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Virtual Conferences: A Guide to Best Practices

79 points by M2Ys4U 7y ago

neonate 7y ago
Pdf: https://people.clarkson.edu/~jmatthew/acm/VirtualConferences_GuideToBestPractices_CURRENT.pdf https://people.clarkson.edu/~jmatthew/acm/VirtualConferences...
ran3824692 7y ago
Table of like 30 videoconf programs but misses Big Blue Button, the best free software one I've used. And it doesn't mention the license of any of the programs.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 7y ago
  The Google doc referenced is nice to get an overview of some options, what they're capable of, and how they work. They're definitely missing some key players, and some of the information is slightly incorrect or misleading (Jitsi user limit for example), but it looks like a good resource regardless.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hinkley 7y ago
I'm slogging through the Oxidize 1k video (singular. It's 4 1/2 hours as a single file) and noticing a bunch of things that I hope the next conference starts to figure out. >Another issue that organizers should keep in mind is that virtual conferences maybeless forgiving than physical ones if something is not working as planned, such as a microphone notworking or the location of a workshop changing. Testing and rehearsing ahead of time mitigates these problems. This is essentially a throwaway line at the end of a section and it should be its own section. Get your presenters together ahead of time. Like a week ahead of time, and then again an hour before the conference. Test their mic levels. Have them show you the outline for their slide deck (so everyone has shared their desktop at least a couple of times). If you are recording the conference, record the rehearsal. Get people used to the idea that all the faffing about they do getting their system set up after their name is called is going to be the beginning of their video. So no faffing. And something I picked up at a pretty large national company: You might actually want to have the MC and the coordinator be two different people. It's so much less distracting on a conference call with hundreds of people if it's one person's whole job to moderate the microphones, and maybe play a video at the right moment. But now the moderator and the MC have to rehearse so that they can pick up on each other's cues, and they may need an out of band communication mechanism for that (or in this scenario, be someone they already live with). Also, get your giant microphone out of the frame, even if you have to mount it in a weird way to do it. And I'm not really sure what to suggest here, but it's worth thinking about how your slide deck looks with your face showing in a floating rectangle in the bottom corner. The recording of the first meeting may help you sort that out. For instance, color bar across the bottom of your deck? Probably a bad idea.

79 points by M2Ys4U 7y ago

Pdf: https://people.clarkson.edu/~jmatthew/acm/VirtualConferences_GuideToBestPractices_CURRENT.pdf https://people.clarkson.edu/~jmatthew/acm/VirtualConferences...

ran3824692 7y ago

Table of like 30 videoconf programs but misses Big Blue Button, the best free software one I've used. And it doesn't mention the license of any of the programs.

SparkyMcUnicorn 7y ago
The Google doc referenced is nice to get an overview of some options, what they're capable of, and how they work. They're definitely missing some key players, and some of the information is slightly incorrect or misleading (Jitsi user limit for example), but it looks like a good resource regardless.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

hinkley 7y ago

I'm slogging through the Oxidize 1k video (singular. It's 4 1/2 hours as a single file) and noticing a bunch of things that I hope the next conference starts to figure out. >Another issue that organizers should keep in mind is that virtual conferences maybeless forgiving than physical ones if something is not working as planned, such as a microphone notworking or the location of a workshop changing. Testing and rehearsing ahead of time mitigates these problems. This is essentially a throwaway line at the end of a section and it should be its own section. Get your presenters together ahead of time. Like a week ahead of time, and then again an hour before the conference. Test their mic levels. Have them show you the outline for their slide deck (so everyone has shared their desktop at least a couple of times). If you are recording the conference, record the rehearsal. Get people used to the idea that all the faffing about they do getting their system set up after their name is called is going to be the beginning of their video. So no faffing. And something I picked up at a pretty large national company: You might actually want to have the MC and the coordinator be two different people. It's so much less distracting on a conference call with hundreds of people if it's one person's whole job to moderate the microphones, and maybe play a video at the right moment. But now the moderator and the MC have to rehearse so that they can pick up on each other's cues, and they may need an out of band communication mechanism for that (or in this scenario, be someone they already live with). Also, get your giant microphone out of the frame, even if you have to mount it in a weird way to do it. And I'm not really sure what to suggest here, but it's worth thinking about how your slide deck looks with your face showing in a floating rectangle in the bottom corner. The recording of the first meeting may help you sort that out. For instance, color bar across the bottom of your deck? Probably a bad idea.