Do It Yourself Events: Part 2 - Running an Effective Rehearsal and Moderating a Live Event

Event Rehearsal
Now that your Connect Pro room is set up, the next step is to have a rehearsal with all of the presenters and hosts involved in the event. Rehearsals are key to having a good event. If you have an effective rehearsal, all of your presenters will be comfortable using Connect Pro to share their content and will also be on the same page for the event flow. This will go a long way towards a successful event.

Below are a few steps you should take when running your rehearsal:

1. Run the rehearsal from the same meeting room/URL you will be using for your event. This saves time so you don't have to set up your event room again, and prevents confusion for all the presenters when they are looking for the event URL. You should also encourage your presenters to participate in the rehearsal with the same computer and audio hardware which will be used in the actual event. This will minimize the amount of extra setup time needed during the live event.
2. Confirm log-in and permissions. If your presenters have a new user account or haven't logged into their account for some time, confirm that they can successfully login to your Connect Pro meeting room. After they have logged in, double check that they can enter the room with the appropriate host or presenter permissions which were initially established when creating the meeting.
3. Install the Meeting add-in. Installing the latest Connect Pro add-in ahead of time will save time and headaches. At the beginning of the rehearsal, ensure that each presenter has successfully installed the latest add-in. The add-in will allow the presenter to share his or her screen and upload content into the room. This will also allow you to spend time on any technical issues that may arise from trying to install the add-in.
4. Review best practices on presenting. Before you start covering the presentation and the agenda flow, review some presentation best practices:
• Whenever possible, connect to the internet through a hard-wired connection instead of a wireless connection. This should prevent most issues that arise from poor wireless signal strength or wireless interference.
• Close other programs. When presenting online, it is a good idea to close all unnecessary programs that are running on your computer. This will minimize distractions during the presentation, protect sensitive information (i.e. email) from being shared, and also will not take away bandwidth needed for the presentation.
• Use the best equipment possible for audio. If you are dialed into a teleconference, use a headset instead of a speakerphone if possible. If you are using the voice feature, use a USB headset instead of your computer's built in microphone. Using a headset will give the participants a better experience when listening to the presentation.
• Turn of cell phone ringer. This will also help to minimize distractions or interruptions during the presentation
5. Run through the Audio Setup Wizard. If you will be using the voice feature to broadcast audio, have all of your presenters utilize the Audio Setup Wizard. In the meeting, go to Meeting > Manage My Settings > Audio Setup Wizard. After running this, confirm that the setup worked with other participants in the rehearsal by sharing your voice.
6. Review Share Pod Features with Presenter If your presenters are new to Connect Pro or have little experience with the application, take a moment to review the features of the share pod. Review (1) how to share your screen, (2) how to pull up a previously uploaded piece of content in the share pod, and (3) how to upload a presentation or a piece of content.
   
   
   
   When sharing a presentation, show your presenters how to advance slides (1), bring up the sidebar for easier navigation (2), and how to use the pointer (3) and annotation (4) features.
   
   
   
   
7. Review the Agenda and flow of the Presentations Covering the agenda and presentation flow will allow your presenters to know when they will be presenting within the event. If you are following a complicated agenda, you might want to post the agenda as a note in the presenter only area. Discussing how the event will change from each layout will give the presenters a visual cue when it is their turn to present, and also minimize confusion if there are multiple hosts in the room. Remember, it is always a good idea to make sure you designate someone to change layouts, as this will minimize multiple accidental layout changes. Review the roles of each presenter (presenter or host) and what type of permissions he or she has.
   
   If you haven't built the layouts for each presenter, now would be a good time to do that, so everyone in the rehearsal will know where their content will be set up. Have each presenter upload his or her presentations to the appropriate layout. Once the presentation is in the share pod, review the slides to check for any typos or missing graphics/animations. If you are using polling questions, you might want to get input from your presenters on how to format the polling questions and answers. You can also have the presenters upload any files that will be available for participants in the File Share pod.
8. Demonstrate Q&A Features. If you will be using the Q&A pod to moderate incoming questions, you might need to give your presenters a quick tutorial on how to view and answer the incoming questions. Also, it might be a good idea to decide on a strategy of answering questions during your event - Will the answers be given verbally or typed? Will the questions be asked during the presentation or during a designated Q&A period? Will you have a designated presenter answering questions, or will presenters take them on a first come/first served basis? This tutorial might be helpful in showing presenters the features of the Q&A pod.
   
   At the end of your rehearsal, you and your presenters should be prepared for a successful online event. Your presenters should be comfortable with using Connect Pro to present their content and feel confident in their computer and audio setup.

Running the Live Event
It is now time for your actual event to start. Running your event will be easy because you have prepared your Connect Pro meeting room and presenters ahead of time.

On the day of your event, it is a good idea to log into your meeting 15-30 minutes early. This will give you time to double check all of your layouts, content, and settings. You will also want to have your other presenters in the meeting at this time and do an audio check, especially if everyone will be using the voice feature. During this pre-event time, you can place the meeting on hold so participants will see a customized message instead of entering into the meeting. Placing the meeting on hold is a good way to go through all of the layouts and test the audio without having the participants in the room. To place the meeting on hold, go to the meeting menu and choose Manage Access & Entry>Place Participants on Hold...

About 5-10 minutes before the event, you can open the meeting to the participants so they can get logged in and comfortable with the Connect Pro layout. Starting the meeting in a lobby layout is a good way to give the participants some more information about the event. In a lobby layout, you can share a rotating presentation that contains information about how to ask questions, using the full screen option, setting connection speed options, or other helpful hints. You can also use this space to advertise about upcoming events, products, or other resources. Add a chat pod to the layout so participants can ask questions or chat with others attending the event. Instead of having the participants sit in silence, you can upload an MP3 for some lobby music. The Connect Pro Exchange also has a few custom-built pods you can include in your lobby.

When starting the event, it helps to have a short checklist before you begin your formal presentation:

• Audio: If using the VoIP feature, is the appropriate presenter sharing their voice? If you are using a teleconference, are all the participants muted?
• Welcome layout: It helps to start the event using a welcome slide. Use this time to go over participation tips and set up the agenda.
• Recording: If you are recording the event, make sure you have started the recording! If you start the recording too early, you can always edit the unnecessary parts out. If you are in a rush to start the recording, don't worry about giving it an appropriate name. You can change the title of the recording at any time by going to the recording information page.
• Spell check: Are all of your titles and layout names spelled correctly? These will all appear in the recording.

If you have set up your meeting with the appropriate layouts and pre-loaded content into those layouts, navigating through the agenda will be easy. When it comes time to switch presenters, there is no need to release control or pass "the baton." Anyone with presenter status will be able to share his or her screen, upload and advance the slides in the share pod. If you have set up each presenter with his or her own layout, all you need to do is switch to that individual's layout, and let the presenter do his thing! If a presenter doesn't have the appropriate permissions, promoting him to presenter status is easy. Just click on the presenter's name in the agenda and choose Set as Presenter.

During the event, here are a few tips to keep things running smoothly:

• Polling: You can choose to share the polling results with the attendees or to keep them visible to presenters only. Just check/un-check the "Broadcast Results" box on the poll.
• Retrieving content: If someone accidentally closed or deleted the content from a share pod, you can easily get the content back in the pod. You can find the content listed under the Share>Documents section of the share pod. If the content was completely removed from the room using the delete option in the Organize Pods... menu, you can always retrieve the content from the Uploaded Content section in the content library. The Uploaded Content section is the place where documents which are uploaded into the room are stored.
• Screen sharing feedback: If you are sharing your screen, there are many ways to get feedback about the content you are sharing. If you have a dual monitor setup, share your secondary monitor and keep the Connect Pro meeting up on the main monitor. Use the "Preview" button (which appears as a pair of glasses) to get a view of what the participants are seeing. If you have 2 computers, log in to the meeting as a participant on the second computer for a view of what you are sharing. You can also have other presenters send you a private chat to let you know what they are viewing.
• Screen sharing- enhancing the view for participants: Keep in mind that when you share your screen, participants will see this in the share pod, surrounded by other content or pods. If you have a large screen resolution, consider bringing that down to a smaller resolution before sharing your screen. This will make it easier for participants to see the details of what you are sharing. There are also a few options that can enhance the view of your screen share. On the Full Screen menu of the share pod, you can check the Enable Full Screen Toggle for participants to let each participant choose to see the content in full screen. You can also force full screen for the participants by checking the Presenter's changes affect everybody option and then clicking Full Screen. Keep in mind that this will cover up any other pods you have on your layout such as a question pod or a note pod. Finally, encourage participants to use the scroll button which is next to the full screen toggle. This will zoom in on presenter's cursor during the screen share.
• Preparing Mode: If you need to make any last minute changes while the event is in session, you can use the Preparing Mode feature. This feature will allow a host to go to another layout behind the scenes and not disturb the active layout. To use Preparing Mode, go to the Present menu and choose Preparing Mode. For more information on this feature, read this blog entry.

When your event comes to an end, you can end the Connect Pro meeting and include a custom message and direct participants to a weblink. This is a useful feature to advertise your next event or send participants to a survey.

In the final part of this series, we will look at some post-event options and you can view the recording and reports from your meeting.