We’ve just completed our first B2C virtual event – the Digital National Running Show for Raccoon Events. We had to quickly expand the technology that we’ve been using for years to create live links with government ministers into conferences. Now all our speakers are in their homes. It's been a steep learning curve. How to ensure that celebrity speakers can be seen and heard and they can see and hear the presenters, while turning round speakers in quick succession.
“We contacted the guys at Silverstream and they’ve been absolutely amazing,” says Mike Seaman, Raccoon Events CEO. “They’ve helped us pull everything together. They’ve pre-record a lot of the sessions. They’ve enable us to have multiple chairpersons in multiple different places.
So we could create a reliable flow of high quality live content, we set up three remote event production galleries, socially distanced around our offices. We quickly discovered that the skills and technology we’ve developed for event TV over many years work really well in this new environment, including our branded socialwall, video play-in systems, talkback, countdown clocks and digital signage.
“We’ve thrown curved balls at them,” says Mike Seaman, “with last minutes sessions that need recording. We’ve switched up and changed the agenda. We’ve done all those last minute things that we do as event organisers and there’s not been a single flaw. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback.”
Another new challenge has been learning about all the different virtual event platforms. In this case it was Hopin. We’d already done some test events with Hopin, so we quickly got to grips with it and found it really easy to work with.
“Before I probably would have told you that I don’t like virtual events and I don’t think that they can work. I’m a convert, and I think one of the reasons I’m a convert is Silverstream and the support they’ve given us, they’ve been absolutely amazing.”