You’ve compiled the guest list. You’ve sent the emails. You’ve ordered hors d’oeuvres, rented furniture, made up some posters, and reserved a venue. Your live event is well on its way to being the social gathering of the season! Or is it? Truth is, if you’re relying on in-person attendees to make your live event a success, you’re only targeting a fraction of your potential audience.

Traditionally, events like panels, seminars, presentations and performances have been exclusive to real-life guests — unless you had a budget to rival NASA. But with the advent of online streaming technology, all of that is finally changing. Now, event coordinators with rational budgets can easily expand their invite circles to as many viewers in as many time zones as they wish, making “attendance” practically limitless. Of course, strategy is key. That’s where your design/development team comes in. Weymouth Design recently planned and executed our first live-streaming event, a September 15 panel on iPads in healthcare that we hosted as part of Future M week in Boston, and learned a lot in the process. We now present our findings in “The WD Twelve-Step Program for LiveStream Success!” Warning: streaming savvy may be addictive.

1.) As you plan your event, take stock of your media capture options. If you intend to edit the video into a later, more polished summary, or if you want to switch between multiple viewpoints during the livestream, two or more video cameras will be necessary. Do your speakers need lapel mics? How’s the lighting situation? If you have the resources, these staging components will make your streaming video significantly more professional.

2.) Make a splash! An event splash page can serve as a placeholder as soon as the first details are known. As topics, attendees, and logistics progress, the splash page can be updated with the latest information. Search Engine Optimization is critical here - Google, Yahoo, et. al. are easy ways of indexing and promoting your event with little effort on your part. Include all keywords people will use to search for your event (including target industries, services, location, etc), and be careful not to embed your text into media and images where Google can’t find it. Provide all the necessary information, links, and tools that your target audience needs to easily find and register for your event.

3.) Plan your event page design with timelines in mind. Users will be checking in before, during, and after the event, so make adjustments based on what is most useful to the web audience at a given point. For example, consider featuring a live Twitter feed before and during the event, to capture anticipatory hype. After the event, post the video wrap-up that users can re-stream to catch what they missed.

4.) Consider your analytics. Track anything you might expect to be useful to you later or help inform decision making for your next live event. We’re using our Google Analytics reports to track page visits, video views, click-throughs to various elements on the page, and other metrics that give us a sense of where viewers are coming from and what they look for once they’ve arrived.

5.) Social media integration on your event’s webpage is a necessity in today’s interconnected, online world. We chose a Twitter hashtag integration - every tweet with hashtag #healthpad360 was identified and pulled into a self-refreshing feed on the event page. Promoting your hashtag on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, or whatever other networking sites you use will help create buzz about your event and make users feel more involved. For the best throughput, keep the tone conversational, informative, and upbeat.

6.) Set up syndication efforts that meet your audience where they already are, rather than waiting for them to come to you. We used functionality provided by Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to get the word out about HealthPad 360, and regular status updates to ensure we stay on the audience’s radar in the weeks and days before the event.

7.) Also syndicate through blogs. Weymouth Design has its own active blog, where related stories and interviews were posted as early as a month prior to the event. At the end of every HealthPad post, a banner graphic linked users to the event page for easy follow-through. Over the course of several weeks, we generated interest in the upcoming event by posting pre-panel interviews with each of our four speakers, and moderator Tom Anderson. We also published research/tech-based articles about the rise of iPads in the medical sphere, to provide background information before the panel launched into their findings.

8.) Collect web users’ contact info, so they can be reminded of the event closer to the date. Our web page featured a brief form that submits visitors’ names and email addresses directly to our blast email list database. Everyone on the list received reminder emails a week in advance and on the morning of the panel. When it comes to blast emails in general, use best practices for HTML email marketing, and a cost-effective emailing service (we use Constant Contact, with custom templates).

9.) Prepare for live video support. We chose a streaming video service called LiveStream, which offered inexpensive solutions for uploading live video onto the web. Be sure to test the entire setup a few days prior to the event, like a dress rehearsal, so you’re not fumbling with the programs or wondering how to adjust the audio at the last minute. Familiarize yourself with the features of the software, and turn off any you don’t want. Also, gather all the batteries, extension cords, and other odds and ends whose absence could cause mayhem later!

10.) Just before the event begins, integrate your live video into your web page. We used our preferred Javascript libraries to open streaming video right on top of the event page. This was a nice way for laptop and desktop users to watch the event and not lose sight of the branding and messaging. And don’t forget about mobile! Some of your audience might be on the go, so make sure they have easy access to your livestream. We added a QR code to our splash page and blast email reminders. Should anyone prefer to watch on mobile, he or she could scan the code and be taken directly to the video.

11.) Encourage participation from both event staff and audience. Your crew should be in place well in advance; assigning everyone a specific role will help it go off without a hitch. We posted the #healthpad360 hashtag in a prominent location behind the panel, and urged in-person attendees and online viewers to tweet their questions and comments throughout the night. HealthPad 360 had one stationary videographer with a tripod, two roving videographers with hand-helds, one photographer, two live-tweeters to reply to and retweet Facebook and Twitter mentions, a livestreaming director, an usher, a moderator, and a set-up/break-down crew, all culled from our office staffers and drilled thoroughly and without mercy as to the nature of their roles. We may be kidding about that last part.

12.) Don’t neglect your follow-up! Just as a thank-you card is the polite standard after a soiree or interview, your audience should hear from you again once the event has passed. Distribute a blast email that thanks participants for attending, and points them to links for your summary materials. Within a few days of the event, we posted a photo album on Facebook and populated our blog with edited video and presentation slides from HealthPad 360. You can also repurpose the event page with more static content that reflects on the event and archives any relevant materials users will want to access afterwards. If you have a final list of attendees, ask their permission to be added to your mailing lists, and stay in touch via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Hopefully, they’ll help spread the word about your next live event - or invite you to theirs!