multi-dimensional.
Where webinars go big on a single topic for whatever period of time, Virtual events can be just a few sessions on multiple subjects that are usually related in some way, to multi-day events with myriad speakers from all over the world, drawing a multi-national audience.
Sorry, I feel like I’m overusing “multi” but there just isn’t another word that works!
Okay back at it. So what DOES large mean? Add complexity and it gets “large” in every sense of the word from number of attendees to speakers to well, everything you can think of.
I’m going to suggest that the webinar or virtual summit, or virtual event- whatever you want to call it, is going to be constrained by two significant factors. Audience and Budget.
First, I’ve talked in multiple episodes about promotion and snagging audience and getting attendees to your virtual event. This is the first factor. It may be or seem obvious, but your ability to define your audience, market to them, get them to register and the million dollar part: Get them to attend- That is a huge challenge! (And then make them want to stick around!!)
The second part that I’ve really not gotten into in this series is defining your budget. Well, this is really the first factor, quite frankly. Because if you have enough budget, you can get audience!
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But before we dig in too far on that little gem, the budget, a word from our webcast and podcast sponsor, TheWebinarGuy.com! (Yeah, that’s me). When you decide to approach your first big webinar or you want to plan a large, multi-dimensional virtual summit, and think you need assistance, we have many resources and would love to help you! Hit me at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com, or visit our website (TheWebinarGuy.com) and use contact form! We’d love to work with you! Thanks for listening to my commercial!
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Okay, the 900# gorilla in the room: BUDGET. A standard conversation we often have with new or potential clients goes like this:
THEM: “How much does it cost for you to produce a webinar?”
TWG: “Here’s our standard list of fifteen questions we always ask to get started. One of the first is; Do you have a budget?”
THEM: “Yes, but…”
I can tell you that this conversation goes back and forth until there is an understanding that there is no “one size fits all” webinar or virtual meeting/event. And to help you, we really need a realistic budget. It saves our team AND the client both time and resources.
So my first advise here is: Get you or your current team serious about how much you can or will spend.
That said, a simpler, one day event could cost well, what all do you need done?
Marketing? Planning? List buying? And on and on. Again our simple “starter questionnaire” is around fifteen questions and our planning sheet has more than eighty things we consider when planning an event!
Some things to consider; is your event going to only be in your native tongue? Do you need moderators in other languages for that specific audience?
We were involved recently with a two-day multi-national event that started in India with speakers and moderators working in Hindi, then it flowed to Africa, Europe (switching to English), then into the Americas. Do you need interpreters? And more.
Are you doing social postings? Are awards involved? Breakout rooms? Casual networking rooms? Do you need someone to manage each breakout room? Will presenters help? How will you handle it when a speaker doesn’t show, or has connection issues?
How will you introduce speakers? Will you use a host? An introduction video (cartooned intros are fun!)?
What will you do to keep the event fun, interesting and keep people from becoming fatigued during a five hour event?
Do you have systems in place already to assist with any of this, or does it all need produced for you?
How will you measure ROI? What will you do as follow up with speakers and attendees? What marketing data do you expect back and how will you use it?
Will you be paying speakers or are they speaking pro-bono for some exposure? How will you handle that?
What polls will you plan to capture marketing data?
How are you going to present or push your brand? How far can your stray from your brand story, and serve the webinar topic. OR… How far can you push the webinar topics and speakers and stay on point with your brand?
Just like going out to dinner, or virtually any purchase you make, adding complexity, creating videos, hiring a band to play, and all that I’ve mentioned to this point adds to your budget.
These things also add to audience experience and their want to stay around.
The bottom line, and I’ve mentioned this often in previous episodes: Focus on what you and your attendees want from a virtual event!
- What do you want to achieve with your event? What “End result” are you looking for? (Episodes four and five).
- And what do your attendees hope to gain? Have you thought of that (Look for the WIIFM episode twenty-seven).
I’ve often mentioned the webinar planning sheet we use (that you can request on our website: TheWebinarGuy.com) that grows almost daily as we add things that we take for granted, that you shouldn’t.
Best of luck in planning your “Large” event!
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This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!” If you have a subject you’d like me to cover, please subscribe, then drop me a note or comment.
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out at WebinarPro@TheWebinarGuy.com
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments! Don’t forget to tell a friend or two! And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening!