#ShareandTellJob title: Channel Program Manager, Americas Channel
Event Description from Summary page:
The annual Americas Solution Partner Conference, which brings together Solution Partners from North, Central, and South America for networking, sharing ideas, and learning how to bring the best solutions to businesses everywhere, will be Virtual this calendar year of 2020.
Join us for an interactive series of sessions and round tables to meet with other Solution Partners and network with both them and Siemens experts across all Solution and Industry Domains.
Event Dates: November 10 - 12, 2020, with Nov 9 reserved for a big internal meeting using the Virtual Attendee Hub.
Type of event: Training and Enablement conference for Solution Partners
I just finished my first Virtual Event through Cvent's #VirtualAttendeeHub with 7 weeks to plan it (!). It was a huge challenge to try to train the speakers to use the VAH tech (we were all full live, either Collaborative Zoom Room using the Cvent Conferencing side of it, or Live with Q&A in the VAH using Cvent Video Player - Live).
We had about 50 sessions, including advanced production for General Session with a mix of live (our VP acting as Emcee) and recorded (our executives presenting for 10 - 20 min each). Kudos to Chris Bentivegna for an OUTSTANDING job with a very difficult advanced production scenario. We were full live for our Awards Banquet and Chris B managed to do our VP live on camera, then switch to the PPT with the winner, and then do a split screen with the slide and our VP, then back to just our VP live. Chris B #KilledIt with his skills!
We went completely live for every session. We announced this to attendees and more than doubled our registration with an 86% attendance.
Where did I fall down?
- Too little time to configure and use the conference app
- Too little time and too high a learning curve to get our 6-8 weeks of Know Before You Go emails out - our attendees should have had a series of emails introducing them to the Attendee Hub
- Forgetting to hit the Record Button on full collaborative Zoom Sessions
Where did we exceed expectations:
- We used our Translation Service's Zoom instance (shout out to Melissa Mann of Arbor translations at arbor-tr.com) where we had live translation from English to Spanish and Portuguese for our full collaborative Principal sessions and 2 special sessions featuring outside expert speakers.
- A translation hack I invented by using Arbor Translation's instance of Zoom to set up a private translated "viewing room" of our General Session. I used Cvent's Event Management software (Promotion & Communication > Event Emails) and an Internal Info field (need translation = Yes if the country was anywhere in Central or South America; had to use an internal info field because I was exceeding the 3 of advanced search filters with all the country names) to email our Portuguese and Spanish attendees and give them instructions to click a link in the SESSION DESCRIPTION to join the Zoom room. I also posted the link to the Zoom Room in the General Session description. Remember, Advanced Production is via Cvent Video Player - Live. We streamed the blended live and recorded content via BrightCove back end to the player embedded in the Virtual Attendee Hub. What *I* did in our Zoom room is share my screen (Zoom back-end) with the boxes ticked to "share computer audio" and "optimize sound for video" with our audience. Best Practice: share your browser app and maximize the video player screen in the VAH and attendees will see the production but HEAR the translation in the Zoom Room.
- We shortened our session content to 30 min of presentation and 15 min of Q&A with a 15 min break before the next session.
- We used Cvent Video Player - Live for about 2/3 of the content
We needed better training for our Presenters, which numbered 120! Our presenters DOUBLED in the final 2 weeks. So #ProTip, establish a vetting system for presenters, i.e. they MUST watch the training video AND pass a quiz (hello Cvent Inquisium) before they are allowed to present using Cvent Video Player - Live. Presenters just "invite" other presenters to present with them. That's fine for a Live-In-Person-In-A-Hotel situation: they get up, run the computer with their Pointer, and talk into the mic. We ran into the problem of several presenters NOT knowing that you cannot start and stop the live stream from their Zoom Room to BrightCove where the content would be streamed live through the Cvent Video Player. Also, Presenters were not understanding that Q&A needed to be moderated in the Virtual Attendee Hub. So VET your Presenters, ensure they have repeated training, and do NOT allow other presenters unless you invent a way to ENSURE they go through the training and retain the training to use the Virtual Attendee Hub.
I feel confident that our team can execute a great Virtual or Hybrid event using the #VirtualAttendeeHub, especially if we start earlier, provide short (a few minutes) videos on VAH/BrightCove specific requirements, and use the Cvent Event Management email marketing system for advanced and repeated Know Before You Go emails to instruct Virtual Attendees on how to use the VAH.
------------------------------
Brenda Ainsburg
Channel Program Manager
brenda.ainsburg@siemens.comSiemens Aktiengesellschaft
United States
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 11-09-2020 11:03
From: Danielle Czark
Subject: Huddle of the Week #8: Agenda Content in Virtual Events
Hello, all! Let's kick off our next Huddle of the Week discussion. We have all experienced the pivot to virtual events in our industry, and especially understand that this brings many changes to how the event itself is executed. One of the main aspects of an event is of course the content being shared to the attendees and the goal from said content. Keeping your agenda and content in mind, read along for this week's discussion questions:
- What is the best mix between truly live content versus pre-recorded or semi-live content?
- How are you structuring your agenda in the virtual setting - meaning are you including a full-day of sessions, spreading out the content into multiple days, or a combination?
- What success have you seen thus far in the way you/your speakers present your content?
- By the way, if you are looking for some ideas for your speakers, take a look at the current polling question in the Open Forum! Right now, limiting presentation slides seem to have the biggest impact.
Share your experiences and ideas below, and feel free to ask any questions you may have, too! We look forward to hearing from you. 😊 #HuddleoftheWeek #VoiceIt
#ManagingVirtualEvents
------------------------------
Danni Czark
Senior Associate, Online Community Marketing
Cvent
------------------------------