Copied from Adobe’s blog: See orginal post

By Steve Adler on February 25, 2010 8:03 AM

VirtualEdge talked with Aaron Cole founder and CEO of Clear Skies Virtual Event Producers recently about what has become a common occurrence in the virtual event industry…experienced webcasting and event producers leaving to form new companies to service the growing demand for virtual event and meeting solutions.  Many of the startups have a similar story to Clear Skies, 10 plus years of working in the virtual event and meeting space; in this case, most of the team is from Microsoft Live Meeting where they did extensive webcasting and webinar programs.

“Our existing clients are more of the traditional brick and mortar types of companies versus tech companies and they don’t have the staff and expertise to produce webcasts and more sophisticated events in-house,” said Cole. “We offer a full service model where we provide everything from planning to production and management but there are cases where we just support specific pieces of the event as well.”

Companies are increasingly looking for consultants that have experience across multiple platforms and technologies because there are so many options and a wide variety of meeting types and needs. “We plan to remain platform agnostic so that we can offer our clients the best solution for their event needs. But that is a lot of work –keeping up to date on all of the solutions available—something our clients couldn’t do internally,” noted Cole. “We need to be the ones out there spotting trends and bringing them back to the client because they are just too busy running their business.”

What Clear Skies is looking for now is more interactivity and moving away from the webinar model where people show up, consume the content and leave. “This format had been working pretty well for clients in terms of generating leads but it is time to take it to the next level.”

At Virtual Edge, we think we’ll see more and more of these new firms being born and the continued expansion of digital agencies and event management companies into the virtual event space as their clients marketing and colloboration practices change forever.  See more about Clear Skies at Clear Skies Virtual Event Producers

This comparison website has been assembled by a company named Publicare, an online marketing agency based out of Frankfurt Germany. Publicare has taken 22 web conferencing platforms and ranked them on a scale of 1-10, on various categories: User friendliness, Number and scope of features, Pricing/cost transparency, etc. In addition to a numbered ranking, Publicare posts comments about their testing of the product and provides links to the vendor website, or free trial. Publicare’s efforts have yielded a comprehensive, informed and useful comparison of platforms that can be of great benefit. First time users of Webinar technology will admire the overall ranking system to quickly identify various costs and strengths of platforms, while seasoned webinar jockeys can dig deeper to uncover specific features that may help determine future purchasing decisions.

We should point out that this comparison is aimed at the collaboration use-case of webinars – smaller, less structured environments where collaboration is key (note WebEx MeetMeNow 2.3 is tested, not WebEx Event Center; no distinction is called out between Live Meeting Standard or Professional for example). Our use of webinar technology – the “One to Many” model – therefore is not discussed or ranked. Furthermore, we feel it’s this focus on collaborative environments that has lead Publicare to not include some of the streaming platform providers who are doing business in the “One to Many” world, like ON24, Stream57 or TalkPoint. Finally, the creation and maintenance of this website is funded by affiliate partnerships – if a visitor visits one of the ranked platforms and happens to purchase the software, Publicare receives a small finders fee. Publicare is quick to stress that this financial support does not affect their rankings, but is simply a means to recover some of the cost.

Overall, this is a great comparison tool, and we are grateful to Publicare for their time and efforts. While the comparisons are not an exact match to our business model, they none the less provide valuable information and insight into an otherwise cluttered, and noisy marketplace. Take a look, enjoy, and let us know what you think.

Here are my quick notes to share (hour estimates in parentheses are based on brand new events/presenters, etc):

1. Plan Your Event (2 hours)
   1. Based on what you are trying to accomplish – this may change your selection and evaluation process
      

      Ken Molay

   2. Roles – Determine Event Staff
      1. Coordinator/Administrator
      2. Moderator
         1. Answering questions
         2. Technical Support
         3. Presenter does not split their attention
      3. Presenters
      4. Marketer
   3. Pick your Dates/Times
      1. Look at time zones
      2. Unlimited events in a certain time period
   4. Create Timelines and Responsibilities
      1. Description/Target Date/Responsible Party/Status
   5. Other Decisions
      1. Recording
         1. Access to Recordings
         2. Hosting – Vendor (Registration)
         3. Hosting – Own Website (Registration)
         4. CD or hard copy
      2. Collateral (Additional Materials)
      3. Charge for Event
2. Select and set up your technology (16 hours)
   1. Web Conferencing Software
      1. What Software has what features
   2. Audio
      1. Streaming
      2. Telephone
      3. Both
      4. Toll-free
      5. Toll Call
      6. International Numbers
      7. Digital Recording
      8. Subconferences
      9. Operator assistance
      10. Q&A queuing
   3. Payments and Security (optional)
3. Schedule your event (2 hours)
   1. Reminders
      1. 24 hours and 3 hours before the event
   2. Configure Registration
   3. Build Feedback Page or Survey
4. Promote your event (8 hours)
   1. Landing Page/Invitations
      1. www.MarketingSherpa.com:  The Landing Page Handbook ($500)
   2. Registration/Attendance Results
      1. Public (0.5%-1.0 reg, 30%-40% Attendance)
      2. Private List (1.5% – 4.0% reg, 40%-50% Attendance)
      3. Fee-based events (Less reg, 85%-95% Attendance)
5. Manage Content (3 hours)
   1. Plan your Timing
      1. Ex. Technical Intro, Overview and Intro (4 minutes)
      2. First Speaker (15 minutes)
      3. Poll and Intro (4 minutes)
      4. Second Speaker (15 minutes)
      5. Q and A – Have seed questions (10 minutes)
      6. Polls and Interactions
6. Hold Rehearsals (2 hours)
   1. Solo – “As if” – to get timing
   2. Technical – go through the software
   3. Group Runthrough – go through handoffs
7. Support the presentation (2 hours)
   1. Moderator Tasks
      1. Introductions
      2. Audience support
      3. Interactions
      4. Technical backup
      5. Time Management
   2. Minimize Problems with Contingency Plans
      1. Audio Problems, Presenter logs off, Internet Connections
      2. Have a backup computer
      3. Have a hard copy of the slides
      4. Have another phone line available and even dialed in
8. Follow-up – Prepare ahead of Time! (2 hours)
   1. Contact everyone – quickly, within minutes (less than a week)
      1. “Thanks for attending…”
         1. Recordings
         2. Repeat of seminar
         3. Other seminars
      2. “Sorry we missed you….”
         1. Recordings
         2. Repeat of seminar
         3. Other seminars
   2. Publish recording – 1 hour
      1. Have a link available (even if it is not ready!)
      2. Send materialsRespond to inquiries – Be Ready to Respond!
9. Analyze and Refine (1 hour)
   1. Registration/Attendance Reports
   2. Mechanics
      1. Software
      2. Audio
   3. Quantify Success – Survey results
      1. Did you accomplish what you wanted to accomplish?
   4. Feedback