The Brief
Lead Dev is a live event designed for software development teams across the globe to come together and share good leadership practices, discuss problems & solutions and learn new skills.
Each year the event takes place in multiple locations, including Austin, Berlin, San Francisco, New York and London.
The event was due to take place in New York in April 2020 but with the outbreak of Coronavirus and a global travel ban in place, it was decided to switch it to an online event with participants able to join, free of charge, from their homes.
We were tasked with using our live event experience to bring an online event to life and create an engaging experience to a large audience across the world. The event was supported by around 40 speakers from around the world who joined in presentations, panel sessions and Q&A discussions with the vast audience.
The challenges we faced
Events are all about engaging and inspiring an audience. We have spent many years perfecting this art and in a live environment, we take full control of all aspects of the production to ensure the audience get the right experience and a memorable event is delivered.
The greatest challenge with moving an event online is the lack of control over the audience, the environment they are in and the technology they are using. Our greatest challenge was how to remotely inspire an audience!
With all the speakers locked down to their home locations, another challenge was managing their individual live feeds without onsite professional support and control over their hardware. The quality of each feed was determined by their internet connection, video camera/web cam, lighting, microphone and general acoustics. Without careful planning, each of these parameters could lead to a poor quality of output that would mean viewers would switch off.
Another very unique challenge we faced while in lockdown due to Covid-19 was that we couldn’t bring our team together to produce and manage the event from a single location. Instead we needed to set up communication channels and remote preview streams so our team could all operate together as one, but from their own locations. Thankfully we have technology available at our finger tips so could construct systems to deal with this challenge.
What we did
Step One
Step Two
Step Three
Step Four
We created pre-set looks to the stream that we could switch to with ease. These included:
- 3 Remote Hosts
- 1 Remote Host + Google Slides
- 1 Remote Speaker + Google Slides
- 4 Remote Panellists
Step Five
We built redundancy into every system where possible and we were ready for a multitude of different technical challenges throughout the event and had content we could switch away to if we lost any feeds.
Step Six
The event went live with just 2 operators required. Dan took the role as Director and was based in an office with super fast internet. Adam was our Producer and was based from home. We used some clever tech that allowed Adam to remote control hardware in the office over the internet.
What our customers say about us
“As always, it’s a pleasure to work with Guy and the team at On. Their ability to interpret a brief and always come up with something that little bit different is second to none and we look forward to teaming up with them again in the future.”
Alan Ellis
Creative Director
Juice Live Communications
“ISFM was a great success – thank you and your team for always being professional and always being able to navigate the difficulties that arise.”
Jess
Head of B2B
Cirkle PR
“I have worked with On many times and I am always delighted with the quality, professionalism and creativity of the team.
Our 2018 conference was incredibly successful, and it’s largely down to the slick production and beautifully designed set, which really highlighted the message we wanted to get across to our audience. The team on the day were brilliant – they ensured we ran to time and had everything we needed to make the day as impactful as possible.”
Ali Pearce
Head of Communications
Domestic and General
Top notch
“We had the pleasure of working with On Event Production Co at our own brand launch event. It was really important that the event showed our clients the high standard of quality that we deliver in our productions…and knew that ON would always be the right partner to showcase this.
Siobhan Ryan
Head of Events
The Rocket Science Group
“This is the second event that On Event Production Co have delivered for us and it was nothing short of fantastic. Every person we deal with from On is always professional, helpful and nothing is too much trouble, but what we really appreciate is the creative ideas that they bring to the table….This is what makes our event feel unique and special.“
Darren Messias
Managing Director
KH Hair
Yet again On did an incredible job with what was a logistically challenging project. The determination and “whatever it takes” attitude makes On our absolute Go-To-Production-Guys…..Stand out professionals
Siobhan Ryan
Senior Producer
“Once again, working alongside On was a delight. They understood the creative vision we had for the event and were able to not only deliver on our plans, but enhance them too”
Neil Crespin
Chairman/Creative Director
MCM
“Once again an amazing job. I am certain that no other team of people could have made this project happen. The commitment, enthusiasm, attention to detail and team spirit make you a truly stand-out business…We’re looking forward to the next one”
Louiza Vicary
Head of Events
“This was a huge, prestigious event which took about three months to plan and prepare for.
It was a challenging space to work in to create staging that not only looked cool, but kept in with the event branding, which is very angular, so creating a square space just wouldn’t have worked. The triangular concept that was developed for the event was a lot more visually appealing and made the space more immersive for the audience in the room.
It was a stunning event to be involved in and one we are immensely proud of.”
Adam Dewhurst
Production Director
On
“This was a challenging project to undertake, simply because of the scale of the installation in such a tight timeframe in order to make this event a success.
However, with our full-service offering, we were able to oversee the whole project in pre-production and manage the teams onsite to ensure that the all elements were executed seamlessly, and hit the excellent creative brief we were given by Muster.
We have the systems in place and use solid processes to provide our agency clients with peace of mind that everything is thoroughly tested prior to their event, to keep any issues on the day to a minimum. Our client commented that they felt in safe hands with a team that clearly work very well together and they couldn’t be happier with the end result.”
Jake Moore
Production Manager
On
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