Are you feeling nervous about your upcoming online conference? A lot of people are finding themselves in a position where they are having to hold their conferences and seminars online for the first time ever.

A few of you may feel a little bit nervous, you feel the lack of ability to run a physical conference has, ‘put your back against the wall’? Don’t worry! An online event is cheaper, allows you to have a larger audience and if done well can increase participation.

We have three tips of things you can do to improve your online conference this summer.

1. Pre-record as much as possible

It is important to reduce risk when running online events. Let’s face it, internet speeds can sometimes be pants. In advance of the event, jump onto a video call with each speaker one by one, click record and get their speaker slot ready.

If you do this it means that you are minimising the risk that is created by each speaker being in different locations.

2. Get the introduction right

Do you remember when we first started working from home at the start of COVID-19? Our meetings consisted of people talking over each other, forgetting to mute themselves and not turning their cameras on.

A lot of these issues could have been resolved if at the start it was made clear exactly how the meeting was going to work. Well, apply this same principal to your event.

It is good to start by introducing yourself, going through the programme and telling people how they can interact.

3. Make sure it is no longer or shorter than it needs to be

The beauty of online conferences and seminars that are pre-recorded or have pre-recorded sections within them, is you can time them more precisely. This means going into the event you already have an accurate idea how long the event is going to last.

At BA Events we strongly believe that trying to run an all-day online conference or seminar is a bad idea. It is best to keep your content snappy and to the point to keep your attendees engaged.