FO2010 Case Study: Virtual International Day of the Midwife

One of the case studies that we were asked to study this week in Facilitating Online 2010 was the Virtual International Day of the Midwife conference that Sarah Stewart and Deborah Davis organized in 2009 and 2010. What I thought was really interesting was that initially after the inaugural 2009 conference Sarah felt that it was a failure. The live attendance was very low--averaging 6 people per Elluminate session (including speaker and facilitator). Clearly all of the hard work that went into preparing the 2009 event paid off as the 2010 event exceeded Sarah and Deborah's expectations with respect to attendance.

Some lessons from this case study.

• The first time you run an online event, attendance may be low
• If you keep at it, attendance will improve as the word spreads
• People need time to get used to the technical aspects of an online conference
• An organized social media campaign can help to disseminate information and create interest in your event
• When using social media to promote your event remember the social part! You can't just use social media to advertise
• Ensure that you respond to people who leave comments or questions about your event
• Have a plan B--speakers may not show up; what will you do?
• Ensure you have a support person (or people)
• Try to use as many venues as possible to share information (YouTube, blipTV, Facebook, wiki, blog etc)
• Make access easy (Sarah mentioned setting up a Facebook Fanpage as opposed to a Facebook group--this way people who do not have Facebook accounts can still access your Facebook content related to the event)
• Consider mobile access to bring in more people, especially those in places where the infrastructure may not support this kind of event
• Always provide links to World Clock or some similar tool so that it is easy for people in different time zones find out when your session is
• Encourage participants to give you feedback; for example, in the form of an online survey like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms

I could write more, but I'll stop here. If you are planning on doing an online event, I strongly recommend reading the resources I've linked to above. Sarah has provided great info and reflections on running an online conference.