The Show Must Go On: Producing a Virtual Nonprofit Event

Virtual events are nothing new. Yet COVID-19 has people scrapping travel itineraries and signing up for online sessions, workshops, and classes. Instead of a crowded expo floor, they'll be watching educational and informational sessions in their homes.

Taking your event online has some benefits:

• Operational costs are reduced compared to an in-person conference.
• More people can potentially attend.
• When recorded, you have content you can reuse or potentially monetize.

So how can you make the show go on? As we all pivot from face-to-face events to virtual options, we've identified some good resources so you can easily access some of the best practices for video conferencing and online events.

Take a look.

Online Meeting Resources Toolkit for Facilitators

This robust guide from Facilitators for Pandemic Response group covers a variety of topics to help those shifting from in-person events and workshops to online meetings.

Some of the topics include

• How to move meetings online from NovoEd
• Laura Vargas' Virtual Leadership: Leading in the Distributed Workplace (PDF)
• Effective Virtual Team Meetings from Nancy Dixon
• Online Training Series from Training for Change

#NPCOVID19 from Beth Kanter and Others

We keep pointing to this list because it's so great and continues to add resources daily. It's a Google Doc crowdsourced by Beth Kanter and 19 other people including TechSoup's Susan Tenby. Some highlights include

• Coronavirus and What You Need to Know About Postponing and Cancelling Events a webinar from CharityHowto
• How Social Good Organizations Can Build Community at a Social Distance via sgENGAGE/Blackbaud

Additional Resources

• Going Viral: Taking Your Conference Online for COVID-19 by Brianna Beehler and Devin Griffiths
• Cvent's Virtual Events: The Ultimate Guide
• Coronavirus Scare: How to Make Virtual Events Not Suck by Rob Enderle

And Some from TechSoup

• How to Bring Your Live or In-Person Events Online —a free webinar from TechSoup.
• Pivoting to Remote Work — a free COVID-19 response course track for nonprofits.
• Microsoft Teams for Nonprofits free courses — learn to set up and run live events and participate in online conversations.
• TechSoup COVID-19 Forum — share ideas, ask questions, and find support for your virtual conferences.