Educational live streams held via online platforms have become a common occurrence due to restrictions on physical events and classes.
There are endless possibilities of educational topics you may cover during your live stream, ranging from Healthcare, Climate Change, Sustainability, Diversity, to Financial Literacy, etc.
Read on to find out how you can use live streaming to reach your intended audience and share educational content with them.
What are Live Streams?
A live stream typically involves live broadcasting to a virtual audience in real-time. The online streaming media can be simultaneously recorded and broadcasted, allowing viewers who missed a live stream to view it after the session is over. There are many different kinds of live streams, for example, corporate webinars, press conferences, lifestyle events, product launches, etc.
Potential Platforms for Educational Live Streams
There are multiple platforms that you can live stream on depending on the requirements of your event. Learn more about the different live streaming platforms available.
For educational live streams that involve presenting to a potentially large audience, we recommend hosting the live stream on Zoom Webinar. This is because Zoom has an added security feature that only allows pre-registered attendees to watch the live stream should you wish for it to be private. Zoom will send each attendee a unique link and this link can be restricted to only allow 1 device to join, ensuring your live stream is secure.
However, should you wish for your educational live stream to be made available to the public, that is also possible. We will provide a general Zoom link where anybody can join and there will be no screening process for participants to enter the Zoom session.
Alternatively, platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo, are suitable for public events as they allow for an unlimited audience size.
Another point to consider when choosing the platform to live stream on would be whether you wish to see your audience and allow them to turn on their video cameras and/or audio during the live stream. Check out our article to find out more about Zoom Webinars and Zoom Meetings that are potential platforms for your educational live stream.
Who Is Your Intended Audience?
Your intended audience will highly likely affect the content of your live stream, this comes in the form of educational content such as statistics or case examples depending on the topic of your live stream.
If you are targetting professionals from a similar working field as the educational content being covered during the live stream, you can consider including more statistics or technical terms. For example, in this healthcare live stream by Tan Tock Seng Hospital, one of the themes revolved around “Community of Care” that healthcare staff might relate to. As such, the panel discussion during the live stream involved educational content that those working in the healthcare field will understand.
On the other hand, if your intended audience is the general public who are not necessarily from the same working field as the educational content being covered during the live stream, you can consider including more graphics such as charts and diagrams, or simpler terms that everyone can understand.
Duration and Timing to Host an Educational Live Stream
If you are thinking of a suitable timing to host your live stream, we recommend lunchtime as an option as your attendees can have their lunch and watch the live stream concurrently. We recently wrote more about lunchtime live streaming in our previous article.
As for a suitable duration for your live stream, an hour is ideal to keep it short and sweet as many attendees prefer to consume succinct information over a live stream. However, it is also important to factor in sufficient timing for each speaker to present according to the number of speakers and the programme flow of your educational live stream.
It is not recommended for your live stream to last for a duration of more than 2 hours as you might potentially lose the interest of your attendees.
Should you Engage an Emcee?
If you are considering whether to have an emcee for your event, let us share with you some reasons why you should engage a professional emcee or allocate an internal staff or figure of head to be your event’s emcee.
Having an emcee is important as they will help to keep the event in check, especially if your event is an educational live stream, in terms of ensuring the event is running as per the programme flow and coordinating efforts between panellists. This is an ideal arrangement as your emcee might even act as the moderator of a panel discussion, engaging and interacting with the respective speakers depending on your event requirements.
For an external emcee, it is important to ensure that he or she is familiar with the topic of your live stream. This ensures the emcee can facilitate the conversation and ask relevant questions related to the education content of the live stream. A professional emcee who is confident and eloquent is also able to provide your audience with a good impression of the event.
Engage a Professional Live Streaming Service Provider Today
We commonly see live streams in the following event types:
- Webinar / Seminar
- Panel Discussion
- Product Launch
- Awards Ceremony
- Lifestyle and ecommerce content
We encourage you to consider live streaming as a virtual solution to your organisation’s needs in these uncertain times.
At Vivid Snaps, we provide professional live streaming services. Our professional live streaming crew helps you to take the uncertainty out of your live stream. If you would like to explore the option of live streaming, do not hesitate to drop us a message!
