How We Organized Our First WordPress Online Event at Crocoblock

Well, our first WordPress Web Agency AI Summit has just finished, and I couldn’t stand but share my and our team's experience with you. 🥹

So, everything started back in Spring 2023.

I, along with our COO Anna Gurko and CTO Andrew Shevchenko, initiated discussions on the importance of organizing an online event. The main goal was simple: to help our community of 25,000 members embrace AI in their web agency and freelance work. We knew there was a wealth of resources out there, but we wanted to curate something special.

During our meeting, I highlighted the success of past events by amazing teams: Atarim, Human Made, and the Page Builder Summit. That’s when we made the decision to give it a shot. 💚

Summit Preparation

The preparation phase was quite detailed, and we covered a lot:

• We set goals for the summit, like the target audience, format, and how many registrations we aimed for.
• We made a list of topics to cover and outlined the requirements for our experts, including their backgrounds and specializations. As we wanted to make the event more technical than conversational.
• The design team played a crucial role in creating materials like landing pages, social media graphics, emails, YouTube video covers, and more. I couldn’t have done it without them! 💖
• We worked on our advertising strategy, like Facebook ads (videos and images).
• We set up email automation and workflows.
• I reached out to experts and also contacted brands and media for marketing support (with a commitment to keeping the event free for everyone).
• reaching out to Brands and media to ask for support (only marketing, as we wanted to make the event free for everyone);
• and so much more behind the scenes, like team meetings, sorting out the technical setup, and scheduling speaker videos.

Summit format

For the summit format, we decided on a mix of pre-recorded and live content.

We had nine pre-recorded expert videos (with experts joining the chat during premieres), three live streams, and three live stream introductions. After the event, we gathered all the videos in one playlist:

This format wasn’t perfect, and some participants might have expected a longer live event with more interaction.

The truth is, we chose this format to accommodate different time zones, make it accessible to everyone, and ensure it was manageable for both speakers and attendees.

However, we’re committed to experimenting with different formats for future events. 🫡

Tips for Other WordPress Event Organizers

🙌Here are some lessons I learned from organizing the #wpaisummit2023:

1. Call for Speakers: Create a speaker submission form and promote it widely. Don’t rely solely on outreach

We didn’t have a Call for Speakers form just because I was afraid people could miss it due to WordCamp EU. So, I’ve reached out to 150 WordPress Experts to ask them if they are interested in participating. I bet I might miss someone, but this is the most useful lesson I’ve learned — make a form!

2. Experts communication: Choose the right communication channels for experts. I found that email and Slack worked well, but remember that Slack has a premium plan for inviting all your experts (as I missed this ability).

3. Make the Expert form as detailed as you can. Ask for detailed information in your speaker submission form, including bios, social media, and specialization. It’ll save you from sending too many follow-up emails.

4. Lists — write down all the preparation stages and tasks you have.

I’ve used a simple Google document for my organization, where I’ve added all Summit information and assigned tasks to myself with reminders. :D

For Team organization, we used Trello — and it’s not the best choice. A little bit chaotic for us. Lists were my rescue, and they kept me calm.

5. Prepare in advance: Give yourself enough time for preparation. We had four months, which turned out to be just right to avoid last-minute stress.

6. Delegate when possible: Delegate tasks or prioritize responsibilities to minimize interruptions during event planning. OR! At least prioritize all other tasks so as not to interrupt you during the organization.

7. Feedback matters: Seek feedback from participants, experts, and your team to improve future events. From our participants, we learned that a three-day event was overwhelming for everyone.

Personal Reflections

The four months of planning and occasional anxiety were worth the experience of organizing this event.

How have I decreased these feelings?

To cope with stress, I turned to books, movies, music and even made detailed to-do lists. :D

When I was worried about something — I added it to the to-do list. Sometimes it helped — sometimes not, so I accepted that anxiety was temporary and part of the journey. 🫠

But I think these feelings are totally fine because we wanted to create a useful and interesting event for the WordPress community.

And I hope we did. ⭐

Thanks for reading our story, and please share your insights on organizing online events in the comments below. 😎