Are serendipity, engagement, and connections possible when you move your conference online?

So many of us are part of organizations who use an event like the annual conference as one of the culminating expressions of our work. Where do we begin when thinking about how to host it virtually? What get’s included? Let go? Re-invented?

The conference were we present our progress and make a case for our value in our industries. Sometimes, it is where key decisions or hires are made. So many of us are facing the question of, how do we do this conference online?

It’s difficult to replicate the spontaneous connections, networking, and the hallway and cocktail talk of a face to face conference.

But all is not lost - in fact, much can be discovered, and re-imagined by naming the purpose of each session of your conference and amplifying the intent, the outcomes, and the potential benefit. Getting to a clear and powerful purpose statement for your conference and every single component of it can be simple, but no necessarily easy. It’s completely do-able by you and your existing team. I support groups who want to think differently, but you don’t need my help to keep your team moving forward. Start with these five steps.

Here is an example the typical face-to-face conference agenda. Does it look familiar?

2 Days before event:Pre-conference special offerings
Happy hours
VIP stuff
Kick off 

Day 1
Breakfast
Keynote
3 Breakout sessions with many presenters (vote with your feet)

Day 2
Morning keynote over coffee and muffins
3 breakout blocks
Party time 

So, how do you re-imagine it in the virtual space?

Start from scratch
(but use a recipe)

Have you ever baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch? Yes, it’s a little bit more involved than purchasing pre-made dough, but if you have a recipe, it isn’t difficult (and the result is worth the effort). The same is true with your event. Break each section down and ask yourself the purpose. Why are the VIPs meeting a day early? What is the point of our social hour? Why are we serving bagels? Why is it important that we have a plated dinner for one reception, but a buffet for another? How about name tags???

Front-load your learning

Gone are the days with a thick folder of materials at the registration table, or printed handouts of slide presentations available as you enter a room. Many conferences have migrated a bulk of their previously printed materials into virtual take-aways, but for the online conference, you’ll benefit by providing some pre-work for your attendees before they sit down in their first virtual breakout or seminar. This might include readings, podcasts, or video lectures and presentations that normally come as a portion of a presentation. If participants can engage with some of this learning in advance, they arrive more prepared to ask questions and collaborate, making more skillful use of their time together. Also, this is crucial to prevent zoom marathons. An 8-hour conference day CANNOT be an 8 hour zoom day. Don’t do it. (see next item)

Break time into byte-sized pieces

There is a certain magic to a 90 minute video meeting. Shorter often leaves us wanting more, longer is tiring for participants. Face-to-face conference considerations include relevant bookends of time bound by mass transit schedules, meal times, and commuting between sessions and locations, and these have informed time in sessions. Longer break times facilitated cycling participants through the coffee bar and restrooms, and these are also different in the virtual environment. 

Present with purpose

Even engaging presentations lose luster when recorded, but have you ever voluntarily binge-watch TedTalks? We can do this with TedTalks because they are scripted, rehearsed, and edited and formatted in an effective way. While you may not be interested in investing the time and effort into editing skills and software, you can devote structure and purpose into a scripted presentation.

Give connection a head start

If we’re honest, the planned content of conferences is not always the first thing people write home about - it’s often the serendipitous connections at the coffee bar, the happy hour, or in line for registration. In these environments, the tiger sharks of networking invest the effort in getting conversation started, and the boisterous folks present often guide the conversation into an area of their expertise or interest. Occasionally, participants make magic backstage when forced to McGuyver a new projector set up, and then end up happily creating a lasting relationship.

None of these acts of serendipity happen in the same way in virtual meetings, but that does not mean we lose the opportunity to make meaningful and lasting connections.

In fact, this is the biggest benefit to online connection - we can leverage anonymity and agency in the space of the same breakout session. We can quickly combine those with common interests or desires into the same breakout rooms, creating and dissolving rooms instantaneously. What is often mourned as the biggest loss in virtual conferencing can become the most significant gain.