Running a Digital Conference

Running a conference online might seem daunting, but you can use a combination of technologies you are already familiar with.

Moodle makes a great hub for you to share your conference schedule, links to your live sessions, and information about presenters and papers. You can also use forums or chats to facilitate discussions or run Q&A sessions.

You can use KentPlayer Webcasts or Microsoft Teams Meetings to run your talks depending on the level of interactivity you want with the audience.

Use the following tips to help you organise and run your conference online, and if you need more help you can always contact us.

Change the Schedule

The pacing of your conference will need to be different than if you were running it in person. Keeping your audience engaged in a face-to-face setting is much easier, with fewer distractions and the physical presence of other attendees to keep people engaged.

Rethink a schedule of back-to-back presentations; people will be checking their emails in the background!

Instead, consider spreading the schedule out over two or more days. You aren’t restricted to working around a timetable that suits the venue. By spreading the conference out you can give your attendee’s and presenters more breathing room to engage with the content.

If you can’t spread it out, swap it out! Swap one of your scheduled talks for a live Q&A session instead.