There’s no worse feeling than presenting to an audience when you don’t feel fully prepared — that’s why rehearsals are absolutely key for running a successful event.
Your event rehearsal is your opportunity to iron out any issues you may have before your event goes live. To help you feel confident and prepared for your next virtual event, take a read through these tips:
Treat it like it’s the real deal.
- When rehearsing, try to get as close as possible to your intended real event. That means running through every line, timing things out, and making sure all the key players are there.
- Speak clearly and concisely just like you would if your audience was there with you, and try to treat your rehearsal seriously.
- Make sure you are being presented properly on screen — have your tech provide various options — are you full screen, side by side with your presentation slide or do you fade to the background visually once the presentation slides are being shown?
- Make sure you know how the flow in/out of your presentation will happen so things are flawless and streamlined. Does someone introduce you? Is there just a transition slide? Blaring music? Video clip to introduce you?
- And after the presentation or question period, does someone else slip in to thank you and announce the next item/break or will you fill this role. There is nothing worse than dead air — especially virtually!
Have someone on the other end.
While you’re running through your rehearsal, make sure to have someone on the receiving end of the ‘event’ so they can track any issues they have as an audience member.
This can help you catch common issues, such as volume levels of your speakers, and gaps in the way your event flows. What you see as appropriate amounts of downtime during your event could lead to boredom in a participant.
You will also want to make sure you have fully thought through if attendee mics are muted during your presentation or can people ask questions during? Do you leave everyone muted and use the chat function for burning questions — if so — who is monitoring this chat – you or better yet, assign someone on the team to cover this for you so you can focus on your presentation?
Technical Difficulties
By now we’ve all been in group calls that have at least some technical issues. Whether your issues are with image or sound quality, challenges with interactive elements, or even just allowing your participants to join easily, it’s the rehearsal that helps you catch these bugs before they become real issues.
By keeping the above ideas in mind, you can avoid that dreaded feeling of unpreparedness. As always, if you have any tips or tricks for running an effective rehearsal either virtually or in-person, let us know!