Digital events

Before planing for or organising a larger meeting or event at the Pufendorf IAS, please make sure to contact the coordinator or administrators at the institute. 

Format

Decide on the format of your event, based on for example target group, number of participants, venue and aim of the event.

• Meeting (using e.g Zoom or Teams)
• Webinar: presentations + discussion/Q&A online (using eg. zoom)
• Hybrid event: filmed seminar/presentations with participants both on-site and online.
• Live stream: Live streamed seminar/presentations/interviews

Depending on which type of event you are planing you may need professional technical support, e.g. filming, live steaming etc. Contact our coordinator Eva Persson for more information.

Digital platform

The University offers cost-free tools such as Zoom, Skype for business and Teams. Read more about the different digital tools on LU staff pages and/or contact the staff at the Pufendorf IAS for guidance on which tool is most suitable for your event. 

Information about Digital meetings at LU staff pages

Registration

• How do you want the participants to register?
  Will registration be made on a web form or by sending you an email?
  What kind of information do you need from the participants, e.g. name, email, affiliation/organisation, type of participation (e.g. live/on link, one session/all day).
• How many participants can join the event?
  Do you need to set a limited number of participants?

Contact our coordinator Eva Persson for more information on how to set up the registration for your event.

Organisation and programme

A head of the meeting/event

• Allow presenters to join the meeting 30 minutes to an hour before start to get help with technical issues and try out the features in the platform. Preferably, share a “Welcome” screen with instructions.
• Encourage participants to join the meeting 10 min before the meeting starts to avoid disturbances and interruption, and in case they need help with any technical issues.  Participants should show their real names, help those that do not.

Presentations

Presentations should be maximum 30 minutes long. It is difficult to keep up concentration for longer periods online.

Breaks, coffee breaks and leg stretchers

Plan for many breaks. e.g. five minutes breaks in between sections and longer breaks for lunch etc.

Engaging with the audience

Engaging with the audience is key when organising digital events. 

• Use a poll, Mentimenter or chat function to engage with the audience during the event. 

Mentimeter is a cost free voting/poll tool at Lund University that can be used by both the presenters and the audience to ask questions or create e.g polls and word clouds.

Read more about how to use Mentimenter at Lund University
Create a mentimeter account by logging in with your LU -credentials here: www.mentimeter.com/join/lunduniversity

• Make room for discussion and questions throughout the event. Be clear on when and how participants can pose questions, and make sure that someone is monitoring the questions during the event.

Questions from participants can be managed in different ways depending on the format of the event. For example:

• The moderator invites participants to ask questions in person at a given time. E.g. use the Show hand feature (in Zoom). 
• Participants pose questions in the chat (managed by a designated moderator.)
• Participants pose questions in an optional notice-board/platform.

Moderator

If you're planing a larger webinar or hybrid event it is always a good to have a moderator.  You can have different moderators for different sessions, and/or have a specific moderator who is responsible for monitoring questions or taking care of technical matters.

Technical support

Depending on the size of the event you may need a someone who is responsible for technical issues or the chat function (= a technical team or chat team.)

”Technical or chat team”  responsibilities

• Mute microphones
• Answer questions on technical issues
• Have a plan B for the speakers (e.g. have a copy of the presentation and a phone number.
• Encourage participants to fill in their name.
• Ask everyone to try their microphones and video when they login (during Try-out) – also to know there is a real person behind the screen.
• Responsible for recording, can be manual or automatic (this has to be communicated and approved beforehand by all participants and speakers, according to GDPR regulations)
• Use an additional communication channel (e.g. using Teams, Zoom or email to be able to communicate with participants or colleagues without interrupting the event.)
• Timekeeper that helps the moderator to keep track of the time.
• keep track on questions or discussions in the chat

Pre-meeting with moderators and speakers

Arrange for a pre-meeting with moderators and speakers some days in advance to check the following:

• Connection
• Sound/microphones
• Backgrund/lighting
• Share screen function (practice some slides from the presentation.)
• Chat function, and decide on how and when to use it.
• Breakout room function
• Go through the detailed schedule with times for all activities.
• Discuss the technical/chat-support that will be available during the meeting, and agree on how to collaborate on certain issues ( e.g. questions).
• Make sure all participants and speakers are informed if the event is being recorded/filmed, and how it will be used.

Read more about digital meetings, different digital tools and things to remember before and during meetings on LU staff pages

Safety

• Only send out the link to the event to registered participants, or make sure to create a secure zoom link.
• Do not allow sharing files in the chat (File transfer should be turned off)
• The feature ‘Allow removed participants to rejoin’ should be turned off
• Only host/co-host should be able to share screen
• Participants video should be turned off upon entrance 
• Mute participants upon entrance

Find more information about creating a secure zoom meeting in Canvas (login with your lucat id)

Communication

Make a communication plan well ahead of the event together with the Pufendorf IAS. (Contact our coordinator Eva Persson)

Download How to draw up a communication plan (Word 94 kB, new window)

Invitation

• Specify the target group and make a list of people, organisations etc you would like to invite to your meeting/event
• Make an email list of all participants (when registration is completed)
• Publish the event in the calendar on lu.se and pi.lu.se. (including time, date, short description, speakers, programme, information about the Theme/ASG), 
• Send out information about the event (including the link to the digital meeting, programme and information about practicalities and technicalities) to participants and speakers (at least one week ahead of the event, and a reminder the day before).
• Consider making an Outlook event that people can save to their calendars.

Programme

Publish the programme on your webpage and/or in the calendar on pi.lu.se

Abstracts and introductions

If relevant, publish abstracts and introductions of the speakers on the webpage and/or in the calendar on pi.lu.se

Thank you message

If relevant, send a ‘Thank you-message'  with information on when and where the recoding and other material will be published, and perhaps information about other upcoming events that they might be interested in.

GDPR

If you plan to record the event you need to inform the participants ahead of the event, and you need a written consent from all participants and speakers (if filmed) in advance. Remember to consider the processing of personal data according to Lund University ́s guidelines. 

Read more about “Processing of data” at Lund university

Copyright

Please make sure all presenters have the right to show their material, and do NOT show any images with copy right. If the presentation is filmed it is especially important that researchers do NOT show any information they do not wish to share, e.g. unpublished data. Therefore please make sure all participants are informed about this in advance.