According to a recent survey of 1,512 corporate executives by Wainhouse Research, the majority of executives recognize the value of streaming video in achieving business objectives including extending their reach for Town Hall Meetings [1].
Says author Steve Vonder Haar,
“Whether one-to-many video is used for employee training, extending the reach of an all-hands town hall meeting or disseminating information on benefits and other human resource initiatives, the technology is transforming how executives get the word out to a far-flung workforce.”
We agree more one-to-many video is transforming the way businesses communicate. This is certainly the case with critical executive communications like All-Hands Town Hall Meetings.
But when internal communication leaders are asked to determine right solution to stream All-Hands Town Hall Meetings using advanced video communication tools like one-to-many, broadcast-style webcast platforms, we are often asked,
“What are the key considerations I need to be aware of to produce these meetings successfully using these tools?”
Key Considerations
The key considerations for producing successful All-Hands Town Hall Webcasts can be categorized into three different areas: Technical Considerations, Meeting & Event Production and Partner Relationships.
Technical Considerations are related to items like network management, content protection and viewer experience.
Meeting & Event Production will also affect the viewer experience, for both the room and web, from a content and signal quality standpoint, to engage your audience and communicate effectively.
Partner Relationships will help internal teams, including IT, manage processes and produce expected outcomes.
Technical Considerations
Looking deeper into the Technical Considerations, the goal is to distribute a high quality video stream through the corporate network to produce a good viewing experience for the audience, without affecting other business related services based on network capacity and utilization.
The Network Assessment is a diagnostic tool used in collaboration with your IT team to determine the proper balance between the bitrate for the outbound feed from the meeting location, and the estimated number of feeds that can be pulled from within the corporate network.
Webcast Platforms like StagePro are the home where your content is secured, managed and played, live or on-demand, anywhere in the world. There are different types of application hosting methods to help manage network load and help secure content, based on company policies and goals.
Network Management Tip: If your All-Hands Town Hall Webcasts originate from same location, like from a conference room inside the home office, it is useful to order a dedicated business internet line from your Internet Service Provider, to keep the outbound stream separate from the corporate network.
Meeting & Event Production
When it comes to All-Hands Town Hall Webcasts, applying the same production values as you would to a National Sale Meeting, but on a smaller scale, can help create a great viewing experience for the meeting location audience and the online audience as well.
An All-Hands Town Hall Webcast starts with clean audio and video sources, steering away from webcams and laptop mic audio. This will help online attendees, who often gather together in conference rooms to watch webcasts off projector screens, enjoy their viewing experience.
A good set design and with balanced lighting creates a broadcast that is easy to watch for extended periods of time. Roll-in videos and graphics help tell a story in a way that is engaging for the audience. Audience engagement features like Q&A and polling provide feedback and data to presenters.
Partner Relationships
Choosing the right partner is important to helping manage the All-Hands Town Hall Webcast from both the technical and production points-of-view. The right partner will collaborate with your IT department to determine the right resources necessary to create a reliable and secure network environment.
They will also have an understand of the how to produce an event from the production side to create a good experience for both the web and meeting location audiences, to achieve the communication goal of the meeting.
Each communication goal is different. All-Hands Town Hall Webcasts are used to communicate with the workforce for a variety of reasons like Quarterly Meetings but also for: Leadership Change, Company Restructuring, Key Initiatives, Corporate Announcements, Awards Meetings, Brand Activation and more.
And not every communication goal fits an out-of-the-box solution. The right partner will listen and collaborate with Communication and IT teams to develop and deploy the right solution from both a technical and production perspective, to help the company achieve their communication objective.
Corporate Events Online
We have been trusted to produce customized All-Hands Town Hall Webcast solutions for the world’s most respected organizations including many in the Fortune 500, with our products and services, including StagePro, the leading Webcast Portal for Meetings and Events.
If you’d like to learn more about how we've helped organizations achieve their unique business communication objectives and how they might apply to your company, please click the button below to contact us and schedule a consultation.
[1] Five Building Blocks for Enterprise Streaming Success, Steve Vander Haar, Wainhouse Research