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October 6, 2011
Table of Contents About the Millennial Donor Summit & Convening Partners Introduction 3 4
The Date is Set, but Whos Gonna Show Up? Keep It Social
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Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
CONVENING PARTNERS
The Case Foundation, created by Steve and Jean Case in 1997, invests in people and ideas that can change the world, with the ultimate goal of making giving back a part of everyday life. We create and support initiatives that that leverage new technologies and entrepreneurial approaches to drive innovation in the social sector and encourage individuals to get involved with the communities and causes they care about. www.casefoundation.org Achieve is a consulting firm that provides expert guidance and delivers strategies to strengthen donor relationships and increase fundraising performance. Achieve works with nonprofit organizations on millennial engagement, donor acquisition campaigns and multichannel fundraising programs. www.achieveguidance.com
Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates (JGA) has been providing authentic, strategic philanthropic consulting services to non-profit clients since 1994. JGAs team of senior consultants offers client-focused, highly customized philanthropic consulting services to private colleges, independent schools and large cultural and community organizations. JGA specializes in capital campaign counsel, feasibility studies, philanthropic assessments and development audits. www.jgacounsel.com
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
Introduction
INTRODUCTION
generally felt they were in on this little experiment with us, which helped refine our techniques. Perhaps it's important to note that online conferences are not an entirely new way of convening and have been attempted in different formats with varying degrees of success for many years now. The American Cancer Society hosted a virtual gala using the platform Second Life, and last year, the American Red Cross experimented by simultaneously convening people in-
person and around the country to focus on social media and its impact on disaster preparedness. Today, there are a handful of conference providers that have entered the online market space and the technology is advancing in ways that make it possible to incorporate nearly all of the facets of an in-person convening into a virtual setting.
On the morning of June 22, 2011, laptops and desktops across the country booted up as hundreds of people began to fill the virtual halls of the 2011 Millennial Donor Summit (MDS11). The Summit, a collaborative effort between Achieve, Johnson Grossnickle and Associates (JGA), and the Case Foundation, brought together more than 1,000 participants representing 100 organizations. From academic institutions to small community-based organizations and corporate entities to nonprofits, the Summit was created in an effort to spotlight the unique characteristics of the rising generation and to help nonprofit executives better understand how to attract and engage Millennials in their work. MDS11 was the first attempt at a completely virtual convening for the conference organizers. While we had all tried our hand at a variety of online and live streamed events, from tutorials like the Case Foundations Gear Up for Giving and CaseSoup episodes, or webinars like Achieves Access, we knew this would be a different kind of experiment, and one that was on a much different scale and level of complexity. The word experiment became our mantraand as we progressed throughout the day we quickly realized that the participants
While some will argue that an online convening could never replace the value of the relationships built, and the networking opportunities that stem from being in the same physical location at the same timethere is a strong argument to be made for keeping costs and travel expenses at a minimum and involving individuals from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and industries who may not be able to otherwise participate.
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
Introduction
The Millennial Donor Survey was the perfect topic on which to experiment in this type of virtual setting. For the past three and a half years through the Case Foundations Social Citizens initiative, and through Achieve and JGAs Millennial Donor Survey, much has been written about the rising generation and the many ways they are changing our institutions. We knew a virtual convening was very much in line with how Millennials are comfortable connecting, and that often the Millennial voice and presence is left out of more traditional in-person conferences. The Summit allowed us to bridge that gap and create a dialogue was inclusive of different perspectives in terms of age, demographics, geographic location and other important factors.
We knew a virtual convening was very much in line with how Millennials are comfortable connecting, and that often the Millennial voice and presence is left out of more traditional inperson conferences.
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
structures. Once in the hall, attendees could ask questions, video chat one-on-one or simply browse around and pick up virtual swag like codes for discounts or brochures and information. Lounges: Virtual lounges were set up near the exhibit hall area and coordinated by different sponsors or organizations. During a predetermined time, conversations on various topics took place in the lounge area and were open to all participants. Virtual Briefcase: Registrants were also given a virtual briefcase to download session materials, PowerPoint presentations, and contacts they could reference after the event.
Plenary Sessions & Breakouts: Plenaries were scheduled so they were the only event happening during that time period. Plenaries allowed a speaker to present on a topic and then invited Q&A from the full audience. Breakout sessions were conducted in a similar format, but several smaller sessions were taking place simultaneously and participants could choose to stay in one for the full 45 minutes or hop around to different sessions. Recordings of all the plenaries and breakouts were made available to registrants for one year following the Summit. Exhibit Hall: All participants had an opportunity to connect with vendors and organizations in a virtual exhibit hall. The booths look just like booths you might see in an in-person exhibit hall and featured branding and customized
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
Sample Agenda
MDS11 Agenda
8-9 EST Check-In and Expo Hall 9-9:30 EST Making the Most of MDS11 Angela White, JGA and Derrick Feldmann, Achieve 12:30-1 EST Break - Expo Hall: Lounge Discussions Chronicle of Philanthropy, NTEN, AFP, CASE 1-2 EST Breakout Session: Engaging Beyond the Donation Microvolunteering Revolution: Jacob Colker, Sparked Innovating Social Change: Erica Williams, Society by Design A New Generation of Philanthropists: Daniel Kaufman, One Percent Foundation 2-3 EST Plenary Panel Discussion: The Generational Divide Wendy Harman and Suzy DeFrancis, American Red Cross David Smith and Michael Weiser, National Conference on Citizenship Moderated by Kari Saratovsky, Case Foundation 3:00-3:30 EST Break - Expo Hall: Lounge Discussions Chronicle of Philanthropy, NTEN, AFP, CASE
9:30-10 EST Opening Plenary: Building a Movement Heidi Adams and Phil Hills, LIVESTRONG
10-11 EST Breakout Session: Exploring the Latest Millennial Research Millennial Habits: Stephanie Padgett, Mojo Ad Millennials and Brands: Matt Britton, Mr. Youth Millennial Donors: Angela White, JGA 11-11:30 EST Break - Expo Hall: Lounge Discussions Chronicle of Philanthropy, NTEN, AFP, CASE 11:30-12:30 EST Breakout Session: Leveraging Technology Millennials As Trust Agents: Julien Smith, Author and Speaker Getting Connected with Social Media: Geoff Livingston, Zoetica Successfully Going Mobile: Tonia Zampieri, Smart Online Activating Millennials to Do Something: George Weiner, Do Something
3:30-4:00 EST Closing Remarks: The Importance of the Next Generation Jean Case, Case Foundation 4:00-4:30 EST Closing Speaker: Defining a New Generation of Leadership Barbara P. Bush, Global Health Corps
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
programming and overall conference logistics, on the day of the event and in the preceding weeks, it is important to have one designated person appointed as the decision maker. Things will be moving fast, schedules will likely have to shift and technology will not always be on your sideso, its important that one person be able to make last minute calls that could impact the overall flow of the day. 2. Set up a central hub of activity: The hub will become an in-person war room of sorts. Its where all the activity on the backend takes place and its important to find a location with enough bandwidth and plenty of space to support three different stations of activity.
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
3. Appoint chat room monitors. Each session should have at least one monitor who can help participants troubleshoot in real time and can also serve as a moderator for questions and comments at the appropriate time in each session. We found that having one designated staff person in each room helped contribute to the flow of conversation and facilitate greater audience engagement. Chat room monitors should be individuals who are familiar with the subject matter and can help generate questions and conversations if there seems to be a delay in participation. presents a number of responsibilities that must be filled: panelist and speaker coordinators, technical support; booth contacts, lounge contacts and chat room monitors to name just a few.
Erica
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4. Dont forget to delegate. As with any conference there are many different roles that must be filled. One of the biggest misperceptions is that there are fewer roles in a virtual conference than an in-person one, or that one person can do it all. The online summit platform
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
interested constituents such as Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP), the HandsOn Network and the Council on Foundations (COF) to promote the conference. This technique not only offered a special benefit to our partners, but also provided much needed awareness and publicity for the event to new markets. We ended up keeping those discounts available until the day of the Summit to further encourage our partners continued promotion.
3. Partner with a media outlet and nd creative ways to leverage their audience and reach. We were able to secure a partnership with The Chronicle of Philanthropy, which highlighted the conference in its publication leading up to the Summit. In addition, MDS11 organizers worked with them to host an online chat the week before with two of our featured speakers. Employing this tactic was another way to build interest in the conversation and create buzz among our target audience on and offline. Lastly, we created a targeted media list and promoted the Summit to more than one hundred media outlets in the hope they would either cover the Summit itself, and/or promote the Summit to their own readers.
2. Identify anchor partners and provide discounts to their networks. In exchange for spreading the word, we offered our partners discount codes for their members if they registered by a certain date. In our case, we partnered with relevant groups we thought would have
Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
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Keep it Social
KEEP IT SOCIAL
As with any conference these days, the key is to encourage broad participation outside the conference walls. You know youve been successful when people who arent at the conference feel like they are missing out as their Twitter and Facebook streams fill up with highlights. The difference with an online conference is that if you can build enough buzz in the first few sessions, people still have an opportunity to register and join for the rest of the day. We saw several instances of this as on the spot registrations started to pick up because of social media activity. Throughout the day and in the days following the Summit, more than 2,000 tweets were recorded using the official conference hashtag, #MDS11. In fact, the Twitter presence was so powerful that a subgroup of participants created a weekly #millennialchat to follow up on topics of interest from the Summit and turn it into an ongoing conversation.
Here are some suggestions to help you keep it social: 1. Designate social media correspondents. Social media correspondents were tasked with keeping the communications happening in real time during the conference. They highlighted interesting quotes from speakers and participants and helped provide additional context for people who may not be at the conference. This ended up being a great role for our interns, as they were able to identify interesting moments throughout the day and help keep the conversations going on both Facebook and Twitter.
Keep it Social
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Your Virtual Seat Awaits: Key Takeaways from Planning and Executing a Virtual Convening
Keep it Social
2. Create, publicize and use an official hashtag and Twitter handle. We found that Twitter was one of the most powerful tools to bring the conversation to the public and beyond those who were watching the Summit live. In fact, in some cases we received on the spot registrations from people who wanted to join the Summit based on the great Twitter traffic they were seeing. 3. Blog, Blog and Blog some more. Wed suggest finding bloggers who have an active presence in the space you are highlighting and can rally their readers to get engaged in the conversation in the months and weeks leading up to and following the conference. A few of our designated bloggers also provided live reports from sessions on their blogs as a way to take the conversation beyond the conference participants.
Twitter was one of the most powerful tools to bring the conversation to the public and beyond those who were watching the Summit live.
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technical issues that they cannot address on the day of the event. 3. Keep presentations to 15 minutes and then open
2. Schedule time for an A/V check: Each speaker should do several run-throughs and at least one full A/V check one week prior to the event to make sure they can log in, upload their presentations, test their mics and video, and familiarize themselves with the chat functions and any other tools they may need to access on the day of the summit. This could also be a good time to come up with a Plan B scenario in case they encounter
the session for Q&A for another 15 minutes. We made the mistake of scheduling sessions for far too long and ended up adjusting halfway through the day. A 30minute session is about all that an online audience can tune into, not to mention that speaking to a camera or computer with no audience feedback for more than 15 to 20 minutes is difficult to do for even the most seasoned speaker. Beyond 15 to 20 minutes you begin losing people to their email or other online distractions.
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are all prone to do. Keeping the attention of audience 2. Email reminders: Send all registered participants reminders the day before and/or the day of the conference so they have the conference information (including their login and password) easily accessible. 3. Incentivize participation: The ease of participating in an online summit (from the comfort of your office or home) can also be a curse. The curse comes in the form of distractions and the inevitable multi-tasking that we members in a virtual setting is even more difficult than in person. While it is easier than ever to join a session, it is just as easy to leave when the phone rings or a new email comes through. Given this, organizers must find opportunities for audience participation when designing sessions and panels. Think creatively about giving door prizes during the Q&A or asking questions that encourage participants to weigh in and recognize them for their efforts.
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the technology providers, the pre or post-production cost of videos, streaming costs, and the use of a conference planner/event producer. Depending on your needs, this could total anywhere from $18,000 to $32,500. When it comes to the attendees, travel and lodging savings are huge, not to mention the lost productivity that may occur during travel. Our price point was $75 for an individual participant and $350 for an organization (up to five logins). While the price point seemed reasonable, one challenge came with individuals registering and then giving their passwords to others. We would suggest working with the provider to ensure that individuals can only log in one time, trackable by an IP Address.
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Underneath all the fancy new technology, attendees must find value in their participation.
4. Rockstar panelists. To create interaction, presenters need to be creative, well-prepared, and have a plan for engaging the audience in the Q&A process. Engagement cannot be left up to chance, and is vital to the success of a session. Suddenly in a virtual format, participants have easier access to speakersif the speaker is responsive to comments and questions from audience members the session will be much more engaging for all. 5. Strong visual appeal. Just like an in-person conference, the appearance of a virtual conference requires attention as well. When our site was initially set up, it featured a bunch of white men in business suits hanging around the main entrancethat was not the look and feel we were going for and we worked to diversify the crowd. Signage is also important so that participants know exactly where to go and how to navigate to the various venues, be it the discussion lounges, registration, expo hall, etc.
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