It also doesn't look good that they put a clip from said virtual event where its clear they couldn't kick out of Bluetooth headset mode and proceed to have all your attendees listen to them in glorious 1990s PCM quality.
I’m the author. I guess that was sort of my point: as long as I got what turned out to be the IMPORTANT stuff right, nobody really cared about the audio. I mean something like 80% of our attendees were multiple attendees!
In that SPECIFIC use case remember: it was a Zoom call. So with a good headset and a quiet room I was already top 20%, audio-wise.
Once you get that far, what you have to say and how you say it are WAY more important than whether you can rock a little extra baritone.
This is a sentiment that reads well but isn’t really true. Listening to bad audio is very fatiguing for people and it asks much more of them than good audio does, if you desire their attention.
Video doesn’t matter as much. It’s very nice to have but you can get by with poor video. People can mentally fill in the blanks. But audio is not negotiable; audio quality is directly representative of your respect for your audience.
Totally agree, audio quality is super important. I'm an audio engineer so of course I'm biased, but high quality microphones, amplifiers, speakers and engineers (operators) make such a big difference at any event. Proper lighting is also very important. There's no need for big bright lights. Dim all of the lights down, and add a touch of color with room uplights. Make sure it's not so dark that folks can't see the ground well (tripping hazards) but make sure it's dim enough so that it creates a relaxed atmosphere.
I was curious what SNL factoid you were referring to -- here is the snippet from TFA in hopes others find it interesting or at least convenient :)
> Simply put, an event’s format is a plan for the event, expressed in units of time. For example, every episode of Saturday Night Live follows this exact format. The format is so consistent that, in 45 years of weekly run time, the show deviated from its published format only nine times.
Then proceeds to write an article full of absolutes and SHOUTING statements.
From the title I was expecting someone who has run tens or hundreds of successful high profile events.