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Personally, I love this stuff. From the hundreds of conversations with participants and presenters, to working with sponsors, to digging into the technical aspects, and getting everything configured correctly.
Most people see all of this as a series of giant headaches.
And I suppose that's why so few people host these kinds of events (and why even fewer produce events worth attending).
I don't know where you currently stand on the journey of hosting a virtual event. Maybe you're running a physical event and anxious to investigate moving it online. Maybe you're casually interested in the idea of hosting webinars for your business or community.
Maybe you already tried to run an online event and it went poorly.
Very poorly.
Wherever you happen to be, I think I can help.
And if you give me a little bit of time, I would like to show you how to cut through all the noise and uncertainty to identify the five or six things that actually matter – the few things that make the difference between a successful event and an absolute, misery-enducing failure.
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Hi, my name is Brian Richards. I run webinars and virtual conferences for hundreds and thousands of attendees.
For these past several years I've run WPSessions – home to more than 170 hours presentations, delivered by remote presenters, to a virtual audience spread all across the globe.
Through WPSessions I also organise WordSesh and WooSesh, two virtual conferences that attract a huge, global audience.
The events I organize are the culmination of years of preparation and experience. I've hosted hundreds of experts, run multiple day-long and multi-day events, and do my best to serve a community that is growing and learning all year long.
I'm proud to say that these events have helped thousands of people and, as a result, pay my salary each year.
I have spent a lot of time learning the right (and wrong!) ways to organize and host virtual events.
Some of my lessons have been obvious (e.g. it's important to tell people about an event before the event begins).
But most of them haven't been obvious at all (e.g. what is the best time of day, or day of the week, to hold an event?).
Now, after years of building this knowledge and experience, I want to help you (and others) host your own high-value, virtual events.
I want to spare you loads of heartache and lost time. I want to get you from idea to launched as soon as possible, with no wasted effort.
The advice I have to share can help whether you're trying to deliver a private experience to a close group of 5-10 peers, or organize a multi-day, multi-speaker conference for hundreds or thousands of people.
Here are just some of the quesions we'll unpack together in this new educational series:
- How much does it cost to host an event?
- Where and when should I host the event?
- Which technology should I use (and avoid)?
- What audio or video equipment is best for me?
- How do I recruit speakers to join my event?
- How do you get attendees to actually attend?
- How do you get attendees to participate?
- What can I do to help speakers deliver the best presentations?
If you've ever asked any of these questions, or if you have your own set of questions about running a successful virtual event, this new email series is for you!
I have more than a decade of event organizing experience to unpack, so buckle up and let's get started.