S4E13: The Ins and Outs of Virtual Event Planning with Julie Migliacci

00:00:11:01 - 00:00:11:24
Speaker 1
Go.

00:00:12:18 - 00:00:36:18
Speaker 2
Hello and welcome to another edition of Ask You Anything presented by Mosher Consulting. I'm your host. Angela on Moshe is director of personnel. Today we have a special guest with us to talk about how virtual events have changed over the last two years and probably a little bit more. I don't know about you, but before COVID, I was really a stranger to virtual events, attending the occasional webinar, being hidden behind my camera off button.

00:00:36:20 - 00:01:00:01
Speaker 2
But now virtual events are everywhere. They're tied with live events, even. And in order to talk a lot more about this topic, we've brought in Julie Migliaccio, an expert on special events. Julie has over 17 years of high touch, customer service and event planning on her belt. There isn't an event type that she hasn't planned before. From large celebrity fundraisers, virtual conferences and premier cooking shows.

00:01:00:08 - 00:01:25:09
Speaker 2
Want to know more about that? She is always up for a new challenge and creating unique experiences for clients and their guests. Hailing from France, Julie has lived in four countries and considered herself a global citizen. She currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts and is always looking for an opportunity to jump on a plane to do something new. If left on a deserted island, Julie would bring her sourdough starter named Steve.

00:01:25:10 - 00:01:32:04
Speaker 2
That was a good one. And her cats. Julie, it's great to have you with us and ask aThing to talk about this interesting topic. How are you?

00:01:32:16 - 00:01:36:15
Speaker 1
I'm good. Thanks for having me today. How are you guys doing?

00:01:36:15 - 00:02:01:06
Speaker 2
Just great on this wonderful afternoon here in Indianapolis where it's nice and gray outside and 44 degrees, but never mind. We're here to talk about virtual events. As I mentioned, I want to start with virtual events and how they were before the pandemic. I mentioned in the intro that I don't really recall using Zoom prior to the pandemic, and any other application I've used before was just for webinars and trainings, etc..

00:02:01:06 - 00:02:07:00
Speaker 2
So what can you tell us about how virtual events were before the pandemic and how they evolved since then?

00:02:07:07 - 00:02:30:04
Speaker 1
So I've been in the virtual event space for 15 years, so this is nothing new. It's been around for a long time. Pre-pandemic, it was mostly used by the Fortune 500 companies that needed to have their CEO speak to the entire company. So it's mostly used by those huge, large corporations, and it didn't really reach the laymen until COVID hit.

00:02:30:04 - 00:02:57:19
Speaker 1
But Zoom was around way before they plastered all the airports on one point where I was like, What's the. And that was probably like eight years ago. It's definitely evolved greatly during the pandemic where I think not only has a tech got better because of it, because they needed to, but it also allowed attendees to interact virtually and see the benefit of it and also ask for more so forth.

00:02:57:19 - 00:03:09:00
Speaker 1
Platforms and force event planners should give them better virtual experiences that what we were saying pre-pandemic, pre-pandemic, it was a lot. Just watching television, in essence was a virtual event.

00:03:09:15 - 00:03:21:12
Speaker 2
Yeah. I mean, I recall pre-pandemic, I joked about having my camera off button on, but that was pretty much one of the few features that you could have on a virtual event as an attendee.

00:03:22:00 - 00:03:39:02
Speaker 1
Yeah, and I was also very guilty of that. I'm like, I don't want to be on camera. And I did it for a living. So it forced all of us to turn that camera on and see that there is benefit to it. It's not just about spying on your personal space or anything. There's it's part of the experience.

00:03:39:02 - 00:03:42:07
Speaker 1
And if you don't do it, you will be missing part of experience.

00:03:42:14 - 00:04:06:05
Speaker 2
Right. And part of that evolution, as you were mentioning, is the user experience and how it quickly evolved during I feel that the first few months of the pandemic is I mean, we talk about Zoom. We're using Zoom right now to record this. And I would say from March of 2020 till now, the development of that platform has been probably second to none.

00:04:06:06 - 00:04:17:08
Speaker 2
It's been huge because now you can do whiteboards, you can do apps within Zoom and we could be doing all sorts of different things for in this call that we weren't able to do back in February, March of 2020.

00:04:17:22 - 00:04:40:20
Speaker 1
I remember when Breakout Rooms came out, which was pretty after the lockdown, but it was like, Oh, wait, we could send people to different places. Like it was just so cool to give people those features and it's slowly gotten better. The fact that now. Protip You can send an audio message to all your breakout rooms and scare the heck out of all your attendees is really fun.

00:04:40:23 - 00:05:12:21
Speaker 1
You wouldn't be able to do that three years ago, but I recently tried it where I was like, This is Julie. I am watching you and then ended. It is. Yeah. It's a fun thing you can do. But yeah, the texture has gone through the roof pre-pandemic. It was really meant for people to just receive information. And now, like the number of platforms that have come out, remember the first few weeks of the pandemic, people were we had to get like six webcam presenters to do a television style production and it involved endless amount of computers.

00:05:13:02 - 00:05:36:07
Speaker 1
Like, I was like, do we need to go into a studio space? Like we were trying to figure this out. Now there's three mirrored stream, Riverside on Zoom. There's so many solutions that have come out in the past year and a half that not only make things easier, I think work. They're hyper stable. Like it's just really fun to see how all of that evolves.

00:05:36:07 - 00:05:43:06
Speaker 1
So, so quickly, quickly, specifically, since the industry was evolving, but it was more about video quality and less about features, right?

00:05:43:17 - 00:05:55:02
Speaker 3
Nothing inspires creativity more than not having any other options. Like, Oh my God, we we have to do this. How can we make it better?

00:05:55:02 - 00:06:29:06
Speaker 1
Quick now. Yeah. Or like I have 17 computers and I'm on my home network and half my internets go to work. And then some guy was like, We'll do stream yard or logo's attack, but it resolves all of these issues like click of a button and it's inexpensive. So I just love where it's taken us and we all knew we were going to get here in the industry, but we just fast forward ten years and unfortunately I wish it wasn't for that reason, but the place where now with Avaz is really neat and where we were going to get it regardless.

00:06:29:06 - 00:07:03:23
Speaker 2
And I feel like that's probably one of the few positives that you can take away from a technological standpoint about the pandemic, especially with this topic about holding virtual events and meetings, etc., is that the products evolved so quickly that really back then it felt like really hard to keep up with what the new feature was. I mean, I remember after we started using Zune as an organization here when the little icons at the bottom of the screen started popping up because it was really just mute stop video, start video participants and chat.

00:07:03:23 - 00:07:23:05
Speaker 2
And then all of a sudden now you have several buttons down here that you can play around. And as I mentioned, you got apps, reactions, whiteboards, the breakout rooms. That was a big feature when it first came out because you were having meetings with all these, you know, 60, 65 different people and everyone was just just a little square on the thing.

00:07:23:05 - 00:07:38:09
Speaker 2
And so then it it evolved from like three or four different pages on your screen to now you can break them out. I mean, it's it's testament to what when needed, as Brian said, what we can do as humans when we put our minds together because we have nothing better.

00:07:38:09 - 00:08:05:05
Speaker 1
Yeah. Or there's investment. People saw the opportunity here and the number of new platforms that came out like we were doing 3 to 4 demos of new streaming platforms a week to be like, Hey, show us what you made like, let's take a look at this. See if it's good for our clients and not all of them survived, but the few that did have a really cool tech, you know, and they all focus on different things.

00:08:05:05 - 00:08:23:03
Speaker 1
Like we have one platform that we adore is called Sugo and it's for virtual ads or just a one off virtual meeting or a hybrid meeting and it's drag and drop coding. So you can make it look like anything you want. So it's not you're not going to join the event and be like, Oh, that's true. You have no idea.

00:08:23:03 - 00:08:40:08
Speaker 1
It will go. They totally hide it by design. And I think that's really cool. They thought about it totally differently and you can embed whatever video you wanted there. So I think people, the ones that have survived now are the ones that had a really cool idea and really focus on the user experience.

00:08:40:16 - 00:09:03:13
Speaker 3
Yeah, I think my favorite story from the advancements that were made was very simple. An announcement that you're being recorded. You know, we hear that now when you hear it's like this meeting is being recorded. Well, the first time that feature presented itself, we were doing a training in front of 30 remote people from across our company, and I was at the office, so I had headphones on and it scared the living daylights out of me.

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:21:22
Speaker 3
Like all of all, all 30 of my coworkers got to watch me basically jump out of frame from the very like this meeting is being recorded. That shot from one speaker into the center of my head and just echoed around in my skull for him. And it was so loud and so unexpected that I almost jumped out of my chair.

00:09:22:10 - 00:09:27:14
Speaker 1
Like, What do you think this is? Be recorded to everybody? Like the paranoia set in.

00:09:27:21 - 00:09:30:05
Speaker 3
This meeting is being recorded and I'm like, Oh.

00:09:31:02 - 00:09:32:23
Speaker 2
Who is this lady speaking in my ear?

00:09:33:20 - 00:09:34:23
Speaker 1
I'm a person that.

00:09:34:23 - 00:09:36:16
Speaker 3
I swear, I'm a professional.

00:09:37:09 - 00:09:51:12
Speaker 1
Yeah. Yeah. Like the privacy issue, like this huge zoom has huge privacy issues. At the beginning, they fixed all of that, but that's part of it. They being GDPR compliant for Europe. Like you have to tell people that.

00:09:51:23 - 00:09:52:08
Speaker 3
They're being.

00:09:52:09 - 00:10:04:09
Speaker 1
Revoking their information. They recording that. I'm like all those things and I think it's key. You can actually try that for anybody that doesn't like that feature, you can turn it off and you're recording settings in your Zoom account. Yeah.

00:10:04:17 - 00:10:12:21
Speaker 2
That's why I call her Bana. I mean, just Bella is Hey, Van, I thank you for letting me know that I've been recording.

00:10:12:21 - 00:10:14:14
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for your time today.

00:10:14:18 - 00:10:20:17
Speaker 2
Yes. Yes, I appreciate it. So what are the benefits of virtual events?

00:10:21:13 - 00:10:44:22
Speaker 1
Oh, God. Where to start? There's so many. I think the major one is the ability to break time in space. So it allows you to connect with people that are no longer at the same geographical location in a real way. You know, nothing is going to take away from the in-person event. There is still something about being human and breaking bread together.

00:10:45:03 - 00:11:06:02
Speaker 1
However, I think of virtual event or virtual meeting, even if it's a simple zoom meet up is so much more powerful than a phone call. You're still able to connect, make eye contact, get to know the person, regions, body languages. And that's a huge thing that's come out. Virtual events is the ability to connect with people from all over the world.

00:11:06:13 - 00:11:26:13
Speaker 1
The number of conferences that we did that one full virtual now we're taking them hybrid, they're like, Oh my God, we have people from Indonesia on our conference. This was a local and from Illinois little conference that would attract 200 people on a good year. Now they have a thousand people and they're coming in from all over the world, which is super cool.

00:11:26:16 - 00:11:55:11
Speaker 1
Similarly to we want to attract speakers because now speakers do not have to take days out of their lives. They could just connect for 2 hours, do their shtick. You can get much better speakers for a much more affordable price. Same thing with celebrities. We've seen a lot of celebrities come out of the woodwork during this that are willing to spend an hour on a zoom or whatever other platform you're using for your virtual event because it's not a huge time commitment.

00:11:55:23 - 00:12:22:08
Speaker 1
So those are two huge perks better speakers, wider attendees and then, you know, for me, like I'm wearing pajama bottoms right now, I think nobody should shy away from the fact that virtual events allows you to connect, learn while being super comfortable. I find in-person events to be hyper draining, post-pandemic. Pre-pandemic, I went all the time and now I find them super draining.

00:12:22:08 - 00:12:26:10
Speaker 1
And while the virtual allows me to do more with in my day as well.

00:12:26:21 - 00:12:52:09
Speaker 2
And I agree with that sense about the post-pandemic, in-person events, I mean, because now you have to you have all these things in your head. You had them before, but you didn't have them at the heightened level that we did with if you get COVID, etc.. What's going to happen afterwards. So now you're more I get what you're saying about being careful and then just kind of being tired after a day where you probably enjoyed yourself a lot.

00:12:52:09 - 00:12:58:24
Speaker 2
But then you had all these thinking about, Well, am I too close to my head? Should I wear a mask? Could I had all those things and.

00:12:59:03 - 00:13:29:06
Speaker 1
Other human energy when it's closer, really draining. I'm a giant extrovert and I think COVID turn me into an introvert and we're seeing attendance across the board, with few exceptions. Of course, for those over there would be like, No, I didn't happen. I didn't have to. Mama. Attendance is down 30% across the board. And I think that speaks to people not committing to as many in-person events and being really drained from doing one because it takes a totally different vessel and totally different energy that we haven't used in a long time.

00:13:29:13 - 00:13:45:09
Speaker 1
And then the fact that we're heading into winter and I feel like everybody's got COVID right now, so it's just a lot like I find the in-person networking very overwhelming now and I can only do maybe one or two a month. Then I get very, very, very tired.

00:13:46:05 - 00:14:07:19
Speaker 2
So and one of the things that you said at the beginning of this answer was the break in time in space. I went through this on both sides of the aisle. I went in June or July. I went to New Orleans for a big conference, a national conference. The conference was offered both virtual or in-person. And so I went in-person.

00:14:07:19 - 00:14:11:20
Speaker 2
First time since the pandemic that I've been to such a huge event. But they.

00:14:11:20 - 00:14:12:03
Speaker 1
Were.

00:14:12:11 - 00:14:36:22
Speaker 2
You know, massive yes. Massive amounts of people. I mean, there were supposedly there were 15,000 people at the Convention Center in New Orleans. And I believe it because the masses of people that were going up and down the escalators and the stairs was just I've never seen anything like it. I think the only thing I can compare to that many people in one place is probably walking around New York City and July 4th weekend.

00:14:37:05 - 00:15:01:18
Speaker 2
So it was that massive. And like you mentioned, at the end of the day, we as a company had a booth presenting. So I would meet up with my coworkers and I was actually tired, like around six seven we would go to dinners. I don't know that I want to go to dinner and it's like I want to like go away and hide in my room for a little bit because it's it's so it was so overwhelming being around so many people all the time.

00:15:01:18 - 00:15:17:21
Speaker 2
And then, needless to say, I'm going to the conference I'm attending. So I had to rush between sessions from all these rooms. And so every session is first come, first serve. So they were only allow a number of people per session because of restrictions, etc..

00:15:17:21 - 00:15:21:24
Speaker 1
So virtual as many as we could get. Let's go. Yeah.

00:15:22:06 - 00:15:45:09
Speaker 2
Exactly. I think the point that you're making about breaking the time and space, it's a very good point because when you're in it, there's so many factors that drive your enjoyment, your excitement of attending the event. Whereas when you're at home, there's I've been for many other webinars or trainings over the last two years. It's different because like you just said, I just get up.

00:15:45:09 - 00:15:49:21
Speaker 2
I get my coffee and I'm sitting in my pajama bottoms. I got a nice shirt on and.

00:15:50:04 - 00:16:02:14
Speaker 1
We tried to call it the room at the beginning of the pandemic to start. It was like the moment of work. So like there's some top countries on the bottom didn't work. I tried really hard.

00:16:03:15 - 00:16:17:20
Speaker 2
I have to say. I was and my wife can can talk about this. I was one of the one of those people that read that article that came out way back at the beginning that said, well, people should basically just prepare like they were going to work and they were this dress up and that way they feel comfortable.

00:16:17:20 - 00:16:26:08
Speaker 2
I was one of those people. I would dress up, I would put on my jeans, my pants. I would just sit there like, Oh, yeah, I'm looking all professional. Yeah, I don't know. A couple of months later I was again.

00:16:27:04 - 00:16:33:21
Speaker 1
I work from home for 12 years and I would definitely recommend always going to take a shower and get dressed.

00:16:33:21 - 00:16:34:18
Speaker 2
Now this.

00:16:34:21 - 00:17:01:23
Speaker 1
Part, that's the TBD part, but having that morning routine is it's good to avoid like virtual burnout as well. Like you want to have those routines in place to avoid those. But back to your point for the conference for what's cool, you know, there is a lot of benefits to being in-person, no question about that. Like you probably met people that you wouldn't have met.

00:17:02:11 - 00:17:25:17
Speaker 1
You are able to connect in a totally different way. But for the virtual the people that were probably attending hybrid, I can't speak to this conference specifically, but other hybrid conferences, we've plan their ability to because I'm terrible with names, for example. So I would meet you and be like you too. But because it's virtual, I now have your full contact information.

00:17:25:17 - 00:17:52:16
Speaker 1
I know how to follow up all those things. So that's one big benefit conjunct between sessions. And then if the conference organizers are smart, the content that was live is available to view on demand on video as soon as possible, so that if I didn't get to session two, I can go back and watch it. And we just wrapped a huge full virtual conference for national nonprofit.

00:17:52:24 - 00:18:18:11
Speaker 1
And within the hour we had all the demands available and they were getting about 400 people live watching each session. And the on demand last night check word got over 1200 views per session so they're under bamboos are through the roof. And that's because we're on a platform that regardless of time of day, people can still connect with each other and they can really watch the content at our leisure.

00:18:18:11 - 00:18:41:03
Speaker 1
So that's a huge, huge benefit of taking it hybrid or virtual for conferences is that you can still touch space. And then for you that didn't get to every room because you're only human and you can only run so fast. If they give you access to those recordings, you can watch them later as well. So it's still you could get a better value for the conference in October.

00:18:41:03 - 00:19:02:20
Speaker 3
I was I went to an in-person training. I went to Adobe Max this year and I went in-person and they have everything listed as soon as possible after. And I'll be checking out the sessions that I wasn't able to get to while I was there. But I'm also going to go back and there were at least two different sessions I was in that I was in that I will also be going back and looking at again just because of all the information.

00:19:02:20 - 00:19:11:23
Speaker 3
It was like, okay, I'm definitely going to spend some more time with this later, so it's good to be able to go back and even revisit something you were able to get to totally.

00:19:12:08 - 00:19:35:11
Speaker 1
You know, it takes a second or go back and be like who attended this session and reconnect with people? Or if the organizers put as available, they could maybe even reach out to the speakers and be like, Hey, I actually had a follow up question. So keeping that conversation. So even if you're doing a full in-person and you're not taking it hybrid, moving the post to virtual is a really smart move because it continues the conversation.

00:19:35:11 - 00:19:46:03
Speaker 1
The conference doesn't end on its last day, can continue on for a few months posts and it's such an added value and it gives you also a lot of data to use. This year.

00:19:46:07 - 00:20:06:17
Speaker 2
I was thinking about that as you were talking just the added value that having that I mean from your example, you guys did a great job of having everything within the hour after was done. I mean that in and of itself. And then the sheer amount of numbers that you got more from the in-person, I mean, it's outstanding.

00:20:06:17 - 00:20:27:15
Speaker 1
It's great. Well, they also did a great job advertising it and they had great registrants, but low turnout. And that's what we're seeing a lot now is people will not show up necessarily day off, but they'll show up an hour later and they'll just want to be doing it for them. So why not give that to them? Because you're still connecting with them.

00:20:27:15 - 00:20:40:14
Speaker 1
You're still getting their contact information. They're able to do more. And as an organizer, you're still getting data. As long as you get them in, you're getting that information and that ticket sales. So make it as easy as possible for people.

00:20:41:07 - 00:20:46:21
Speaker 2
So moving on from the benefits, what are some of the pitfalls of virtual events?

00:20:47:04 - 00:21:10:16
Speaker 1
Oh, I've seen we want to talk horror stories. I got a few. Let's go. I think with the virtual events, one of the pitfalls that we've seen and it is getting better is a lot of people, when it comes to planning their virtual event attack is if it's an in-person event. So they really go be like, oh, we did it for our gala, so now we're going to do it for our virtual event.

00:21:11:02 - 00:21:32:18
Speaker 1
Do not do that to people. That's a really long time. Virtually burnout kicks in at 37 minutes, so you're keeping them hostage for another three and a half hours after they're feeling burnt out. Often what I see virtual events not going well. It's because they've kept it too long. They're using the wrong tack. So there's a lot of that.

00:21:32:18 - 00:21:56:06
Speaker 1
I was recently talking to somebody that has sworn off virtual bonds. It's the worst thing since sliced bread. They never want to touch it again. I was like, Why do you feel this way? I was really curious. And they did one virtual that they used a platform called Remo, which is meant to be like a gala type of platform where you could jump between tables and it's a networking slash.

00:21:56:06 - 00:22:14:16
Speaker 1
Like there's a stage show. It's meant for a 2 to 3 hour event. They used it for a six day conference. I was like, You did not have the right talk. So when you're not using the right tact, that's one you're going to come up with issues because you're forcing it to do something that it wasn't programed to do.

00:22:14:16 - 00:22:34:13
Speaker 1
And it's not fair towards attack to be like, here are the problems. I know you just picked the wrong room. It's like trying to do a dance party in an auditorium with there's chairs everywhere you pick the wrong. So being really cognizant of what the point of your Ibanez and pick the right solution for it is super super important.

00:22:34:21 - 00:22:58:20
Speaker 1
And I would say also rethinking your agenda is key to avoid mistakes. So a lot of the mistakes we saw was speakers that did not have the right setup for speakers that really fit for virtual. So some things that work in person like I've seen super dynamic, in-person speakers, they are atrocious, virtual, they do not know how to connect.

00:22:59:04 - 00:23:27:07
Speaker 1
They can't do anything without having an audience. For example, comedians, it's a little rough to do virtually. It's hard when there is nobody laughing back at you. It doesn't work. However, cooking show actually works like gangbusters because you can do cameras on top. You can get multiple angles for it like it feels like a cooking show. It can be hyper interactive or just one way.

00:23:27:16 - 00:23:50:20
Speaker 1
You have a lot of flexibility there. You can get celebrity chefs very easily, you know, really thinking about what you're trying to do and making sure it fits the virtual space. Cause there's some things that work and some things I don't. And same thing with in-person a cooking show in person. Imagine a cooking show with like 40 people in the room and you're just watching some guy cook up front.

00:23:51:15 - 00:24:17:10
Speaker 1
You can't really see what he's doing. Like it's fine, but it's not great, right? For virtually it's great. So I think those are some of the pitfalls of virtual that people easily fall into. Is too long events, wrong technology and not catering their agenda to really think about what they're trying to do. And that often falls into major issues that they'll live to regret.

00:24:17:13 - 00:24:19:09
Speaker 1
Oh, and forgetting to press record.

00:24:20:11 - 00:24:34:14
Speaker 3
That's how that's my news. Showing up to school and forgetting your locker combination nightmare. Yeah, it's the. Oh, we got done with the meeting and I didn't hit record. That's the stress nightmare. Now.

00:24:34:24 - 00:24:44:22
Speaker 1
When I run events, I often have, like, three Post-its, like, in front of me that says record. Because if you forget it, you can't undo it. So but it's happened to us all.

00:24:45:09 - 00:25:10:07
Speaker 2
It's very hard to come up with those conversations again after you've had them and have the same spark and light and everything. But I want to go back to a couple of things that you said specifically about rethinking the agenda, because I think you hit on something that not a lot of people talk about or it's not like too out there about the speakers when it comes to virtual events versus live events.

00:25:10:07 - 00:25:30:16
Speaker 2
Because I think you're absolutely on point. I have been through some speakers at the virtual events that I basically just fall backwards out of my chair because I have falling asleep. It's been like I could have played this for my one year old son and he would have slept for the next 4 hours. Great work and I get these recordings back.

00:25:30:16 - 00:25:35:04
Speaker 1
So do you do is Sleeping podcast or is that the possibility.

00:25:37:00 - 00:25:43:20
Speaker 3
Of millions of dollars in ACR funding can be an awesome sensation.

00:25:45:15 - 00:26:05:01
Speaker 2
But seriously, this doesn't get talked about enough because there are some people out there that while they're very great at what they do in person, that when it comes to the remote options, they just don't click. And you're right, I'm not huge on I mean, I've never hosted anything other than this, you know, we're not live or anything like that.

00:26:05:01 - 00:26:24:21
Speaker 2
But I don't know how people how do you connect? How do you make that connection as a speaker who's coming for maybe the first time to talk to a virtual event? How do you do that? Because in person, it's easy. In person, as you mentioned, you make a joke. You know, comedians are easy. They can just come on stage and say something and great, I've got you.

00:26:24:21 - 00:26:37:08
Speaker 2
You're hooked, you're connected. Great. But in a remote setting, like it's hard for you to make a joke and to see the react first. If the person doesn't have their camera on, then you don't know they're laughing or not. So it's really like, well, that fell on deaf ears.

00:26:37:17 - 00:26:54:15
Speaker 1
Like, I thought it was funny. That's always my fallback and like, I make myself laugh, so I'm going to assume that everybody else was giggling behind the cameras as well. Yeah, it's hard to get feedback. You know, some platforms like if you're on a Zoom meeting, you're going to get at least like the few people that have their cameras on some reactions.

00:26:54:15 - 00:27:15:21
Speaker 1
But a lot of times with virtual events, it's, you know, one too many. So they're not you're not seeing them. They're just watching for those speakers. There are coaches out there and if anybody needs a contact, happy to give them that specifically help you present within a box. So how do you connect? You always want to make sure your lighting and your video quality and your audio quality are good.

00:27:16:02 - 00:27:34:17
Speaker 1
Do not use a virtual background. Those are so bad because they're distracting like we've all seen it. When people are moving their hands a lot and then their hands vanish, like, I'm just focused. I'm like laughing. Then their hands are gone. Look at that guy's got no hands, you know? So you really want to make sure your tech is right.

00:27:34:17 - 00:27:59:15
Speaker 1
Because if your tech is off, if you're gargling, like if your audio is off immediately you lost your audience. It's equivalent of walking on stage and the mikes not working. You need to make sure your tech is right and then look into the webcam. That's how you make virtual eye contact. Just keep looking into that webcam. If it's a hybrid format and you're a speaker on the stage, connect with the camera in the back of the room every once in a while.

00:27:59:15 - 00:28:34:12
Speaker 1
That's how you're going to connect with that virtual audience that's super important. And then avoid the temptation to lecture with a PowerPoint for 45 minutes. Just step away from that temptation. PowerPoints find fi. It's a tool. It's wonderful. But every 10 minutes or so, you're going to want to change the mood in the virtual room, whether that's launching a pool, having people drop information in a chat, doing breakout rooms, playing a video clip, doing a one minute dance party.

00:28:34:20 - 00:29:02:15
Speaker 1
You want people to stay engaged. So change the room every 10 minutes using the tools of the platform that you're in. If you don't do that, you're going to slowly creep towards that burnout point. And like, I can't watch another speaker speak for an hour to one PowerPoint deck. It it's hard, incredibly boring, virtually in person. It works because there's natural breaks that happen within a room.

00:29:02:22 - 00:29:24:12
Speaker 1
Somebody makes something funny and the audience like or the speaker does it like. Those moments naturally happen virtually. You have to plan them. So keep that in mind. If you're a virtual speaker every 10 minutes, do something. It doesn't have to be anything crazy, but launch a poll question, ask an audience for feedback, do a little something to just break it up.

00:29:24:21 - 00:29:44:16
Speaker 2
And you can do everything you just mentioned. Even if you're doing a PowerPoint, it's just that you're not basically stuck on a PowerPoint loop for 40 minutes. I've been stuck on those. I've been actually fortunate enough to see people do exactly what you mentioned, have a PowerPoint, but then still do a poll. Okay, everybody turn their cameras on.

00:29:44:16 - 00:29:55:20
Speaker 2
Come on. I want to see you dance, you know? Come on. Just. Just do something silly. I mean, it's just, as you mentioned, just change the tone, because sometimes topics are boring by nature.

00:29:55:20 - 00:30:28:03
Speaker 1
We work for medical associations. There's a lot of really boring content out in the war room. It's rough. Yeah, it's. Yeah, Q4 numbers are thrilling, but break it up as much as possible. Take a yeah, it really doesn't have to be anything crazy, just simple things. When you are presenting virtually as the organizer, what platform are we on and what tools do I have access to and use those in your planning of your presentation and you can have a PowerPoint all the way through.

00:30:28:03 - 00:30:29:24
Speaker 1
Just sprinkle in other things, right?

00:30:30:15 - 00:30:50:07
Speaker 2
Yeah, that's key. I want to ask about the cooking show though. I mentioned that in the intro and now you mention it. So I mean, obviously during the pandemic, we all saw TV watch these chefs that are on the on a certain cooking channel. And they were cooking from their homes, but they had the setup that you mentioned, different camera angles, etc..

00:30:50:14 - 00:30:52:14
Speaker 2
What can you tell us about your experience doing that?

00:30:52:23 - 00:31:21:22
Speaker 1
Cooking has strangely followed me throughout my career, so when I was doing in-person events, I did a big cooking show in New York City where I was one of the first hybrids I've actually ever experience, and this was 17 years ago. So hybrid was loose. It worked. I think memory served me right. And then so during the pandemic, all of a sudden people were asking, I was like, Hey, what can we do that's really engaging and interesting and different and cooking in chefs work.

00:31:21:22 - 00:31:51:00
Speaker 1
So we've work with a few chefs that have the setup ready in their home. And for those chefs out there, they're not sure if they can do it. It's not a complicated setup. You can literally hang an iPad with strings or we can bring in like professional equipment. So there's many ways to do it. Didn't one for an association when we got a lot of the Top Chef contestants to do a cooking demo and a Q&A with the executive director, and this was pre-pandemic.

00:31:51:00 - 00:32:11:19
Speaker 1
We crashed our house with three cameras. We felt a little bad, like, so sorry. We're just going to take over your house with a ton of equipment and your Q and A and it was all about women's empowerment. And she talked about what it's like being a woman in a kitchen and in a man's world. It was just really interesting because they hit both boxes.

00:32:12:02 - 00:32:35:16
Speaker 1
You got to hit the major talking points of your organization and we entertain because in and afterwards she showed us how to make pasta at home with the full set up. And people will ask questions. And I think it was one of the most successful that we have since gone back to in-person. But that one is memorable. It was really bring in people's ideas because they learned something and they were entertained and we kept it tight.

00:32:35:16 - 00:32:40:21
Speaker 1
It was 45 minutes, the entire thing. Yeah. And you want to keep it nice and concise?

00:32:41:08 - 00:32:53:08
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I feel like we've talked a little bit about the next question. But finally, I want to ask you, what best practices can you share with us regarding virtual events?

00:32:53:08 - 00:33:13:08
Speaker 1
Oh, good, it's so many. And if anybody ever needs a brain pick, do not hesitate. But yeah, we definitely covered a few. So the first step is always find the right tack. What is your purpose of your app like? What is your goal? If it's a fundraising event, look at fundraising platforms. That's what they do. Event doggies give smart Excel events.

00:33:13:08 - 00:33:41:10
Speaker 1
Those are great platforms that have built in fundraising tools. Make your life easier. If it's a meeting format and you want should be instant and super interactive. You are of course got Zoom, bluejeans, you have teams, you have WebEx. Those are all amazing tools. If it's a conference and you want to look at bigger platforms, there is the of course, the notifies and the on 20 fours and six connects of the worlds, which are very expensive.

00:33:41:10 - 00:34:05:13
Speaker 1
But there's a million other is moveon.org Sullivan's are other examples of platforms Google that you can use so find the right tack is be on in for an ask the right questions what's your support like? Do you have managed services? All those things cross that agenda really well. It's super great speakers and use your attack. Don't ignore attack.

00:34:05:13 - 00:34:27:03
Speaker 1
Just be like, oh, I don't know how to use screen share so we're not going to share anything. That's the wrong move. Find a partner that can help you, show you how to do those things because that's going to give you a better event and then keep that energy up. You got them for 37 minutes, make it the best 37 minutes, and if it's a full day conference, give them as many breaks as you can.

00:34:27:21 - 00:34:37:20
Speaker 1
It's not the same as an in-person meeting when you give them a break every 2 hours, virtually, you want to give them a break every hour and they'll come back for it. Those are some of my lovely tips.

00:34:38:13 - 00:34:59:07
Speaker 2
It's good to ask. I was going to ask you about about that break piece, because I feel like most conferences that I attend online do something similar about anywhere between the 45 minute mark to an hour, what should be, let's say, the right amount of time for the break. Because some people do, you know, 5 minutes, some do 10 minutes.

00:34:59:13 - 00:35:06:00
Speaker 2
If it's a 45 minute presentation, then they take the next 15 minutes so people can go stretch out, etc.. But what are your thoughts on that?

00:35:06:05 - 00:35:28:00
Speaker 1
I would say anywhere between 5 to 1515, you're on losing to another activity, five, it's quick. So it's you know, you can go and make yourself a cup of tea and like walk the dog in 5 minutes, like super quick things. It's also for on an organization level, if you start running behind, try to avoid the temptation to skip the break.

00:35:28:16 - 00:35:48:04
Speaker 1
So if you have a ten minute break scheduled, you can steal 5 minutes from that 10 minutes, but don't steal the whole thing. So giving yourself a ten minute break in your agenda is most of the time the right amount is you can see a little bit from it while still giving people a break and 10 minutes is not long enough.

00:35:48:04 - 00:35:55:02
Speaker 1
Then I'm going to be like, I want to start making dinner instead of coming back to the event. Like, it's like enough of a break that it's not. It doesn't take over.

00:35:55:14 - 00:35:55:23
Speaker 2
Right?

00:35:56:07 - 00:36:02:19
Speaker 1
And then give people a real lunch break. That always annoys me when they don't do a real lunch break. Need to eat. That's important.

00:36:03:08 - 00:36:06:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. Time allowed. How much time allowed?

00:36:07:19 - 00:36:09:01
Speaker 1
30 to 45 minutes.

00:36:09:15 - 00:36:22:04
Speaker 2
There you go. There you have it. Folks, we want to thank Julie Migliaccio for being with us today on Ask Anything. It was a pleasure to have you with us, Julie. Thank you very much for your tidbits and for your stories. We really appreciate it.

00:36:22:20 - 00:36:23:19
Speaker 1
Thanks for having me.

00:36:24:09 - 00:36:42:07
Speaker 2
Thank you for listening in to this week's edition of Ask Me Anything presented by Mosher Consulting. We hope you enjoyed listening to Julie Migliaccio talk to us about the virtual events landscape. Join us next time when we continue to dove deeper with our resident experts and what they're currently working on. Send us your ideas or topics via our social media feeds.

00:36:42:19 - 00:37:04:19
Speaker 2
In the meantime, please remember to give us a rating and subscribe to our feed wherever you get your podcasts. Until then, rethink your virtual meeting agenda. So long everybody go.