8 Tips for Creating a Wildly Successful Virtual Event (Without Losing Its Soul)

By Teri Rizvi and Sarah Alice Keiser

When faced with a second postponement of the University of Dayton’s popular Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop because of the pandemic, we took a leap of faith and went virtual.

“Zoom fatigue” is real, and we were skeptical whether we could capture the humor and heart of our multi-day workshop.

After all, three days is a lengthy stretch to hold the attention of writers, even if they do spend the majority of their waking hours in front of a screen. To make the challenge even greater, our workshop is a laughfest, and there would be no peals of laughter.

In the end, not only did we engage writers, we nearly doubled our attendance by reducing the cost and opening the workshop to a global audience. We brought in greater net revenue and earmarked donations from attendees for complimentary registrations for under-represented writers and those hit hard financially by the pandemic as we consciously boosted the diversity of the faculty.

“I conduct conferences virtually on my job,” one attendee wrote in a post-workshop survey. “These are not easy to do. Holding the audience is tough if you’re not delivering, and I want you to know you held me every minute of the two-and-a-half days. I did not leave my computer and I’m watching the sessions that I missed.”

Another writer humorously dubbed the virtual workshop “a working cruise ship sans the pool and deck.” Another quipped, “I’m still having LOL aftershocks.”

What did we learn that others can adapt and use to create entertaining, engaging virtual events? Here are eight tips.

 1. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. It’s impossible to overcommunicate. We used an e-newsletter, a private attendee Facebook page and specialized communication pieces — a how-to video on navigating the platform, an attendee quick reference guide, a one-page tip sheet, FAQs on our Web site and a digital program. We monitored a chat on the event site and responded to questions. We answered every email. And we reminded attendees and faculty of the fact that virtual events will never be flawless. Thus, all came armed with a bit more patience and understanding.

2. Choose the Right Partner. Be humble about what you don’t know. That’s why we hired Steve Fisher, a technical consultant, to help us translate our event for the digital world. While numerous virtual event platforms have popped up, Steve encouraged us to sign up for a free trial of Crowdcast, a live video streaming service, to determine if it might be the right fit. In the weeks before the workshop went live, we slowly upgraded our service package to fit our needs as we juggled registering attendees, monitoring a live chat and hosting two, free pre-workshop events as a test of the technology and a way to build excitement. With this platform, we were able to easily transfer previously paid attendees (at no cost) and develop a customized registration page for new ones. It allowed us to create a drop-down schedule of various workshops for one-click access; invent hilarious polls; mix pre-recorded with live segments; create interactive Q&A sessions after keynote talks; invite attendees on the screen to engage with presenters; and access immediate analytics about the size and geographic location of the audience. And the best part: writers could catch sessions they missed because all were recorded and available immediately for playback. For a small monthly fee, we plan to keep the site live through the end of 2021 and market the conference as a holiday gift for writers.

3. Attract the Best Talent. We chose our presenters, many nationally known, for their ability to entertain and educate. However, the “face” of our event is Patricia Wynn Brown, a professional performer who’s been involved in every workshop over the past 20 years. In various scene-stealing segments before keynote talks, our emcee humorously appeared in her basement doing laundry, donned a vintage bathrobe and a Marge Simpson-like blue wig as a prelude to a keynote talk by a longtime writer for “The Simpsons,” and interviewed Erma Bombeck’s children about their favorite family photos. Surveyed after the workshop, attendees called her “hilarious,” “spot on,” “brilliant” and “unflappable.”

4. Prepare (meticulously). Fearful of technical glitches, we pre-recorded the emcee’s segments and all keynote talks, inviting the presenters to come on live at the end for Q&A with the audience. Our consultant hired administrators to be backstage to offer technical help for five keynotes and 25 workshops. Our emcee worked from a detailed, timed rundown with instructions for inserting photos, videos and memes. And all the behind-the-scenes administrators respected and followed the schedule to the minute.

5. Rehearse. Our consultant conducted individual tech check-ins with 37 presenters to ensure their Internet connection and webcam worked properly. We purchased inexpensive network patches, cables and adaptors for presenters who needed them. Our pre-conference events with smaller audiences allowed us to navigate system glitches and build confidence in the platform and process we would be using on game day.

6. Engage. Before the workshop, we “sounded the clarion call,” asking attendees to post photos of themselves in their “pandemic wear” — pjs, bathrobes, gym pants, muu muus — that they would be sporting during the workshop. We included these photos in an amusing closing video and Facebook album. During the workshop, we invited attendees on the screen to perform stand-up comedy, make a book pitch or read their work during writing craft workshops. We included interactive Q&As with every session.

7. Surprise. What other conference includes a surprise Martin Sheen cameo appearance, tap dancing, a virtual cocktail hour with the hosts in pajamas and live drawing of keynote presentations by New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly? We mixed a spirit of fun and surprise throughout, much like our in-person workshop.

8. Laugh. People attending virtual events expect the occasional technical hiccup, so find humor in the moment and improv. We had our share with last-minute video edits, a scheduling error with a presenter, slow Internet connections and other behind-the-scenes headaches, but we took it all in stride, remembering Erma Bombeck’s words, “When humor goes, there goes civilization.”

Teri Rizvi is founder and director of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop at the University of Dayton, where she serves as executive director of strategic communications. Sarah Alice Keiser is the workshop’s event operations manager and manager of leadership programming at the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce.