It takes a village to successfully run an event.
From registration to catering to audio/visual to furniture rentals to production and more, there are countless individuals and teams needed to create an event in-person. Those teams often are behind the scenes, but their work can be seen in the staging, presentations, food & beverage, room design, signage, music and more.
With virtual events becoming more popular, there is a perception that fewer people are needed to produce the event. After all attendees are not traveling to a venue, requiring meals, or even checking in to collect a name badge or materials.
However, it takes more than a click of a few buttons to produce a seamless virtual event. In this article, we take you behind the scenes to show you just a few of the roles involved in creating a virtual experience.
Here is an overview of just a few of the key roles it takes to organize a virtual event. Staffing varies depending on the size of your event with larger events requiring larger teams.
Pre-Event Production
Event technology and management vendor – This platform is the main hub for registration, attendee networking, sponsors virtual booths or demos, session information and more.
Registration Lead – The contact person to oversee and track attendee registration, manage payments, and assist with any customer service needs leading up to the event.
Sponsorship / Business Development Lead – Just like in-person events, virtual events provide sponsorship opportunities. The sponsorship and business development manager oversees these partnerships and manages those relationships leading up to and during the event.
Marketing Lead – From writing content to developing marketing campaigns, the marketing lead is one of the most important people on your team. The marketing lead develops a strategy for promoting the event, drives attendee registration, contributing to the event’s success.
Event Tech – This person is familiar with all virtual event platforms and features. The tech works closely with the producer to evaluate the platform features and capabilities to select the one that supports your event goals.
Presentation Producer – This producer works with speakers and records any session that will be filmed in advance of the live event. The producer assists speakers with technical set up of lighting, sound, video and also assists with their content and presentation. More than one producer may be needed for larger events.
Video editor – An editor is needed to edit speaker presentations, promotional videos, sponsor highlights and social media videos. Editors may also be needed to edit videos you want to replay after the live event.
Lead Event Producer – The producer oversees the entire planning strategy from initial concept to developing the content to executing the the live event. The Event Producer works closely with all departments and staff throughout the production to make sure planning stays on track, troubleshoot any issues and ensure the event’s success.
During the Virtual Event
Like a television control room, there are many people working behind the scenes to broadcast the program.
Lead Event Producer – As mentioned above, the lead producer oversees all staff and runs the production on the day of the event.
Session Tech – The tech is in charge of running all A/V for the session including slides, videos and polls. If your program has multiple sessions running concurrently you will need a tech for each session/room.
Chat Moderator – Chats and Q&As are a great way to engage the audience in the discussion, take an informal poll, or share resources. This responsibility should not fall on the speaker, but rather should be assigned to one person who can monitor and interact with the audience on the presenter’s behalf.
Session host/emcee – Like the Chat Moderator, each session should have a host to introduce the session, speaker and also facilitate Q&A. The Emcee can field questions through the presentation, contact the tech team if any tech issues pop up and keep the session running on time.
Customer Service & Attendee Concierge – If you’re organizing a virtual event it’s important to have a team who can manage customer service issues on the day of the event. The customer service team can assist attendees with logging in, viewing the sessions, navigating the event platform or participating in networking opportunities.
Sponsorship / Business Development Lead – As mentioned earlier this is the point person for all sponsor partners. On the day of the event the sponsorship lead can assist with program features such as virtual booths, 1:1 meetings, product demos or networking opportunities.
IT – The IT team should be on standby to monitor your website and virtual event platform to address any issues that pop up throughout the day.
There are many more people who go into producing virtual events, so I’d love to hear from you. What are some of the key members of your team that contribute to a seamless virtual event?
Need help with running a virtual event? Let’s chat. Whether I offer a few quick tips, or you need more in-depth help, you’ll walk away with valuable ideas.