Pivoting from In-person to Online Events: A report from the global quarantine front
There’s a lot of pivoting going on these days. Who knew that the ability to keep one foot in place—a place that feels like solid ground—and reach that other one out into the wobbly, rocky unknown would be such a critical skill during these COVID times? But pivot we must and pivot we do.
Not being safe to gather in groups has taken a big financial toll on many nonprofits. Those that rely on walkathons, galas and other ticketed events for major revenue and stakeholder engagement have been hit hard…unless they’ve been able to pivot. The Democratic and Republican National Conventions were case studies on this.
But before the conventions came my client’s conference.
Over the past ten years, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has been hosting an annual Energy Finance Conference in New York City for the community of environmental campaigners, analysts, journalists, philanthropists and funders with whom they work. Conference attendees typically refer to “going to IEEFA,” and in 2019, 370 people traveled from 32 countries and 27 U.S. states (plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Navajo Nation) to attend three FREE days of panels, workshops, plenaries and a host of ad hoc and scheduled side meetings.
We were well underway with the planning for the June 2020 conference when the global pandemic hit. There is no replacement for human interaction, and holding the conference virtually meant an inevitable loss of the intangible networking and relationship-building that happens when people are together for a few days. That might have stopped us in our tracks, but we made the decision that rather than cancel, we would produce an online event and deliver as much of the rich content and experience as we could in this context.
The online conference took place over the last three weeks of July, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive—from the content to the professionalism of the event. Without physical space constraints, we had over 1200 registrants (from 33 countries, 27 states, Puerto Rico, DC and the Navajo Nation) and have continued to make the content available for anyone who wants it. #Silverlining.
Here are some of the LESSONS LEARNED from the experience:
Control the things you can control. Pre-recording segments, tightly facilitating conversations, establishing back-up plans for potential technology snafus—these are all ways to lower the stress of running a live event online.
Seek professional help. An online event is like television and is more effective if produced by professionals. In this case, it helped that I used to be a TV producer, and we pulled together a great team to supplement all the content experts at IEEFA:
o Strategic Events Design, who managed all of the registration and back-end technology
o Stage Manager Babette Roberts, who rehearsed all the presenters for their live performances and stage managed the live event
o Particle Productions, who pre-produced all of the 10-minute presentations, as well as a series of inspirational videos about environmental campaigners around the globe
Rehearsing pays off big time. In addition to rehearsing all of the moderators and presenters (which included working with them on lighting and sound quality), we also road-tested the conference format itself, learning a ton from the live session we put on a few weeks in advance of the July conference—like opening a Broadway show in Chicago.
Audience engagement makes a big difference and is easy to manage. Each session included two taped (and edited) presentations and a moderated live Q and A session. Attendees could see people’s questions, build on them, have sidebar conversations and network with one another.
Less is more. We shrank the conference to nine one-hour sessions, spread over three weeks
Flexibility, decisiveness, creativity, the ability to ask for help…it turns out that these are increasingly pivotal skills during these COVID times.