There are 30 minutes to go. The participants are ready: some are in our Barcelona studios, and others are at Roseland. Are we ready to stream to thousands of people around the world?
Every time we produce an event, we spend hours gathering content, planning the production, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity, and rehearsing.
Rehearsing with the speakers allows us to refine how they share ideas, data, testimonials, and conclusions. For us producers, it helps us to identify small opportunities for improvement: a spot on stage that needs lighting, text that’s too small, or the order in which remote participants appear.
It’s March 12 in Barcelona. Now, the countdown clock reminds us that there’s one minute left before the live broadcast begins. On the control screens, the number of connections rises: we pass the one thousand mark, then the two thousand.
When the video featuring our client’s corporate branding, ADP (Nasdaq: ADP), kicks off the event, more than 3,500 associates from around the world are watching it live, wherever they are, along with another 40 colleagues seated in front of the studio set.
Keys to success in a global streaming broadcast
Preparation and rehearsal are the most obvious keys to success. Others we’ve learned over five years of streaming global events from our ADP Studios include:
1. The key message defines everything else: Women in Leadership is a recurring event designed to share leadership insights, spark conversations, and build community among ADP associates around women’s leadership. All the panelists were ADP executives, and the topics they discussed aligned with this purpose. Consequently, iPg assigned a team consisting of a producer, a stage manager, and an assistant to lead the project. From start to finish, we aligned the project with its central theme by entrusting its leadership to a team of women. That said: our production team was still predominantly male.
2. The medium is the message, and there are many messages! The streaming format offers numerous creative possibilities, ranging from visual synergy between the stage and on-screen production elements to the integration of remote interviews, questions from the live audience, polls, and much more. Making the most of these requires an expert production team, as well as testing and site visits to the event venue.
3. Paying close attention to every technical detail is essential: in a live stream, communication quality is key, which is why we use redundant networks, in this case, provided by the hotel where the event took place. Our technical team had a dedicated space to set up their consoles, which they installed the day before alongside all the audio and video equipment. Multiple monitors and screens allow technicians to control the broadcast while attendees watch the event unfold and speakers interact with online participants.
4. Prepare, prepare, prepare: just because it’s so obvious doesn’t mean we should stop emphasizing the need to prepare all the event details in advance. Between the initial brief and the execution of Women in Leadership, a 60-minute event, 45 days passed, and we held four international meetings.
“An inspiring and much-needed session” with “excellent technical execution” is how some of the participating ADP executives described the experience. These comments reflect the achievement of the event’s main objectives, as well as a collaboration based on trust and mutual understanding.
An experienced team you can trust
iPg provides event production services to a diverse range of international clients, who rely on us to provide them with a creative director, a project team, a stage manager, and an audiovisual production team with extensive experience.
In addition to event production, we offer storytelling, video production, copywriting, graphic design, and content marketing services. We recently produced a video generated 100% by artificial intelligence, though in our daily work, we continue to cultivate ideas and bring them to life with 1% AI and 99% personal attention.
If you’d like to learn how we can help you plan your next event or convey the story you want to tell your audience in the best possible way, please contact us.
