Providing a safe place for your attendees to chat with each other is incredibly important for an online event. If you are going to take the time to encourage networking using the event chat feed, or think through how best to subdivide your audience to narrow down their focus (through watch parties), why would you let anyone run amok in the feed? You wouldn’t. If you want to foster healthy conversations, you will need to moderate the feeds. All of them.
Our organization chose to have a moderator in each watch party (separate chat feeds) and in the general event chat. These moderators were watching for technical questions such as lost sound or video, questions about the event or our organization, and ensuring the speaker saw flagged questions that needed an answer. Basic customer service support.
Customer service was not the only reason for moderating the feeds. Not everyone sees things the same way. Most people have an opinion of some kind. Well, all people have an opinion of some kind…. Occasionally, someone wants everyone on the chat to hear how they feel about a specific topic. These people can sabotage all of the hard work you put into fostering good conversations. Having moderators who can remove inappropriate or unhealthy comments and block repeating offenders will be your first line of defense against these people.
Don’t let someone ruin the chat feeds. It’s your online event. Be in charge, provide a good experience for the attendees, and have moderators present.
Have you encountered a boisterous attendee in your online event chat feed? I’d love to hear how you handled the situation. Email me your story.
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