Real World Virtual Event Planning Secrets for Virtual Assistants

I am in total awe of professional event planners.  Especially the ones that handle a million details and look *good* doing it.  My first job out of school was to handle the logistics for study tours for local government officials from Eastern Europe coming to visit medium sized cities to see how government worked in the United States.  It was a tough job.  I was personally responsible for the health, welfare, transportation and education of 12-25 VIPs who were twice my age and who didn't speak English.  There were a thousand details to master from bus schedules, to confirming appointments to making sure that the trash was emptied in the conference rooms.  I even had midnight requests for chess boards and tennis rackets.  In retrospect,  I'm glad that was my first professional job — because since then I have planned many events (including a gala that raised half a million dollars) and they all were a piece of cake compared with my very first job.

As a virtual assistant, I now almost exclusively help my clients plan virtual events (from teleseminars to big multiday events), but I find that many of the lessons I learned on that first job planning study tours transfer over nicely to the virtual world.  Here are  a few of my best tips for virtual event planning.

1.  Aim high.  Even though you may be just beginning in your marketing career - don't be afraid to ask the big names in your field to participate. People are generally very willing to help and are flattered to be asked.

2.  You can never confirm too many times.  Plans change and people are busy.  Don't be afraid to re-confirm three or four times just to make sure that your presenters are on board.  Even with the confirmations, have a back up plan ready in case a speaker needs to back out at the last minute.

3. Have a technical run through.  Make sure that your bridge line is working, that the sound is good, that you know the buttons to push.  Doing a mock teleseminar can help you and your client feel more comfortable once event day arrives.

4. Scripts (even loose ones) make people feel comfortable.  When I used to plan large events, I would put together what was called a step-by-step which was a timeline and loose script for the whole event.  I still help clients with this when we do teleseminars.  It helps to create a general shape for the event.

5. Don't forget to thank anyone or everyone who has taken part in the event.  The world is a very small place (and the online world is even smaller).  You don't know when you'll be working with someone again.  Not only is saying thank you polite and good karma - you'll probably be working with that person again — so a quick thank you makes sense.

Virtual Event planning is becoming a hot area for virtual assistants.  I've put together a mindmap to help you get started. You can register to download it here.

The page also includes a special bonus offer for people who sign up for the new VAClassroom Event Management Specialist Program using this link.