Technical Readiness

Microsoft

Technical readiness is essential to a great event.  It can seem daunting but a virtual event can be something as simple as a training you provide to employees via a Teams meeting with your webcam or something more complex like a leadership town hall.  You can find all the information you need to get ready in our playbook but this post is for "truth from the trenches".  What are tips you have for other event organizers, producers or IT folks who are new to supporting events?  Mine are:

1. Triple check your desktop setup - turn off notifications, finish updates, close unnecessary apps

2. Create a recording of any live demos for backup or to simply "roll" when the time is right
3. Always, always be friends with your tenant admin in IT if this isn't you.  Make a point to have a relationship with these folks so you can go over details or get help if needed.  

There's so much more :) but that's in the playbook here:  https://aka.ms/VirtualEventPlaybook 

4 Replies

So true, @Karuana Gatimu  It's frustrating for the audience when someone hasn't tested their audio/video before a meeting or has a weak Internet connection and can't be heard/seen.

 

I would also add that it's important for organizers of larger meetings to mute everyone before the presenter starts talking.  My 2 cents.

@ThereseSolimeno  Its all about the readiness and making sure you are prepared for any and all eventualities. As a trainer, presenter and educator this comes naturally but there are ways to prepare. We ocassionally have trial virtual sessions from differenct devices and different setups to plan for any technical issues and have the right answers/solutions ready. We always do this after every major "patch Tuesday"!

We have started to run event dry runs before the events. This has helped for getting presenters and producers used to the environment but also identifying technical problems. This week we came across presenters who's Teams client that wouldn't open due to disk space issues and an iMac that blocked the camera and Microphone in Privacy settings. We managed to resolve these problems so the dry run proved really useful.
I have a question about Microsoft Learning Pathways. We don't have this loaded on our tenant yet. Is there a way to temporarily purchase access to this learning system? Thank you