Events

Zendesk for Startups A Step-by-Step Guide to host Virtual Community Events

What is this? ● Virtual events have never been more important. ● We’ve put together a how-to guide to help you successfully execute online community events. ● From a slide-by-slide outline to a breakdown of roles and technical considerations, this guide will walk you through everything you need to keep your virtual audience engaged.

Creating the perfect deck

Best Practices ● We recommend an event duration no more than 60 minutes ○ Introduction: 10 min ○ Content Session: 20 min ○ Q&A: 10 min ○ Breakout room: 10 min ○ Closing: 10 min ● We use Zoom meeting for broadcast ○ Zoom meeting has a breakout room feature that allows you to create separate room so attendees can network ● Meetup.com is a great platform for registration ○ Gives visibility of who is coming ○ Easy to host many events under one group umbrella

Getting Started (SLIDES 1-10) Recommended duration: 10 min ● SLIDE 1: Welcome/Holding Screen (1-3 min) Create a branded welcome screen to let attendees know you will begin momentarily. Introduce yourself and give a warm welcome to the community. ● SLIDE 2: Agenda (1 min) Briefly outline the different sections of your virtual event to give attendees an idea of what’s in store. ● SLIDE 3: Goals (1 min) Define 3-5 goals for your attendees upon completion of the session.

Getting Started ● SLIDE 4: Housekeeping (1 min) Provide some helpful guidance for the virtual event platform you use. Our recommendations: ○ Microphones: Mandatory off during the presentation, on during breakout room (network session) ○ Q&A: Send your questions on chat during the session and our moderator will select the top questions to ask the presenter directly ○ Camera: Optional on during the content session ● SLIDE 5-7: About Your Company (2 min) Briefly outline your organization’s story — keep it as light and human as possible! ● SLIDE 6: Introductions (2 min) Introduce your speakers, with name, title, and perhaps a fun fact about them to break the ice.

Main Session (SLIDES 11-19) Recommended duration: 20 min To keep things varied, we recommend breaking your content into 3-4 sections. This could look something like: ● SLIDES 11 - 13 Section 1 Main points Data Use Case ● SLIDES 14 - 16 Section 2 Main points Customer Quote Data ● SLIDES 17 - 19 Section 3 Main points Examples Data Use Case

Q&A (SLIDE 20) Recommended duration: 10 min ● Always Be Prepared Sometimes, attendees are shy. Come up with several “questions” to answer if nobody asks anything. ● Monitor & Curate Have your Q&A role monitor questions throughout the presentation, and highlight those that are especially interesting or valuable to all attendees.

Breakout Session (SLIDE 21) Recommended duration: 10 min ● If using Zoom, briefly explain what it is: Zoom has a great feature called “Breakout Rooms”, we strongly recommend using it as a network opportunity for attendees to mingle and make a new friend. ○ “We will match you with new friends and you will join a separate Zoom room for 10 minutes. During the breakout session we encourage you to introduce yourself and discuss some topics about the content session. After that we will bring you back for a final surprise.” ● Have screenshots and other visuals on this SLIDE to demonstrate how the breakout sessions function if possible.

Wrapping Up (SLIDES 22-24) Recommended duration: 10 min ● SLIDE 22: Main Room Recap / Final Thoughts ○ Summarize the main insights and goals from the session. ● SLIDE 23: Give Away ○ Either award a giveaway (a virtual gift card works well) to the best questions or select an attendee at random. ● SLIDE 24: Signing Off ○ Thank the speakers and the attendees for their participation. ○ Remind attendees that you will be sending a recap email with survey to improve future events. ○ Record the session and share it with attendees.

After the Show ● Recording the session ○ Make sure to download any recordings from the virtual event. ● Note taking ○ Take 10 minutes with your virtual event team to reflect on the session, and write down a list of anything that could be improved. Just a little bit of admin - and then ● Collect feedback you can celebrate :) ○ Send out a thank you email for the attendees with a feedback survey.

Team Roles

Who does what Feel free to replace us with your team photos! One person can take many roles. Content Chat / Q&A Emcee / Chief manager Management: Fun Officer Host of the event. It’s their job Manages the screen and Manages all incoming to lift the energy of the event the Slideck of the show, questions in the chat and keep things moving. sharing their screen with room and curates the the audience. best ones for Emcee. .

Who does what Breakout Room Audio and Video Event Manager Wrangler Manager Ensures team communication Manages the breakout room Makes sure folks follow the and smooth show organization. dynamics, selecting who goes rules, knowing the right Makes sure that all roles are where, and pushing the play time to have video and following their instructions button when it’s time to send audio on or off. correctly. participants to their assigned breakout room. .

Technical Considerations

Basics RSVP Broadcast Chat All virtual event platforms Whatever platform you Your broadcast quality is should have an integrated choose, you’ll want to extremely important. RSVP function to make make sure there’s an Ensure that all internet registrations easy. integrated chat for connections are working attendees to ask smoothly and that your questions and interact platform of choice can easily with the Emcee. handle a large number of attendees.

Pre-Event Planning & Asset Preparation

Event Planning Choose Your Event Identity Presentation Outline & Deck Beautification Topic Content Creation Design your event Build your presentation, Whether the first in a Outline the main subtopics identity to best address making sure to break up series or a one-off within your main your chosen topic, content with engaging events, collaborate presentation topic, and according to existing visuals. Once you’ve with stakeholders to assign speakers with brand guidelines. mocked it up, have your choose an event topic. writing out their rough design team work their scripts. magic.

Registration & Promotion Registration LP E-mails Social Media Paid Media Campaigns By targeting keywords Choose a platform like Save the dates, Organic social media can related to your event Zoom with built in invitations, and reminder go a long way in promoting topic, you can broaden registration pages, or emails, are a great way your events. your campaign reach create and host on to boost registrations. with paid social media. your own site.

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