How to Get the Most Impact

Communicate With Your Virtual Audience Where They Are

Crafting, planning and executing a successful event isn’t easy. As event organizers know, success is dependent on more than securing top-notch speakers. A successful event should be well planned, with detail-oriented event producers on hand to answer questions — from speakers, sponsors and attendees — before, during and after the event.

What’s needed to support speakers, sponsors, attendees and organizers at virtual and/or hybrid events? Communication. Communication. Communication. Let’s dive in:

Choose the Right Communication Channels

Organizers should take time to explore their intended audience’s communication preferences to maximize engagement and ensure everyone involved with the event is on the same page. Think about it: if you’re sending messages to your audience, but your audience isn’t getting the messages where they are or in a timely manner — your communication strategy isn’t effective.

To get started, request feedback from attendees:

• How would you like to be communicated with (e.g., email, Slack, Discord, Twitter, etc.)?
• What are you interested in getting out of the event?
• What concerns do you have about the event?

By gathering this feedback early on in the process, organizers can make adjustments and corrections before the event officially kicks off.

Once your communication channels have been identified, it’s best practice to let speakers, sponsors, attendees and organizers know where to anticipate announcements. For example, do you plan to send emails, share updates in a dedicated Slack channel, post information on the event website, tweet using the event #hashtag, or will you use a combination of all channels?

While email is important (and often the most used channel), make sure you’re using the channel that will reach your audience most effectively.

Because the tech community is very active on both Slack and Discord, LoudSwarm by Six Feet Up uses Slack and Discord as its primary communication channels. When communicating with event organizers, create a private channel in Slack to discuss logistics, address non public-facing questions about the event, or troubleshoot any issues that might arise (e.g., everyone has had a speaker whose Zoom froze or microphone wasn’t on)!

By creating a private channel, attendees don’t see the controlled chaos that occurs behind the scenes at your event.

Answer Questions in Advance

A critical step to planning a successful event is thinking through all of the “what-ifs.” As a first step, prepare a FAQ to address the questions you anticipate from speakers, sponsors and attendees.

Below are a few common FAQs event organizers should address:

• Will the talks be recorded?
• What kind of tech support can I expect?
• Will event attendee emails be shared with sponsors?
• How do I connect with other attendees?
• Do I need to download any software to attend this event?
• What is the recommended attire for my presentation?

Once you have your initial FAQs drafted, do a complete run through of your event to see what hurdles (e.g., issues with timing, how to pause/restart a presentation, etc.) attendees might experience. Completing a run through will give organizers the fodder needed to complete the FAQ and address the most common issues attendees could face.

Communicate Proactively

Consistent and frequent communication with speakers, sponsors and attendees is essential for reducing support requests. To ensure consistency, create communication templates and map out a timeline for sending the updates across various channels.

Pro Tip: To avoid being overwhelmed by questions and support requests, LoudSwarm by Six Feet Up recommends staggering when invites to the platform are sent based on when organizers are available to answer questions. In our experience, it’s best to send out invitations early in the morning or mid-day — and rarely on Friday or a weekend.

Could LoudSwarm by Six Feet Up be a good fit for your upcoming virtual events? Our event producers will be on hand to provide support and share best practices to ensure your event goes off without a hitch. Simply drop us a note and/or schedule a demo of LoudSwarm’s features and white-glove service.