My alarm screams at 5 AM, but coffee gurgling like a confidante is far more effective to actually getting up, rather than hitting the snooze button like most mornings. Today's the day!
We've got a virtual summit to run and there's really no time to be late, lazy, or worse lacking energy! So upsy daisy, it's time to get ready!
Butterflies still do a little dance in my stomach with each virtual event we run, regardless of whether it's our own or for a client. With so much tech linked together, and so many eyes eagerly waiting for both information and inspiration, there's always a lot of last-minute double-checking to make sure the day runs seamlessly.
If you've been wondering what it actually looks like to run a virtual summit, this post is for you.
I'm going to run through a very typical summit hosting experience and give you a behind-the-scenes look into the live run of a virtual event we recently hosted.
Behind-The-Scenes: A Typical Day Hosting Virtual Summits
Up to this point, most of the planning has been done in the shadows. At my desk, in my office, with a small team of hands helping me out throughout the process to make sure I'm on track, not burning out, and able to bounce ideas, strategy, and logistical flows off someone other than myself!
During this event, we offered a few speaker interviews, but for the most part, presentations were recorded by the individual speakers and they uploaded them (mostly) on time, giving our team enough pre-event runway to get everything linked, uploaded, branded, and ready without much stress!
That's a HUGE win for a summit host! 🎉
The promotion started 3 weeks ago and has been going strong ever since. We're seeing lots of registrations, the landing page is converting well at about 42% and our upsell for paid tickets is racking in the cash with its conversion rate of about 18.5%.
All is well in the land of the summit host, and today is the first day we'll be live on camera, interacting with speakers and attendees, it's about to be a whole other level of engagement - so let's dig into what this looks like.
5:00 AM - Sunrise, Jitters & Lots of Coffee
I set the coffee pot to brew at 4:30 am to make sure it's hot but the time I wander down with my eyes half shut! I grab my favorite mug, splash a creamer, and fill that baby up to the rim to get fueled for the day! As I sip and savor, I'm running over the day's schedule in my summit binder (a little 1/2 inch 3-ring binder I like to create for each event that stores all my 'Need to Knows').
I check my email and make sure everything is calm before heading back upstairs for a shower and to get ready for the day!
6:00 AM - Social Media & Final Prep
The Facebook group wakes up! I scheduled a post at 6 am to get things started and make sure everyone knows we're starting at 8 am and you won't want to miss the welcome session! After liking and commenting on any new posts, I double-check the remaining scheduled posts for today's sessions and then move on.
- Double today's video pages, just a quick scroll down the page to make sure all videos are showing up.
- Log in to Zoom to test my mic and the lighting.
- Slack all the speaker Zoom links to myself for easy reference - in case anyone emails that they lost it or didn't get my emails earlier today and last night with reminders.
- Generate giveaway winner names for each of our daily prizes, and add them to the giveaway tracker inside Airtable.
- Practice screen sharing my slides for the welcome session.
- Publish the live video page to the main menu bar for easy navigation
- Publish day 1 content inside the all-access pass.
8:00 AM - Lights, Camera, Action!
It's time to start our daily live welcome session! So I hit the stage full of excitement, slides on deck - loaded with information, encouragement, and full of prizes we have to give away! Welcome sessions are always full of energy both from myself as well as the attendees, so these are easy to host and a great way to jumpstart the day.
- Welcome everyone, and highlight speakers and sponsors.
- Provide an overview of how the event works, today's schedule and how to make the most of it!
- Moderate live chat, responding to comments, and keeping the energy high.
9:00 AM - A Coffee Break Buzzworthy Moment
After the live welcome call, it's time to monitor. Since all the remaining sessions with the exception of the live panel are pre-recorded and don't have live chat boxes, I can relax a bit and just focus on making sure the tech is running smoothly and everyone has what they need.
- Monitor support email inbox and reply as needed.
- Respond to comments in the Facebook group.
- Briefly rehearse Q&A prompts for the first live panel.
11:00 AM - Lunchtime
I grab a quick lunch while keeping an eye on discussions in Facebook threads and the support inbox.
- Prepare for the live panel session by reviewing speaker bios and pre-made list of questions.
12:00 PM - Live Panel Session
We hit the record button and go live, after a 10-15 minute pre-session chat with today's panel speakers! Attendees trickle in slowly as we run through the introduction and speaker bios and head straight into panel questions.
- Monitor chat for attendee questions.
- Thank speakers and attendees for attending
- Invite everyone to come hang out in the networking session later today.
4:00 PM - Networking Session
After a full day of information and inspiration, it's time to hop back online before wrapping things up, for some well timed networking! I've got a room setup on zoom, for everyone to come and do a live meet and great with speakers and attendees, and we'll be splitting into smaller breakout rooms to make things super low-pressure and easier to manage.
- Ask everyone to introduce themselves in the main room.
- Provide session flow and directions.
- Provide prompts for people to talk about for 10-15 minutes, before the rooms close and we switch.
- Monitor the main room, for people coming in late and provide them with instructions.
- Close the rooms after 2-3 rounds and thank everyone for coming and for attending the event.
A Typical Day Hosting Virtual Summits
As you can see, the day isn't as chaotic as some might think.
There are times when important work needs to be done, when you need to show up on camera nd other times when you're just monitoring things and making sure all is well.
If you've chosen to publish your daily videos on 1 page, that goes live at the top of each day, and then host select sessions live, then you'll experience something very similar to what I've outlined above.
You can use your time throughout the day for whatever you need.
I hope this peak behind-the-scenes- was helpful in making it clear that running a virtual summit doesn't have to be overwhelming and doesn't have to consume every moment of every day.
