Short answer: probably not.
A colleague of mine, who has a lot more experience than I do, has a rule of thumb for events.
For a free, in-person event in London he estimates that only about 50% of those who sign up will actually turn up, plus a handful of people who didn’t sign up do turn up.
Add in a fee and/or a less immediately accessible location and you get more of your sign-ups showing on the day.
I thought about this at various points in recent weeks, as I organised, attended or discussed the new hardy perennial of events: do we livestream?
As someone who doesn’t want to just pretend that Covid didn’t happen, I’m glad that we’re exploring how best to connect online and in-person experiences, but I worry that the default of ‘stick a camera on a speaker and you’re done’ isn’t the solution we’re looking for, whether in the classroom or the conference panel.
This is where we go back to my colleague.
Continue reading “Do you need to livestream your event?”