Interactive Live Streaming for In-Person Events

Interactive Live Streaming for In-Person Events 🔗 **Source:** [Interactive Live Streaming for In-Person Events](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU) > [!note]+ Document Notes > tags: [hybrid-events, live-streaming, community-engagement, developer-relations, event-technology] > author: Eliza > source: DevRelCon > reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU > date created: 2024-12-19 15:30 > > # 🏷️ Title: Interactive Live Streaming for In-Person Events >  ## 🧰 Action Inbox - [H1] Set up streaming equipment and platform — need 2 hosts, guest runner, AV support #streaming - [H2] Create collaborative documentation system — run of show, scripts, guest coordination #planning - [H3] Develop guest management workflow — early outreach, clear communication, backup plans #guests ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - [OutSystems Conference Stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU) - [StreamYard Platform](https://streamyard.com) - [DevRelCon Resources](https://devrel.net) ## 📝 Summary - **What happened**: Eliza from OutSystems shared how they created a 10-hour interactive live stream for their global conference, engaging 18,000 remote viewers for just $15,000 instead of spending $230,000 on traditional hybrid event technology - **Why it matters**: Demonstrates a cost-effective way to create genuine connection between in-person and virtual audiences at conferences - **Key stakeholders**: Developer relations teams, event planners, community managers, conference organizers - **Risks and tradeoffs**: High effort requirement, host fatigue, technical challenges, limited time with in-person attendees - **Bottom line**: Live streaming with interactive elements can effectively capture conference energy and create community connection at a fraction of traditional hybrid event costs ## 📖 Main Content Eliza presents a practical alternative to expensive hybrid event platforms by creating an interactive live stream that functioned like "a freakishly long version of Inside the NBA." The OutSystems team faced a challenge: their global conference could only accommodate 3,000 attendees from a community of 864,000 developers, and traditional hybrid solutions would cost $230,000 (25% of their $1M conference budget). Their solution involved streaming 10 hours across two days with 55 guests including executives, product teams, speakers, and community champions. Rather than simply broadcasting talks (which were already being recorded), they focused on conversational interviews, audience engagement through games and trivia, and creating connection between remote and in-person attendees. The technical setup was deliberately simple: StreamYard for streaming, Google Workspace for documentation, basic AV equipment, and a small team of hosts and support staff. This approach cost only $15,000 (1.5% of conference budget) while reaching 18,000 viewers across YouTube and LinkedIn. ## 🗒️ Notes #### ⏱️ [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=0) — [H1] Speaker introduction and hybrid event challenges - Key idea: Virtual hybrid attendees get "worse of both worlds" - presentations without connection - Evidence: "Limited to no engagement with speakers unless you've put a whole lot of effort into a very fancy hybrid events platform, which are also very expensive" #### ⏱️ [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=150) — [H2] OutSystems conference context and constraints - Key idea: Single global conference serves 864,000 developers but only seats 3,000 attendees - Evidence: "It would have cost us $230,000 to make it into a hybrid event... for a conference with a budget of a million dollars, 25% just to hybridize wasn't really in the cards" #### ⏱️ [04:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=285) — [H2] YouTube strategy development background - Key idea: Developers use YouTube first to research technology their bosses are having them use - Evidence: "Everyone said, I go to YouTube first to find out about technology that my boss is having me use" #### ⏱️ [06:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=360) — [H3] Decoded Live show creation - Key idea: Started with quarterly 45-minute live streams interviewing developers for developers - Evidence: "Created a quarterly 45minute live stream called Decoded Live... essentially a virtual panel interviewing developers that worked on out systems" #### ⏱️ [07:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=450) — [H1] Conference streaming challenge scope - Key idea: Project evolved from 45-minute stage takeover to full conference streaming - Evidence: "Somehow this idea metastasized into doing the show for the entire conference... we can't remember at any point where we could say 'Hey, I don't know about this'" #### ⏱️ [09:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=555) — [H2] Social connection goals for virtual audience - Key idea: Conferences are primarily about social aspects, not just presentations - Evidence: "Who here came to this conference just to see the talks? No other reason... who goes for some sort of social aspect? Yes" #### ⏱️ [11:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=660) — [H1] Final streaming metrics and results - Key idea: 10 hours streaming, 55 guests, 18,000 viewers across platforms - Evidence: "10 hours of streaming, four hours on day one, and six hours on day two... 18,000 community members tune in across YouTube and LinkedIn" #### ⏱️ [12:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=750) — [H2] Connection-focused approach over broadcasting - Key idea: Goal was creating connection, not just live streaming talks - Evidence: "Our goal through this whole thing was to sort of create connection... all the talks were being recorded already to be posted later" #### ⏱️ [14:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=855) — [H3] Guest selection strategy for global engagement - Key idea: Used speakers, product team, and super users/MVPs to create connection paths - Evidence: "This created more paths to connection. We saw folks from Apac in the chat congratulating their colleagues and shouting them out" #### ⏱️ [16:45](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1005) — [H2] Interactive audience engagement tactics - Key idea: Games, trivia with prizes, and audience-to-audience connection - Evidence: "We promised them prizes... we could collect a little information from them... the audience was also connecting to each other during it" #### ⏱️ [18:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1110) — [H3] Team structure and resource requirements - Key idea: Needed two hosts, guest runner, and AV support for execution - Evidence: "You need two hosts so one of you can always be drinking water... we asked for one person to run the stream and one person to monitor" #### ⏱️ [21:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1260) — [H1] Cost comparison with traditional hybrid solutions - Key idea: $15,000 (1.5% budget) vs $230,000 (25% budget) for traditional hybrid - Evidence: "We were quoted $230,000 to hybridize the event... This only ran us 15,000, which is only 1.5% of the conference budget" #### ⏱️ [24:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1440) — [H3] Technical platform and documentation setup - Key idea: Used StreamYard for streaming, Google Workspace for coordination - Evidence: "StreamYard is nice because you can have multiple people logged in... our run of show was on Sheets" #### ⏱️ [28:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1710) — [H2] Guest management and preparation workflow - Key idea: Minimal pre-meetings, collaborative documentation, final communications from guest runner - Evidence: "We didn't have pre meetings with many people... final communications came from our guest runner... only had one guest show up late" #### ⏱️ [32:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=1935) — [H1] Post-event feedback and community response - Key idea: Audience felt genuinely connected and inspired to attend next year - Evidence: "They were genuinely feeling connected to guests... it inspired them to demand the budget to attend next year" #### ⏱️ [34:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU?t=2040) — [H3] Lessons learned and technical gotchas - Key idea: Turn off Apple reactions, LinkedIn has 4-hour limit, need more hosts - Evidence: "Make sure that the computer receiving video has Apple reactions turned off... There's a time limit on LinkedIn at four hours" ## 📚 References - [StreamYard Platform](https://streamyard.com) - [Riverside Alternative](https://riverside.fm) - [DevRelCon Conference](https://devrel.net) - [OutSystems Developer Community](https://www.outsystems.com/community/) ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Traditional hybrid events cost too much and provide poor virtual experiences, but interactive live streaming can create genuine connection between in-person and remote audiences - The team built on their existing YouTube strategy and live streaming experience to scale up from 45-minute shows to full conference coverage - Success came from focusing on conversation and community rather than broadcasting presentations, using strategic guest selection and audience engagement tactics ## 📰 Newsletter **Transform Your Next Conference with Interactive Live Streaming** Tired of expensive hybrid event platforms that leave virtual attendees feeling disconnected? Eliza from OutSystems just shared a game-changing approach that reached 18,000 developers for just $15,000 - a fraction of traditional hybrid costs. **The Secret Sauce**: Instead of broadcasting presentations (already being recorded), they created 10 hours of conversational content with 55 guests, interactive games, and community connection moments. Think "Inside the NBA" for developer conferences. **Key Takeaways for Your Events**: - Focus on social connection over content delivery - Use simple tech: StreamYard, basic AV, collaborative docs - Strategic guest mix: speakers, product teams, community champions - Engage virtual audience with games, trivia, and prizes **Ready to Try This**: Start small with quarterly live streams to build experience, then scale to full conference coverage. The documentation and workflows are available from the speaker. **Resources**: [DevRelCon Talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU), [StreamYard Platform](https://streamyard.com), [Community Engagement Best Practices](https://devrel.net) Connect with other community builders experimenting with hybrid formats - your next conference could be the model others follow. ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Developer advocacy: Create quarterly live streams to build audience and experience before major events - Education: Develop interactive streaming workshops for developer community engagement - Developer experience: Document streaming workflows and templates for community reuse - Developer marketing: Integrate live streaming into broader YouTube and social media strategy - Community management: Use streaming as connection tool between global community members #### Community - Maintainers: Explore streaming for project updates, Q&A sessions, and community celebrations - Contributors: Create onboarding streams with interactive elements and guest appearances - Sponsors: Develop casual sponsor content that fits streaming format rather than traditional ads - Ecosystem: Coordinate cross-project streaming collaborations for major announcements #### WordPress - Community: Develop streaming templates for WordCamps and meetups with limited hybrid budgets - Training: Create interactive streaming workshops for community organizers - Marketing: Integrate streaming into major WordPress announcements and community events ## 🧪 Hypotheses - Interactive live streaming creates stronger community connection than traditional hybrid event platforms at significantly lower cost - Virtual audience engagement increases when content focuses on conversation and social elements rather than presentation broadcasting - Small teams can successfully execute large-scale streaming with proper documentation and guest management workflows - Community members prefer authentic, conversational content over polished corporate presentations ### 📊 Methodology - Compare engagement metrics between traditional hybrid platforms and interactive streaming approaches - Survey virtual attendees on connection and satisfaction levels across different event formats - A/B test conversational vs. presentation-focused streaming content for audience retention ### ❓ Questions - How do engagement patterns differ between 4-hour vs. 6-hour streaming sessions? - What's the optimal guest-to-content ratio for maintaining audience attention? - How can streaming workflows be adapted for different conference scales and budgets? ### 🔮 Future Research - Multi-platform streaming strategy effectiveness (YouTube + LinkedIn + Twitch) - AI-assisted guest coordination and content scheduling for large-scale events - Community-driven streaming content creation and moderation models ### 💡 Implications - Practice: Event teams can deliver hybrid experiences without major platform investments - Policy: Conference budgets can be reallocated from expensive hybrid tech to content and community building - Education: Streaming skills become essential for developer relations and community management roles - Funding: Lower-cost hybrid approaches make global community engagement accessible to smaller organizations ### 🧠 Learning Styles Assessment Reading level estimate: Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 8-9 #### 👀 Visual learners - Present: Conference photos, setup diagrams, documentation screenshots - Improve: Workflow diagrams, streaming setup visuals, guest coordination flowcharts #### 🔊 Aural learners - Present: Full video presentation with clear audio - Improve: Podcast-style summary, audio-only version of key takeaways #### 🗣️ Verbal learners - Present: Clear definitions, conference terminology, platform comparisons - Improve: Glossary of streaming terms, analogy library for different event types #### 🧩 Kinesthetic learners - Present: Step-by-step documentation, hands-on equipment setup - Improve: Streaming setup checklists, practice scenarios, troubleshooting guides #### 🧠 Logical learners - Present: Cost comparisons, metrics analysis, timeline planning - Improve: Decision trees for platform selection, ROI calculations, risk assessment #### 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learners - Present: Community connection examples, guest collaboration stories - Improve: Group planning templates, team coordination guides, community feedback integration #### 🧘‍♀️ Solitary learners - Present: Self-assessment questions, individual reflection prompts - Improve: Personal streaming skill development paths, solo practice exercises #### 🌿 Naturalistic learners - Present: Community ecosystem thinking, organic relationship building - Improve: Community growth analogies, sustainable engagement patterns ### 📊 Accessibility Assessment #### Screen reader semantics - Present: Clear heading structure, descriptive video content - Improve: Detailed alt text for setup photos, structured data for guest information #### Keyboard navigation - Present: Standard video player controls, accessible document links - Improve: Transcript navigation, timestamped section jumping #### Contrast and readability - Present: Clear --- ## Full Transcript [00:07] I'm Eliza. I am the developer [00:11] uh I'm on the developer relations team [00:12] for out systems. Um I uh my full title [00:18] is um community engagement manager for [00:21] North America. I keep asking for more [00:23] words on that title, but they're not [00:25] letting me. Um, [00:27] who here has been to a been in the [00:31] virtual audience for a hybrid event? [00:34] Okay, most of you. And of you virtual [00:36] hybrid attendees, who had an experience [00:39] that was say less than stellar? Um, I [00:42] really think there isn't a perfect way [00:44] to Oh, there we go. [00:46] Hey, there we go. Um, I don't think [00:48] there's a way to make a hybrid event [00:50] perfect, right? I think um the um [00:55] experience for those at home is sort of [00:57] worse of both worlds. Yeah, they're [00:59] getting the presentations and [01:00] everything, but they're lacking [01:01] connection. Um they're uh uh it's sort [01:04] of an afterthought for versus the [01:06] in-person uh attendees, and they get [01:09] limited to no engagement with speakers [01:11] unless you've put a whole lot of effort [01:13] into a very fancy um hybrid events [01:16] platform, which are also very expensive, [01:18] and I'll get to that in a second. Um the [01:22] um before we get into that though, let [01:25] me just give you some details on me. I [01:27] am from western Massachusetts where I [01:29] live with my partner and my dog GH [01:32] pictured here. He's beautiful. Um I can [01:34] give you more pictures of him if you're [01:35] interested after. Um I spend most of my [01:38] time uh along the Connecticut River [01:41] Valley hiking, doing some mild birding [01:43] and bailing my community out with the [01:46] mass bail fund. Um professionally I [01:50] started my career in community [01:51] management with Microsoft New England. [01:54] Um [01:55] uh that was for about seven years and [01:57] then I moved into biotech and I know we [02:00] think developer relations is one of the [02:01] most unique careers in the world but uh [02:04] sire which I've just invented here to [02:07] mean bench scientist rel relations is [02:09] super super similar. Um, I did get [02:12] really sick of all of the presentations [02:14] at my events, uh, involving pictures of [02:16] rare diseases. Um, so I came back to [02:19] developers at Outsystems for the last [02:22] three years. [02:24] Um, to I'm so sorry to build in a little [02:26] more context. I'm not trying to sell you [02:28] anything, but uh, Outsystems is an [02:29] enterprise software development [02:32] platform. Um we have uh [02:37] uh we help developers with uh their full [02:41] stack as part of their greater tech [02:43] stack. Um and we uh use low code to [02:47] generate real code. Um originally we [02:50] were founded in Lisbon, Portugal, which [02:52] I'm going to next week. Very excited. Um [02:54] but we now have headquarters in Boston. [02:58] We have a community of 864,000 [03:01] developers and a global conference in [03:03] Europe every year. Um now that is a [03:07] single global conference for [03:10] um a uh community spread all over the [03:14] world. We only have space for about [03:17] 3,000 attendees usually. Um and of [03:19] course we have our uh uh CEO doing a [03:22] cool keynote announcing product [03:23] features. We have the product team uh [03:26] developing really cool demos for [03:28] everyone and we have some really great [03:30] community speakers uh sharing use cases [03:33] and that kind of thing. Um [03:36] the problem is with um a conference that [03:41] large it gets very very expensive to [03:43] hybridize the event. So we had seven [03:45] stages. It would have cost us $230,000 [03:48] to make it into a hybrid event. Um, and [03:51] for a conference with a budget of a [03:53] million dollars, 25% just to hybridize [03:56] wasn't really in the cards. [03:58] Um, while we were developing this [04:02] incredible conference called one, um, my [04:05] colleague Cecilia and I, uh, you may [04:08] remember Cecilia from last year. Um, she [04:10] did a talk on customer success and [04:12] developer relations. She was supposed to [04:13] be on the stage with me today, but [04:15] unfortunately she is. Bigger and better [04:17] things to do. Um, [04:20] we were trying to improve our um, [04:23] presence on YouTube. Um, there have been [04:26] plenty of talks about video strategy, [04:28] YouTube, that kind of thing here. So, I [04:30] won't go into much detail, but we spent [04:31] two years talking to developers across [04:33] North America trying to figure out how [04:35] to capture their attention better. And [04:37] everyone said, I go to YouTube first to [04:40] find out about um, technology that my [04:42] boss is having me use. Um, unfortunately [04:45] the outsystems YouTube had devolved in [04:47] into some sort of boring hell hole for [04:50] business audiences. Um, you know, the [04:52] classic business audience that sits on [04:54] YouTube all day and doesn't book demos [04:56] or go out for fancy steak dinners. Um, [04:58] so we jumped in with the tools at our [05:01] disposal. Um, and created a quarterly [05:06] 45minute live stream called Decoded [05:09] Live. Um so this was a um show that was [05:14] essentially a virtual panel uh [05:16] interviewing uh developers that worked [05:18] on out systems um for the audience of [05:21] developers working on out systems. Um we [05:23] did it live partially for a hook and [05:25] partially um to avoid the heady [05:28] temptation of having the video team edit [05:30] out our our mistakes. Um, you may have [05:33] noticed in the start of this video I did [05:34] a uh super super heinous millennial [05:38] pause right at the top of the show. 45 [05:40] minutes, a good chunk of it just me [05:42] staring at the camera. It was really [05:44] good. Um, so someone several steps above [05:47] us said, "This is really cool. Um, we [05:50] should do this at one this year." And we [05:52] said, "Yeah, let's do a stage takeover. [05:55] We have a an in-person audience for the [05:58] show for 45 minutes. It'll be our first [06:00] time having inerson guests, too. It'll [06:01] be really exciting. But somehow this [06:04] idea metastasized into doing the um show [06:09] for the entire conference. Um looking [06:11] back, we don't know how it happened. We [06:15] can't remember at any point uh where we [06:17] could say, "Hey, uh I don't know about [06:19] this. This seems kind of crazy." Um we [06:22] were a little bit skeptical but willing [06:24] to do it because we were of course well [06:26] and truly volunteer [06:30] before. Yeah. Right. Um so [06:34] um our challenge was to engage [06:38] tens of thousands of community members [06:41] um with a budget of at the time we'll [06:44] see. And that is a quote from an email. [06:47] Uh in wanting to uh execute with [06:49] excellence to steal from the Microsoft [06:51] employee handbook um we were trying to [06:53] figure out how to solve some of our [06:55] issues with the conference itself with [06:57] this live stream idea. Um who here came [07:01] to this conference just to see the [07:03] talks? No other reason, just to see the [07:05] talks, right? Um who goes for some sort [07:08] of social aspect? Yes. So um how can we [07:12] bring that social aspect um to a virtual [07:16] audience um and how can we capture the [07:20] sort of hallway track of of engaging [07:22] with speakers um even just the vibe of a [07:26] conference? Um, after a bunch of [07:28] meetings where Siccilia and I just [07:30] stared at each other silently on Zoom, [07:32] grimacing, uh, we finally came around to [07:34] the idea that maybe we could work to [07:36] answer these questions, um, if we were [07:39] able to pull it off. And I think we did [07:41] pull it off. Just to run through some [07:42] metrics, which were also in my talk [07:44] descriptions, um, we did 10 hours of [07:46] streaming, four hours on day one, and [07:49] six hours on day two. Uh, we had 55 [07:52] guests [07:54] um, including Yes, someone got the joke. [07:56] Okay. uh including uh uh our seuite. We [08:01] had uh a bunch of uh our product team [08:04] members, we had speakers and we had some [08:06] of our uh super users. I'll come back to [08:08] that soon. Um we had 42 total segments [08:11] including panels, interviews, audience [08:14] segments and uh some video buffers. [08:19] Um and of course the viewers are what's [08:22] important here. We had 18,000 community [08:24] members tune in uh across YouTube and [08:27] LinkedIn. Um we were originally only [08:29] going to stream to YouTube, but our [08:31] marketing team said, "Let's put it on [08:32] LinkedIn, too." And so we captured a lot [08:34] more people that way. [08:38] So, how'd we do it? Um our goal through [08:40] this whole thing was to um [08:44] uh sort of create connection. It wasn't [08:47] to just live stream and um see what [08:50] happens. We wanted to connect our uh [08:53] hosts to the audience but also connect [08:55] the in-person and virtual audience. Um [09:00] next our all the talks were being [09:02] recorded already to be posted later much [09:05] like this conference. So we didn't need [09:07] to have the speakers on to uh reiterate [09:11] their talk give a five minute version of [09:13] their 30-minut talk. Um we um kept the [09:17] interviews conversational, personable. [09:19] Um, if you watch the live stream, I [09:21] spent a lot of time asking everyone how [09:23] they uh liked the catering at the event. [09:25] Uh, because that's what's important to [09:26] me. Um, and we focused on delivering [09:29] energy and excitement, which is what you [09:31] get uh from an in-person experience at a [09:34] conference. Uh we also spent a lot of [09:36] time turning to the audience um asking [09:39] them um their thoughts, asking them to [09:41] engage with the speakers, prompting them [09:43] to ask questions [09:46] um and uh [09:49] we [09:51] uh had our guests make sure that the [09:54] audience knew that um it was happening [09:56] ahead of time. Um so our guests uh were [10:00] kind of um hard to figure out, right? [10:04] Some of the most obvious ones, we had [10:06] speakers because they were going to be [10:07] there. We had our product team because [10:09] they could speak to all the [10:10] announcements. If it wasn't something [10:12] they were working on, they knew what [10:13] their colleagues were doing, so that was [10:14] fine. Um, and then we filled in with our [10:18] super user program, champions and MVPs. [10:20] Um, and very cynically, this meant that [10:24] um, we could engage a global audience. [10:30] Um, obviously that means more viewers, [10:32] but less cynically this created more [10:33] paths to connection. We saw folks on uh [10:37] from Apac uh in the chat of the YouTube [10:40] stream congratulating their colleagues [10:43] um and shouting them out. We had folks [10:45] posting on LinkedIn from the Americas um [10:48] talking about how nice it was to see [10:50] their colleagues um on the stream. [10:53] Um so it was really really nice to see [10:56] everyone connect that way. Um, just real [10:58] quick, um, I touched on this earlier [11:00] with our little stats. Um, we, uh, first [11:04] filled it in with interviews and panels. [11:06] Then we focused on the virtual audience. [11:08] This seems obvious. Um, but to drill [11:11] down a little bit, we specifically did [11:13] games and trivia. And we promised them [11:15] prizes. And with a promise of prizes, [11:17] you can collect a little information [11:19] from them to be able to mail them the [11:20] prizes later, which meant we got a bunch [11:22] of email addresses of people engaging [11:25] with the stream. So, we could send out a [11:28] survey after the fact. Um, [11:31] uh, we got some really, really great [11:33] responses, which I'll show later. But [11:35] then really nice thing about these, uh, [11:37] moments of games and trivia is that the [11:39] audience was also connecting to each [11:41] other during it and talking to each [11:42] other in the chat and that kind of [11:44] thing. [11:45] Um, and finally, [11:48] uh, with 10 hours of streaming, we kept [11:50] having to switch hosts back and forth so [11:52] that we could catch a breath, get a [11:53] drink of water, um, stare at a blank [11:55] wall for a while. Um, so we built in [11:58] some buffers. I don't want to call it [12:00] breaks because they weren't breaks. Um, [12:02] we used videos from our marketing team [12:04] that we preloaded into um, our streaming [12:06] platform. Uh we also had videos from our [12:10] Devril team because after we started the [12:13] uh decoded live videos, they were [12:15] finally inspired to start putting things [12:16] on YouTube. Um and then we had uh our [12:19] sponsors [12:21] um make some videos, sponsors of the [12:23] event make some videos to talk to the [12:26] audience at home and we really encourage [12:27] them to do a really casual like straight [12:29] to Zoom camera. Hello, we're from this [12:31] we're glad to uh be sponsoring the [12:34] conference. Um not just a plain old [12:36] video ad. Um, all of these were under 90 [12:38] seconds, but they covered um panel [12:41] switching out, hosts getting up, people [12:43] running in front of the cameras. Um, so [12:46] yeah. [12:47] Um, here is what, um, we went into it [12:51] asking for. Um, and I think you can do [12:53] it with a little less, but here's what I [12:55] recommend. You need two hosts. Um, so [12:57] one of you can always be, um, drinking [12:59] water. uh you need a guest runner [13:02] because the conference uh was enormous [13:05] and we were very concerned about guests [13:08] getting lost or not showing up. Um we [13:11] all three of those positions we asked [13:13] for from our team and then we also asked [13:15] for one person to run the stream and one [13:17] person to monitor the stream. That can [13:18] be the same person um unless you're not [13:20] feeling brave which have separate [13:22] people. Um and then of course some AV [13:24] equipment. A single camera, some mics is [13:26] really all you need. maybe augment it [13:28] with some lights and maybe a soundboard. [13:31] Um, what we ended up getting was no, you [13:34] can't have half the Devril team [13:37] dedicated to just the stream, right? So, [13:38] we had two hosts and one guest runner [13:41] from our team. Very thankful for that. [13:43] Um, because our guest runner uh knew the [13:46] developers on the stream and could um [13:48] form a relationship with them. Um, we [13:51] had our conference vendor um, staff [13:55] this. Uh, Outsystems decided they would [13:58] rather spend a little bit more money [13:59] than um, sacrifice a bunch of team [14:02] members. So, we had what we like to call [14:05] our StreamYard director uh, run the [14:07] stream. We had a person on audio, a [14:10] person on cameras, and then a third AV [14:12] person. I wasn't sure what they were [14:14] doing, but um, they seemed very [14:15] important as well. Um, and then we had [14:18] these really fancy cameras that recorded [14:20] in 4K. Not that we needed it. Um, we had [14:22] four mics, some studio lighting, and you [14:25] can kind of see in the back here, a [14:27] soundboard. Um, now again, we we were [14:30] quoted $230,000 to hybridize the event, [14:33] which was 25% of our full conference [14:36] budget. This only ran us 15,000, which [14:39] is only 1.5% of the conference budget. I [14:43] did use a calculator for that. I [14:45] shouldn't have needed to, but I I did. I [14:47] have to admit. Um, so what did we use [14:49] sort of logistically? This is kind of [14:50] the boring stuff, but um it's stuff that [14:52] I'm willing to share with all of you if [14:53] you just reach out. Um, we used [14:55] Streamyard for this because it's what we [14:57] had been comfortable with in the [14:58] beginning, and we weren't sure if we [15:00] were going to have any professional help [15:01] at all um to uh make this happen. So, [15:06] Streamyard is nice because you can have [15:07] multiple people logged in on the same [15:09] stream. Uh, you can also use Riverside [15:11] for this, and I'm sure there's other [15:12] vendors you can use. Um, the really nice [15:15] thing is you can preload all these [15:17] videos and slides. Um, and it's really [15:19] clear for a person coming in the day [15:21] before the stream to know how to um, [15:24] control everything. Um, for [15:27] documentation, we use the Google Suite [15:29] out systems. So, our run of show was on [15:31] Sheets. We sent out um calendar invites [15:33] on Google calendar and we used Google [15:36] Docs for what we like to call the [15:38] script, but it was really just a [15:39] collaborative document to figure out [15:41] questions with the um guests of the [15:43] show. So to zoom in on this a little [15:45] bit. [15:47] Okay. Um [15:50] so we have uh over here some uh timing [15:54] for everything. Oh, it's so much cooler [15:56] out of the light. This is really nice. [15:58] Um, we have our segment types and that's [16:01] uh sort of helped us figure out if we [16:02] had too many of one segment or another. [16:04] Um, we had the hosts and this was [16:06] important because uh halfway through [16:09] planning we realized that Cecilia was on [16:11] for like 90 minutes straight and you're [16:12] like we got to rearrange, we got to [16:14] rearrange, we can't do it. Um, and then [16:16] also you can't really see on this [16:19] picture but uh partway through planning [16:23] on the final week I colorcoded where the [16:26] lunch break was. um because again that's [16:28] what was important to me. Um so we knew [16:30] that both of us had time off a desk [16:32] during the lunch break. Um and then we [16:35] have our guests here and we have uh [16:38] links out to their individual script [16:40] pages. Those were the ones we worked on [16:41] collaboratively that they had that [16:43] lacked uh some of the detail that the [16:45] director might need. Um and then this [16:47] end part here we have the cues for the [16:50] media in the streaming platform and the [16:53] media itself, what it was called in the [16:54] streaming platform. Um, and then call [16:57] time is when we set their calendar [16:58] invites for. Um, and that was also the [17:02] second that our guest runner was given [17:05] permission to start to panic. Um, [17:09] uh, and then to kind of double down on [17:11] the script here, these are a bunch of [17:13] our script pages. I think 24 out of 36 [17:17] or so. Um, we, um, again, it was just [17:21] the questions. This acted as our uh sort [17:24] of Q cards on the desk, but it also [17:26] acted as something that the um [17:29] Streamyard director ended up using [17:30] instead of the run of show sheet because [17:32] it was clear on this. Um at the top and [17:35] bottom we have um who is on screen and [17:39] what is about to happen. Um host switch [17:42] meant that a video was going to play so [17:43] we could um take our time wandering off [17:46] the off the studio. Um and we also had [17:48] timing at the top and bottom. We often [17:50] started segments at the wrong time, but [17:53] we tried to end segments at the right [17:54] time to just kind of get back on track [17:58] um for the rest of the show. Um we also [18:01] had notes like time check at the last [18:03] few questions because um some of our [18:06] guests were very long-winded. Um I will [18:08] say just as a tip to to you all, put way [18:10] more questions than you think you need [18:12] for the 10 minutes because some of your [18:14] guests will be very short- winded. Um, [18:17] not to name names or anything, but our [18:19] Dutch guests were in and out in two or [18:22] three minutes. Um, and it was really [18:25] really tough to to vamp with them. Um, I [18:28] also just want to note that um, for [18:32] about 20 minutes before the start of [18:34] every uh, day, we did a step through [18:37] with our director where we made some [18:39] notes on the um, scripts. And uh, [18:42] partway through the first day of [18:44] streaming, we realized that the speaker [18:46] for the Voice of God announcements was [18:47] directly above our heads because we were [18:49] in a balcony right above the expo hall. [18:52] So, um it would go dong dong um out of [18:55] nowhere and we started noting that down. [18:57] So, little things like that. Make sure [18:58] you have that time before the stream. Um [19:02] I touched on a lot of this already, but [19:04] for guest management, we um didn't have [19:08] uh pre meetings with many people. We [19:10] just um used uh docs. [19:14] Um this uh meant that we sometimes [19:19] collaborated on Slack or email but it [19:21] was very brief interactions with guests [19:23] that agreed to do it would just um [19:25] decide on the questions go from there. [19:27] Um we did meet with our seauite to get [19:29] them on board and to run the questions [19:32] by the like PR team and everything. Um [19:35] and a lot of the seauite uh discussions [19:38] started with a question like are you too [19:40] interesting enough to pull this off? And [19:42] I would always panic and think to [19:44] myself, "No, we're not. We're not at [19:46] all." Cecilia would jump in and say, [19:47] "Yes, absolutely." And I think we were [19:49] because this is me with my uh CEO, and [19:51] you can see both of us are laughing. So, [19:54] it worked out. Um [19:56] uh the next thing is um our final [19:59] communications came from our guest [20:00] runner. um so that even though she [20:03] wasn't having to deal with all of these [20:04] logistics uh pre-stream, she did build [20:07] up a rapport with everyone and she also [20:09] got their phone numbers to send out [20:12] angry text messages the second their [20:13] call time started. And I'm very proud to [20:15] say with all of this planning, we only [20:16] had one guest show up late for their [20:19] actual segment. Um and while we were uh [20:22] recording, we could see her across the [20:25] conference hall just having a chat. Uh [20:27] she did make it eventually, but we had [20:29] to um cover it with um a different guest [20:33] that happened to just be hanging out at [20:35] the time, which was kind of fun. And you [20:36] can't tell at all from the stream [20:37] because it was our second day. We were [20:39] pros by then. Um, and then just a note [20:43] on sort of um how we dealt with guests [20:46] uh [20:48] uh before they came on on stage, we had [20:50] a table about 15 feet away from our [20:54] studio [20:55] um that had the script so they could go [20:57] over their questions again. Um snacks [20:59] and waters. Snacks included um uh some [21:02] American candy um which was very [21:05] exciting for the Europeans. Um, and the [21:07] only reason most of our guests [21:09] participated was for custom swag. Um, [21:12] this pin right here only went out to 55 [21:14] of the 3,000 attendees, and that meant [21:17] we had plenty of um, people jealous so [21:21] that I could note down their excitement [21:24] for the next year. So again, this is [21:25] what we did. I don't think it's that uh [21:27] important the metrics. Um, what was [21:30] important was this postream feedback and [21:32] the feedback we got through social. So, [21:34] we got had a bunch of really dedicated [21:35] community me community members that wish [21:37] they could have been there posting about [21:38] the stream on social. We had our guests [21:41] posting um about their experiences and [21:44] promoting for us. And then we had our um [21:49] stream feedback survey um which was sent [21:52] out to the trivia participants [21:54] here. Here we heard that they were [21:56] genuinely feeling connected to guests. [21:58] Um names that they sort of recognized [22:00] from uh the forums or other events that [22:04] that they spoke at. Um they felt the [22:07] excitement we were trying to convey and [22:09] they even told us it inspired them to [22:11] demand the budget to attend next year. [22:13] Um so I think our stream succeeded right [22:15] engaged a remote audience and um all of [22:18] them felt truly included and eager for [22:21] more. Um but um this all went really [22:25] well. Uh but I when I worked in biotech [22:29] uh our most um interesting talks were [22:32] from uh companies that essentially [22:34] failed like my novel drug failed in in [22:37] in vitro studies. Here's what went [22:39] wrong. Uh we were luckily not trying to [22:41] cure a rare disease. Um so uh it was [22:46] less big deal but here are just some [22:47] tips. Um, I think a lot of them may feel [22:50] obvious, but we didn't think of it ahead [22:51] of time. The first most emphatic tip I [22:55] have for you is to make sure that the [22:57] computer receiving video has Apple [22:59] reactions turned off. We didn't see a [23:02] single one of these Apple reactions [23:04] until our CEO, our last guest, was on [23:06] and he was saying something incredible [23:08] about how important developers are to [23:09] his vision for the uh future of the [23:11] company. And he was holding a water cup [23:13] like this on the table. And so there's [23:16] just a thumb floating above his head. Um [23:19] people on the stream were laughing about [23:20] it, but the bigger problem was this [23:22] great quote could not be clipped for [23:24] later, right? Um this is another kind of [23:26] obvious one. There's a time limit on [23:27] LinkedIn. Um it ran out at four hours uh [23:30] if you're live streaming to LinkedIn. It [23:32] doesn't really warn you about it. Um [23:34] very obviously. Um so just know that my [23:38] recommendation is to just stick to uh uh [23:41] four hours of streaming a day. Don't go [23:43] for the full six. Um, and also have more [23:45] hosts. Cecilia and I, um, didn't get a [23:48] ton of time with our in-person audience, [23:50] which is kind of frustrating. If we had [23:52] more hosts to cycle through, um, it [23:54] would be a little bit more dynamic for [23:56] our audience at home. Um, they wouldn't [23:58] be able to see the exhaustion in our [23:59] eyes. Um, and we'd also have more time [24:01] with our uh, folks at home. So, um, this [24:05] is a higheffort uh, inexpensive, [24:08] depending on how you do it, uh, way to [24:10] engage tens of thousands of de [24:11] developers at home. Um, if you have a [24:14] large audience that may not end up at [24:15] the conference, um, this, uh, captures [24:19] the energy of being in person. Um, and a [24:22] lengthy live stream is exciting to your, [24:24] um, audience and constantly cycling out [24:28] guests and having quick quick [24:30] interactions is really engaging. Um, [24:32] what we did here and what I'm [24:33] recommending to you all is a freakishly [24:36] long version of Inside the NBA. We did [24:38] not have Charles Barkley and no one was [24:40] using FanDuel to bet on our guests. But [24:43] um it was really really fun and our [24:45] audience loved it. Um that's about it [24:47] for me. Um I am happy to answer [24:50] questions via LinkedIn which is about to [24:52] be shown. Um feel free to just message [24:56] me here. I'm also happy to send you any [24:58] and all docs and I'm happy to meet with [25:00] you to talk through how we convinced our [25:02] seuite of this. Um, and finally, one of [25:06] our guests is in the audience. My [25:08] colleague Snay is here. So, if you have [25:09] any questions about the guest [25:10] experience, feel free to talk to her. [25:12] Uh, but yeah, that's it. Thank you all.  ## 📺 Video ![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU) --- # 📄 Full Transcript *Auto-generated from YouTube captions · timestamps roughly every 30 seconds · [watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1gGqLk2wU)* **[00:07]** I'm Eliza. I am the developer uh I'm on the developer relations team for out systems. Um I uh my full title is um community engagement manager for North America. I keep asking for more words on that title, but they're not letting me. Um, who here has been to a been in the virtual audience for a hybrid event? Okay, most of you. And of you virtual hybrid attendees, who had an experience **[00:39]** that was say less than stellar? Um, I really think there isn't a perfect way to Oh, there we go. Hey, there we go. Um, I don't think there's a way to make a hybrid event perfect, right? I think um the um experience for those at home is sort of worse of both worlds. Yeah, they're getting the presentations and everything, but they're lacking connection. Um they're uh uh it's sort of an afterthought for versus the in-person uh attendees, and they get limited to no engagement with speakers **[01:11]** unless you've put a whole lot of effort into a very fancy um hybrid events platform, which are also very expensive, and I'll get to that in a second. Um the um before we get into that though, let me just give you some details on me. I am from western Massachusetts where I live with my partner and my dog GH pictured here. He's beautiful. Um I can give you more pictures of him if you're interested after. Um I spend most of my time uh along the Connecticut River **[01:41]** Valley hiking, doing some mild birding and bailing my community out with the mass bail fund. Um professionally I started my career in community management with Microsoft New England. Um uh that was for about seven years and then I moved into biotech and I know we think developer relations is one of the most unique careers in the world but uh sire which I've just invented here to mean bench scientist rel relations is super super similar. Um, I did get **[02:12]** really sick of all of the presentations at my events, uh, involving pictures of rare diseases. Um, so I came back to developers at Outsystems for the last three years. Um, to I'm so sorry to build in a little more context. I'm not trying to sell you anything, but uh, Outsystems is an enterprise software development platform. Um we have uh uh we help developers with uh their full stack as part of their greater tech **[02:43]** stack. Um and we uh use low code to generate real code. Um originally we were founded in Lisbon, Portugal, which I'm going to next week. Very excited. Um but we now have headquarters in Boston. We have a community of 864,000 developers and a global conference in Europe every year. Um now that is a single global conference for um a uh community spread all over the **[03:14]** world. We only have space for about 3,000 attendees usually. Um and of course we have our uh uh CEO doing a cool keynote announcing product features. We have the product team uh developing really cool demos for everyone and we have some really great community speakers uh sharing use cases and that kind of thing. Um the problem is with um a conference that large it gets very very expensive to hybridize the event. So we had seven **[03:45]** stages. It would have cost us $230,000 to make it into a hybrid event. Um, and for a conference with a budget of a million dollars, 25% just to hybridize wasn't really in the cards. Um, while we were developing this incredible conference called one, um, my colleague Cecilia and I, uh, you may remember Cecilia from last year. Um, she did a talk on customer success and developer relations. She was supposed to be on the stage with me today, but unfortunately she is. Bigger and better **[04:17]** things to do. Um, we were trying to improve our um, presence on YouTube. Um, there have been plenty of talks about video strategy, YouTube, that kind of thing here. So, I won't go into much detail, but we spent two years talking to developers across North America trying to figure out how to capture their attention better. And everyone said, I go to YouTube first to find out about um, technology that my boss is having me use. Um, unfortunately the outsystems YouTube had devolved in **[04:47]** into some sort of boring hell hole for business audiences. Um, you know, the classic business audience that sits on YouTube all day and doesn't book demos or go out for fancy steak dinners. Um, so we jumped in with the tools at our disposal. Um, and created a quarterly 45minute live stream called Decoded Live. Um so this was a um show that was essentially a virtual panel uh interviewing uh developers that worked **[05:18]** on out systems um for the audience of developers working on out systems. Um we did it live partially for a hook and partially um to avoid the heady temptation of having the video team edit out our our mistakes. Um, you may have noticed in the start of this video I did a uh super super heinous millennial pause right at the top of the show. 45 minutes, a good chunk of it just me staring at the camera. It was really good. Um, so someone several steps above us said, "This is really cool. Um, we **[05:50]** should do this at one this year." And we said, "Yeah, let's do a stage takeover. We have a an in-person audience for the show for 45 minutes. It'll be our first time having inerson guests, too. It'll be really exciting. But somehow this idea metastasized into doing the um show for the entire conference. Um looking back, we don't know how it happened. We can't remember at any point uh where we could say, "Hey, uh I don't know about this. This seems kind of crazy." Um we **[06:22]** were a little bit skeptical but willing to do it because we were of course well and truly volunteer before. Yeah. Right. Um so um our challenge was to engage tens of thousands of community members um with a budget of at the time we'll see. And that is a quote from an email. Uh in wanting to uh execute with excellence to steal from the Microsoft employee handbook um we were trying to **[06:53]** figure out how to solve some of our issues with the conference itself with this live stream idea. Um who here came to this conference just to see the talks? No other reason, just to see the talks, right? Um who goes for some sort of social aspect? Yes. So um how can we bring that social aspect um to a virtual audience um and how can we capture the sort of hallway track of of engaging with speakers um even just the vibe of a **[07:26]** conference? Um, after a bunch of meetings where Siccilia and I just stared at each other silently on Zoom, grimacing, uh, we finally came around to the idea that maybe we could work to answer these questions, um, if we were able to pull it off. And I think we did pull it off. Just to run through some metrics, which were also in my talk descriptions, um, we did 10 hours of streaming, four hours on day one, and six hours on day two. Uh, we had 55 guests um, including Yes, someone got the joke. **[07:56]** Okay. uh including uh uh our seuite. We had uh a bunch of uh our product team members, we had speakers and we had some of our uh super users. I'll come back to that soon. Um we had 42 total segments including panels, interviews, audience segments and uh some video buffers. Um and of course the viewers are what's important here. We had 18,000 community members tune in uh across YouTube and **[08:27]** LinkedIn. Um we were originally only going to stream to YouTube, but our marketing team said, "Let's put it on LinkedIn, too." And so we captured a lot more people that way. So, how'd we do it? Um our goal through this whole thing was to um uh sort of create connection. It wasn't to just live stream and um see what happens. We wanted to connect our uh hosts to the audience but also connect the in-person and virtual audience. Um **[09:00]** next our all the talks were being recorded already to be posted later much like this conference. So we didn't need to have the speakers on to uh reiterate their talk give a five minute version of their 30-minut talk. Um we um kept the interviews conversational, personable. Um, if you watch the live stream, I spent a lot of time asking everyone how they uh liked the catering at the event. Uh, because that's what's important to me. Um, and we focused on delivering energy and excitement, which is what you **[09:31]** get uh from an in-person experience at a conference. Uh we also spent a lot of time turning to the audience um asking them um their thoughts, asking them to engage with the speakers, prompting them to ask questions um and uh we uh had our guests make sure that the audience knew that um it was happening ahead of time. Um so our guests uh were kind of um hard to figure out, right? **[10:04]** Some of the most obvious ones, we had speakers because they were going to be there. We had our product team because they could speak to all the announcements. If it wasn't something they were working on, they knew what their colleagues were doing, so that was fine. Um, and then we filled in with our super user program, champions and MVPs. Um, and very cynically, this meant that um, we could engage a global audience. Um, obviously that means more viewers, but less cynically this created more paths to connection. We saw folks on uh **[10:37]** from Apac uh in the chat of the YouTube stream congratulating their colleagues um and shouting them out. We had folks posting on LinkedIn from the Americas um talking about how nice it was to see their colleagues um on the stream. Um so it was really really nice to see everyone connect that way. Um, just real quick, um, I touched on this earlier with our little stats. Um, we, uh, first filled it in with interviews and panels. Then we focused on the virtual audience. **[11:08]** This seems obvious. Um, but to drill down a little bit, we specifically did games and trivia. And we promised them prizes. And with a promise of prizes, you can collect a little information from them to be able to mail them the prizes later, which meant we got a bunch of email addresses of people engaging with the stream. So, we could send out a survey after the fact. Um, uh, we got some really, really great responses, which I'll show later. But then really nice thing about these, uh, moments of games and trivia is that the **[11:39]** audience was also connecting to each other during it and talking to each other in the chat and that kind of thing. Um, and finally, uh, with 10 hours of streaming, we kept having to switch hosts back and forth so that we could catch a breath, get a drink of water, um, stare at a blank wall for a while. Um, so we built in some buffers. I don't want to call it breaks because they weren't breaks. Um, we used videos from our marketing team that we preloaded into um, our streaming platform. Uh we also had videos from our **[12:10]** Devril team because after we started the uh decoded live videos, they were finally inspired to start putting things on YouTube. Um and then we had uh our sponsors um make some videos, sponsors of the event make some videos to talk to the audience at home and we really encourage them to do a really casual like straight to Zoom camera. Hello, we're from this we're glad to uh be sponsoring the conference. Um not just a plain old video ad. Um, all of these were under 90 seconds, but they covered um panel **[12:41]** switching out, hosts getting up, people running in front of the cameras. Um, so yeah. Um, here is what, um, we went into it asking for. Um, and I think you can do it with a little less, but here's what I recommend. You need two hosts. Um, so one of you can always be, um, drinking water. uh you need a guest runner because the conference uh was enormous and we were very concerned about guests getting lost or not showing up. Um we **[13:11]** all three of those positions we asked for from our team and then we also asked for one person to run the stream and one person to monitor the stream. That can be the same person um unless you're not feeling brave which have separate people. Um and then of course some AV equipment. A single camera, some mics is really all you need. maybe augment it with some lights and maybe a soundboard. Um, what we ended up getting was no, you can't have half the Devril team dedicated to just the stream, right? So, we had two hosts and one guest runner from our team. Very thankful for that. **[13:43]** Um, because our guest runner uh knew the developers on the stream and could um form a relationship with them. Um, we had our conference vendor um, staff this. Uh, Outsystems decided they would rather spend a little bit more money than um, sacrifice a bunch of team members. So, we had what we like to call our StreamYard director uh, run the stream. We had a person on audio, a person on cameras, and then a third AV person. I wasn't sure what they were **[14:14]** doing, but um, they seemed very important as well. Um, and then we had these really fancy cameras that recorded in 4K. Not that we needed it. Um, we had four mics, some studio lighting, and you can kind of see in the back here, a soundboard. Um, now again, we we were quoted $230,000 to hybridize the event, which was 25% of our full conference budget. This only ran us 15,000, which is only 1.5% of the conference budget. I did use a calculator for that. I **[14:45]** shouldn't have needed to, but I I did. I have to admit. Um, so what did we use sort of logistically? This is kind of the boring stuff, but um it's stuff that I'm willing to share with all of you if you just reach out. Um, we used Streamyard for this because it's what we had been comfortable with in the beginning, and we weren't sure if we were going to have any professional help at all um to uh make this happen. So, Streamyard is nice because you can have multiple people logged in on the same stream. Uh, you can also use Riverside for this, and I'm sure there's other vendors you can use. Um, the really nice **[15:15]** thing is you can preload all these videos and slides. Um, and it's really clear for a person coming in the day before the stream to know how to um, control everything. Um, for documentation, we use the Google Suite out systems. So, our run of show was on Sheets. We sent out um calendar invites on Google calendar and we used Google Docs for what we like to call the script, but it was really just a collaborative document to figure out questions with the um guests of the show. So to zoom in on this a little **[15:45]** bit. Okay. Um so we have uh over here some uh timing for everything. Oh, it's so much cooler out of the light. This is really nice. Um, we have our segment types and that's uh sort of helped us figure out if we had too many of one segment or another. Um, we had the hosts and this was important because uh halfway through planning we realized that Cecilia was on for like 90 minutes straight and you're like we got to rearrange, we got to rearrange, we can't do it. Um, and then **[16:16]** also you can't really see on this picture but uh partway through planning on the final week I colorcoded where the lunch break was. um because again that's what was important to me. Um so we knew that both of us had time off a desk during the lunch break. Um and then we have our guests here and we have uh links out to their individual script pages. Those were the ones we worked on collaboratively that they had that lacked uh some of the detail that the director might need. Um and then this **[16:47]** end part here we have the cues for the media in the streaming platform and the media itself, what it was called in the streaming platform. Um, and then call time is when we set their calendar invites for. Um, and that was also the second that our guest runner was given permission to start to panic. Um, uh, and then to kind of double down on the script here, these are a bunch of our script pages. I think 24 out of 36 or so. Um, we, um, again, it was just **[17:21]** the questions. This acted as our uh sort of Q cards on the desk, but it also acted as something that the um Streamyard director ended up using instead of the run of show sheet because it was clear on this. Um at the top and bottom we have um who is on screen and what is about to happen. Um host switch meant that a video was going to play so we could um take our time wandering off the off the studio. Um and we also had timing at the top and bottom. We often started segments at the wrong time, but **[17:53]** we tried to end segments at the right time to just kind of get back on track um for the rest of the show. Um we also had notes like time check at the last few questions because um some of our guests were very long-winded. Um I will say just as a tip to to you all, put way more questions than you think you need for the 10 minutes because some of your guests will be very short- winded. Um, not to name names or anything, but our Dutch guests were in and out in two or three minutes. Um, and it was really **[18:25]** really tough to to vamp with them. Um, I also just want to note that um, for about 20 minutes before the start of every uh, day, we did a step through with our director where we made some notes on the um, scripts. And uh, partway through the first day of streaming, we realized that the speaker for the Voice of God announcements was directly above our heads because we were in a balcony right above the expo hall. So, um it would go dong dong um out of **[18:55]** nowhere and we started noting that down. So, little things like that. Make sure you have that time before the stream. Um I touched on a lot of this already, but for guest management, we um didn't have uh pre meetings with many people. We just um used uh docs. Um this uh meant that we sometimes collaborated on Slack or email but it was very brief interactions with guests that agreed to do it would just um **[19:25]** decide on the questions go from there. Um we did meet with our seauite to get them on board and to run the questions by the like PR team and everything. Um and a lot of the seauite uh discussions started with a question like are you too interesting enough to pull this off? And I would always panic and think to myself, "No, we're not. We're not at all." Cecilia would jump in and say, "Yes, absolutely." And I think we were because this is me with my uh CEO, and you can see both of us are laughing. So, it worked out. Um **[19:56]** uh the next thing is um our final communications came from our guest runner. um so that even though she wasn't having to deal with all of these logistics uh pre-stream, she did build up a rapport with everyone and she also got their phone numbers to send out angry text messages the second their call time started. And I'm very proud to say with all of this planning, we only had one guest show up late for their actual segment. Um and while we were uh recording, we could see her across the conference hall just having a chat. Uh **[20:27]** she did make it eventually, but we had to um cover it with um a different guest that happened to just be hanging out at the time, which was kind of fun. And you can't tell at all from the stream because it was our second day. We were pros by then. Um, and then just a note on sort of um how we dealt with guests uh before they came on on stage, we had a table about 15 feet away from our studio um that had the script so they could go over their questions again. Um snacks **[20:59]** and waters. Snacks included um uh some American candy um which was very exciting for the Europeans. Um, and the only reason most of our guests participated was for custom swag. Um, this pin right here only went out to 55 of the 3,000 attendees, and that meant we had plenty of um, people jealous so that I could note down their excitement for the next year. So again, this is what we did. I don't think it's that uh important the metrics. Um, what was **[21:30]** important was this postream feedback and the feedback we got through social. So, we got had a bunch of really dedicated community me community members that wish they could have been there posting about the stream on social. We had our guests posting um about their experiences and promoting for us. And then we had our um stream feedback survey um which was sent out to the trivia participants here. Here we heard that they were genuinely feeling connected to guests. Um names that they sort of recognized **[22:00]** from uh the forums or other events that that they spoke at. Um they felt the excitement we were trying to convey and they even told us it inspired them to demand the budget to attend next year. Um so I think our stream succeeded right engaged a remote audience and um all of them felt truly included and eager for more. Um but um this all went really well. Uh but I when I worked in biotech uh our most um interesting talks were **[22:32]** from uh companies that essentially failed like my novel drug failed in in in vitro studies. Here's what went wrong. Uh we were luckily not trying to cure a rare disease. Um so uh it was less big deal but here are just some tips. Um, I think a lot of them may feel obvious, but we didn't think of it ahead of time. The first most emphatic tip I have for you is to make sure that the computer receiving video has Apple reactions turned off. We didn't see a single one of these Apple reactions **[23:04]** until our CEO, our last guest, was on and he was saying something incredible about how important developers are to his vision for the uh future of the company. And he was holding a water cup like this on the table. And so there's just a thumb floating above his head. Um people on the stream were laughing about it, but the bigger problem was this great quote could not be clipped for later, right? Um this is another kind of obvious one. There's a time limit on LinkedIn. Um it ran out at four hours uh if you're live streaming to LinkedIn. It doesn't really warn you about it. Um **[23:34]** very obviously. Um so just know that my recommendation is to just stick to uh uh four hours of streaming a day. Don't go for the full six. Um, and also have more hosts. Cecilia and I, um, didn't get a ton of time with our in-person audience, which is kind of frustrating. If we had more hosts to cycle through, um, it would be a little bit more dynamic for our audience at home. Um, they wouldn't be able to see the exhaustion in our eyes. Um, and we'd also have more time with our uh, folks at home. So, um, this **[24:05]** is a higheffort uh, inexpensive, depending on how you do it, uh, way to engage tens of thousands of de developers at home. Um, if you have a large audience that may not end up at the conference, um, this, uh, captures the energy of being in person. Um, and a lengthy live stream is exciting to your, um, audience and constantly cycling out guests and having quick quick interactions is really engaging. Um, what we did here and what I'm recommending to you all is a freakishly **[24:36]** long version of Inside the NBA. We did not have Charles Barkley and no one was using FanDuel to bet on our guests. But um it was really really fun and our audience loved it. Um that's about it for me. Um I am happy to answer questions via LinkedIn which is about to be shown. Um feel free to just message me here. I'm also happy to send you any and all docs and I'm happy to meet with you to talk through how we convinced our seuite of this. Um, and finally, one of **[25:06]** our guests is in the audience. My colleague Snay is here. So, if you have any questions about the guest experience, feel free to talk to her. Uh, but yeah, that's it. Thank you all.