Put the audience first. Keep it simple. And other lessons from helping to run my

Last November, the BC Federation of Labour held its first-ever online convention. The response from our hundreds of delegates was overwhelmingly positive, and we learned plenty.

I always keep my eyes peeled for things that make online speeches and presentations work well, and this convention was a chance to see them in action from behind the scenes. This issue shares the most important lessons that I took from it all, both for event convenors and for speakers.

But the most important thing I (re-)learned was this: Put the people before the technology. Every nifty-cool feature of every platform is just a means to an end: connecting human beings. option, or what our website’s fancy animated background looked like. (Trick question. We didn’t have one.) But they’ll remember the voices they heard, the people they connected with, the policies they helped to pass — and the feeling of satisfaction at the work they did together.

Here’s what I learned about…

• planning and strategy