Virtual events’ rehearsals

IAPCO Member: Convin S.A., Greece Author: Alkis Polyrakis, Technical Director

It is the first day of the Virtual Congress, and there are less than five minutes left on the clock until the Keynote Session goes live. Hundreds of people are logged in to the platform and are eagerly waiting for the Opening Speech. Everything is ready – apart from one tiny detail: the Keynote Speaker, the world-renowned expert professor - for whom a large chunk of the budget would have been set aside for his travel and accommodation expenses had this been a physical event - is still nowhere to be found. He has not been answering his phone or e-mails, and you are starting to panic. When you finally reach him, he nonchalantly asks what the link is. You forward one of the many invitations that you have been sending to him during the past weeks and, after a bit of an effort, he shows up on your screen, with a minute to go. You heave a sigh of relief as the session chair welcomes him and you give your associates the green light: We are now live.

If the imaginary sound of an e-room full of people collectively wondering why the Congress Organisers are not doing their job sounds familiar to you, chances are that you have been on the receiving end of a similar story to the one above. A story that began with the speaker saying, “Rehearsal? I do not need a rehearsal. I do this all the time”. The first thing that the faculty members need to understand is that, unlike physical events where you and your colleagues are always next to them to assist when needed, virtual conferences require a minimum of actions from them. Although those are few and fairly simple, they do need to hear them earlier than on the actual day. Previous experience in webinars and e-conferences is helpful, but there is no guarantee that the procedure with which they are familiar is identical to the one of the upcoming congress. There are currently several different platforms for virtual events, so they must familiarise themselves with the actual one if they do not want to feel lost when it is time for them to present or chair a session.

You must make sure that their equipment is up to the task, and that they are aware of all the tips and tricks one must keep in mind in order to preserve bandwidth. Will they be using one screen or two? A wired internet connection? Will they have a source or light in front of them as opposed to their back? Are there any videos with sounds in their presentation? Can they use the tools at their disposal to address the questions of the audience or contact the technicians should they need something? These are all questions that need to be addressed, and a rehearsal is the only way to do that.

Virtual conference bloopers are an embarrassing YouTube trend. Let us all steer clear of them by convincing our clients to rehearse.

I am positive that I do not need to convince the readers of this article of the importance of rehearsals. It is, however, often necessary to convince clients, and therefore it may be good to remember the principal argument.