Just opened an icastGo account and are the organizer of your organization?
Here are some best practices to follow when preparing for your event:
Log in 1 hour before your event.
We strongly recommend that you and your speakers log in at least 1 hour before your event begins. You likely don't need an hour to talk with your speakers, but by logging in early you can identify potential problems. Each speaker can then go back to their own business before the conference starts, but you will at least be assured that everything is working.
Understand that we can help you if you identify a problem 1 hour before your event, as we have time to explore solutions. Whereas if you identify a problem 15 minutes before your event, it is possible we won't have time to fix it.
Introduce the platform to speakers
Take the time to make speakers comfortable with the platform before you launch a live event. The more they understand and are comfortable with the platform the fewer problems you will encounter during your event.
Don't hesitate to do several rehearsals with them. Rehearsals cost you next to nothing and are key to the success of your events.
Bad connection
If you or one of your speakers has a bad connection, try this:
- Turn off other applications. One of your applications may be using the internet and causing the bad connection.
- Refresh your page. This is simple, but often fixes the problem.
- Connect with a wired internet. Wi-Fi is convenient, but rarely as stable as a good wired connection.
- If problems persist, connect with a phone. We understand that it is more pleasant to see the speaker, but the most important thing is that the viewers can hear the content.
Relay
Have someone ready to take over. If one of your speakers loses their connection for any reason, stay calm and continue the presentation. Viewers will notice your professionalism in these situations.
Struggling Speaker
If you notice during your rehearsals that one of your speakers is having difficulty technically, try to make it as easy as possible by limiting the speaker's responsibilities. In extreme cases, make sure the speaker has access to someone who can help them in person, whether it's an IT person in your office or someone more technologically knowledgeable in their home.
Keep your events simple
For your first few events, try to limit your use of the platform's advanced features, such as polls and videos. Become proficient with the basic features and when you are comfortable introduce the more advanced features.
Upload your slides in advance
Your slides may have a problem during the conversion process when uploading them to the platform. For this reason, we advise you to upload them a few hours before your event so that you have time to make changes if there is a problem with the slides.
Know the different roles
The 3 roles in the platform, organizer, speaker and viewer, have different options and see different interfaces. Familiarize yourself with each role and what they can see and do.
Limit connections to the control room
Our platform is optimized for image quality, which means that each person added takes up more bandwidth, which could cause problems for speakers with poor internet connections. If you have members of your teams connected for support, ask them to have their cameras closed.
Questions of a technical nature
If you receive questions of a technical nature, don't panic, chances are the problem is on the viewer's side. Simply forward the question to us by clicking the three dots beside the question followed by "Transfer to technical support" and we will contact the viewer to resolve their issues.
Share your screen instead of showing nothing
If one of your speakers can't or won't turn on their camera, do a screen share so that viewers see something other than black on their screen, as they might identify the black screen as a technical problem.
Make recurring events
It's imperative that you do events frequently to keep you on track with the platform. If you must, prepare fake events to keep you familiar with the platform and its updates.