Event Format Planning
Watch the recording of this roundtable to learn about the possible event formats you can run, the tools available to you, and how to determine which one will work best to achieve your goals.
00:00:03:13 - 00:00:30:20
Unknown
Hi, folks. My name is Ken and I am a senior customer success manager at Hop In and I'm excited to lead a roundtable discussion today on choosing the correct event format. So let's get started today. We're going to start off just with a quick introduction of myself and what I've done and hop in and then I'll talk to you about happens Roundtable Series.
00:00:30:20 - 00:00:50:12
Unknown
This is a new series that we launched just at the end of 2022. Next, we'll talk about two new products Hop In as recently launched, Session and Stream Yarde on air, and then we'll get into the main part of our content, which is choosing the correct format. So we're going to look at this from a few different perspectives.
00:00:51:05 - 00:01:20:08
Unknown
We're first going to look at the main organizer types that we see our users fall into and the typical events that they run and then key platform requirements that each of those events require. And then from there helping you determine based on your organizer or event type, which format is best for your events. And then if we have some extra time at the end, you're welcome to explore the expo and our self-service hop and learn.
00:01:20:08 - 00:01:46:04
Unknown
Okay, so as I said, my name is Ken Keel. I've been a customer success manager at Hopin for two and a half years and have been working in event technology for seven years. A few housekeeping items for today. If you have to leave early, this content is going to be available on demand. So you will be able to watch it later if you can't attend live today, there's on the left hand navigation bar.
00:01:46:04 - 00:02:14:22
Unknown
There's a link to hop and learn that's going to house all of our on demand content. For all of our roundtable discussions and other self-service tutorials, we can learn about our help and products and best practices. And the other option we have is this event link will also have the replay available within the event, will activate that replay area so you can also just return to the same event link and watch the replay for up to a year after this event and throughout the event.
00:02:15:14 - 00:02:46:19
Unknown
Let us know your thoughts in the chat. Okay. So the roundtable series, like I said, we started last year and our first event was on Metrics that Matter and then upcoming on January 25th, we have keys to creating engaging content, February 1st event branding for memorable Impact and February 8th repurposing your event content to maximized use. And again, this reminder of that hope and learn.
00:02:46:19 - 00:03:19:07
Unknown
There's a link on the left hand navigation bar where you can go and register for upcoming roundtable discussions or view the past ones on demand. So so happens vision has always been to to bring people to the community members together to engage in experiences so we understand that event organizers, you have a tough job, you're probably running multiple different types of events and it can be difficult to determine what's the best format or what are the best products to use.
00:03:19:07 - 00:03:47:19
Unknown
So the main purpose of this discussion today is to help guide you in the right direction to point out some key differentiators based on your event type, to understand what product would be the best fit. So to start that conversation, I'm going to give a little bit of history and background about Hop in and Hopkins Journey. So Happen started in 2019 and our first product was a virtual event platform, the same platform that we're on today.
00:03:48:08 - 00:04:16:15
Unknown
So for most of 2020 and 2021, as most event organizers were forced to move their events to virtual format due to COVID happened built out this virtual event platform to meet those needs to bring a lot of those experiences that people were used to with live events and bring them to a virtual format Now in 2022, and as we come into this year, most organizers don't have restrictions anymore for in-person events.
00:04:16:15 - 00:04:51:20
Unknown
And and those are moving back to more in-person events. Now, with that being said, there is still a need for virtual events, and we've noticed that there is a gap in the market. So here in this Venn diagram, you can see there's the two ends of the spectrum we have event softwares like pop in event 24 visible that built out robust virtual event platforms to host multi-track large scale virtual conferences and events.
00:04:52:23 - 00:05:22:20
Unknown
Now, because these platforms are robust, it can be quite a lift to build out and configure these events and run them when they're live. Then on the opposite end of the spectrum, you have your meeting platform. So Google Meet, Microsoft teams, go to meeting, go webinars, Zoom, and those are much easier to spin up, much easier to run, but it really lacks branding and customization and engagement.
00:05:23:09 - 00:05:58:00
Unknown
So that's where Hoppin has launched Session, which is meant to fill that gap in the middle. It's easier to spin up and manage an event than a full blown virtual event platform like Hopin, but it also is still pulling in some of those really nice branding features and some of the great engagement features that happen events had. So with that, just at the end of last year, HOPPEN launched our new product called Session, which is a lightweight interactive meeting and a webinar product.
00:05:58:00 - 00:06:16:15
Unknown
Some of the key features that session has are, like I mentioned, being really easy to set up an event, something that one person can do doesn't require a whole team of people to set up and configure and events. Even though it's easy to set up, it is still brand able, so you're going to be able to plug in your your branding assets.
00:06:16:15 - 00:06:41:14
Unknown
So it really feels like it's a white label. They're not just a generic meeting platform, easy to produce, so you should be able to produce a session event by yourself shouldn't require a whole team of people, high quality video and real time. So ultra low latency, there's not going to be any type of delay or hour lag, like you're going to be interacting real time with your attendees.
00:06:42:09 - 00:07:14:18
Unknown
Reliable and stable is the key one, especially for virtual events, and it's right through your browser as well. Engaging and interactive. We brought in a lot of the engaging engagement features from hopping events into session. So chat Q&A attendees are able to have a mode, your reactions and confetti burst and then rich in engagement insights. So the post-event reporting is going to give you reports on, which is when these were most engaged and most interactive.
00:07:14:18 - 00:07:43:13
Unknown
So looking at things like the number of chat messages sent, the number of reactions and confetti burst to determine which of these attendees are really engaged with your content. And then in terms of scale, up to 3000 attendees can be in a session event. Streaming art is another product that happened has this was an acquisition in early 2020 and streaming art is really a best in class broadcasting tool.
00:07:43:18 - 00:08:12:10
Unknown
So it's a professional live streaming and recording studio again in your browser. So it doesn't require a separate application. Download. The three pillars of streaming art are ease of use, stability and professional streams, and then detection on a couple of the key features of streaming art like we mentioned browser based multi stream. So if you want to stream your content to multiple destinations.
00:08:12:10 - 00:08:38:18
Unknown
So for example, hopping event, but then also LinkedIn live, YouTube live. Just to extend the reach, a number of attendees are seeing that broadcast streamer can do that fully branded and white label. So this broadcast today is actually on streaming art. So you can notice at the top right corner that that little string art icon, if this was your event, you would upload your own icon there and have it be completely white labeled for your company record only feature.
00:08:38:18 - 00:09:04:21
Unknown
So if you wanted to have a simulated stream, was prerecorded in advance and maybe your speaker wasn't available at the time of your live event, you can have the new stream marketers record that or if you wanted to make maybe some on demand trainings for your employees or some OnDemand demos for your customers. You can use streaming art to make the recordings and then send out shareable links live or send you live streaming.
00:09:04:21 - 00:09:28:12
Unknown
So if you want to have your speakers live streaming, that's okay. Or you could use streaming to make a recording and then upload that recording and then have it schedule at the automated time. So it's completely automated. You don't have to have a device or a person pressing play for that prerecorded video. Greenroom. This is a really helpful feature, especially for live events.
00:09:28:12 - 00:09:49:00
Unknown
So before you bring your speaker onto the live broadcasts, first, you're in the green room for you just to confirm that their camera and microphone is working correctly. They can share their screen or slides, whatever they need to do for a successful presentation. And then lastly, team collaboration. So there are different workspaces you can create within your stream yard account.
00:09:49:00 - 00:10:17:00
Unknown
So if you have different team members working on different campaigns or different projects, you can separate those out to save brand assets to the unique workspaces and then also control who has access to what workspaces, and then what actions each member can perform in the workspace they're assigned to. So screen yard also at the end of last year launched a new product called Stream Yard on Air.
00:10:17:13 - 00:10:41:03
Unknown
So previously streaming I was just the broadcasting or recording tool. So you would use streaming yards to configure the audio and video and then you would send it to a destination where your attendees would watch that video content with streaming or on air stream, and now is its own venue. So you can host your own webinar or event on stream or on air.
00:10:41:23 - 00:11:17:22
Unknown
And the other option here is you can also embedded on your website. So if you embed on your website, you really have full control of the branding and full event experience for your attendees. A couple of key features missing out on air can be used for webinars, live streams or events, and you're using the string. Our studio, which has all these really nice production tools specifically for branding, you can host stream or on air on its own venue like I said, or embed it on your own website and again through your browser.
00:11:17:22 - 00:11:53:00
Unknown
So no downloads required. And then in terms of registration, if you want to collect first name, last name, email, you can or you can just have a be one click entry where registration is not required. So with the launch of session and stream yard hop, N is a multiproduct company and here the three products that we have and some of the main events that tend to be hosted on these three different products.
00:11:53:00 - 00:12:21:18
Unknown
So that being said, will happen. Being multi-product, the main purpose of the roundtable discussion today is to help you determine, based on your event, on your goals, what hop in product is going to be the best fit for your event. So in order to evaluate that, we're going to first look at some of the key functionality differentiators between happen events, session and streaming are on air from then.
00:12:22:10 - 00:12:50:23
Unknown
From there we'll look at the three main organizer types and typical events that they run. Next, we'll look at the key platform requirements for each of those event types, and then finally, we'll be able to determine the best hopping product based on your organizer type or event type, whatever you think of the easiest for you. So the first category here is just general platform specs and registration.
00:12:50:23 - 00:13:30:01
Unknown
So I think about this pre event. So viewership limit, that's really an important one. Hop in events is going to have the highest viewership limit with 100,000 viewers session much smaller 3000 and then stream yard on here closer to hopping events with 10,000 rules and permissions are workspaces. This is something that hopping events and streaming art has. I talked about the workspaces and streaming art hopping events has a rules and permissions functionality where you can add a user either as a full admins, they have access to all events on your account, or you can add them to a member and just give them access to specific events on your account.
00:13:31:04 - 00:14:02:13
Unknown
Attendee Registration. All three of these platforms offer that noteworthy though that session or stream yard, you can remove that which goes to the next next row here one click attendee participation. So if you don't want them to have to submit first name, last name email, it can just be a general join link that everyone clicks. And then with hop in events, if you use our magic link tool by clicking a magic link that would automatically register that attendee and take them directly to the event.
00:14:02:13 - 00:14:28:16
Unknown
Customizable reg form that's only available on Hop End. So if you happen events. So if you want to collect more info than just first name last name email, you can add additional registration questions. They can be optional or required brand able and customizable. So that's going to be available on hop in events and session embedding on your website.
00:14:28:16 - 00:14:47:16
Unknown
That's something that's only available for streaming art. So when you think about embedding the virtual event venue, that's how you would do that with shared on air is if your hosts, if you embedded it on your website, your website would obviously be branded and your guest embed that video player right within your own website, receive our Champ Stream.
00:14:47:16 - 00:15:12:09
Unknown
So that's available on hopping events and streaming yard hopping events exposes the end points. So if you have your own broadcaster that you already use and are comfortable with, you can use that and then send it to your hop an event with streaming or on air. You do have to use the the stream, the studio. We don't expose the End Point greenroom talked about that earlier.
00:15:12:09 - 00:15:37:01
Unknown
That's a feature that only available in streaming art and then reusable rooms. This is a unique thing that's only for a session. This is really handy for something like a team meeting, something that's reoccurring so your team can just continue to use that same link over and over again. It's not an event that's tied to a specific date and time.
00:15:37:01 - 00:16:03:15
Unknown
Next category here is Event experience. So actually what your attendees would be experiencing when they're in the live event multitrack content, that's something that's only available in hopin events. So think something like you have multiple stages running video at the same time or multiple breakout rooms. So multitrack, that's something you would need hopping events for real time interaction.
00:16:03:20 - 00:16:24:12
Unknown
So that's hop in events or session. So there's not going to be that hour delay. Your speakers in session are speakers and attendees are going to be interacting in real time. So really helpful for for Q&A or if you want to be actively engaging in the chat video stream, branding is going to be available on hopin events and stream yard.
00:16:24:12 - 00:16:46:03
Unknown
So like I talked about earlier in this stream yard stream, right now I have the the icon at the top, right? So you're able to completely brand everything in this video player breakout sessions available or happen events and sessions so you can have all of your attendees in a session to start and then you as the organizer, can break them out.
00:16:46:03 - 00:17:29:13
Unknown
In this. Smaller groups have smaller group discussions and you can control the number of people in each group or the number of groups that are created. Chat available on all three platforms. Q&A in hoppin events and session polls only available and hoppin events. Networking. That's a lot of people's favorite feature in hop and events. It'll pair people together randomly, so just a good way to meet new people and network and then 1 to 1 meeting scheduling also only hop events where you can book a time on someone else's calendar and have a one on one video call within the hop an event.
00:17:29:13 - 00:17:57:19
Unknown
Last category here is post event. So all three platforms do offer post event on demand viewing. So they can your attendee can just return to that same event link and access the video on demand reporting also available and all three platforms hop in events. We'll have the most robust reporting, but there's reporting available on all three and then CRM integrations currently only available in hoppin events.
00:17:57:19 - 00:18:25:07
Unknown
But coming very soon, we will start to offer CRM integrations in session. Okay, so now that we've gone through some of the technical differences between each of those three platforms, I now want to look at this from a perspective of the three main organizer types that we see use hoppin and some of the common events that they run.
00:18:25:20 - 00:18:51:17
Unknown
So the three categories that typically use hop in would be marketers, community builders, and then people operations. Well, so now we're going to break each of these categories down into the common events that they run and then some of the key requirements that we typically see for those event types. So the first one for the marketing group webinars.
00:18:52:00 - 00:19:14:05
Unknown
So video production is going to be really important here. You want a really beautiful, well-produced video, want to make sure it's branded and you typically want to have some good chat and engagement from your attendees. Pitch competitions. The venue wouldn't be branded for the individual contestants, but that video stream, they probably want that to be branded for their company or whatever they're pitching.
00:19:14:05 - 00:19:39:01
Unknown
A lot of times maybe this is prerecorded just so they can make sure the quality of the presentation is really good. And typically there'd be some type of Q&A where either the judges or attendees can ask each of the contestants questions. Product demos. Usually these would be a really interactive type of event. So you'd want it to be that real time interaction with chat and Q&A video.
00:19:39:01 - 00:20:04:09
Unknown
Podcasting is becoming more and more popular. Video production and branding is really important so that the video quality is is top notch. And then usually you'd want to multi stream this again just to increase the reach and stream to multiple different destinations. Thought leadership events. Branding is important. You want to make sure the attendees understand the brand that's giving them this thought leadership.
00:20:04:15 - 00:20:27:06
Unknown
And usually you want to have some good engagement. Q&A and chat conferences. Multitrack is usually important. Usually there's a lot of content, maybe different tracks you can go down based on your interest or what your job or role is custom read. Usually there is the want or need to collect more than just first name, last name and email, and then also some post-event recording.
00:20:27:06 - 00:20:53:06
Unknown
So you have a good understanding of which sessions each attendee went to and how they engaged trade shows. Usually you'd want to have expo booths or sponsor booths where each of your vendors can can showcase their products and generate sales leads. And then part of that would be scheduling a one on one meetings with prospective clients and sponsorship for the sponsor booths.
00:20:54:03 - 00:21:25:00
Unknown
And then lastly, Summit. This is kind of similar to conferences in terms of format, but CRM integrations can be important, usually multi track and also breakouts. Yeah, the next category of organizer is community builder. So the first event type here would be AMA or fireside chats for these. Typically you want to have a good dialog. So real time interaction and Q&A would be important.
00:21:25:07 - 00:21:51:10
Unknown
Also, if it's a big keynote speaker on a fireside chat, you might want to multi stream that so you can reach a wider audience. Office hours. You would definitely want your attendees to be able to turn on their camera and audio and and interact directly in real time with, with the person leading those office hours. Maybe have a Q&A if if there is multiple people in that office hours at the same time.
00:21:52:13 - 00:22:23:10
Unknown
Town halls generally a very engaging event. So cat chat, Q&A and branding community events. A lot of times the wants to create smaller group and interactive discussions. So breakouts can can be really helpful there where attendees are sharing their camera and audio customer onboarding the business previews. Again, you'd want it to be a real time interaction where attendees have their camera on branding.
00:22:23:10 - 00:22:54:08
Unknown
It's a nice touch if you branded it for that customer. And then you also want to make it really easy for those customers to join. So it's a one click registration, not not requiring any type of registration form. And then lastly, customer advisory board. This one's pretty similar to the last one where you'd want to have your attendee sharing camera and audio be able to join quickly with just one click and engage in the chat.
00:22:54:08 - 00:23:19:04
Unknown
The last category here is people operations. And for example, our our team at HAPPENED uses these products for all of our internal events. So all hands we use happen events every Friday for our clients. It's great because you can feature your company's branding and then your employees can engage in the chat and Q&A new employee onboarding. You want to make it really easy for them to join that.
00:23:19:04 - 00:23:45:10
Unknown
You want to engage with them one on one, so make sure their camera and audio is turned on and it's branded for for your new company. Give them excited about working for you. And pretty similar with recruiting and interviews. Easy to join branded and one click participation, training and enablement. If you can get everyone together live, that's great and you'd want it to be very interactive.
00:23:45:15 - 00:24:11:10
Unknown
But a lot of times companies have team members across different geos or time zones, so there might be a need there to make on demand recorded content, team socials and team meetings make it easy for them to join and that they can turn on their camera and audio and be an active participant with their colleagues. And then last one here, Sales kickoff chat Q&A.
00:24:11:10 - 00:24:44:04
Unknown
You want to make sure you're getting a lot of engagement from your employees and then also break out to have some smaller interactive discussions. So the next way that we'll look at this is looking at the three products HOPPEN has and which events generally fit best into each product. So for hopping events, conferences and multitrack events would would only work for hopping events because the other two products are single track.
00:24:44:04 - 00:25:21:03
Unknown
So that's the only multi-track products trade shows because it has the expo booth in Summit, which is usually pretty similar to a conference multitrack format session works best for live workshops and trainings because it has that real time engagement and your attendees are sharing their camera and audio AMS or team meetings, all hands to teach you a lot of a lot of internal events are really good fit for a session and then also for your sales or CSM team if they wanted to use it for product demos or sales pitches for customers or prospective customers.
00:25:22:14 - 00:26:00:01
Unknown
And then the last product here, string art works really well for webinars. So making a really beautifully produced video where your attendees aren't coming on camera, but you're just streaming out to your viewers video podcast on demand training on demand demos because it has a great recording functionality and then highly produced stimuli videos. So a lot of organizers do like to remove the risk of a live broadcast, have their speakers make the content in advance, and then just stream that prerecorded video semi live.
00:26:00:01 - 00:26:26:08
Unknown
So then finally, probably the the most simple way to look at this would be based on the type of organizer you are marketing, community builder or people ops. These are the products that would probably work best for you based on your event types and based on the requirements of those event types. Now that being said, every organizer has different goals for their events or business.
00:26:26:09 - 00:26:38:18
Unknown
So this may differ for you, but this is generally the trend that we see. Thank you very much for your time today and for attending Hopkins Roundtable series.