We’re hosting online user events on a monthly basis. Currently we have two event series:

• super user event: Limited to super users (we call them experts); bi-monthly, one hour each; we give company and community updates, do workshops and Q&As, depending on what topics we have
• community talk: Limited to super users and power users; bi-monthly, one hour each; we give company and community updates, do Q&As and play games occasionally

For some years we always asked the invited users what date they preferred (“Do you prefer Tuesday or Wednesday? → so we can be sure to have as many participants as possible). We have switched to a fixed date now after realizing that most of the time the majority of the users chose the same option.

Due to security and compatibility reasons (Telefónica has quite strict rules for using third-party tools), the video conferencing platform changed a few times throughout the years. We started with Skype, used Zoom and now we’re on Microsoft Teams.

Our experience has been that not every user attends these events with the same intentions. Some just want to listen, some don’t want to listen but only address their own talking points, some are a mix of both.

We always prepare an agenda and give a preview of it to the invited users. For years, after the event ended, we gave all invited users (not just the ones who attended) a full protocol of the event. We switched to a short protocol some months ago in order to incentivize participating.

Thanks for your story, bjoern_schulze! Great to hear that you already developed a concept for online events over the years. Nice that you do different events for different type of users. 

We also want to start with the super users and the layer beneath, the experts/very active users.

I’m also looking to host an online event this month. 

What’s the consensus on which hosting platform to use?

@bjoern_schulze how much detail went into these protocols? Would this focus on things like agenda and rules?

@timcavey

For the platform: We still use Microsoft Teams. Participants can join via browser and don’t need to download the app/program. When you use it as a program, it can take up a lot of resources and (in some cases) slow down your machine. Alternatives are Zoom or Jitsi.

In a protocol we usually document the agenda, the participants and bullet points of the most important information that was talked about. Usually, if users ask for more details on one of the agenda points, we (or other participants) follow-up with more information.

As to rules: At the start of every session, we quickly go through the procedure for asking questions or giving own input (e.g. “just interrupt me”, “raise your hand and we call you up”, “write in the chat”). A good way to keep everything in order is to have a dedicated moderator who only keeps an eye on questions and feedback, so the presenter (or guest speaker) can focus on the topic. Also we ask everyone to mute themselves when they don’t speak.