July 2021 Manager Meeting: Improving Events

This month’s topic was improving our events, where we discussed what is going well and what we are working on to improve.

During the meeting, we looked at event management processes before, during, and after events. The key takeaways are outlined below:

Pre-event

• Be on the lookout for requests from Digital.gov to sign off on completed Event Briefs; we need all signatures before posting an event on Digital.gov.
• Speakers and/or hosts need to run the accessibility checker in PowerPoint before submitting slides. A tip to making this process easier - keep it simple with larger fonts, and fewer slides, text, and images. Training videos on creating accessible presentations are located at https://www.section508.gov/create/presentations/training-videos.
• Submit slides to us at least 3 days before an event.
• We’ll review slides for accessibility, endorsement, copyright, etc. and post the slides on Digital.gov at least one day before the event.
• We’ll review event registrations to identify press attendees and inform you and TTS’ outreach team that they’ve registered.

During events

• We have found that conducting Q&A after presentations are completed works best to keep events within time limits. Community managers are often best equipped to facilitate Q&A.
• A panel discussion event tends to be a lighter lift in terms of planning as slides aren’t necessary. (On the flip side, we heard from one community that they’re a heavier lift.)
• To meet Section 508 requirements for accessibility, speakers need to provide “audio descriptions” throughout their presentations. Read these tips on how to create accessible multimedia content and make audio descriptions for informative. This means speakers must:
  • Announce slide numbers as they are presenting
  • Say their name each time they begin to speak
  • Describe images on the slides
  • Speak to the text on the slides
• We’re “building the descriptions into the video” of our live events instead of making another video or adding a separate audio track.
• If audio descriptions are not adequate, we won’t be able to post the event video as it doesn’t conform with the Section 508 requirements. Section 508: Create Accessible Video, Audio and Social Media for more information on creating accessible videos.

Post-event

• For most events, we will conduct 30-minute retrospectives with event hosts; the output will be used to improve future events.
• A great way to expand your audience is to publish more search engine-friendly content. We want to work with you to create blog posts or resources that summarize key takeaways from your event.
• To make sure viewers see the most critical information you are providing in an event, we will work with you to edit event videos down to ~7 minutes.
• To meet Section 508 regulations, we will work with you to edit YouTube captions before publishing a video on the Digital.gov channel. To answer FAQs such as “What is the difference between transcripts and captions?” or “Can’t we just use auto-caption technology for pre-recorded media?,” please see https://www.section508.gov/create/synchronized-media#captions.