A virtual roundtable is an excellent way to facilitate executive-level discussions. EVENT - MDHHS to host COVID-19 virtual roundtable with national, state and local experts Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun will co-chair a COVID-19 virtual roundtable on Monday. It will show your attendees the benefit of using the app to ask questions. If you are selling marketing software, it wouldn’t make much sense to host a virtual round table about accounting best practices. We breezed through them while participants were getting ‘warmed-up’ and had to ad-lib the rest of the session. A quality microphone doesn’t have to be expensive but it provides a much better user experience. Consider using intent-data to understand what your attendees are researching online. In-event polling to make it interactive and to come up with discussion points. This is the bottom-up piece of it. If you only have 60 minutes, you don’t want anything to go wrong. The Greater North Dakota Chamber has announced they will hold their CEO Roundtable event as a virtual ⦠We love to think attendees share the same commitment and interest in sessions, but realistically they might only have decided to attend a few minutes before. If you have a notable moderator, then that will be another great tool to drive more high-quality people to your roundtable. This doesn’t mean you’ll have a bad roundtable, but the more preparation you can do, the less stressful it will be for the moderator. Unfortunately, if you donât know the basics of moderating a panel in a face-to-face (F2F) environment, then you wonât do well moderating in a virtual environment. Perhaps a separate event where the influencers will get hands-on experience with your platform or software. Download Issue Three There is dealing with all the immediate challenges now and then there is the pressing need to create solutions in partnership with governments for the future. Required fields are marked *, How to Host a Virtual Roundtable Discussion That Converts. This is quickly becoming a given for most events. Of course, you also need to align the topic with what your company can offer. When improperly managed, a roundtable is little better than the business meetings everyoneâs so keen on bemoaning â unfocused, boring, and nonproductive. I've written an article with 8 Tips on how to perfect your virtual event marketing plan. When two companies are sourcing attendees, the chances of success are higher. Don’t cheap out on the microphone. Learn how they can bring a breath of fresh air to your event and successfully engage attendees. In addition, it’s much easier for C-level executives to free up an hour on their agenda rather than 3 hours. This is where you will get the real value. What’s a relevant topic that our target audience would want to talk about? When you learn how to host a virtual roundtable effectively, you will be able to generate a lot of business value for your company. Tech can also help to visualize questions on the main screen, which helps those in need of visual aids during sessions. In the same way that event professionals dreaded social media in its early days for the fear of being talked about negatively, an interactive approach can be perceived as risky. The challenge is getting senior decision-makers to attend your virtual roundtable. And, to be honest, hosting a virtual roundtable is not rocket science. Itâs relatively easy to round up a bunch of different presenters, ⦠Your email address will not be published. Long story short, President Obama answered questions on the site and a myriad of other celebrities followed. We wanted as many people to attend as possible so our sponsors got the most value for their money. We knew who should and shouldn’t attend. Whenever I host a virtual roundtable discussion, I always make sure to invite a partner and a customer. A virtual roundtable is an excellent way to facilitate executive-level discussions. This is not necessarily because they don't want to, but because they are scared to speak in public. They last about an hour and a half and have been successful editorially but also commercially, with companies paying to sponsor or host the roundtable. The idea is to break down the barriers between the audience and the speaker. At the end of the day, you want to provide the audience with inspiration on how they can solve critical issues with your solutions. They’ve got the proven experience to have a meaningful conversation about certain business challenges. The Dos and Donâts of Hosting a Successful Virtual Event. These can serve the purpose of explaining how the session is going to work. Have you tried roundtables or interactive sessions at your events? the Intelligence platform to run better events. You get more engaged attendees online willing to learn more about your event and very likely attending next year. This moderator needs to be an expert on the topic that will be discussed. C-level people are used to a lot, so you have to think outside the box to make it special. However, in this day and age, the amount of information on the internet is massive. This is a great way to turbocharge remote attendance. Of course, there are also tremendous benefits to inviting a customer. This is partially true. This is the only way that C-level executives will make time for your event. This gives your sales a great opportunity to book that follow-up meeting. Here is how to create a proper event dashboard. Done right, interactive Q&A sessions are very personal. There are complex, messy aspects of every profession. The virtual roundtable will be the top-down piece of it. (Though it had disappeared by 1999, when the Internet Archive began capturing data on aol.com.). In a Reddit AMA, Sir David Attenborough got asked about his most upsetting career moment, which led to a very heartfelt reply. So, it’s essential to collect feedback from the roundtable discussions that you host. These organisations have the undivided attention of senior decision-makers, empowering them to support the discussion with knowledge and insight into the latest industry challenges. The host is likely paying for the event and they will have a ⦠if you find the right person do all you can to keep working with them. What do we mean by a roundtable? Other attendees can vote up questions they want answered. By hosting a Virtual Roundtable, solution providers position themselves amongst industry elite as a trusted advisor. However, you might be able to create more value when you get an independent person to moderate your roundtable discussion. If you are willing to see one in action, come see one of my talks. This is your only path to success. What’s valuable for them? If you followed point #3 they will be able to ask questions via the app. The roundtable attendees can send their team members to another virtual event, for example. But as they are becoming more important, we think it’s important to revisit some of the most common formats and the best practices for executing them. Having someone from your team to summarize the answers you give on social media will help to digest what is being discussed and expand reach, involving remote audiences in the conversation. This is the person chairing and often leading the discussion. There are plenty of tools that you can use to facilitate this. The format needn’t be complicated. Your live (moderated) social wall can display the the best bits of the action for others at the event and attract attendees from other areas of the venue. When defining your objectives for the virtual round table, ask yourself questions such as: At this stage, you really need to define the objectives for the audience. Barack Obama was asked about the White House beer recipe :-). The good news is that following up on a roundtable discussion is much easier than let’s say a trade show. Although attendees may like the novelty of the session, they still want some form of structure. This is highly influenced by cultures, but you need to understand what timeframe would work best for your audience. You need a very high degree of confidence with the subject to perform. Using your website and most of all social media to communicate what you are trying to do is instrumental to the end result. Think of ways to provide extreme value for them. You need to have some questions ready, in accordance with your speaker, that can serve as an ice breaker or safety net if few questions come in during the session. Allow upvoting and comments so the people being asked can filter by relevance to the audience or dive further into topics by responding to comments in the thread. Senior decision-makers want to discuss business challenges with people at the same executive level. Lots of good can come out of them if handled correctly. 10 minutes: Introduction and current situation sketch. EVENT - MDHHS to host COVID-19 virtual roundtable with national, state and local experts Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Director Robert Gordon and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun will co-chair a COVID-19 virtual roundtable on Monday. So, log into Zoom and Iâll walk you through all the steps so that you can use Zoom as your virtual roundtable platform. In fact, it’s quite overwhelming. HARTFORD, Conn â Senator Richard Blumenthal will be hosting a virtual roundtable today at 11 a.m. The quantity of leads is simply much less. The good news is that your sales can collect feedback. Gartner’s research shows that 27% of the full buying process is spent on independent research online. The challenge is getting senior decision-makers to attend your virtual roundtable. This means that you can host many of them each quarter. Generally, your partner has domain expertise. One of the most successful has been the roundtable. Set up a stream yourself if they are not ready. Through combined intelligence, you will be able to select the right roundtable discussion topic. Especially if you are hosting multiple roundtables, you need to keep track of the follow-up. In almost every B2B purchase, there is a buying team involved. The Savannah Jaycees will host a virtual roundtable discussion Monday evening with the candidates for Georgia Public Service Commission District ⦠This doesn’t always match well with the collaborative and democratic nature of a roundtable. You want those senior people to talk about your roundtable discussion. This means that the audience is more receptive to picking up the phone. Using technology is key. Hosting a Roundtable on Your Podcast. They would have a Powerpoint deck projected on the screen and we’d work through a dozen speakers a day. They take a huge amount from meeting people likeminded professionals. Having a clear theme or topic will fuel productive conversation at your roundtable, but facilitators should be well-versed enough for a deep discussion, especially important if your group takes a bit of time to warm up. They have to: It’s a tough job. factor some audiences may experience when confronted with a different session format. The roundtable will feature members from the ⦠Perhaps your roundtable discussion will be at lunchtime. You can set up one tomorrow if you like. How many registrations will we need to achieve our target attendance number? Also have some prepared on the tech platform you are going to use. You will start making concessions and accept a lower level audience. It is probably the best channel to promote it. Our third virtual Covid-19 roundtable highlights how the industryâs smarter leaders are approaching the crisis. This is one of the key reasons why formats like the unconference struggled to become mainstream. But high risk = high return. We’re talking about unfettered access to a popular or influential speaker that offers people a chance to get unpublished insights into relatable problems. Social is also a key part of the actual session. Include a video at the start of the roundtable discussion to set the stage for discussion. Basically, you need a good virtual conferencing platform, a laptop, and a great microphone. This is a quite likely scenario. The Ozarks Small Business Incubator (OzSBI) will host a free webinar on November 19, 2020, from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. via ⦠Hosting a virtual roundtable discussion is not very resource-intensive - great for during a recession. Break through the aura celebrities have and make them accessible to our audience. How to Host a Successful Media Roundtable. This had varying degrees of success. It was at this point we got a lot more selective about who we invited or encouraged to attend roundtables. The New York State Senate has announced their virtual roundtable, which will be centered around the impact of COVID-19 on art and cultural communities statewide. Crowdstreaming is a powerful tool for extending reach and access to an even bigger audience. The However, they won’t be making the decision by themselves. You need to find a topic that is relevant and that your audience wants to discuss. Place your camera at eye level. The chances of success are high, but there is something you must take into consideration. According to The Atlantic, the concept of ‘Ask Me Anything’ started in 1992 with the debut of a book called Ask Me Anything: A Sex Therapist Answers the Most Important Questions for the 90's. The B2B buying process is complex, especially when it comes to big transactions. Technology is a fantastic solution to this problem. So you have your speaker ready for an amazing interactive session, all the attendees seated and excited, yet no questions are coming in. Attendees can use apps or audience response systems to ask questions live. It’s the ultimate goal. It’s a gathering of about a dozen interested people, often with similar interprets or job titles. Virtual roundtables are effective in many situations. If you run events, you know that attendees are reluctant to ask questions at the end of regular sessions. 68% of B2B companies hire external moderators for their virtual round table discussion. At the end of the virtual roundtable discussion, you can tell everyone that you will reach out to collect feedback. To boost the outcome of digital networking. ... As with the many other communications/content projects we take on here at our high-tech PR firm, the roundtable presents a win-win opportunity â for the media outlet, the reader and the participants. CONYERS â State Representative Doreen Carter (D-Lithonia) will host the âStrong Communities, Stronger Familiesâ virtual education roundtable event on Monday, Nov. 16 ⦠You need to provide a unique experience to your audience. Roundtables and interactive sessions are potentially very disruptive for the industry. Add strong context to your content. There is a book about it if you want to read more. 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