Why Awkward Silence is the Best Sound in Virtual Events
By Dan Toland
As a live virtual event producer, there is a very specific moment, about 10 minutes before an event begins, that I absolutely love.
The hosts, moderator, camera operators and support staff are all connected and comfortable. Audio and video checks are complete, visuals are queued, streams are stable and backup plans are ready, but hopefully remain unnecessary.
Nobody is talking. Just complete, awkward silence. And it’s beautiful.
Many assume awkward silence during a virtual event setup means something is wrong. To be fair, silence on Zoom can mean somebody froze, disconnected or accidentally muted themselves while continuing a conversation only they can hear.
But for me, awkward silence before a virtual event is the sign of a job well done, meaning all the work ahead of the event, well, worked.
The live event itself is merely the visible result of dozens or hundreds of decisions made long before anybody joins. Where the audience sees a seamless 30-60-minute production, our virtual event team sees weeks of planning, building, testing, communication, troubleshooting, rehearsals, contingency planning and enough browser tabs and open apps across multiple monitors to qualify as a minor operating system. It’s all part of taking a client’s idea and engineering it into a fully functioning live experience people can actually host and participate in confidently.
No two virtual events are ever truly the same, and there’s always something new to solve. The framework and process may stay consistent, but the variables change constantly.
Different presenters. Different audiences. Different goals. Different engagement strategies. Different comfort levels with technology. Different locations. Different internet realities. Unpredictability is always part of the production plan, especially when producing Virtual Farm Trips®.
One event may involve a polished panel discussion with dedicated wired internet and an experienced on-site AV crew. The next may involve coordinating multiple live cell phone video feeds from a dairy farm where connectivity depends on the weather and avoiding the chain housing for the freestall barn’s automated manure scraper. (I know because it happened. You can’t predict or make that one up.)
Every event has its own technical needs, limitations and moving parts that must be engineered for that specific experience.
That’s the part most people never see. Our role is to sort through it all, stay ahead of potential problems and build workflows that allow everyone involved to focus on what they do best. Presenters focus on presenting. Moderators focus on the audience. Camera operators focus on their shots. I focus on producing instead of troubleshooting.
Creating that confidence requires testing, rehearsals, troubleshooting, communicating, intentional redundancies and contingency planning. Because I work remotely in relationship to our clients, it also means coordinating people, technology and locations sometimes hundreds of miles apart while making it all feel seamless to the audience.
On many event days, I’m operating across three or four screens and multiple computers, managing streams, audience engagement and support and backchannel communication with presenters and on-site crews. Meanwhile, I’m guiding AV checks, prepping last-second visual adjustments and making sure nobody accidentally touches the one button on the headset that will disconnect them in the middle of the event. (Again, been there, done that.)
But when all of that planning, coordination and engineering comes together correctly, something wonderful happens right before the event starts: The entire production team experiences something that feels smooth and natural. Soon the audience will as well.
It isn’t magic, and it isn’t luck. It’s the result of weeks of planning, testing, engineering, coordination and preparation coming together to create calm confidence, exactly as intended.
That awkward silence with plenty of time to spare before a live virtual event begins is the sound of trust.
It’s what great live virtual event production really is, and what a great live virtual event production partner really does.
And after more than 500 events, it’s still one of the most satisfying sounds I get to hear.
Planning a virtual field trip, webinar, training or other virtual event?
Thoughtful production and preparation can help your next event run smoothly long before the audience joins.