When the world changes, businesses must adapt to not only survive, but thrive. With the onset of COVID and the restrictions around social distancing and gatherings, organizations accustomed to holding conferences find themselves needing to rethink how to build a successful and meaningful event.
The move to virtual (online) conferences is key. While nothing compares to meeting and networking with people in-person or visiting great locations and sharing meals together, meeting virtually can still achieve many of the goals of a traditional conference. Smart organizations who are able to create a smooth technology experience for their attendees and presenters are able to meet their conference’s intended educational and inspirational goals.
As technology experts, LuminFire was able to deliver successful virtual conferences for multiple educational organizations this year. Organizations such as the Minnesota Department of Education, the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA), and the Minnesota Administrators for Special Education (MASE) all benefitted from LuminFire’s technology and production support.
To help these organizations get started, LuminFire created each of them a custom microsite (website) with direct links to each conference session. We produced title slides for each room, helping the more than 500 potential attendees know whether or not they were in the correct room. LuminFire also arranged all break out sessions during the live events.
LuminFire provided training for presenters as well as live technical moderators for the duration of each session, ensuring immediate technical support was always standing by to answer speaker or attendee questions.
While many conference sessions have special requirements, keynote speakers often have unique requests for making their presentations a success. LuminFire worked directly with speaker and entertainer Devin Henderson to ensure his magic illusion for his presentation “Something Greater is Always Possible” would have the greatest impact possible over Zoom. It was a highlight for conference attendees.
Two of this summer’s conferences had a special vendor component – a place where attendees could “visit” the sponsors of the event to learn more about the relevant products they offer that make work easier for those in their field. Attendees were able to interact with vendors and browse vendor information, interact with one another, and watch vendor videos.
One key to a successful virtual conference is having a ready backup plan in place. To address this, LuminFire mapped out a conference continuation plan should problems with the weather, power or internet arise.
The technology goal for a virtual conference is for the tech to run smoothly and invisibly in the background so hosts and presenters can be free to focus on the content and goals of the conference. Attendees and presenters have provided a tremendous amount of positive feedback for LuminFire’s work, and at the heart of it agreed “The conferences just went so smoothly.”
If you’re looking for a partner to make producing your virtual conference a breeze at a fraction of the cost of a live conference, contact LuminFire today.
Tim Cimbura – CEO, CFO and Software Engineer
Tim is an expert in creating custom business solutions that make businesses more effective, productive, and profitable. He specializes in rapid application development with Claris FileMaker, Laravel, and WordPress. He also knows Apple macOS technology inside and out.