Thank you for coming by, today we are talking about the making of Heart of HAVEN, a behind the scenes reveal along with some valuable virtual event planning tips for you.
Our closing keynote, Amber of Damask Love, said “the FUN is in the FIGURING IT OUT”. Her statement resonated with me so much. We had a blast as we were figuring it all out and hope to inspire you a bit with our story today.
“Corona is surely not going to be around by May”, said I…By late April, the reality of hosting an in-person HAVEN conference was becoming further away from our hopes. This was sinking in hard as we look at Haven with a feeling of “coming home”, a time to share so much energy together, you all literally fill our cups so full, the momentum enables us to run the whole year dreaming and planning for our next time together!!
As we all entered a really scary time, full of many unknowns and the rules of life were changing daily…We knew a HAVEN change was absolute. Also knowing that virtual events were not in my personal wheelhouse, this alone was a barrier to overcome mentally. Toss on top, the question, if our Mavens would be interested in this style of learning and connecting? Who knew at that time? Those thoughts alone were intimidating, to say the least.
First, of May, we had our final team chat over the real possibility of canceling or going virtual – as a team, we decided LET’s DO THIS! Bryan was on communication, Lesley was on the back end of the website and email automation, KariAnne was confirming the mentors, Charlotte was finalizing with several speakers and creative ideas, Maddison started kicking us into gear on social, I was on logistic efforts of making it all come together.
Obviously, confirming the decision with our sponsors and canceling the hotel was first on the to-do list, before making the big announcement to our audience.
Our sponsors were pretty terrific – most of them were right there with us as, believing in the power of uniting with influencers at this time. I feel more aligned with our sponsors now than ever before. Through this challenge, we figured it out together! I am still humbled by the reactions, our partners are amazing and their DIY spirit is HUGE. If you have not checked out our 2020 sponsors, please pop over to our sponsor page. They all have active campaigns working with influencers. We encourage you to fill out their pitch forms.
Here comes the first event planning take away: Let your attendees know BEFORE canceling with the hotel. We were a bit rushed in announcing to the HAVEN Mavens because our hotel notified all of our guests that our event was canceled, the same day we voided our contracts with them! Leaving us no time to do a proper branding and marketing campaign.
WE are so sorry for the worry, that moment caused you all.
After that hurdle, we embraced the challenge of creating this virtual experience. We knew we wanted to share an experience together, not just online learning. Continuing the traditions, all that is the HEART of HAVEN; our Mentor Meetups, Thursday Welcome Party, Friday Night In, and Saturday Dance Farewell Party along with brand networking events. Haven leaves BIG shoes to fill in a virtual setting.
I dove in, attending every online seminar, summit, conference, craft workshop – you name it I participated. The classes and learning will be something I cherish for a long time! Major research was happening, learning so much by attending many and many more virtual experiences.
In that discovery phase, we also found a platform that could work for us. Hallelujah! This was the largest task and most important for the attendee overall experience.
Virtual event planning tip: Decide on one platform early in the planning stage, stick with it, take advantage of their resources, and take the time to make it YOURS.
Finding a platform:
- One that checks ALL the boxes – webinar platforms are abounding out there. We knew we needed a few key aspects of the program. With our resourceful spirits, we could make the “wants” within most platforms by using our pool of talents.
- Our must-have needs were capacity, user experience flow, aesthetics, and video capabilities.
Several of our speakers wanted to do pre-recording along with live Q&A. Many of the webinar platforms do not have video uploading – they require tech equipment or streaming know-how, that we were not able to accomplish in the confinement of a 2 month planning period. Most platforms are made to be live, then recorded within the site at that time. To fill all of the needs, we needed video uploading capabilities as well as live streaming.
Speaker LOVE:
After attending a few online events, we developed a clear direction in what we wanted from our speakers. Our speakers really stepped up. We asked for a big pivot – we were clear about our needs and they said YES and we could not be more grateful! They all rose up to the challenge beautifully.
Mentor Selections:
Many of our mentors were all about coming together, no matter what it took. They needed zoom and a spirit 🙂 Our mentors are tops along with KariAnne’s leadership. She did a fabulous job of maintaining the perfect amount of mentors so our Mavens would be able to experience the smaller group setting with time invested in them for questions and mentorship.
Swag & Shipping:
Sourcing our swag was going to be easy peasy…BUMP that notion, during Covid it was going to prove difficult! Printing delays, shipping delays, higher costs – we had to redesign our swag gift composition many times due to availability and costs. Again, knowing we wanted an experience – it was important for us to create the best TOGETHER experience possible.
I could not find what I was looking for, in our budget (sound familiar 😉 ) My DIY spirit kicked in and I learned how to create packaging and make candles – so fun, right?!
We did not mass ship much of anything to this point. Again I thought shipping, of all things, would be super easy. HA, well truth be told, shipping is simple if you pay $18 – $25 a box…Well, we could not afford that fee on our budgets. So we learned all about mass shipping programs, printers, stickers, creating boxes, packing peanuts – oh heavens the peanuts.
We had 5 of those large bags behind Jakey in my library. The library was stacked to the gills waiting for more swag to arrive. Hiring shipping and filling staff, during Covid, was fairly easy – our neighbors and family all assisted us in filling the 500 boxes. We turned on the tunes and got to packing. Not the professional crew we normally would have, however, we had a good time over that weekend – With only a handful of peeps, it takes a weekend.
I also want to give our residential postman a LARGE shout out – Frank, YOU are AMAZING and earn the BEST POSTMAN EVER award.
With two biggies, platform and swag, out of the way, we were starting to feel frisky. Heart of HAVEN is taking shape. We had practiced with our speakers, presentations were in, and our platform started to look Haven branded.
Filming and Creation:
First, we wanted to knock out the waiting room videos – we were such dorks, but again giggled way too much, learning new skills and laughing – LIFE is good!
This video reminds me of the old pre-flight demos we watched prior to major airline take off. Cracking myself up, right now…
DESIGNER Side Note: I must say, had I had one more week – JUST a few more days – our set design would have been HAVEN qualified!
Have you attended any of the online Masterclasses? My sister gave this to me for Mother’s Day this year and I was so inspired by Diane Von Furstenberg’s set and cinematography, her space was delightful and the fluidity of the video was gorgeous.
We fell WAY short of achieving our set design goals. This is where choices and voices kick in – “YOU ARE ENOUGH” enters my head, and “PRESENT over PERFECT” speaks louder than the alternative ugly voices. Life is a choice – allow the goodness to speak louder than the fear.
Tech During the Event:
It is important to have direct landlines to several computers when in the “back of the house” on a virtual event. We looked into hotel ballrooms, WeWork style facilities, and a few other options – either the hours were not conducive to our needs or there was a ban on the number of folks we could have in a ballroom…The obstacles did not stop along the way. We chose not to stop and kept going toward our goal.
My fabulous friend, Beth, her home became the answer to our needs. You all know her as our Entertainment Director for Haven and WorkbenchCon. She puts our playlists together and OH YES, you can thank her for Electric Avenue at last year’s 80’s Dance Party, “Keep It Glowing”.
She works from home, giving us several ports and landline entries for the infrastructure and technical support for our HAVEN home take over. YES, that is Easter still up in the dining room – no judgment as she loves her some Easter decor. Actually, she became extremely busy with all of Covid and just let that go.
Marketing Lessons:
Market the side events as much as the overall event. Communicate attendee expectations early in on the marketing campaign. We had put a lot of work into the side events, however did not promote them as well as we could have and did not explain a thorough picture of our vision so the attendee could network via zoom and FB group rooms. Most mavens that did join in, had a great time. Maddison and I LOVED interacting via FB Live throughout all of the side events. Here are a few takes from our Facebook Lives.
Heart of HAVEN Facebook live Friday Night In Welcome
Heart of HAVEN #HAVENLiberates Disco Party Welcome
#HAVENliberates contest in action
Fun Interactions:
Aligning with several sponsors and attendees for challenges was super exciting. We encourage you to check out the Orange Tank Competition. During Heart of Haven, the OTC finalists presented their dream projects, full of inspiration, in hopes to win the grand prize – let us know which one is your favorite from each category! You can see it all HERE.
To see our Rust-Oleum challengers and their Summer Refresh with Rust-Oleum projects head over to our post with them HERE.
Our partner, Woodgrain also hosted an Accent Wall challenge – the projects were amazing, check them out HERE.
We are thrilled to say, Heart of HAVEN went off with few glitches and a lot of LOVE – Thank you again for all of you who believed in us – You will never know how much you BELIEVING in us, means to us all…..on that note, I leave you with a fun photo of my sister and I singing “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey – this is a Stockdale Design event team song that boosts us up every time!
I hope you enjoyed this little vulnerable peak into Heart of HAVEN behind the scenes of developing a virtual event for the first time –
cheers, Kristin & The HAVEN team.
P.S. It’s NOT TOO LATE – Ready to transform your online business? Never fear, have you seen that we packaged ALL of the Heart of HAVEN sessions into a Business Building Bundle for you? Check this opportunity out HERE