27
DESIGN
FACTOR
ONLINE
Sasha Frieze, MD at The Business Narrative,
offers practical strategies for creating online
events that deliver on objectives
he pivot to online or hybrid conferences can feel
daunting. You want to deliver client value, but you
may have a lot of questions. How do you design
your event, so it still fulfils its objectives; are there
strategies for keeping your conferences exciting,
engaging and energetic; how do you create opportunities
for participants to genuinely connect with each other
and engage with your great content; is there a way to
re-imagine networking online; and can sponsors have
meaningful experiences and make meaningful
connections that meet their business goals?
Over the last four months, we have been researching,
learning, and leveraging our decades of physical event
design experience to create 10 guiding principles for
designing online events that deliver.
1. Know your event
objective
Great events deliver on
their purpose. It seems
even more important
now to sense-check in
the move to online that
all your stakeholders
are aligned on your
event objectives and
how you will evaluate
success. We use our
Event Narrative
Framework
methodology to work
through event purpose
and design. We are all
likely to be delivering
online or hybrid events
for some time and will
want to demonstrate
measurable results.
2. Content is king
Conferences have
always been about the
content - your
on-the-pulse keynotes,
those thoughtful
firesides, fascinating
panels, and that’s
exponentially true in
the ‘next normal’. Your
delegates attend
because you are
convening the right
people talking about
timely topics, and
content-rich events
transfer online better
than many.
Online conference
content needs to be
even more tightly
curated: conference
programmes with
shorter and more
focused sessions;
delegates attention
spans may be pulled in
multiple directions, so
you may want to direct
sessions and script
panel outlines to
ensure that focused
content keeps people’s
participation.
3. Think creatively
about event design
In the early days, back
in March, some
organisers were simply
transferring their
physical event online.
The opportunities for
online are varied,
reaching a wider
geographical
audience, no travel
limitations, no
room-size limitations
and enhanced event
sustainability all help
re-imagine events.
We are looking at
modular content,
timing shifts to attract
international
time-zones. However,
an event is about
gathering; bringing
people together at a
time and in a (virtual)
place, and so an
online focal point
makes sense, albeit
with content possibly
spread over a slightly
longer period, and with
breaks, including
engagement and
networking
possibilities, to reflect
participants
home-based lives. To
create the momentum
of an event, a short
time period (day/
week) rather than a
month of webinars,
might create more of a
buzz.
4. Know your
audience
While physical events
are often about ‘time
out’, away from the
office, online events
are ‘time in’, and so
you are vying for your
participants’ attention
and may need to
rethink how people are
Event Design
consuming your
content.
Of course, everyone
is different. You may
have multitaskers,
listening or watching
while also doing
something else, binge
watchers who watch
the whole thing either
live or possibly the
recorded sessions,
and intentional
schedulers who will
diarise the sessions
they want to attend in
advance.
Your event design
needs to consider a
balance of modular
content, with long
enough time blocks to
encourage online
conversation, and
allowing breaks so
delegates do not
suffer from screen
fatigue.
5. Live or pre-record
There seems to be a
debate about live
content or
pre-recorded, we are
recommending a mix.
An entirely
pre-recorded event,
while lower risk, does
not create the energy
of live responses, polls
and questions.
However, a great
keynote speaker – and
we’re finding you can
sometimes reach an
enhanced level of
speaker when the ask
is 30 minutes from
their spare room – may
only be available for a
pre-record, although
ideally can come
online for the live Q&A.
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