Read my article on Streamingmedia.com, "No Second Chances: Get Live Events Right the First Time"

I just wrote a new article for Streaming Media Magazine titled, "No Second Chances: Get Live Events Right the First Time - Streaming Media Magazine", that looks at the five core elements for a successful live event in the enterprise setting. It's a culmination of key learnings from years of producing live events and offers battle-tested advice to ensure live enterprise events come off without a hitch.

A big thanks to the many people who have helped me over the years to learn what works best for live events, and what doesn't work so well, and to the many clients I have worked with who have trusted me to produce their live events. Many thanks to Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen and the people at Streamingmedia.com, for their support over the years and for giving me the opportunity to share my best practices in live event production with this article.

Here's a brief excerpt from the article:

The success of any live event is dependent on five core elements: the people, the plan, the technology, the venue, and the audience; they all intersect to either make or break an event. The added layer of virtual attendees creates an even greater challenge, because you have to produce the event for people both inside and outside the room. The key is to use the right technology to make it easy to reach the live audience and virtual attendees and provide them a quality and worthwhile experience. 

 And I can tell you from experience that it better be good!

 Over the last 20 years of producing live events, I’ve learned a lot about how things can go right and wrong, and from good to bad, and from bad to worse. Most problems stem from the things that fall through the cracks: forgotten tasks that didn’t make your checklist or that were not delegated. They can either creep up on you or blow up in your face, and we all know what’s at stake. As they say in the live event biz, “You’re only as good as your last show.”

 You can avoid most problems with proper planning and clear communication. The best shows are the ones where everyone knows what to do, so the show comes off without a hitch. Whether you are in the studio or on location, the same rules apply if you want to be successful. The key to succeeding is that you go in with a plan and strongly dissuade clients from disruptive last-minute changes. They may think it’s not a big deal, but you know better...

Continue reading the full article at: No Second Chances: Get Live Events Right the First Time - Streaming Media Magazine.

This view is of a video village with HD engineering, monitoring, switching, and recording. (This was set up inside a closet! Really, and it actually fit!)

I'll be following up with part two, that looks specifically at how to deliver an effective webcast, including interactive and social media elements, to the audience off-site.

This article appears in the June/July 2013 issue of Streaming Media magazine as "No Second Chances: Best Practices for Live Events in the Enterprise, Part 1."

Learn the five core elements for a live event, then follow this battle-tested advice to ensure live enterprise events come off without a hitch.

by Larry Kless