How to create a successful virtual seminar?

What challenges SpatialChat cover for your organization?

Creating, for our customers, new ways of experiencing online seminars, enabling new types of interactions, new ways of designing & facilitating workshops, new ways of having fun together.

What made our solution stand out over others that you researched?

The online seminar experience is the closest to an IRL seminar to be offered to participants overdosed by Teams & Zoom meetings.

For 17 years, we have been designing experiences that have made transformation irresistible. We design & facilitate, for TOP managers and EXCOM members, live and online experiences of your strategy, enabling them to implement it smartly.

SpatialChat INTRO:

How did you first hear about SpatialChat?

Through our strategic & creative intelligence review

How long have you been using SpatialChat?

One year now

How often do you use SpatialChat?

At least twice a week

SpatialChat Case Study:

Who is your audience?

• Case study: International regulatory department of a pharmaceutical company
• In general: Business Unit meetings

What is the largest event you have organized in SpatialChat, in terms of attendees?

• In general: between 40 & 150 attendees
• Case study: 120 attendees

How do you use SpatialChat?

• Seminars & Workshops
• Ideoscripto business development meetings
• 2022 ideoscripto New Year card
• Testing how to innovate on the SpatialChat use (interactions / background design & animation)

Client’s request:

• Be consistent, relevant, original, and, by the way, have fun
• Lots of interactions: discovering newcomers/workshops/free time for participants “is it possible?”, teambuilding…
• Top-down messages are really important: coach speakers to have consistent content delivered clearly and in a lively way.
• Make the 120 participants comfortable with this new technical solution (they use Teams), so they can interact freely with each other after 2 years of online meetings and having grown the team up to 150%

How do you work in SpatialChat?

Before the seminar:

• Dedicated training for speakers & co-animators
• Create a SpatialChat test & learn area for participants to discover & practice the platform (opened 4 days before)

For the seminar:

• 3 Welcome rooms with 2-3 persons from the client’s team, trained to welcome everyone and send them to meet the Board
• 1 Stage room
• 8 Duo rooms to meet the newcomers
• 7 Topic rooms for workshops on hot topics to solve
• 1 Tea&Coffee room for the break online or offline
• 1 Agenda room
• 1 Team member for conversation room if they are lost
• 1 Team member for teambuilding room if they are lost

For the teambuilding:

• 1 Ground Control room for helping the crews to find answers
• 22 Crew rooms space travel to the moon
• 1 Room 43, a secret room to open with a code to sign the wall of fame

Brief for teambuilding:

Get the teams to collaborate, listen to each other, integrate newcomers, organize the best way to deliver, win the contest, and have fun while online!

Teambuilding goal: Go to the moon!

• 11 teams, 2 rooms + 1 hidden room called “Room 43.”
• Limited time to find all answers
• Intriguing questions such as cracking 4 codes to get to” Room 43”, reverse sounds, recognizing languages, emoticon titles for movies or series, song titles.
• Links to find words on google earth
• Group photos in space as astronauts
• 1 facilitator in Mission Control
• 2 facilitators are going around at the beginning to help and rapidly counting points to give before the end the winners!

The task to be done for a successful virtual seminar

Before the seminar:

• 2 conceptors of the entire seminar
• 1 chief editor for the top-down messages
• 1 game designer & content and dynamics
• 1 graphic designer & backgrounds, graphic elements added, game and videos needed for 2 SpatialChats

All preparation meetings with 12 top managers were done on SpatialChat with changing backgrounds to widen their understanding of the potential and gain their ability to navigate in different kinds of environments and use.

During the seminar:

• 3 facilitators for the entire session
• 6 “internal facilitators” from the client’s team è trained to welcome and coach participants in their first steps on SpatialChat
• 14 Topic Managers from the client’s team helped and trained to deliver their workshops
• 1 “cameraman” moving around to catch great moments and workshop content (recorded on ScreenFlow)

How do you customize your space for the virtual seminars?

Backgrounds developed on purpose revealing the content/animation intention:

• Specific background to welcome participants
• Specific backgrounds integrating the workshops’ facilitation
• Specific backgrounds for group photo / calls /coffee breaks /networking / brainstorming

What we discovered:

• Participants entering for the 1^st time on SpatialChat need at least 10 - 15’ min to get used to it. We are taking this time as a small talk moment very useful for participants before beginning the seminar.
• People act the same way as in a live seminar: they need a moment for a phone call or work for 15 minutes on their own. So, they go to a corner of the room or search for an empty room to be at ease for the time they need and come back.
• People need to have some help to find their way, just the same they would do on a live event. So, we need a “welcome desk” to answer all their questions: seminar’s agenda, what is their team, which room should they go to, solve small technical issues, …
• People are seduced by the sound system enabling them to have small talk in the corners of the rooms with friends they have not seen for a long time live: small groups, duos, trios…
• People stay in the coffee/tearoom to be with friends or go live in the real coffee room of their company to continue their discussion (when possible).
• When designing workshops, facilitators need time to understand how to use SpatialChat background to interact with their participants (different from the Sticky Notes approach).

Because people are quite acting like in a live event, we recommend having a staff acting likewise! At least for big events, you need a help desk and logisticians to foster good transfers of activities and good timing.

Conclusion:

What shall we improve in SpatialChat?

• PPT sharing control when on the plenary room or other rooms for presenters, they could not see both SpatialChat screen and their PPT document unless they have 2 separate devices
• PPT to pin in the room
• Engagement features – survey tools,… but all those improvements must not change the simplicity of use!

Thank you for your suggestions and feedback. We will take note of your requests and add them to the roadmap.

What new features should we develop in SpatialChat?

• Recording in all rooms not only in the plenary (stage) room

The breakout recording is a bit tricky to create. We are still looking for the best solution. Have a look at the workaround solution:SpatialChat HELP

• Be more than 50 guests in the breakout room, maybe up to 100?

We are working on 100 guests per breakout room: anticipated release - end of 2/4 or the beginning of the 3/4 quarter.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

We are delighted to help a young European startup that really makes a difference in remote seminars. We also want to say that you have a fantastic reactive team and a great product. Our clients are delighted with the SpatialChat platform as they find it very lively, easy to use, and close to a live experience.

Video interview:

Thank You

Thank you, Isabelle & Jérôme, for taking time and sharing your experience in SpatialChat. Excellent sample on how to organize virtual seminars and online teambuilding by ideoscripto.fr.  We are glad to have you among SpatialChat. Good luck in everything you do, and see you in the space. ?

SpatialChat is a virtual space that brings the best breakout & networking experience for online events & teams of any size. We make it very easy for you to break out with people across and quickly move between different rooms. Customize your space, set the mood, and create an unforgettable event for your guests. You will love it. People have been using SpatialChat for Virtual conferences, Virtual international congresses, Virtual workspace, Online events, Online webinars, Online learning & education, and more...

To learn more about SpatialChat:

👉 Try out admin features: CREATE SPACE
👉 SpatialChat community: Go here
👉 Weekly Demo: Take a seat
👉 Send request: Go here

Sincerely,
Atis Silis,
DEMAND GENERATION MANAGER
http://spatial.chat/

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