Using GoToWebinar for Full-Day Session or Conference

[JHB]

Would really appreciate tips, lessons learned, discussion on using GoToWebinar to hold a full-day event and/or a full-day conference with multiple speakers.  And if you have any external resources, please share.

Like many, we are faced with converting a normally in-person conferences to virtual or cancelling.  We are exploring options from a DIY version using GoToWebinar or perhaps (probably not due to cost) a virtual conference platform.

I searched recent discussions, but - surprisingly - couldn't find this topic. I do recall a question/discussion from a few years ago. (Perhaps before LogMeIn.) However,  thought it best to start fresh.

[JHB]

Some of the possible questions/issues:

Configuring as one big event or many small?  Ours is a one-day, two-track event.

• Debating if we simply open a day-long webinar each with License A and License B, publish a schedule, and then attendees only have two possible links. 
• If we configure separate webinar for each topic, we have better data on who attended, but then that's a lot of join links for each attendee.
• Possibly use virtual sign-in forms in each session

Logistics 

What do we need to consider besides the normal stuff?

Breaks - how often?

• Some session may be deep dive, workshop style. Perhaps 9-Noon. So how long/often for breaks?

Interactivity?

• Polls and Q&A, of course
• G2W doesn't have chat, but we've used Question Pane for chat. If want to share, moderator literally jus types single character (like a period) and shares with all. You can do that pretty fast  and "publish" comments.
• We may also use a 3rd party collaboration tool (Mentimeter) for collecting typed answers, building word clouds.

Vendors - how to incorporate?

• Normally we'd have the typical exhibit area.  With this model, do we include any vendor opportunities or not.  Maybe the 5-minute demo before a session or optional collaboration session.

I'm sure there's more, but perhaps that's enough to start discussion.

[Chris Droessler]

All good points. I have discussed this many times here over the past few years.  Keep searching.

You need a practice session for your presenters to connect and try out their microphone and practice showing their screen.  Several days before is best.  Some presenters will show up on the real webinar day with different equipment, but you do the best you can.  You need someone who is really gentle and a quick problem solver to encourage the presenters and get them to be successful. Troubleshooting poor audio is the usual problem.

This could be the same person who helps the presenters get connected during the actual webinar.  This might also be the person who is the master of ceremonies and introduces and thanks each presenter.  Or you might have individual session facilitators who can do this. If so, then this must be rehearsed ahead of time.

You don't need the typical 15 minutes between sessions, since everyone has their own restroom.  You do need a few minutes to switch to the next presenter.  I post a list of sessions on the screen between presenters.  You don't really need a long lunch.  15 minutes is fine for folks to run to the kitchen and grab something.

You could run your vendors as 5-minute commercials at the start of each session.  Hopefully you can still charge them a fee for this privilege.

You should create your own webpage with the list of presenters, links to the registration pages, presenter documents to share,  and information about the vendors.  After the conference, place the links to the recordings here. Make this page the place to go to find out about the virtual conference.

I set it up as a day-long webinar with a posted schedule of presenters.

After the webinar is over, I cut the recording into individual sessions and post them to the GoTo cloud for all to see.

The maximum amount of time you can record in one file depends on what is shared.  A static PowerPoint slide consumes a lot less data per minute than full motion video.  The screen resolution that is shared makes a difference too.  Lower resolution means less data per minute.  The limit on the size of the recording file is 1GB.  The old rule of thumb was 1 MB per minute, which gave you about 16 to 17 hours of recording time if you are just showing PowerPoint slides all day.  If you have full-motion video, like webcams, and a large computer display to share, like 1920x1080, you could reach the 1 GB limit in 4 hours.  I don't know what happens when you reach the limit, I have not yet.

[Tempest]

I'm looking for wisdom on this same issue. We are looking at setting up a series where each day is it's own series of 6 sessions. Seems we can't individually name the sessions but can stop and start the video as if they are separate sessions. Can download the video, change the name, upload it again. Still need to experiment with what reporting looks like, how to help attendees distinguish sessions (we are only running one session at a time), and how certificates will look.

[Chris Droessler]

I have only done this where the entire day is one long GoTo session.

Please create a test series of six session and let us know how it turns out.

[JHB]

GENERAL COMMENTARY. It surprises me there isn't more written on this, both by GoTo owners and users sharing experiences.  My initial search in this community yielded little, but if you click on Chris' name, you can find some of his postings. And, after a while, I started seeing "related posts" over to the right.

I would really have thought, given the situation over the last few months, that this would have been an opportunity the GoTo folks would have jumped on to provide articles, tips, encourage sharing.

Meanwhile, we continue to search as well. We have a conference mid-November and are exploring virtual conference solutions. Most are too expensive for us.  Our fall back would be running two simultaneous GoToWebinar sessions (two tracks) with a schedule of what's happening when. But - like you - we'll need to experiment with the recordings and the attendee tracking. 

I hope more people share with current experiences. What little is out there from past years can be helpful, but then you have to verify most details as features change over time. 

[JHB]

Here are a few thoughts/tips:

Increasing Audience Engagement

External Tools: We would likely supplement with an audience engagement tool (which we also use in live events). The type where they access a browser or text using their phone or other device. We especially like building a word clouds in answer to a specific question. We use Mentimeter, which is inexpensive but a bit quirky to purchase as it's out of Sweden.  Being from the USA, you pay via credit card, then email customer support asking for a refund of the European taxes (VAT) which do not apply.  We used Poll Everwhere several years back, but then their prices increased a lot. I believe the current model is more realistic.

Informal Track: Considering if we'd want a 3rd track that's more of networking, casual conversation area.  And if so, would this be a GoToMeeting (not sure our capacity is enough) which would allow for chat and more interaction. Or would it be a 3rd webinar track where we expect small numbers. Would turn on ability for audience to see attendees. Facilitator would unmute attendees who wished to speak.