Over Coffee®is on holiday hiatus. Happy New Year, and please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes of 2022.

What if you’re hosting a virtual event this year? A meeting, workshop, or other gathering–even a virtual party?

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Sean Specie, of Atlanta-based Elevate Experiences, can tell you how to make it a great one.

At Elevate Experiences, Sean wears multiple hats. He is their Chief Strategy Officer, Event Planner, Event Producer and Emcee.

Needless to say, he excels at creating a great time for virtual participants, as he involves them in online, hybrid or even onsite events.

Originally, Sean says, Elevate Experience was not a virtual-events company. And to this day, their “custom experience creation” services still include hosting in-person events.

But like many other organizations, they’ve had to re-imagine their original business plan, due to the pandemic. And in the process, Sean has been able to put his event expertise to work–and grow creatively in that area, to the point that he could write several books.

Which is great, because–he’s planning on publishing his first one, later this year!

Sean talked about his background and the ways Elevate Experiences has evolved in the virtual space, explained his five-step event producing process, and shared Elevate’s free resources for creating the best virtual events.

On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover:

• How Sean’s background led to his passion for creating special events;

• What the transition was like, for Sean and the Elevate Experiences staff, going from onsite events to virtual;

• A troubleshooting lesson from the first paid virtual event they did (“it’s funny thinking back,” Sean says);

• A walk-through of planning a virtual event, using Sean’s five-step process;

• How to engage audience members;

• A preview of Sean’s upcoming book!;

• Three types of backgrounds that work well for virtual events;

• Two common mistakes people make, when conducting virtual events (and what to do instead);

• Some great free resources, for planning your next virtual event!;

• How to troubleshoot, if something goes wrong while you’re hosting a virtual event;

• One statement that can help ensure a smooth virtual event, if shared with the audience upfront.

Look for Sean’s new book, “Shattering the Fourth Wall” (working title), which will be coming out very shortly!  Follow him on LinkedIn for updates.