Planning a Virtual Event

Virtual Events are a way to conduct larger gatherings with more control than a standard virtual meeting can provide. Events can be added to your account by a Wharton Computing administrator.

We recommend limiting your events to 1,000 participants. Events larger than this may incur charges. Contact Wharton Computing for a consultation.

When to Use Virtual Events

Use Events for:	Use a Meeting for:
Events larger than 200 participants, including presenters and moderators.	Informal events or team meetings.
Controlling and tracking attendance.	Broadcasting to a large audience, via social media streaming, without the need for closely monitored interactions.
Structured interaction between presenters and attendees.	Options for informal interactions, realtime chats and breakout sessions.

Events Features

Some of the features that are often used at Wharton include:

Public or Private meeting invites and links
Event registration
Video/Audio interaction
Chat
Raise hand
Polling
Q&A
Recording
Chat transcripts and attendance reports

Roles

In the Virtual Events world there are four roles:

Meeting Organizer
Moderator
Presenter
Attendee

Meeting Organizer

This is the event planner. They're responsible for:

Scheduling the Events meeting
Inviting all participants
Coordinating the event
Creating the agenda and production timeline
Overall communication for the actual event

Moderator

This role controls the broadcast, or event, from behind the scenes. There can be more than one moderator per event. Traditionally a moderator introduces the guests or asks them thoughtfully prepared questions. While you can (and probably should) still have a moderator of that type at your event, multiple people can be assigned the Moderator role. This means you can have a moderator who is focused on behind-the-scenes issues in addition to someone acting as a more traditional moderator.

Moderators can:

Help control content
Manage the flow of the event
Troubleshoot technical problems
Mute/unmute presenters

Think of your virtual Event as a carefully planned production and the moderators are the people behind the curtain.

Presenter

This is the person, or people, the audience is here to see. By design, the presenter role has a smaller subset of the moderator controls when they join the event.

Presenters can:

Mute/unmute their audio and video
Share their content and videos
Chat with all participants or just the moderators
Review and answer question posted in the Q&A
View poll results

They will rely on the moderators for more complex tasks so they can be focused on content delivery.

Attendees

These are the people invited to attend an event. Unlike a regular meeting, attendees will not have the ability to share their audio, video, or any content unless they are invited to do so by a moderator.

Best Practices for Meeting Organizers

Below are some best practices for managing the technical aspect of your Virtual Event.

Plan properly - Work through each section of this article, no matter the size of your event.
Invite at least 2 moderators - There are too many details for one person to manage effectively. At least one of the moderators should be fairly tech savvy and familiar with Virtual Events. Training can be provided upon request.
Conduct a test event - Hold a dry run with all presenters and moderators at least two days prior to the scheduled event. This will help work out all the kinks and get everyone familiar with the platform.
Create a production timeline - A production timeline is your agenda with technical cues written in where appropriate; it is very specific and detailed. The technical cues include, but aren't limited to:
- When to mute/unmute a presenter
- Q&A Sessions
- When to initiate a poll, along with the name of the poll
- Using/recognizing verbal cues for significant transitions
- Recording the name of the moderator assigned to a planned task
Upload videos in advance - Anyone sharing videos will need to upload them to the meeting rather than embed them into a presentation. Upload times vary depending on video length. We recommend uploading videos at least 30 minutes before your TEST event. Do not wait until the day of your event to upload videos.
Join using the Events app - All Moderators and Presenters must join with the events app. This app is not the standard meetings app; be sure to recommend presenters and moderators download it ahead of time.
Schedule your presenter arrivals - All presenters should not arrive at the same time. Instead schedule their arrivals in staggered 15 minute intervals before the event and have a moderator ready to help them check their audio, video, content sharing, and any video content they may present.

Before Scheduling the Event

After you've reviewed the best practices, it's time to start the planning process. Planning for a virtual event is similar to an on-site event in many ways, therefore, much of the event planning found in the MarComm Event Toolkit is relevant.

Click Read More for a list of questions you and the event planning team should think about and answer before you schedule an Event.

How will you communicate with the speakers during their presentations? Options include:
- Direct chat via the app
- Text to mobile phone
How restricted do you want your event?
- Public - when choosing to host a public event there are two options:
  - Completely open - anyone with the event link can join. This is not a secure option and can leave your event open to exceeding the maximum participation, which can incur significant additional charges. If you want your event to be unrestricted and completely open to the public you should use a regular Virtual Meeting to stream to your social media and share the Social Media link with your audience.
  - Require registration - Your event will still be open to the public but will require attendees to register and be approved before they can receive a link to the event.
- Restricted - when hosting a restricted event there are also two options:
  - Penn Only - the event will only be open to those who have a PennKey AND are eligible for a Penn Zoom/BlueJeans account. This extends to presenters, moderators and attendees. This option is ideal for events being held only for the active Penn community.
  - By Invitation Only - the event link will only be sent to those you've sent an invite to. This helps to limit the audience but does not stop anyone from forwarding the link.
Do you want your participants to be able to chat with each other? This can be enabled or disabled.
Do you want your participants to be able to search for one another?
How will attendees ask their questions? Options include:
- Attendees ask their questions via the Q&A
  - If so, you'll have to decide if you prefer a moderator approve the questions before they are posted.
- Attendees raise their hand and the moderator invites them to interact live.
  - This option promotes the attendee to a presenter until the moderator demotes them.
How will questions be answered?
- Will the presenters read the questions directly from Q&A?
- Will there be a moderator assigned to ask presenters the questions?
Do you have proper permission from all parties to record the event? Review the Final Notes section of the MarComm Events Toolkit or reach out to the Marketing and Communications Events team for further clarification.
Will you send out a post-event survey?
- If so, you'll need to create one using your tool of choice ahead of scheduling the event.
Besides name and email, are there other data points you want to gather from those who register for your event?
How do you want to handle the registration approvals? Options include:
- Auto approve all: approves anyone who registers and sends them a join link immediately.
  - This option takes less effort to manage on the front end but is also less secure than the other options. The registration link is open and can be forwarded to anyone, even if they weren't on your invite list, which may open your event up to a wider audience than the one you originally intended. It also heightens the risk of your event exceeding the maximum number of participants. Choose this option with caution.
- Auto approve users from specific domains: automatically approves anyone who registers using an email address from a domain you've specified (i.e. gmail.com or wharton.upenn.edu).
  - All other registration requests will be placed in the Pending queue and require the meeting organizer to manually approve them.
- Manually approve all: requires the most effort of all the options, but allows tighter control of which registrants are sent a link to join.
  - All registration requests are placed in a Pending queue and requires the meeting organizer to manually approve them. If any registration requests are left in pending status, they will not be sent a join link.
How soon before the event do you want to remind your attendees of the upcoming event? Options include:
- One day
- 30 minutes
- Both

Before the Dry Run

Preparation is the key to running a smooth event, and we recommend you stage a dry run before your event. Click Read More for a list of tasks to complete prior conducting this dry run.

Before the Event

Complete these additional tasks before your event;

Approve all pending registrations.
Distribute a final copy of the production timeline to involved parties.
Verify all presenters and moderators have the latest version of their content ready.
Verify all video content that will be shared has been uploaded to the event.
Recommend attendees log in 48 hours before the scheduled event time to make sure they can access the event.

Additional Assistance

Review our informational articles:
- Zoom: Using Zoom Webinars
- BlueJeans: Scheduling an Event with BlueJeans Events and Using BlueJeans Events
Visit the Vendor website for more articles and videos.
- Zoom
- BlueJeans
Contact your Wharton Computing Representative to request access to Events.

Request a consultation, training or ask additional questions by emailing class-tech@wharton.upenn.edu.