Hosting Both Virtual and In-person Events: Bevy

By Ivy Walobwa

When I thought of being a GDSC Lead, all I had in mind was physical gatherings. It’s been more than a year since the pandemic and I can count on one hand, the number of physical events my community has held. The pandemic has forced us to find alternative ways to gather. Virtual meetups have become the norm.

Most schools are ‘partially’ opened; half of the students are in session while the other half is home trying to figure out what to do next as they wait for their turn. To a GDSC lead, this means that you have to think of a way to involve all students, in session or not.

Luckily, as a lead, this is possible on the DSC platform using Bevy. You can host a ‘hybrid’ event for both your virtual and physical attendees. In this article, I will share a few steps I used to seamlessly host such an event.

Let’s dive right in.

1. Create a virtual event on the DSC Platform

Currently, in April 2021, Bevy does not provide an option to create a ‘hybrid’ event so we will create a virtual event. This is so because we’ll need to provide a link for our virtual attendees, not a location.

2. Select a platform for your virtual attendees

Whether you choose to use Bevy to host your session (preferred) or meet or zoom, you need to select a platform for your online attendees. This way, they will be directed to your selected tool during the session.

3. Create posters for your event (Important)

Your members probably saw the ‘new event’ email after publishing. Some are wondering why they need an online event yet they are in school and can attend physical sessions to save on data.

Posters! You can easily communicate that your event will be both virtual and in-person using posters. Include your meetup location and rsvp link on the posters. Inform your members that the event will be both online and physical.

4. Hosting Event

This is where you understand the importance of having a core team.

During the event, have one of your core team members join the online session and project their screen on a whiteboard/wall if the speaker is online. If the speaker is present physically, they can have their camera on and pointed towards the speaker. This means they have to stay unmuted.

Have another member join the online event and share their camera. The second member can be positioned at the center front so that their camera can capture physical attendees in the background. They can also have their earphones connected to prevent any echo during the session.

The first member is the one to echo questions or comments, if need be, to both attendees.

5. Recording Attendance

You definitely need to report your event and record in-person and online attendees.

For physical attendees do a headcount. On top of that, ensure each of your physical attendees has Rsvpd for the event and checked in. You can do the check-in manually once they Rsvp.

For the online attendees, they definitely have to rsvp and check in to access the session link (unless you shared the session link separately, a bummer). Luckily these virtual conferencing tools do the count for you, all you have to do is read the number of attendees.

Those are the few tips I had. I hope this helps in creating better events during this pandemic. Stay safe!😊