A great virtual conference requires planning and coordinated teamwork. The TOPkit (Teaching Online Preparation Toolkit) Workshop team will reveal secrets of their planning, implementation, and lessons learned. This session will provide key considerations, interactive opportunities, and customized guidance so that you can plan and deliver your own successful virtual event.
Outcomes of events and conferences for professional development have power to influence and shape culture. As the world emerges from a global pandemic, live virtual events remain a safer but still powerful medium to address strategic priorities and connect in large groups and at the same time offer cost savings for facilities, food/beverages and travel over in-person events.
A virtual conference event has the same overall planning considerations as its in-person counterpart, but the details differ because the virtual environment requires communicating, presenting, and collaborating in novel ways:
- Project management considerations for transitioning from an in-person to a virtual conference include the method for facilitating the transition and coordinating stakeholder engagement.
- Considerations for reaching your target audience and keeping your virtual participants informed include changes to messaging and how to best leverage social media. The virtual format allows for additional communication tools to promote your event.
- Designing for social interaction to engage about conference highlights and continue in ‘after hours’ social opportunities are worthwhile enhancements to any virtual conference.
- Appropriate technology is a vital component of hosting a successful virtual conference. Depending on the services you plan to provide, considerations include finding flexible and affordable tools that:
- Facilitate hosting and dialoguing around synchronous and asynchronous sessions
- Support a calendar and conference agenda
- Account for privacy and accessibility needs
- Are responsive to a mobile environment (e.g., via web app)
- Finally, creating an engaging virtual conference-style event takes a team of dedicated individuals to make the magic happen.
In this interactive session, participants will have the opportunity to:
- Hear the story of the first live, virtual TOPkit Workshop
- Brainstorm strategic priorities for your virtual event
- Discuss these planning aspects:
- Project management
- Communications and promotions
- Theme development and alignment
- Networking platforms and strategies
- Registration platforms and considerations
- Lessons learned from team reflection and survey data
- Engage in a guided, small group activity about planning considerations
- Plan your own live virtual conference with a provided template
- Create a timeline for planning your virtual event
Outcomes for participants of this session will be:
- Describe key components of a virtual conference
- List strategic priorities for your virtual conference
- Identify relevant project management techniques and technologies for your virtual conference
- Develop a virtual event or conference plan
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Create a timeline for planning your virtual event
In this session participants will interact and engage in these activities:
- Participants will use an affinity diagram to brainstorm their strategic priorities for a virtual event that align with their mission/vision.
- Participants will engage via small groups in a guided risk assessment so that they may fully appreciate essential elements in creating and executing with impact.
- Facilitators will offer tailored 1-to-1 guidance as participants create an action plan for their own live virtual event.
Facilitators will provide these materials:
- Affinity diagram of strategic reasons to hold a virtual event or conference
- Planning template
- Timeline