Online events have become increasingly popular in recent years. The events of 2020 confirmed that a lot can be achieved without face-to-face meetings. If you are planning an online event, how can you make it a success? Let’s look at how you could prepare an online event for a worldwide audience.

Choosing the right hosting platform

Before you start planning the event itself, you need to find a hosting platform that will be reliable and able to handle the number of people you want to attend. Hosting platform providers such as ON24 have the infrastructure to cope with large webinars and events.

Do your research and check that whatever platform you choose can be shared with everyone without any compatibility issues or restrictions.

Set clear goals at the beginning

You and your team need to be sure of what is happening with the event and what the outcome should be.

You can use goal-setting plans like SMART to work through each area.

Start with regular meetings that allow all of you to work to the same goals. Regular communication is also vital – as, without it, mistakes can happen that will be harder to fix later.

Pick a good time for the event

If you are hosting attendees or speakers from other countries, it is important for you to choose a time that will work for everyone.

It may mean some people getting up early or staying up late – but the event ideally shouldn’t, in any time zone followed by members of your target audience, be in the middle of the night.

Promoting your event

If your online event isn’t invite-only, then it would be in your interest for as many people as possible to know about it.

Advertising is the best solution if you have the time and budget. You can also use social media to announce the event and share details of the agenda and who will be speaking.

The best way of promoting your event is by word of mouth. If you can speak to people who are coming to the event, ask them to tell others about it as well.

Consider including moderators

Not everyone is as friendly online as they are offline. So that everything goes smoothly, you should consider having moderators at the event. Give them the privileges to mute or remove anyone who behaves impolitely.

Another idea is to publish, before the event, a list of rules regarding conduct expected during it. This will give the attendees no doubt as to how they should act as the event gets underway.

Include a backup plan

As technology doesn’t always work as expected, having a backup plan will enable you to quickly respond to problems.

The same applies to the speakers. If – for whatever reason – they cannot attend, have something you can replace them with to keep things flowing.

Arrange a post-event debrief

After the event, get your team together to discuss what happened and any improvements that can be made. This is particularly important if you are planning on hosting many such events in the future.

Conclusion

Creating an online event takes a lot of work. Working through each area of the event carefully and having a backup plan in place will help you stay prepared.