Everything I learned about hosting virtual events in 2020

Apr 21

This blog post has been a long time coming. A few weeks into the lockdown - all the way back in April 2020 - I wrote a blog post about everything I knew about planning planning online team meetings, work sessions, and happy hours. Nearly 1900 words.

Well, now we are 14 months into the pandemic and so I've decided to sit down and try it again, this time with 4800 words and a podcast. You're in for a real treat. I wrote down a step-by-step guide to hosting a virtual eveng for a guest of honor and gave examples of how I've seen things play out this year:

Chrystina's Guide to Virtual Parties

Instead of work events, I've focused on virtual events with a guest of honor - any party that is for somebody really. A birthday party, a retirement party, a bachelor party, a bridal shower, etc. These take on a pretty specific format, which makes them super easily repeatable.

I've broken it down into 9 easy steps:

Define the purpose of the event
Create the guest list
Choose your platform
Decide if there will be a theme
Create the agenda
Send the invitation
Assign key roles to attendees
Prepare ahead of time, and
Facilitate an awesome party

Go ahead, take a listen or read through, and I'd love to hear your own virtual party stories, too!

Podcast News:

I recorded the episode a while ago, so I'm happy to be releasing it out into the world. Next up are podcasts about how workshops are the new party, storytelling, and building a community using Instagram. That's all that's planned right now, but I'm excited to decide which things I want to work on next.

Things to Check Out:

Here are just a few resources from around the internet I’ve loved in the past few weeks related to community building & personal development:

This might feel like cheating, but after spending 60 hours on it last week, I'm very proud of it. Last week I moved over +120 blog posts from my old website to the new one. you can now check out nearly 200 of my favorite posts of all time in the blog on Chrystina Noel.
I loved this Facebook live from Sarah Von Bargen this week about money and happiness. She answers questions about asking for a raise, real estate, combining finances with your partner, diversifying your "fun portfolio," and self-advocacy.
As I'm still 4 months behind on listening to podcasts, I just listened to this The Happiness Lab podcast talking about how to give and receive the perfect gift. My favorite part was talking about how you can build relationships through gift giving (if that's your jam - or love language).
I somehow only recently just heard that Darwin's survival of the fittest was a farce, it was actually misinterpreted and instead is pretty much survival of the kindest. (No link, couldn't find anything that was worth the read, heard it in passing on a podcast.)
My friend Bridget owns this book and I finally indulged and bought my own. It's called, "If... (Questions for the Game of Life)" - and I'm very excited to use it for office icebreaker games.

Thanks so much for reading until the end! I know that this is one day late this week, but if I'm being completely honest, I had no idea yesterday was Tuesday. Because that's the kind of day, week, and year it's been.

xo Chrystina