Pick-a-little, Talk-a-little

Let’s talk chat. Having a chat feed running up the side of your online event screen can be a great tool to engage your audience. Interacting with each other, with the speakers, or with the host can add so much to the attendee experience when done well. It can also be a distraction when done poorly. Having recently done a large, multi-day event with not one but eight chat feeds all happening simultaneously, I have a little experience with this. I would love to share what I learned.

Our organization has always fostered community through the chat feed of an online event or webinar. We ask people to post where they are from, answer questions posed by the host, or comment on the content. Our team participates by responding or prompting as needed. Our attendees are already familiar with networking in this way.

When it came time to replace our 3-day in-person event with an online experience, the question of how we would network our attendees became a high priority. This annual conference has become not only the go-to place for new people in our industry, but has turned into a family-reunion-type of event for those who have attended for many, many years.

Often the chat feed is scrolling so fast, we can hardly keep up. When planning an online event where over 20,000 people participated from six continents (far more than we expected), how do you read everything? Your eyes might roll back into your head and never return! Subdivide your audience. That’s how.

We were fortunate enough to work with an online platform provider who could create “watch parties,” or subcategorized chat feeds, in addition to the main event chat. We gave much thought to how we wanted our attendees to interact with each other and what would be most helpful to them. We came up with different “areas of focus” that would allow the attendees to communicate with other like-minded individuals in the watch parties. They could also switch back to the main event chat when desired. Not only did this enhance the attendee experience, but it also made it easier to watch the chat feed fly by. Less people per watch party equals slower scrolling chats.

Our staff and volunteers participated and monitored each chat ensuring only appropriate comments were being posted as well as providing links to articles and books the speakers were mentioning. The attendees could also change their area of focus the next day if they wanted to change up their experience. It really worked out well.

How would you subdivide your attendees? Share your thoughts below or
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