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
“Just a quick note to personally thank you for your hard-work, dedication and first class execution we saw last week in Birmingham. Thank you for providing a first class service for us. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it and from a staging, AV and lighting perspective, it was A*!”
Ben Springer
Head of Client Services
Blue Square
“We recently worked with ON to intensively pull together a virtual pivot on an international conference. As always, Adam went above and beyond to help us find the best solution platform. He supported our speakers hugely, taking extra time and care to make sure they got the best and most comfortable experience before and during the event. It was a scary prospect for us with it being our first digital event, as a trusted partner we knew exactly what we would get from ON and Adam really helped us relax knowing the production was in safe hands. It was a fantastic success.”
Megan Kingdom-Davies, Head of Operations, White October Events
A huge thank you Adam. We couldn’t have done it without you, you’re amazing. Such a voice of calm for the speakers and panellists. And such a technical wizard.”
Ruth Yarnit
Chief Executive
White October Events
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
“As always an amazing job over the last couple of days. The venue looked incredible. Everyone who attended had a great time and the messages landed perfectly. Thanks for all your efforts in the run up to this one”
Senior Communications Manager
“This was a great project to be involved with, but the timings went right down to the wire. The brief was to create a space which would help Stella to inspire its guests and leave a lasting impression. We were able to play a huge part in delivering that… within the space of a week.”
Chris Vernon-Smith
Creative Director
“I just wanted to drop a huge note of thanks for an expertly delivered job on the Open Day. All the little changes you’d made since the first one in September made it all so much smoother and the set you built looked fantastic.
More than anything, it’s always great working with your team. All brilliant at what they do, but able to have a chat and a laugh with them at the same time.
Thanks once again, it was a pleasure working with you.”
Nik Emmonds
Event Operations Manager
University of Derby
“On Event Production made our vision their vision; they took full ownership, delivering the project on very tight timescales, in a venue with limited space and access constraints. They even exceeded expectations and delivered for an event a few weeks prior to the launch so the RDS Team could get a practice run-through for timings and operational bits.
The immersive experience was the highlight and most memorable aspect of the RDS Black Box™ launch event – the feedback we had from attendees was amazing; they were officially immersed, engaged and ready to find out more!”
Imaan Basi
Sales Team Leader
RDS Global
“This was an interesting project to work on in the grounds of a stunning, historic stately home. The trick with this installation was finding a creative way of using simple technology to create a totally believable, immersive world which took visitors on a magical and enchanting journey.
It’s amazing to think how applying a bit of creative thought to lights, props and sound can result in something truly memorable and captivating and we look forward to seeing this initiative go from strength to strength next year.”
Anabelle Parslow
Fabrication project manager
On
“We had worked with On previously so we knew exactly what to expect; an incredibly diligent and hardworking team that go beyond the extra mile to execute your brief with a precision that is almost unheard of….”
Sandra Ball
Head of Marketing
Cegedim
“Music, and more importantly inspiring audiences at music-related events, is a huge part of what we do here at On Event Production Co, so this job was right up our street.”
Chris Vernon-Smith
Creative Director
On Event Production Co
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