Speaking at a Virtual Event – How Live Streaming Can Help Your Business

One of the things I missed since the pandemic disruption was attending events. Prior to the pandemic, thousands of people would flock to Las Vegas for CES or to MWC in Barcelona. Now, in the new normal, virtual events are going to get a higher share of the market. 

I recently attended my first big virtual event: Ecamm’s Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp 2021 - in fact, I was also a speaker there, talking about connectivity as a key element for any successful live stream. During the show’s 4 days, I went through running the Speedify booth, watching many interesting presentations and improving my session, as well as going live in front of the audience and answering questions live.

People all over the Internet are talking more and more about the need for reliable connectivity when dealing with sensitive online activities, such as live streaming, getting into online video meetings and attending virtual events. Since its beginnings in 2016, Speedify has been a valuable tool for live streaming simply by what it can do to improve that. Starting 2020, when the whole world went online, we committed to helping the live streaming community and pushed the pedal to the medal for that.

First, following months of testing all the possible apps for live streaming and video calls, we created a new transport mode for Speedify, to help with streaming. Following positive feedback, it quickly became the default mode of operation.

Then we went even further: live streaming should weigh more than any other type of traffic when dealing with limited bandwidth. You can run your backups or large file uploads at another time. But you cannot afford to lose your audience when live streaming because of frequent stutters or dropouts. After a lot of testing and tweaking, we came up with a whole new protocol which prioritizes live streaming. And we’re constantly testing and improving it with every live streaming platform and software.

Needless to say that all these wouldn’t have been possible without the feedback from the live streaming community. The fine tunes and what you are about to see in the future when it comes to Speedify are all thanks to them. You can be a part of crafting the best connectivity tool for live streaming too, by the way - we are just one email apart.

As we became committed to the live streaming community, it felt only natural to be a part of it. That allows us to better understand the needs, eat our own dog food (a very important aspect of any business!) and also be able to ride the wave on the latest trends for live streaming. So the team appointed me as the host of the Speedify Live show - something you can check out on a weekly basis on our Twitch account.

We started live streaming regularly in July 2021. After almost 2 months of doing this, we were invited to present at Ecamm’s Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp virtual event. Which brings me to my takeaways from that:

• So many speakers said this, it almost feels funny to repeat, but the only way to get good at live streaming is by starting to live stream.  Everyone is terrible at first, and you just need to get started to see what you can improve.
• For new and current live streamers: consistency is key. You have to keep on live streaming on a regular basis in order to establish yourself in the landscape, get an audience to follow you, and so on.
• Practice before you go live.  Of course part of what makes live streaming great is being spontaneous, but you really want things to work.  I practiced my speech with my camera, computer and mic, multiple times until I was comfortable.  Which meant I was calm and collected and could continue without a glitch when the software glitched on me and wouldn't show user questions.  I got a co-worker in the audience to text me the questions and the show went off as planned, even with the little glitch.
• Production quality is important when growing your brand through live streams. Don’t skimp on video cameras or microphones and consider using multiple of those, including video mixers. And, of course, choose the streaming software which is best for your needs.
• Internet connectivity is what animates it all. Otherwise we wouldn’t be calling it live or streaming, would we? It’s important to avoid stuttering videos, buffering and disconnects, if you want your live streaming to be successful.

Live streams should be repurposed into other content pieces, to help you gain even more followers. Think blog posts, podcasts, infographics, customer success stories, etc.

There were so many interesting presentations (including mine, where I demoed Speedify during my session!) you can easily watch if you get an all-access pass at www.leapintolive.com. 

I’m also taking this opportunity to thank the organizers at Ecamm Live for making this possible, as well as our team at Speedify for supporting this event. Till next year!