When planning the inaugural Mountain West Splash User Group meet-up, I couldn’t be more excited to welcome the area’s local Splash users to gather at Pluralsight in South Jordan, Utah on March 19. Everyone was going to be in one room, we would have interactive presentations from fellow customers, and we were all going to enjoy a group networking lunch after the main content.
About two weeks before the meet-up, and for obvious reasons around health concerns, I made the decision to switch to a virtual event. This might seem like a daunting task for some, but with the right tools, moving the live event to virtual was simple and only took about ten minutes. Here’s how I did it.
When planning the live meet-up, the plan was to host a lunch event. While this felt like the right format and time for an in-person gathering, I’m not sure it would have translated well to virtual, so we moved the event up to 10 am to accommodate more schedules.
One of the most important aspects of the user group meet-ups is the collaboration between attendees. I wanted to host the virtual event on a platform that would allow the 20-30 attendees to engage with each other, just like they would at a live event. For that reason, I chose to host on Zoom instead of a formal webinar provider. Just like any other Zoom video conference, I scheduled the event with a unique URL, and published it to my calendar.
Once I created the Zoom meeting, it was time to go into Splash and modify the event location, time, and confirmations to reflect the changes.
First, I went into the event settings and switched the event address from the Pluralsight HQ information to the Zoom conferencing information.
Then, I made a quick change to the event page to notify any new registrants of the switch:
Following the page edits, I made sure the confirmations –– both on-page and email –– were modified to reflect the new virtual format. The on-page confirmation clearly instructed registrants to save the event to their calendar (using the buttons that Splash automatically populates) to ensure they had the Zoom link. The confirmation email automatically attaches the calendar item, but I made sure to add the full dial-in information for the Zoom meeting in the body in case some attendees needed to join by phone.
Finally, I needed to ensure everyone who had already registered for the live meet-up was notified of the change. Instead of me reaching out to each person individually or exporting a list and sending from my marketing automation platform, I used the email tool in Splash to quickly draft a message, add a CTA to update their calendar item, and send to the quick list of registered attendees.
When hosting a live event, you have the audience’s undivided attention because they are sitting directly in front of you, likely making eye contact. The content you present can be a little more “in the weeds” because you don’t have to compete with anything. When hosting a virtual event, you don’t have the same luxury. You’re competing with people’s phones and the endless stream of notifications happening on the same screen they are watching the virtual event on.
I knew the SPLUG meet-up wasn’t going to be impactful if the customer speakers from Pluralsight and Marketo didn’t have visually pleasing, interactive, and easily digestible presentations. In our prep meetings, we ran through our slide decks to ensure every slide was colorful and informative, and our talk tracks were not so technical that some attendees would zone out. We also sprinkled in questions throughout each presentation to keep the audience engaged.
On the day of the virtual meet-up, I was really excited to see a “full” room. While most webinars don’t garner a ton of live attendance, our virtual meet-up had a 65% live attendance rate that stayed consistent throughout the 90-minute virtual meet-up. Using the Splash Host App, I was able to check attendees in, just like I would at a live event. I also asked that everyone ensure their full name was displayed, and to turn on their cameras so it felt more personal. Using the Zoom chat functionality, audience members chimed in with questions and comments throughout the entire meet-up.
Even though we had to pivot from in-person to virtual, we saw incredible interaction and great value in the Mountain West Q1 SPLUG meet-up. Of course, nothing beats getting to meet the community face-to-face, but I feel like we scratched the surface on some serious value moving forward. The area our user group chapter serves is relatively small and very dispersed. When we get back to safely hosting in-person gatherings, we will consider creating our meet-ups as hybrid events and live-stream content to attendees who can’t join live.
I’ve always been someone who tries to find the silver lining. And while this is one of the harder tests, I’m confident the event marketing community can find ways to keep connecting and move the needle.
A Splash power-user and leader of the Mountain West Splash User Group chapter, Brian started out his career in business development and sales before making a pivot to digital marketing. His experience lies in CRM, marketing automation, visual communication and integrated marketing strategy. Since aligning fully to marketing, he has led the administration of virtual event platforms for scaling events that are fast, flexible, and hyper-effective at driving meaningful connections. Brian also oversees a demand generation team at ExpertVoice focused on lead to revenue strategy and tactics.