Hybrid conferences deliver remarkable results—averaging 411 registrants compared to just 240 for in-person events. Yet 38% of event managers struggle with technical execution, while 40% of potential global attendees remain excluded due to language barriers. This comprehensive checklist transforms those challenges into opportunities.

Why Hybrid Conferences Demand a Different Playbook

Traditional conference planning fails when applied to hybrid formats. You’re not organizing one event—you’re orchestrating two parallel experiences that must feel equally valuable. Smart planners recognize that hybrid event translation services aren’t optional extras but foundational elements that determine whether your conference reaches hundreds or thousands.

Consider the economics: While hybrid conferences require 15-20% additional budget for technology and translation, they typically reduce overall costs by 50% through decreased venue requirements and eliminated travel for virtual speakers. Meanwhile, your potential audience doubles, ROI improves threefold, and content lifecycle extends indefinitely through recorded sessions.

Phase Three: Technical Excellence (2-4 Weeks Before)

The Rehearsal Checklist

• Run complete simulation with minimum 50 virtual attendees to stress-test systems
• Test your AI-powered captioning platform with actual speaker accents and presentation styles
• Verify sub-5 second latency for translations to maintain conversation flow
• Confirm backup internet connection and streaming redundancy systems
• Brief all speakers on hybrid presentation techniques—looking at cameras, pacing for translation
• Create technical issue response protocols for common problems (audio drops, streaming freezes)

Phase Four: Event Day Execution

Your Command Center Setup

• Deploy separate support teams for virtual and in-person technical issues
• Monitor real-time translation accuracy through dedicated quality assurance staff
• Track engagement metrics hourly to identify and address participation drops
• Maintain standby interpreters for critical sessions requiring human translation backup
• Use AI in event management tools to automate routine tasks like session transitions
• Keep communication channels open between technical teams and moderators

Phase Five: Post-Event Amplification

Extend Your Conference Lifecycle

• Deploy AI-generated session summaries within 24 hours while attention remains high
• Create multilingual highlight reels for social media distribution
• Package recorded sessions with translations for on-demand access
• Analyse virtual versus in-person engagement data for future improvements
• Survey both audience types separately to understand unique pain points

Key Takeaways

• Budget smartly: Allocate 15-20% for translation and accessibility to unlock 2x attendance potential
• Test everything twice: Technical rehearsals prevent the 38% failure rate plaguing hybrid events
• Design for equality: Every session must deliver equal value to both virtual and in-person attendees
• Leverage AI tools: Modern captioning and translation technology reduces costs while improving accuracy
• Think beyond event day: Multilingual content packages extend your conference impact for months

In today’s fast-evolving workplace, online training platforms have become mission-critical tools for employee development, compliance education, onboarding, and knowledge retention. Organizations across industries—from healthcare and manufacturing to tech and education—are trading in-person workshops for flexible, video-powered learning experiences.

As remote and hybrid work become the norm, the demand for scalable, secure, and user-friendly training solutions is skyrocketing. Here’s how this shift is transforming the way teams learn—and why it’s time for your organization to take full advantage.

Why Online Training Platforms Are a Game-Changer

Traditional training programs often suffer from logistical limitations, high costs, and poor retention rates. In contrast, online training platforms offer the flexibility to train employees anywhere, anytime, and on any device.

They also make learning more engaging. With features like interactive videos, quizzes, live feedback, and gamification, these platforms support modern learning habits and improve completion rates.

In fact, research by IBM shows that employees trained via online training platforms can absorb 5x more content per hour and retain more knowledge than in classroom settings—making them not only efficient but highly effective.

Mediasite: A Smarter Online Training Platform

Mediasite stands out as a top online training platform, offering a secure, AI-powered solution that blends live and on-demand video, interactive tools, and deep analytics, all within a scalable infrastructure. When hosted in the JPL Cloud, Mediasite leverages a secure, fast, and LMS-ready environment that ensures your video content remains private, secure, and onshore in Australia, prioritizing compliance and control. Unlike public platforms, JPL Cloud offers distraction-free streaming, robust analytics, custom branding, and dedicated human support, providing a complete training ecosystem seamlessly integrated with your Learning Management System (LMS) and supporting mobile devices for monetization, certification, and microlearning modules. Whether you’re onboarding employees, upskilling teams, or maintaining compliance, Mediasite on JPL Cloud delivers unparalleled privacy, security, and performance.

You can find more information about JPL Cloud here.

Today, the need for onshore video hosting in Australia is more important than ever. This is particularly true for organisations dealing with data sovereignty and national security issues. Data privacy is now a major concern. Hosting video content within Australia ensures compliance with strict regulations. Also, it keeps sensitive information safe from foreign surveillance. By choosing onshore hosting, organisations not only follow Australian data protection laws but also benefit from local tech support. This support boosts both operational efficiency and security. Such a strategic move builds consumer trust. It shows a commitment to protecting individual rights and being transparent with clients. Let us explore why keeping your video content onshore is vital for businesses that want to strengthen their digital infrastructure and meet national security standards.

Importance of Onshore Video Hosting

In the digital age, data is as valuable as money. The importance of onshore video hosting in Australia is therefore immense. This section looks at the basics of data sovereignty and its key role in national security.

Understanding Data Sovereignty

Data sovereignty means digital information is subject to the laws of the country where it is stored. For Australian educational institutions, government and healthcare organisations, this means making sure video content and data stay within Australia.

Data sovereignty is more than location; it includes the legal rules on how data is collected, processed, and stored. By hosting video content onshore, organizations keep control over their data and ensure they follow Australian laws.

This is crucial for sensitive information. It stops foreign entities from accessing or altering data under their own rules. Onshore hosting offers a clear accountability trail, essential for businesses handling confidential video content.

Benefits for National Security

Onshore video hosting is key to protecting Australia’s national security interests. By keeping data in the country, the government can better guard against foreign threats and cyber risks.

Local hosting keeps sensitive content, like government or defense data, under Australian law. This control is important for national security integrity.

Moreover, onshore hosting leads to quicker responses to security incidents. Authorities can access and analyze data swiftly without international legal barriers. This speed is crucial against cyber threats and potential breaches.

Advantages of Local Hosting

Local hosting offers many benefits beyond just storing data. This section goes into how onshore solutions prevent foreign surveillance and increase consumer confidence.

Mitigating Foreign Surveillance Risks

Onshore video hosting greatly cuts the risk of foreign surveillance, a growing concern today. Hosting within Australia helps shield information from foreign access.

Local hosting ensures data follows only Australian laws, stopping exploitation by weaker foreign data laws. This is key for sectors like healthcare, finance, and government.

Furthermore, onshore hosting allows for more transparency in data handling. Organizations can more easily check and verify security measures, ensuring compliance with Australian standards and lowering breach risks.

Enhancing Consumer Trust

Consumer trust is very valuable in today’s digital economy. Onshore video hosting is crucial in building and maintaining this trust. When consumers know their data is stored locally, they feel safer sharing sensitive information.

Local hosting shows a commitment to data protection and privacy. It aligns with rising consumer demand for transparency in data practices. This can be a major advantage in competitive markets.

Moreover, onshore hosting can improve service quality and user experience. With data closer to users, businesses can provide faster load times and more reliable video access, enhancing customer satisfaction and trust.

Compliance and Support Benefits

Following local rules and getting quick tech help are big advantages of onshore video hosting. This section explores how these factors lead to strong, compliant data management.

Aligning with Australian Data Protection Laws

Following Australian data protection laws is not just a legal duty; it’s a key part of good business. Onshore video hosting makes this process easier.

By keeping data within Australian law, businesses operate within local privacy laws like the Privacy Act 1988. This cuts legal risks and penalties from data breaches.

Onshore hosting also makes auditing and reporting easier. All data practices follow consistent regulatory standards. This clarity is valuable for industries with strict data rules like healthcare and finance.

Access to Local Tech Support

Access to local technical support is a key benefit of onshore video hosting. This proximity is crucial for smooth operations and quick issue resolution.

Local support teams know Australian regulations and practices. They provide solutions that comply with local laws, preventing legal issues from misaligned international practices.

Moreover, local support often means quicker response times and personalized service. In critical issues, having technicians in the same time zone, providing on-site help, can greatly cut downtime and related costs.

Why Real-Time Matters

The timing of content delivery shapes how people use information. Traditional post-event summaries often arrive too late to be useful. By then, attendees have moved on to other priorities, and valuable insights get buried in email inboxes.

Real-time content summarization creates immediate value in several ways:

Active Participation: When attendees don’t worry about note-taking, they ask better questions and contribute more meaningfully to discussions. They process information in the moment instead of frantically writing everything down.

Quick Application: Participants can use insights from morning sessions in afternoon workshops. They spot connections between different talks and build on ideas while they’re still fresh.

Better Networking: With key points automatically captured, attendees spend break times discussing ideas instead of reviewing their notes. This leads to richer conversations and stronger professional connections.

Smart Resource: Allocation Organizers see which topics generate the most engagement and can adjust upcoming sessions or future events accordingly. This data-driven approach improves event quality over time. 

Key Components of Successful Integration

Adding real-time content summarization to your event requires attention to three main areas: setup, access, and quality control. Getting these right makes the difference between a useful tool and an unused feature.

Technical Setup

Start with reliable internet connectivity – it’s the foundation of real-time services. Your venue needs enough bandwidth to handle simultaneous users. Test the system before the event, particularly in areas where keynote speakers will present.

Snapsight makes this process straightforward with QR codes displayed at session entrances. Attendees scan once and receive summaries throughout the presentation, without needing to download special apps or create complex accounts.

Staff Preparation

Brief your team on how the system works. They should know how to help attendees access summaries and troubleshoot basic issues. This prevents small technical problems from becoming major disruptions.

Quality Standards

Set up monitoring systems to ensure accuracy. Check that the platform correctly captures key points, speaker quotes, and discussion themes. Good platforms will let you make quick adjustments if needed.

Measuring Success and ROI

Real-time content summarization should deliver clear, measurable benefits. Here’s how to track its impact across key areas.

Engagement Tracking

Success measurement starts with tracking engagement through active user counts during sessions and time spent reviewing summaries. Pay attention to how often attendees save or share insights, as this indicates the content’s value.

Content Quality Indicators

Strong platforms maintain 95%+ accuracy while capturing main discussion points and supporting details. Regular quality checks during events help maintain these standards and ensure consistent delivery of valuable insights.

Participant Feedback

Gather specific feedback about attendees’ experience using the summaries, how it affected their ability to focus during sessions, and ways they’ve applied the information after the event. This direct feedback helps refine your implementation strategy.

Cost Analysis

When analyzing costs, consider the broader impact on your event’s value. Factor in time saved by attendees, reduced need for post-event transcription, attendance rates at future events, and increased content sharing. These elements together paint a clear picture of your return on investment.

Implementation Strategies

Setting up real-time content summarization requires planning across three distinct event phases.

Before the Event

Your platform choice shapes everything that follows. Select a system that matches your event’s scale and needs. Test the platform with sample content similar to your planned sessions. Train your staff on basic troubleshooting and how to help attendees access summaries.

During the Event

Monitor the system’s performance from the first session. Watch for any patterns in attendee questions or technical issues. Keep your support team ready to step in if needed. Check summary quality regularly to maintain high standards.

After the Event

Process the gathered data quickly. Share relevant insights with speakers and stakeholders. Use the collected information to improve future events. Many organizers find that session summaries help plan better content for upcoming conferences.

Advanced Applications

Real-time content summarization offers more than just session notes. JPL Media’s consulting services show how this technology creates lasting value through detailed analysis. The platform tracks themes across multiple sessions, spotting trends that might go unnoticed.

These insights help shape future event planning. You’ll see which topics generate the most engagement, which speakers connect best with audiences, and what questions come up repeatedly. This data helps you make informed decisions about future speakers, topics, and formats.

Next Steps for Event Success

Real-time content summarization changes how attendees experience and use event content. It transforms passive listening into active learning, with benefits lasting well beyond the event itself.

 

You may be wondering “Why do I need a video management platform like Mediasite when my organization has finally gotten the hang of using Zoom or Teams for most of our video needs?” Valid question. But the truth is, there are actually several reasons why an organization can benefit from a dedicated video management platform in addition to web conferencing applications like Zoom or Teams. Let’s take a look at some examples.

1. Storage and Organization of Videoconference Recordings

Mediasite allows you to securely store, manage, and categorize videos in a structured manner, making it easy to locate and access specific videos whenever needed.

Better yet, our Mediasite + Zoom Integration lets you automatically turn your single-stream Zoom recordings from meetings and classes into rich, searchable, and easily shareable on-demand videos.

So say goodbye to large, cumbersome Zoom video files!

2. Content Security and Access Control

Mediasite offers robust security features to protect your most valuable video assets. Let’s say you are participating in a Zoom meeting where confidential company information was discussed. These features provide granular control over access rights–allowing you to carefully decide which users or groups can access potentially confidential content.

3. Video Editing and Production

Video conferencing applications focus primarily on real-time communication, while post-production is often an afterthought. Mediasite values built-in video editing and production capabilities, allowing you to enhance your videos through captions or subtitles, clip editing, or brand element incorporation. This way, your content stays alive–whether delivered live or as an on-demand video.

4. Video Analytics and Insights

At Mediasite, we pride ourselves on our robust analytics and reporting functionalities. You have the ability to analyse how your videos are being consumed, track engagement metrics such as views, watch time, and drop-off rates, and evaluate trends or patterns that may guide your future content strategy. Knowing what meetings are being watched and referred back to can help you decide what content to keep and what content to follow-up on.

5. Scalability and Integration

Mediasite is built to handle large-scale video deployments and growing video content libraries that most web conferencing applications can’t. We often integrate with other tools and systems, such as learning management systems (LMS), content management systems (CMS), or customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, allowing seamless integration and enhancing the overall workflow.

6. Customization and Branding

A dedicated video management platform like Mediasite gives you much more control over the user experience and branding of your video content. You can customize the video player, embed videos on your website or intranet, and ensure a consistent brand experience across all video interactions so you can accurately represent and align with your company’s visual identity and brand standards.

The bottom line is simple:

Don’t just store your video conferencing recordings, leverage them to their full potential! A video management platform like Mediasite will help your team to mine their full value by referring back to important sections, sharing clips with colleagues or partners, providing significant video insight information, and much more.

To learn more about Mediasite and its integration capabilities, contact us for a no-obligation demonstration

“If you build it, they will come.”

 

Many of us are familiar with this line, from the 1989 Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. It’s a memorable line that reflects an inspiring perspective on the value of patience and hope. And it applies broadly to many areas of life and business – but maybe not all areas.

At JPL, we do not believe that a “Field of Dreams” approach to enterprise video will deliver the results that our customers need and expect.

What do we mean by that?

Many video companies seem to believe that “if they build it, the content will come.” In other words, if you buy a video management platform from them, high-quality enterprise video content will appear, as if by magic. Or they simply leave it to their customers to find a way to bring the content they need to the platform.

A strategy like this might make some sense in certain areas of the consumer video space, but enterprise video is different.

In today’s digital landscape, the sheer volume and diversity of video content can be overwhelming to both organizations and individual content owners. And with content scattered across various platforms, the need for seamless integration and effortless video management has never been more critical.

Our goal is to make video content creation, whether it involves recording a new video or ingesting and editing existing content, an effortless breeze.

How to Capture Content with Mediasite

1. Integrations

Mediasite has invested significant efforts in developing the most streamlined and automated platform integrations available today. With Mediasite, you can quickly and easily import video content from popular platforms like Zoom, Teams, Webex, Vimeo, and many others.

Our integrations ensure that your content flows seamlessly into Mediasite, allowing you to focus on what matters most: creating engaging and impactful connections with your target audiences.

2. Room-Based Recording Solutions

To streamline the capture and management process, our purpose-built recording appliances automate the entire content capture workflow. With Mediasite Recorders, your content owners can effortlessly capture and manage content with minimal manual effort, empowering them to concentrate on delivering valuable video content to their audience without worrying about the technical side.

No other solution on the market simplifies the recording and publishing of speakers in their natural habitat – training rooms, meeting rooms and lecture halls – as effectively as Mediasite.

3. Browser-Based Recording Solutions

We are excited to introduce Mediasite Capture, a browser-based recording solution and the easiest, most accessible capture solution in the Mediasite toolkit. Mediasite Capture launches directly from MyMediasite and allows your users to effortlessly record video content and create rich media presentations without having to download an app or install desktop-based software. It’s the epitome of simplicity and convenience and a perfect solution for less-experienced content creators.

Conclusion

When it comes to video management, JPL doesn’t take chances with a hope-based “Field of Dreams” strategy (though we do love the movie!). We don’t just deliver a video platform; we actively collaborate with you to create the high-value, time-sensitive video content your organization demands.

Our focus on seamless integration, automated workflows, and effortless video capture sets us apart from the competition. And our innovative solutions will enable you to unlock the full potential of your video content and captivate your audience like never before.

So don’t settle for a platform that leaves you hoping for content to materialize. Hope is not a strategy. Choose Mediasite, where video creation and management become a frictionless reality.

Learn more about Mediasite Capture and our other streaming and recording solutions or schedule a demo today.

  As leaders and executives try to navigate what government and business looks like in a post COVID-19 reality, they can learn a lot from their peers in China who have settled into the new normal and found success.

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University was an early adopter of Mediasite for online learning in 2020 as the coronavirus quickly spread in China. The long-time Mediasite user converted to a 100 percent online campus in just days, giving all faculty access to Mediasite’s personal capture software to record on-demand lectures for 14,000 students to watch. During the first two days of the semester, they created more than 2,000 videos that students viewed nearly 100,000 times in the Moodle learning management system. Those are incredible usage numbers! Plus, the instructors already had all their academic video content from previous years to share with students.

The university is seeing such success because it understands an important piece of their virtual learning puzzle that other institutions may be overlooking: 

There’s incredible value in mixing on-demand video learning with real time collaboration via web conferencing. Striking that balance is key.

How most successful people are doing it

Think of it this way: If conferencing systems like Microsoft Teams & Zoom are your virtual, real-time meeting spaces, on-demand streaming video is your reference library. The flipped meeting concept, blending on-demand content with real-time discussion, has never been more relevant than it is today.  Here’s what our successful customers do:

• At the beginning of the week, people read info about what they’re working on.
• During the middle of the week, they watch pre-recorded Mediasite videos via their learning management system or video portals.
• At the end of the week, people meet and have discussions via Teams about the videos and the info they’ve been working on

 

“I don’t use the Zoom meeting to deliver content, I use it to discuss content,” said Roberto Dona, a professor in XJTLU’s business school in a recent Campus Technology article “Remote Learning on the Fly: Notes from China.” “The students are obliged to study to prepare themselves and we have the entire virtual class period to discuss. By combining live and on demand classes, I am not just replacing the physical class, I can enhance the course.”

As organisations have been adopting online learning strategies, it’s important to recognize which tools are effective for different aspects of online communications and audience engagement. People don’t want to sit in a Teams or Zoom meeting and listen to other people talk at them for an hour. That’s not engaging and it doesn’t allow for self-paced learning of important material. Sitting in a meeting room is one thing but sitting through a distracting web conference to just be talked at is not ideal.

People see meetings like textbooks or assigned reading. You wouldn’t expect people to show up for a face to face meeting and have the presenter or team leader read from a textbook while the audience passively listens. So why try to do it in a live meeting? People prefer content to be served up to them on-demand so they can self-pace and time-shift their learning, which is one of the key benefits of on-demand streaming video.

‘Zoomed Out’

In the April 2 Chronicle of Higher Education article, ‘Zoomed Out’: Why ‘Live’ Teaching Isn’t Always the Best, Tanya Joosten, a senior scientist and director of digital learning research and development at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (the university is a Mediasite user), says that professors are flocking to real-time videoconferencing because it feels initially like the best alternative for teaching face to face. However, that is not the best way to teach online.

“Videoconferencing tools end up encouraging ‘Teacher-centered learning,” Joosten said in the article.

The reporter writes that while these platforms are meant to “facilitate multiway interaction,” they quickly turn into “one-way communication after a certain number of people join in.”

 

Ready for tomorrow’s online teaching, research and meetings?

Teaching
– Lectures: Mediasite
– Office hours: Zoom
– Course General communication: Twitter private accounts of my courses.
– Moodle

Research
– Group meeting: Zoom
– Writing: prepare papers, prelims, grants and sponsor reports

— Nelson Vinueza (@nrvinueza) March 22, 2020

“You and me and four of our colleagues can jump into a Zoom room – OK,” Joosten said in the article. “Thirty of us jump into a Zoom room – how interactive is that? … When you put students in small groups, there’s peer learning. They can utilize each other as tech support. It’s just a much better way to go than trying to have these large-group, synchronous, live sessions to replicate the face-to-face.” [Read the full article here.]

The 3 Pillars to Successful Virtual Learning

Like anything, the right tool for the job is critical. Fully virtualized campuses need to establish three pillars of technology to be successful.

1. Web conferencing: Zoom was the immediate go-to tech for most campuses. Yes, it’s great for office hours, real-time dialogue with students, for students working together on projects. But that’s just one piece of it.
2. Streaming video: This lets students learn at their own pace. It’s perfect for lectures, micro-learning or delivering content ahead of an office hours or group dialog session on Zoom. Students are pushing back because they don’t see use of Zoom/Teams as effective for lectures. They want on-demand video recordings to watch on their own time.
3. The LMS: A learning management system is the obvious structure to all of this, whether in person or virtual.

How to find that balance

Zoom is not the end-all, be-all of technologies for going virtual, though it certainly plays a major role as the new “virtual classroom.” Mediasite is playing an equally major role of “library/textbook/advanced reading before that virtual class.”

Don’t just focus on being synchronous (live). Flipping instruction during this crisis and not simply replicating the classroom model online is critical to the success of this new normal now and as schools prepare for the likely possibility of a virtual fall semester.

Post crisis once classes resume on campus, a blended approach to virtual learning is the likely path. There won’t be a world where campuses stay 100 percent virtual, so a mix of physical and virtual classrooms together with online learning is the more persistent long-term solution.

Dona, the XJTLU business school instructor, agrees.

“Instead of my taking 20 to 30 minutes to explain a theory in a class of 50 where some students already know it, technology can allow those who don’t understand the concept to drill into that information. I then have more time to spend doing individual coaching,” he said. “Now that we have had this experience with online teaching, I don’t think we will every go back entirely to the way we taught before.”

Read the full Campus Technology article about XJTLU here.

A live blog is a communication platform to cover rapidly developing news stories and events. While this concept has been around for years, journalists and others are still finding new ways to use live blogging to bring important information to the public.

How A Live Blog Works 

A live blog gives the reader a stream of updates about a rapidly developing news story. For example, journalists have used live updating for years to cover elections where vote counts and other factors constantly change.

A successful live blog requires an app like Arena Live Blog installed on your website. Second, you need one or more people to create engaging content updates for your live blog. Third, a live blog is successful when it is about an event that many people find interesting.

Live Blog For News

Thanks to innovative journalists, the live blog concept (also known as live blogging) first became well-known. The live blog approach to news coverage is best suited to news stories with rapidly changing developments and intense public interest. Live blogs are commonly used to cover elections and significant sporting events.

A few examples will illustrate how journalists use live blogs to provide up-to-date coverage and analysis of current affairs. 

Successful News Live Blogs

These live blog examples show how news organizations have used live blogs to engage their audiences.

The 2021 Climate Summit

The last climate summit was held in Glasgow in the fall of 2021. Given the impact of climate change on the world, many world leaders attended the United Nations event. CNBC had a live blog dedicated to the event as it unfolded. 

CNBC published posts at ad posts at 12:30 pm, 12 pm, 9 am, 8:44 am, 8:31 am, 7:28 am, 6:28 am, and other times in a single day’s coverage. Each of these posts was relatively short, typically featuring an attention-grabbing quote. These updates would be too short to work as a standalone article. By posting multiple updates throughout the date, CNBC gave its audience a reason to keep returning to their website. 

CNN also had a live blog dedicated to covering the climate summit. CNN’s approach to covering the event featured even more updates. In a single live blog post, CNN published over fifty short updates. Like CNBC, the CNN live blog coverage featured quotes from politicians. However,  CNN also included photos for most of their posts.

Image Credit: CNN

The 2022 Invasion of Ukraine

Earlier this year, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. As the war unfolded, journalists have used live blogs to tell the story from various perspectives. 

Image Credit: Washington Post

The Washington Post live blog on the war features a multi-media approach with text posts, videos, and images from the front. Users also can listen to the live blog updates in audio format. Offering live blog content in audio format is a creative way to increase the reach of your live blog. The Washington Post live blog includes updates from the war zone and broader developments such as the impact of the war on trade.

The ABC News live blog concerning the war provides coverage of the war in a single day. The news outlet reported on the changing diplomatic situation as more countries considered NATO membership. The live blog also features photos of the war, political leaders, and other aspects of the developing situation.

Image Credit: ABC News

As the war continues to develop, news outlets are likely to continue using live blogging. As the war impacts more and more people worldwide, interest in live updates is likely to increase.

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The Liveblogging Benefits For News

Running a live blog on a breaking news story is one of the best ways to stand out. A live blog is a powerful way to present your coverage when a critical news story comes up.

By running a live blog covering a significant event, news outlets give their audiences a reason to keep coming back for regular updates. As we’ve seen in some of the examples above, you can publish several updates per hour in some cases. Each live blog post adds new insight to your audience and the opportunity to generate revenue.

Live Blog For Companies

While journalists and media outlets most commonly use live blogging, companies can also use it. For a corporate live blog to gather attention, think about your event from the perspective of your favorite journalists at NBC News, Fox News, or other publications. It’s essential to report the facts of the event and help viewers understand why the issue matters.

The easiest way for a company to get started with a live blog is to focus on conferences and trade shows. Specifically, start with conferences that already draw significant crowds like the annual events run by Apple, Facebook, and Google. 

There are two main ways to use a live blog with a significant corporate event. If your company is the host of the event, you can run an official live blog to share highlights from the event. This is a powerful way to extend the value of the event beyond those attending. Alternatively, bloggers and specialized media outlets can use live blogs to cover the event directly.

Image Credit: The Verge‍

To see how a live blog can work for company news, look at The Verge. The publication’s live blog had a live blog focused on the event’s keynote address. Unlike the live blog examples covered above, The Verge’s updates are closer to tweets than traditional posts. Many of the updates are just a few sentences long. The Verge live blog also included some image-only posts. 

For a different perspective, look at TechRadar’s coverage of the Mobile World Congress 2022. TechRadar took a team approach to develop its coverage with staff on the ground at the event in Barcelona and others providing support from further afield. The TechRadar live blog also emphasizes short updates such as bullet-point lists of new products. 

Image Credit: TechRadar‍

TechRadar’s live blog also shows how to respond to the uneven nature of events. The live blog points out that most companies participating in the event make product announcements early. That begs the question – how do you sustain the live blog if the most prominent news has already happened? The TechRadar solution is to add other types of coverage like analysis and feature-length articles to its live blog. 

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How To Get Live Blog Coverage For Your Company

Getting early coverage for a new product through a live blog is beneficial. There are a few ways you can increase your odds of earning coverage. Put yourself in the journalist’s shoes for a moment. Reporters and bloggers often want to be the first to cover a story. So, consider offering exclusive coverage for some time to get your company featured on a live blog. In addition, it is essential to prepare high-quality photos and images that can be freely used. You don’t want your big announcement to be undermined by out-of-focus or unclear photos taken at an event.

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10 Tips To Launch Your First Live Blog 

Launching your first live blog is exciting! Use these tips to plan and make the most of your live blog opportunity. 

1. Identify live blog opportunities

Setting up your foundation for live blog success starts with selecting the right opportunity. Think about what your audience is excited about. Are they passionate about politics? If so, reading in-depth coverage of an election, including commentary on debates, might be a good fit. Ideally, your live blog should ride a wave of interest if it already attracts significant interest.

2. Install and test your live blog app

Set up your live blog software once you have a clear live blog opportunity in mind. Arena live blog is designed to be installed and set up quickly. Arena’s Live Blog solution is designed to be installed fast, so you can be up and running in less than an hour.

Once you choose your live blog technology, install and test it a day or two before the event. Testing the platform in advance is brilliant because you want to minimize embarrassing mistakes in front of your audience. 

3. Prepare posts and coverage in advance

Even the most exciting breaking news event will have slow periods. Take inspiration from TechRadar’s live blog. They prepared analysis and feature articles in advance of covering a technology event. Aim to prepare at least two or three posts in advance of the event so that you can prepare accordingly. 

Tip: Some breaking news stories and events develop so quickly that it is challenging to prepare content in advance. In that case, you can still prepare but in a different way. For example, contact a few people to ask if they would be willing to be interviewed for your live blog.

4. Start your live blog early

Attracting an audience to a new live blog can take some time. With scheduled events like elections and conferences, starting your coverage early gives you the advantage of building an audience faster.

5. Use a variety of media in your posts

While most live blogs are built on a foundation of written posts, that is no longer your only option. At a minimum, include original photos and images in your posts. Short videos can also work well if you can produce videos quickly.

6. Emphasize short updates

By convention, live blog posts are relatively short. Most live blogs are a few short paragraphs in length. If you have longer updates to share, consider posting an entire article elsewhere and then creating a short post to link to that post in your live blog.

7. Recognize the need for corrections 

A live blog assumes rapid coverage of a developing event by its nature. If your coverage has an error, resist the temptation to delete the older update. 

Deleting an older incorrect update may be interpreted as covering up the news. Instead, include a link to another post where you provide the correction. Responding quickly to errors is the better way to engage your audience.

8. Engage your audience with live chat 

Most traditional live blogs are one-way conversations with the minimal ability for the audience to participate. It doesn’t have to be that way! Add a live chat app to your website to bring your audience even deeper into the conversation. 

Find out more about Arena Live Chat and how easily it can be installed on any website in minutes. Arena also supports popular publishing platforms like WordPress.

9. Share your live blog on social media

Want to get more people on your live blog? Use a live blog app that offers one-click social media sharing. Sharing a few posts to your social media accounts is an excellent way to bring more people back to your website.

10. Get ready for your next live blog

After your live chat session ends, it’s time to take stock of the event. Meet with your team and review your performance. Start with the positive – what topics resonated most with your audience? Keep those topics and angles in mind when planning your next live blog.

Next, look for opportunities to improve. For example, your staff might have found it very stressful to publish a large number of updates throughout the day. It’s possible to ease this stress in a few ways. You can prepare more content in advance of the event. Or you can add additional staff to the live blog or reduce the number of posts.

The Simple Way To Get Started In Live Blogging

Your next step is simple and easy. You can install Arena’s liveblogging software in minutes. After you have the software installed, set aside time to brainstorm ideas. 

The first step in launching your Live Blog is to sign up for Arena Live Blog. It can be installed on nearly any website in sixty seconds by uploading a short piece of code. 

Contact us now to arrange a free demo