APC guidelines on planning and designing online events
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1 Welcome
We organised this collection in four main sections that compose our story, the tapestry of online events with the infrastructure, labour, threads, creative patterns and strategies we think of when organising and designing online events.
2 Planning and designing your online event(s): The beginning
Questions in this section 1. Core principles and practices 2. Why? | Unique value and general challenges - Why do I want to host this event? - Could this experience be an opportunity or a risk for us a team? - What challenges should I consider during this process? 3. What? | Goals and possibilities - What do I want to accomplish? - What are the possibilities of my online event? 4. Who? | People, participation, context and access - Who will attend? | Participants and context - Is my event accessible? | Documentation, technology and access - Preparatory survey for participants 5. Crossroads and possible directions
3 Rising action
Questions in this section: 1. Who needs to be involved in the planning and designing stage? 2. When and how long? | Timing, time zone(s), duration and digital fatigue considerations 3. How? | Format, technology, documentation design, language(s), budget and care
4 The lead up and going live
1. How, when and where to share my event: Communications plan, invitation and registration form design, and outputs 2. Core principles for a safer and more accessible event 3. Technical support during my event, backup plan and preventive measures 4. (Re)imagining facilitation for online events
5 Winding down, reflection and continuation
The focus of our guide so far has been on the main elements of online event planning and design process. This section entails many different questions, inspiring approaches and considerations, including strategic archiving processes, continuing the conversation, evaluation forms design, post-event care activities, new learnings and reflections on the overall process, creating new resources, etc. We will be working on this section in the future and our plan is to add it in the next edition of this guide. However, here are some of the threads that we imagine could be included.