In the multimedia team, we’re making sure our virtual events are as good as the in-person ones

There were no canapes and drinks before the Q&A with Simon Calder... but we made sure the evening was still interactive, writes Tom Richell

We turned to Zoom for our first virtual event (Reuters)

Putting on an event is a great project. Weeks spent location scouting and running tests. Hiring equipment, rigging cameras, lights and cables. Working with high maintenance presenters, and often higher maintenance guests. To a techy, local-television survivor like me, all that stuff is fun and exciting.

So when the world was plunged into lockdown, and large gatherings were banned, I wondered: how are we going to put these events on?

You, our Premium subscribers, expect these events to happen. Every month you pay for them. So, we had to find a way to hold up our end of the bargain. The first in a series of virtual events from The Independent was born.

We hosted an interactive Q&A with Simon Calder, an undisputed expert in his field, a well-known public face and a veteran broadcaster who understands what we’re trying to achieve.

We used Zoom, which allowed us to both broadcast to all our attendees but also to bring people into the experience and ask their question to Simon on camera.

While there were no canapes and drinks before things got started, we made sure the evening was still interactive. Running live polling during the Q&A was an interesting way to make sure everyone had a chance to get involved, even if there wasn’t time to answer everyone’s questions.

I was also struck by how wonderfully accessible a virtual event is. As Andrew from Blackpool, sitting in what looked like a conservatory, asked Simon whether he should wait till next year to book a summer holiday, it became obvious that without the medium we were using he wouldn’t have had the chance to ask a question in such a way.

Breaking free of the constraints of a physical location allows for more diversity in the questions submitted, a far larger audience than we could host in person, and an opportunity for more voices to be heard. After all, that’s what The Independent is all about.

If you attended our very first virtual event this week, thank you. I hope you enjoyed it. I certainly did. If you didn’t catch it, keep an eye on our events page for what we’ve got coming up next.

Yours,

Tom Richell

Head of multimedia