Are you organising an event with Europeana? Running a webinar around digital cultural heritage and not sure where to start? Need some tips to organise a hybrid conference? Our events toolkit is here to help, and we will add to it as we get new learnings from our experiences!
Meeting face-to-face with people is important, but there are great benefits to hybrid and online-only events too. Hybrid and online events can:
Engage small to medium sized audiences (10 - 1,000 people)
Be interactive - allowing participants to share their own knowledge/experience/questions
Be a lasting resource - shared afterwards as an online recording
Be a resource with a lower carbon footprint (no travel costs)
Encourage participation of speakers anywhere in the world
Before organising an event, there are a number of questions you can ask yourself and your team to clarify what you are trying to achieve, and so what you need to plan. Use our PDF to navigate your way through a series of helpful questions.
This format allows you to edit our checklist through yED (free software).
Download and use the checklist as a PDF decision tree.
Once you know what you want your event to achieve, think about how you’re going to measure and evaluate its impact. This will help you to learn about the experience your audience has at the event, and support you to learn, improve, and create more impact.
Below, you can find resources to help you measure the impact of your events, as well as a list of important considerations!
A step by step approach to help cultural heritage professionals design, measure and narrate impact.
A bank of standardised questions relating to Europeana’s work in digital cultural heritage.
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There are many webinar platforms and tools to support online events. Your choice will depend on what you need and what your institution’s policies are, but you can explore some of our choices below. We are not affiliated with any of the suppliers, and there are many options out there to explore!
At Europeana, we have many people who contribute to events. Below you can see the responsibilities they have - who would perform these activities in your institution?
Event manager: Takes overall responsibility for all events
Event organiser: Takes overall responsibility for the delivery of an individual event/webinar
Partner liaison: Informs partners about events and collects their ideas
Event coordinator: Manages the events calendar; sets up registration platform using a template with standard questions, confirmation email, reminders and follow-up emails; act as host and sets up the webinar platform; evaluates the webinar process; supports staff in deciding the appropriate event format/platform; creates surveys; coordinates technical test and technical aspects of the webinar delivery; keeps track of who is attending the event
Promoter: Creates promotional material; uses own websites plus social media/networking channels eg Twitter, LinkedIn, ListServ; makes recording available online
Facilitator/Moderator: Chairs the event
Video switcher: Responsible for switching camera sources, starting videos, and playing visual elements
Camera operator: Operates a camera at the event (whether in-person, hybrid or online event)
There are many ways to structure online events. Think about how much you want to tell, how much you want to listen, and how much you want to discuss. Explore the formats we are working with and some top tips for delivering them online.
Use our templates and practical checklists to help plan your event and read our guidance for how to communicate about your event - before and after it takes place.
We use a chart noting all actions from the very start to the very end of the process, the due date and who is responsible. Make a…
You will need to plan how you use the time you have in your event and who is responsible for each section. Here’s an example of a…
Hybrid events are events that take place both in person, in a physical location, and digitally. When organising a hybrid event, it is important to present the same value to both online and offline audiences. While all of the resources detailed above can be used for a hybrid event, there are also some distinct approaches required.
A key thing is to treat virtual and in-person participants equally. It is easy to accidentally focus more time, energy and resources on the in-person audience. To ensure this shared experience we follow the guiding principle that every participant should be able to:
Contribute to the event
Hear anyone else speak
See the person that is speaking
See and hear any slides, videos and other multimedia sources, if possible with the speaker.
At hybrid events you need an in-person team and an online team. In addition to the roles detailed in our Roles and Responsibilities section you need an:
Online host: Welcomes the online participants, keeps track of who is attending the event online.
Chat moderator: Watches the discussion either on the chat or in the room and communicates relevant information to the facilitator/moderator.
Video director: Is responsible for anything that is shown on screen during an event. For hybrid events this means controlling what is shown to online participants and what is shown to in-person participants.
A hybrid event also demands more complex technical support and equipment to make sure it works for both audiences. For medium and large scale events we recommend using:
At least two cameras to catch all the action and to give online participants the feeling they are actually present.
A video switching device to switch between these cameras and slides.
A large screen (TV screen) in the physical location to let the in-person participants see the online participants in a gallery view or to highlight a single participant or speaker.
A separate large screen for content that needs to be shown to the in-person participants, like slides.
At least one, but preferably more, handheld microphones for the in-person location.
Speaker (PA system) for the in-person location.
An audio mixing desk to route the audio from the in-person event to the online participants and possibly to the PA system on location.
Interaction with both online and in person audiences is essential for a successful hybrid event. There are a number of tools that you can use to interact with the audiences and support hybrid collaboration. Make sure you communicate with your audience well before your event and that the WiFi functions well.
Almost all online event platforms have a chat functionality for participants to communicate with each other and with the teams supporting the event. In a hybrid event you can use chat in the following ways:
The chat is primarily used by online participants. In-person participants can also use the chat on their own device if they would like to. Make sure that in-person participants have their audio muted and camera turned off. Their audio and video is covered by the on site equipment.
The chat is observed continuously by someone at the venue, preferably the online event coordinator. This person can either repeat any questions and comments from the online participants at the in-person event, using the microphone (this also ensures that the questions are noted if the event is being recorded) or add the questions to the dynamic document (see below) for the moderator to see.
Interacting with both audiences also requires coordinated and clear communication between the online and in-person teams in back channels. ‘Back channels’ are ways of communication that are not visible or audible by participants. We suggest using the following:
A dynamic document that can be accessed by all team members and can be updated during the event. Google Docs, Office365, Etherpad are all usable examples. This document can collect questions from participants and urgent or important updates. The moderator should have access to this at all times.
Direct communication channels a separate communication channel for high priority messages. Examples of these channels are Whatsapp, Signal and Telegram.
Breaks
Communicate clearly about any breaks in your hybrid event; here are some of our top tips on how they can be used:
Make sure that the online host tells the online participants when a break starts, how long it will take and checks in with them before the programme starts again.
Breaks are potential moments to solve technical problems and collect ideas on how to improve the event even better
Make the break more visual than just a static slide. Turn on a wide angle camera that still shows activity, or broadcast news or music so that online participants still know that their connection is still live.
Timekeeping
Timekeeping is very important during hybrid events to create a shared experience for both the online and in-person audience. Countdown clocks are an essential tool to inform both audiences about the schedule - use the inbuilt event platform option, a table with a countdown visible to both audiences, or a countdown clock on a video switching device.
Being prepared for things going wrong can help you to manage risks associated with online events. By testing your platform and your running order, you can work through some of the most common issues. Make sure you set up at least one test session/rehearsal a few days before so that you have time to resolve any issues and test the following:
The coordinator can share screen and background slides, and take back control of the screen if needed.
The presenter(s) can join, hear, see, be heard, be seen, share their screen and play audio.
The moderator can monitor time; you may wish to test sending private messages to the presenter to alert them they have five minutes left.
The coordinator can mute/unmute other participants if necessary.
The coordinator can record the webinar and archive the chat discussion.
Organisers and presenters have a channel through which they can communicate about the event (a ‘back channel’), particularly if any problems arise.
Everyone is aware of all roles and responsibilities, and clear on how to respond if any technological or other problems arise.
Participants can easily engage via a chat/messaging function.
It's important to ensure that participants at events can be open, respectful and kind to one another. How can event organisers work towards this? Look at Europeana's Inclusive Engagement Guidelines for inspiration.
Europeana organises, attends and highlights events for the digital cultural heritage sector and common European data space for cultural heritage.
Explore and watch previous webinars the Europeana Initiative and its communities have run for, and with, cultural heritage professionals.
In this glossary you can find formal definitions of terms used frequently by the Europeana Initiative and across Europeana’s frameworks.
