Hi folks!
Every week, I’m sharing a practical, hands-on guide on how to run your small business better.
This week: How to host an amazing online event (Part 2/2)
Missed part 1? Read it here.
The Playbook: Hosting a great online event (Part 2)
We have a secret weapon at Scalepath that makes our weekly calls, Q&As, cohorts, and other programming really come to life — and his name is Tony.
Tony is our head of community. He’s got years of experience hosting gatherings of all sizes both in person and online.
And he’s put together an absolute masterclass on how to host incredible online events. This is part two of two — read the first half here.
Take it away, Tony!
Step 5: Moderation
Hosting vs. moderating
There are two roles to account for during an event: hosting and moderating.
Hosting:
- Being on camera
- Talking
- Filling in dead air
- Calling on people, muting, unmuting as needed
- Screen sharing / advancing slides
Moderating:
- Monitoring the chat and responding to questions
- Pasting links into the chat that relate to things being discussed (e.g. “Yvette just mentioned our service where we do x - here’s where you can learn more: (LINK)”
- Monitoring emails/messages where people who are trying to get in are having trouble (e.g. I lost the link, etc)
- Queueing up questions for discussion with the host
One person can do both, but if the event has a lot of people (say, more than 30) and/or a lot of interaction (e.g. heavy Q&A section) it will reduce your stress drastically to have two separate people handling these roles.
If you plan to play both roles, it helps to think about how you will maintain a smooth experience for everyone while juggling these roles.
For instance: you may want to practice ignoring the chat while speaking, then catching up while others are speaking.
Moderation tips
If your program involves interaction with or between participants, plan for all potential outcomes. That means being ready for:
- If very few people show up
- If a LOT of people show up
- If people show up but they are camera shy
(Among other things.)
What you want to avoid are situations where the program could grind to a halt because it relies on a factor over which you do not have direct control.
Pre-load your Q&A
For example, if you have a guest speaker, and time allocated for Q&A, prepare some questions of your own (in advance and/or during the presentation)—because you might be the only one asking questions.
If you do it right, even a poorly-attended Q&A event can feel like a planned interview. Anticipating these kinds of potential outcomes in advance will help reduce stress on you and maximize chances of a quality program.
Choose easy-to-answer questions
Similarly for calling on people—folks are often shy, especially to be the first one to speak. Do your best to make this as easy as possible for folks by preparing questions in advance that you are confident anyone in attendance can answer.
For example, in a book discussion, asking “what did you think about chapter 3” might lead to a tricky spot, because not everyone has read that chapter or remembers what it’s about.
If, instead, you say something like “chapter 3 discusses financing for your business. How have you financed your business so far and what methods haven’t you tried yet that you’re interested in learning more about?” then most everyone can answer that question without having to think too much.
Step 6: During the event
Starting up
People show up late. There will inevitably be at least some time between the official start time and the time you properly begin your program—think in advance of how you plan to occupy this time, so it doesn’t feel awkward for the people who arrived on time.
A few options:
- Welcome each person by name as they join the meeting
- Invite people to introduce themselves in the chat. Call out introductions you see as they show up.
- Make small talk with participants as you see fit—talk about the weather, etc
- Put up a slide with some background music—use the slide to let people know the event is starting soon, and they should introduce themselves in the chat.
- Offer up any housekeeping notes you may want to share before the official program start
Use your judgment as to when it’s time to officially start. If the event relies upon heavy interaction between participants and/or has critical steps newcomers won’t want to miss at the beginning, err on the side of giving people more time to get settled.
If you’re on a tight time frame and/or it’s not a huge deal for people to miss the first few minutes, you can start closer to on time.
Don’t forget!
The way I see it, the program truly begins when you start recording.
So don’t forget to hit record!
This also gives you a prompt to formally welcome people to the event and signal that this is when we are properly getting started.
Mid-event
It helps if you block out your time in advance, so you have a pretty good idea of how much time it will take to get through each segment of the program.
I use a spreadsheet to estimate how the event will play out timing-wise, so you can keep an eye on the clock as you go and adjust your moderation accordingly.
Wrapping up
If it looks like your event is going to go over time, take a moment to call it out beforehand—invite people who have a hard stop to jump off now, reminding them that you’ll send a replay and notes afterward. It helps people graciously step out of the room instead of having people mysteriously jumping off.
If you have a call to action, make sure you have your links ready to copy-paste into the chat.
This is a great chance to remind people of the next thing coming up!
If there are action items, now’s the time to make sure people are clear on who’s committing to doing what next.
Once you’re done, you can turn off your camera, mic, and recording, but you can keep the event open for a moment longer in case anyone still in the meeting needs time to read and click links in the chat.
Step 7: After the event
Posting a replay
Try to get to work on posting the replay immediately after the event is over. There is no better time to tie up the followup steps from an event than when the momentum is high, right after the event ends.
Zoom will take a few minutes to process your recording. During this time, I prepare myself to upload that replay.
I love using YouTube for replays for a few reasons:
- Unlimited, free, high quality
- You can mark videos as “unlisted” to share them privately with your community
- Everyone knows how to use it, low barrier to entry
Of course, if you have serious privacy concerns, you will want to consider more secure video sharing options—but for most instances, sharing a simple YouTube link with a clear understanding that it’s for internal use only will suffice.
Sending recaps / followups
Similarly, if you’re going to follow up on the event with an email or post in a discussion space, it’s great if you can take a moment to jot down your notes / thoughts while they are super fresh in your mind right after the event ends.
Note: Many platforms (including Zoom) now offer AI summaries. As of this writing, I’ve found them to be pretty terrible—but you may investigate using them in some capacity anyway, even if just to help remind you what was covered.
Back to Michael now — see what I mean about Tony being a secret weapon? Doesn’t it make you want to join a Scalepath call?
Apply today and we’d love to have you.
Thanks for reading!
Michael
